Memories are one of our most precious things; they hold the images of loved ones long gone, of a passed youth as well as our worst regrets. But, if you could, would you capture those memories so that you can relive then again and again? Would you have the hubris to create another level of reality? Amaryllis Ruben is a headstrong young woman, who has lost her childhood to amnesia. At sixteen her rebellious nature has led to conflict with just about everybody, except for Ezra. On the cusp of her seventeenth birthday, when she looks like she might change her ways, Amaryllis disappears from the planet...

The Double Shadow is a new book by Sally Gardner. It’s a difficult book to define, being part love story, part coming of age and part historical science fiction. Nevertheless, the disparate parts of the book are woven together perfectly.

The book is set between the two great wars. Because of his own past Amaryllis’s father has devoted his life and fortune to creating a memory machine, in the form of a picture palace, a safe haven for his daughter from the on-coming war. But his ambition has blinded him to the full potential of the machine: it can both record memories and alter them. In the wrong hands it could become the ultimate weapon.

On the night of her seventeenth birthday, when Amaryllis is supposed to receive the gift of safety, something goes horribly wrong and she finds herself awakening in a desolate land. Meanwhile, in the real world, the picture palace phases in and out of reality.

Although Gardner has created a wonderful structure upon which to hang her story, it’s not really a thriller at heart, instead it is a book which examines families, their loss and their connections to each other. It’s also about the things which are often unspoken, which can do unintended harm.

Although Amaryllis is at loggerheads with her father, both of them fail to see that they are more alike than they would think. Both, from their own perspective, have had difficult relationships with a parent, which has had a significant effect on their lives, driving the two apart. The book contains many relationships, in an exploration of how people construct successful ones.

There is something strange about the structure of the book, the main nub of the story is an attempt to understand what happened to Amaryllis, but this does not kick in until about half way through the book. Gardner has spent a long time in world building to the point where much of the book, itself, has a dreamlike quality, not unlike wandering through an evolving memory.

For some, this may seem like a confusing read, but is worth the effort. If nothing else, the book is daring and inventive in the way it tells the story.

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Charles Packer