Twisted Memories

Twisted, Book Two

By: Kate L. Mary

Narrated by: Heather Firth

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Twenty years ago, Angus James woke to find himself in a sterile room. On the other side of the locked door, doctors worked to manipulate a virus, using him as their ultimate pin cushion. 

He was supposed to be dead - and there were moments over the next two decades when he wished he was - but despite his torturous existence, he remained a fighter. Through pain, love, loss, and heartbreak, Angus traveled a road that took him on a journey much bigger than the room to which he was confined. As the world moved forward without him, he fought to hold on to as much of himself as he could, determined to make it out of his prison a whole man. 

Outside the walls of the CDC, Angus’ family worked to move on. But between the dark rumors surrounding the man in charge and a twisted new religion that threatened to turn their lives upside down, starting over has begun to seem impossible. With more and more of the freedoms being stripped away, and more devastating losses piling up around them, the group found themselves wishing they’d never set foot in New Atlanta in the first place and wondering if leaving was even an option....

Travel back with Twisted Memories and experience the emotional journey Angus James was forced to take during his 20 years as a prisoner. Discover how he came to be a father, what he did to stay sane during his long confinement, and how he managed to earn his freedom.

©2017 Kate L. Mary (P)2018 Kate L. Mary

Imprisonment of Angus!

This volume, “Twisted Memories” could be called a prequel. It gives an account of Star’s father who headed the CDC, the development of the virus, the initial breakout of the virus, Angus’ imprisonment, and the introduction of several key players that appear in volumes one and one-point-five; such as Angus, Axel, Helen, Jackson, and Glitter. It provides a detailed background of elder Star’s work at the CDC before the viral breakout, prior to Jackson Star, Megan, and your first glimpse of Donaghy. In closing, the story brings you up to present in line for the next and final volume. Four.point.five. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

GREAT BACK STORY! REALLY EYE OPENING!!!

This was fantastic!! It takes us from the beginning...up to the horrific truth!! People can be so evil!! We think of the CDC as a good thing...but now, I am kind of skeptical! lol f there is ever a Zompoc..I am steering clear of the CDC for sure now!! This one starts out pretty sexy too...I really enjoyed this one..and the narration..though good in the first one...really develops in this one...I am on to book 3 now!!! GREAT BOOK!!! :)

I can't wait to listen to the next one

I chose to listen to this book after receiving a free audio copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

I read Twisted World and Twisted Mind, and I didn’t even pause before I started listening to Twisted Memories. When I started to listen to it, I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to know what happens in the future, not the past! It didn’t take long, though, for me to appreciate learning what happened shortly after Angus and his friends and family arrived in Atlanta…and how he was able to escape the CDC after 20 long years.

Twisted Memories was difficult to turn off once I started listening. There’s suspense, danger, and several times I found out how certain characters ended up where they were in the first book. I’m getting ready to listen to the next book, Twisted Fate, even though I was planning on listening to a different book first. I can’t wait!

The narrator does a great job of timing and voices and, best of all, conveying the emotions of the characters.

If you like post-apocalyptic stories, this is definitely worth your time. It’s more about the characters within the walls of Atlanta, and the zombies outside the walls are just a part of life.

All Backstory.

It wasn’t until I requested audiobook codes for this series that I realized the author did more with this specific setting. This will be the second-to-last book I’ll read/listen to by this author. I’ve listened to many already, and I’ve come to realize the last few haven’t been as good as the prior ones were. Just the fact that she wrote one series, then took that same setting (New Atlanta) and turned it into another series, and then another series. Why wouldn’t she have just created a new series with new ideas? Or simply extended the first “New Atlanta” series? I don’t get it. There’s another author I follow who writes Sci-Fi. He did a long series, then because there were readers/fans that didn’t want him to stop (even though it would have been best for the series overall), he continued by writing another series but using the same characters just a few years later. I read the first in that new series. There was no point to it. Nothing new was discovered. It’s time to move on.

