In The Memory Index by Julian R. Vaca, this sci/fi novel examines the inaccessible nature of memory and truth, when a disease ravages human memories. It is an alternative 1987, and there is no cure for the disease, only artificial recall. Those that have luck on their side are called recollectors, which need the treatment only once a day. A high school senior named Freya is what they call a degen-she needs artificial recall several times a day. Tramautized by her father's violent death, while being plagued by a life filled with half-memories, the menacing dean selects her to attend his Foxtail Academy, where five hundred students will trial a new technology that will make artificial recall obsolete. Freya is the only degen on campus, and is clearly not like the other students, especially Dean Mendelsohn. When students start to vanish, she learns that Dean has a bunker deep in the woods behind the school. What is in the bunker, and what memories will she have to access in order to survive it? Hardcover, 384 pages. Ages 12 to 14 years old.
