And the memories bring back, memories bring back you: THESE TOXIC THINGS.

These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mickie Lambert has a job creating digital Memory Boxes, where she curates digital artifacts for people. When she's hired to create a Memory Box for the elderly Nadia, the shop owner of Beautiful Things, she's fascinated by Nadia's life and her shop of curiosities. But Nadia dies shortly after they get started, apparently by suicide, but no one is quite sure. Mickie inserts herself in the investigation, determined to find out what happened to Nadia, and continues to finish her Memory Box.

This is my first book Howzell Hall, and I really liked the premise of it, though I have to say, the outcome seemed really obvious from Day 1. The story is interspersed with descriptions of Nadia's objects and where she found them, which is an interesting concept.

My problem with this one is that I just really disliked Mickie, and the whole book is focused on her. She takes advantage of her parents, makes poor decisions, sticks her nose in everything (except for using Google when it could easily solve a lot of problems). She's so whiny and needy and drove me insane.

This story starts off very ominous, and I was sucked in right away. Then it plateaus a bit, with Mickie doing her Mickie thing. It also wraps up a bit fast after everything we've been through. I give it points for being a quick read and a unique storyline, but I wish there was a bit more. 3 stars.

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