I think the biggest issue I had with this series was the order. Book 1 was book 1. I thought it was all right. Book 2, I found questionable since the reader goes back in time, twenty years prior, when the main characters first arrive at New Atlanta. Who cared that there had been a large cliffhanger at the end of book 1. Then discovering I had book 1.5 as opposed to book 3, I gave that a skim over. That was all about Jackson. And with how he was in book 1, the reader already knew he had issues. So book 1.5 was pointless in my opinion. Had I been one of Kate L. Mary’s beta readers or friends or advisors, someone who could help her with her timeline, I would have suggested changing the 1.5 to the twenty-years-prior story, and making book 2 the present, picking up after book 1. Or she could have incorporated aspects of “the past” with the present. I just feel like the order is all over the place here. Based on the reviews, I guess I was the only person who had this issue.

The whole idea behind this series, that Dr. Helton and Star want to end the human race, hence they release the virus that kills the majority of the population, makes no sense to me. Then they want to create another virus to turn the humans into slaves… What’s the point? There’s barely anyone left!

Again, this narrator just isn’t working for me. There was the mispronunciation of, what I would consider, simple words (for example “figure” is pronounced as “figger,” the random pauses (for example, before “though”). The fact that she narrated book 1 differently from book 2 was interesting, in a bad way. Book 1 had Donahue and Meg. So the narrator narrated all of Donahue’s parts as Donahue and Meg’s parts as Meg as opposed to using a “narrative” voice for the narrative part of the story. Of course, with book 2, it was fixed. I don’t get how it was missed with book 1 though.

Questions/Comments:

There was mention of how one of the subjects had released their bowels after they died. Doesn’t that happen with every single human after they die? What had been the point of bringing it up – specifically the way it was phrased?

Questionable #1: Why did Dr. Helton decide to have sex with Angus when she originally was going to inseminate a female. There was mention of her having to work herself up. Why bother? She’s a scientist. Wouldn’t it have been more science-y to inseminate? It’s not like she couldn’t have had sex with Angus later on, to continue with how the story goes.

Questionable # 2: After their first sexual encounter, Dr. Helton wonders if Angus will know they had sex or if he’d think it was a dream. Of course when Angus wakes up that’s exactly what he thinks – unsure if it was real or a dream. But considering there was no mention of her wiping him off… hello! A guy would know if he had sex or not based on the way his genitals look/feel.

Questionable #3: Why did Joshua not tell his friends and family that the only way for Dr. Helton to have known about his wife’s pregnancy was if they were listening in? It’s like he’s stressing about that, goes home, and says nothing. Instead, they sit around talking about Star and the govt.

Questionable #4: The guy with the missing arm, I thought he’d been seventeen when he’d had it cut off after a zombie bite (in book 1)? Here, he was described as being in his thirties. Anyway, why when Jim went out as a zombie hunter and came across the soon-to-be-missing-arm guy did the guy’s friends wait years before agreeing to remove the guy’s arm? It’s like there were one of two choices. 1. He’ll die – someone will kill him before he turns into a zombie. 2. He’ll die because removing his arm didn’t stop the virus and – someone will kill him before he turns into a zombie. The hesitation during that scene made no sense to me.

Questionable #5: There’s a time after “the baby” – Glitter – begins her testing. Dr. Helton goes to Angus’ room and they’re talking about the baby, how upset they are, etc. When you’re worried about your daughter and what she’s going through, what’s the best course of action? To have sex of course! No. That just came across as very odd in my book. They go from thinking of their child to “I’m horny, let’s have sex.” That’s not gross…

Questionable #6: Why would they have ever thought Margo was dead when no body had ever been found? Wouldn’t it have made more sense that someone took her?

What do they eat? There’s mention of them getting rations, but what does that entail exactly? You don’t read of there being farmers, especially given they’re in a city, so where are they getting food?


I received a free audiobook code for this story in exchange for an honest review.

a huge catch up

This books fills in all the blanks. You get 20 years of information and backstory that brings you up to speed on where you are with the first book. the narration is done well and the excitement of the book doesn't stop. A a great read and will stay a favorite to listen to again.

