Memory Collectors

 by Kim Neville

This is a book by a BC author.  It is an unusual book, but unlike Peaces, I enjoyed it.

The story starts with a young girl who likes to help her father collect old furniture and restore it.  Then we find out that the girl and her sister became orphans.  The girl, Ev, now dumpster dives to find things with good feelings about them.  She has a sensitivity to the energy/stories contained in objects.  She seeks and sells the good feeling ones because she knows they will appeal to people.  We learn that she and her sister were raised in foster homes and now are estranged.

Ev has a friend, an artist, Owen, who also dumpster dives to seek objects for his art projects.  He befriends Ev.  One day they discover some potentially interesting boxes in an alley but are chased away from them by a woman, Harriet.  The boxes are hers.  She had them in the hallway of her apartment building and one of her neighbours has thrown them out on her.  Owen offers to take them back to her apartment and finds she is a serious hoarder.  Harriet senses that Ev is special and wants to make contact with her.  

Harriet has received an eviction notice and in deciding what to to do decides to buy an abandoned building and make a museum of happy objects.  She wants Ev's help but Ev is reluctant at first because some of Harriet's objects have very evil or unhappy feelings and these really upset Ev.  She finally agrees to help when Harriet agrees she can decide what doesn't get kept.

Ev's sister, Noemi shows up, she keeps bugging Ev for what she knows about their parent's murder suicide.  Ev claims she doesn't remember.  

As the story progresses we find that Harriet has stored boxes of the girl's family possession in her old family home.  The girls eventually break into the house to retrieve what they consider their property.  Noemi eventually leaves with the boxes in her car.  By this time Ev has told her she had nothing to do with the murder and actually saved her little sister from the father.  They find that Noemi also has some of Ev's powers but she is more selfish and self serving so we do not know how she will use them.  ONe nice thing she did for her sister was get her sailing lessons.

Harriet eventually sets fire to her house, Ev develops a company going to houses to cleanse them.  She has learned that she can take the evil out of things.  Owen takes Ev to live with him.

The only puzzling part of the story was Harriet went to the library to find out about Ev and her backstory.  However, if she had bought all their stuff at the estate sale why wouldn't she already know the history of the family?

It was an interesting read, nice to see peculiar people treated with kindness and acceptance.