Rivetting book

At first I had wanted the book to continue from book 1. This book shows what came before book 1. But once I'd gotten into the book I realized that it was as good if not better than book 1. I recommend it!

Great Series!

This is seriously a good series; I'm so glad I found it. The Twisted Memories takes us back twenty years before the Twisted World Series. We get to learn about Angus James, his ordeal as a captive, and the role CDC played. Overall this was an excellent book; it is well-plotted with fascinating characters, engaging, and at times emotional.

Kate L. Mary's writing was clear and precise. Heather Firth is an excellent narrator I wholly enjoyed her performance.

I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Starting to make sense

Everything is starting to slot into place now. It’s taken a bit longer than I would of liked but it’s getting so good.
#audiobookobsessionreviewer

So that's what happened...

I enjoyed this book in the Twisted series. This book fills in all the gaps between the Broken World series and the events in the first book in this series. This is a series that would best be read in order and I do believe that this series works best when read after the Broken World series. I have been kind of obsessed with this group of characters this year so I was delighted to have all of my questions about what their lives have been like and what really happened answered in this book.

Angus James came to Atlanta to save the world. His immunity has made him a precious commodity. Even though he came willingly and wanted to help, the CDC told his family that he had died and used him for one experiment after another. 20 years of experiments. We also get a chance to check in with Axl, Vivian, Jim, Al, Lila, Josh, and Parv. A lot has happened in 20 years and not all of it was good.

This book covers a lot of time. A lot of the story happens before the events of Twisted World and I did have a moment or two when I wondered why the author chose to wait until the second book to share this information but I don't think it would have worked well any other way. I hated hearing some of the things that happened to these characters. They have been through so much and it just seems wrong that they had to deal with the kind of evil shown in this story.

I thought that Heather Firth did a great job with the narration. This book is told from a lot of different perspectives and there a lot of characters that play important roles. I thought that she did a great job keeping all of the voices consistent and I never had any difficulty recognizing the speaker. I also think that she does a great job of adding emotion to her reading. I had no problems listening to her narration for hours at a time.

I would recommend this series to others. I feel like I have been on quite the journey with these characters and was very happy to find out what happened to them over the years even though a lot of it was heartbreaking. I look forward to reading more of Kate L. Mary's work.

I received a review copy of this audiobook from the author.

A Blast from an Unknown Past

I couldn't stay away and came back for the rest of the series. with this prequel my thories and questions where answered starting 20 years in the past we are gifted to the begining of the families and their journey, I cried after some scenes so beware there will be strong moments of cruelty and while it isn't fully explicit I still needed my tissues near me.

narration as always has been excellent.

Audiobook Obsessions 🎧

This brings past and present together

I received this book via a free promo code and this is my voluntary review.

This book is a kaleidoscope of POVs covering the time period of Angus James arriving in New Atlanta and how the James family settled into their new lives thinking he was dead. They try to adjust, have their kids, lose people and wrestle with the rumours and the creepy new religion.

Interestingly this also covers the twisted Dr Helton of the CDC and her tests of the mutating virus. She's vicious and its frightening seeing the fate that would have befallen Regan and Kellan from Oklahoma Wastelands series... Dr Jane Helton goes as far as involving herself in her own work, she orchestrates the killing of members of Angus's group, plans the destruction of the Colorado settlement from the Broken World series.

Having read the Oklahoma series before this, having this side of Jims story is heartbreaking.. and getting to know Joshua since book 1, makes what happened to him even more devastating.

You learn about the relationship she forms with Angus and how she changes loyalty from Star's evil zombie domination plan. There are times in this story when you honestly think shes gone too far to ever come back, but I was genuinely emotional over her fate.

This fills in all the blanks from book 1, and sets you up for joining Angus on the flip-side with Meg for Twisted Fate.

Very Dark!

I Loved this book, it had a very dark feeling, even the zombies had nothing on the CDC! It was shocking the lengths they went to, so twisted, I'm in awe of Kate L Mary's imagination, as well as a little scared! I need to start the next book, this one unfortunately ended on a cliff-hanger!

Best to read or hear first

I really liked the first zombie audible book. This one wasn't bad either, bad I would have preferred this one first and than the other one, because this is pretty much when it all started, so I have to read the third one to know how it all ends I guess. All in all it was a good book, sometimes a bit brutal but hej it is a zombie book so pretty much exactly what you expect. For all people who love zombie books it is a good read, oh I mean a good hear. 👂
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance free Reader Copy of this

just so amazing

I'm seriously so obsessed with this series! After Twisted World I could only help but speculate what happened in those 20 years and Mary does a fantastic job filling in the timeline. I love reading about everyone again but of course - she has to break my heart. The style is everything and one of the reasons I love her books so much. Mary is just an amazing story teller and really makes you invested.

I'm so glad she decided to give us background of the new characters we met in book 1. After Broken World, the connection with the other characters are so strong that I needed that additional information to feel as strongly for the new ones. Ugh I just want them all to be okay so I'll have to start book 3 ASAP.

Again, Heather Firth kills the narration. I'm really enjoying her narration of this story. It truly makes me feel so much more involved. She was a great choice and I look forward to her narration in book 3!

History Revealed!

Majority of this book in the series is giving us background to the CDC and the James'. It gives us an idea of how all the characters are related and how long the Stars have been scheming and what they've done in their efforts to get there. There are many points of view and everyone is giving us a piece of the past that I think will unravel in book 3. The author also does a fantastic job of helping us get attached to vital characters that we have only really heard of in book 1. We also experience the devastating loss for Angus and many saddening events that he experienced in captivity. It does end on a cliffhanger! I'm excited to see where this author takes this book.

The narrator does a great job on this performance just as she did in previous performances for this series. I am still impressed with her ability to maintain a deeper voice for this series compared to other books I've heard her narrate. I think she has done an excellent job bringing these words to life and drawing us in to want to keep listening.

I received a review copy at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review.

I'm Hooked

Angus is locked in CDC against his will. He is immune to the virus that has taken over the world and the doctors at CDC want to know why. They want to see if they can use the immunity to their advantage They are developing something that nobody will ever see coming. I have to be honest. When I first started this book, I was annoyed. I didn't understand why we were starting from the beginning. I felt like it was a waste of time. Then I got invested in it. I realized that this book subtly feels holes in the first story that only flash backs would fill. It answered questions that could not have been answered any other way. There was nothing I didn't like about this book. Unless you count on my emotions being thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other. There were things I'd wish had been explained a little better, but they were minor. Maybe some time gaps could have been pronounced a little better too, but nothing major. I fully recommend this book. I recommend reading the first book first. Probably even the novella as well. I can't believe how invested I've become in a trend I always thought a little too repulsive. Maybe it's because it's spun under a different light. Either way, I'm enjoying it and can't wait to read the rest of the books.

Getting better and better....

Everything is starting to slot into place now. It’s taken a bit longer than I would of liked but it’s getting so good.

What a Journey 5☆'s

WoW!!! I’m so excited for the last instalment of the series, fast paced all way. I love how this book does exactly what it says in the title... It takes us back over the 20 years that Angus has been in the CdC... and what a journey. Kate L Mary has managed through the skill of her writings to turn my mind and heart around.... Angus is so loved by me now. I don't want to give any spoilers but this book is beautiful, Pain, power, love, hate, greed, realisation, rebirth, growth, birth, death, life, fear, frustration, sorrow, joy... all within the words of this book is beauty. I just love it! The storyline will have you gripped... greed and insanity... power and prestige... Mary has done it again. The Broken World Series has become an epic journey from an amazingly epic mind.
I really believe this book wouldn't have hit the spot as well as it did if Heather Firth was not the narrator... Heather Firth has performed this beautifully. The characters and projection is just right. I believe and like the characters. I could listen all day... actually I did.. 5☆'s + for the narration. I don't believe I would have enjoyed the book as much without the rich warm relaxing voice plying in my ear buds. fantastic!!!