New Book Alert: The Psychic's Memoirs by Ryan Hyatt; I Foresee A Great Mix of Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and Science Fiction

New  Book Alert: The Psychic's Memoirs by Ryan Hyatt; I Foresee A Great Mix of Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and Science Fiction

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Ryan Hyatt's The Psychic's Memoirs is one of those books that tries to cross several genres. Some books succeed and others fail, and this is a good example of a success, mostly.

Hyatt combines the heart stopping, yet cerebral action of a psychological thriller with the questions and suspense of a mystery and the sense of wonder and destructive possibilities of science fiction. That's a tall order, but Hyatt manages.

The book takes place in 2026 Los Angeles after The Greatest Depression (an economic downturn that lasted from the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 to the present) and The Great Cataclysm (The Big One earthquake, long predicted, that finally ran through California). Automation has taken over which has rendered many jobs obsolete. People can buy AI Bobbleheads that secure homes and resemble celebrities, such as one that looks and sounds like '80's icon, Mr. T (dubbed Mr. Y). Large machines called Liberators oversee security and you do not want to be caught by one. Schools and Halfway Houses are created that cater to young people with unusual abilities, such as clairvoyancy and telekinesis (Sort of a cross between Professor X's School in X Men and Boys and Girl's Town). The Internet is now called the Telenet and many recognizable social media platforms have merged and created new names to replace the ones that we know. California has so many socioeconomic problems, with residents threatening total independence from the federal government, that it plans to secede from the United States.

It's a pretty dour situation. It's written in a way that with the exception of the kids with special abilities, this could happen. With drones used for deliveries and security, Alexa and Siri monitoring houses, a pandemic spiraling the world into an economic depression, and stronger more unstable weather patterns thanks to climate change, Hyatt's future is beyond a strong possibility. Of course this book gives another reason that speeds up the technological windfall but socioeconomic downturn which is less plausible in reality but raises the science fiction portion of the book exponentially.

In this depressing environment, LAPD's Ted Kaza and Lydia Jackson are among those who have the thankless task of upholding the law which has increased with political activism, gang membership, and homelessness on the rise and where even members of a once professional class have to resort to criminal means to make ends meet. 

They are recruited to look for Alice Walker (not the writer of The Color Purple and other novels), a high school girl with psychic abilities that have an almost 100% accuracy. She predicted the Great Cataclysm and ensured that most of her classmates and the faculty are safe. She wrote in a notebook which frightens those who read it with its beyond accurate predictions. Now, she's gone and she may produce a bigger threat missing than present with her predictions.

Jackson and Kaza are the typical detectives that are dedicated to their jobs, but have troubled personal lives. Jackson is married to CeCe, a woman who is ready to settle down and have a baby but worries about her wife's violent career. This family drama isn't as well written as the one in A Knife's Edge, which also dealt with a police officer in a same sex relationship and a growing family. Jackson's subplot is more of a distraction, but serves as a counterpoint that Jackson takes a maternal interest in Alice as though to test and fill the void that is lacking in her own life.

Kaza meanwhile has very little personal life. He has no living family but memories of his gardener father who used to give him solid advice but was disappointed with his son's lifestyle. He has no personal relationships, except caring for his dog, Cujo and no interests, except playing guitar. (In fact he once had dreams of being in a band). Oh and he also has some weird psychic connection in which he shares dreams or memories with his next door neighbor. This connection isn't explored very well, one of the few bad spots in the book. The book could have worked just as well without it except it gives Kaza something to do outside of his job.

By far the most interesting character is Alice, the eponymous character. She is particularly mysterious in her encounters with others because of how much she knows and reveals about them. Oddly enough we know very little about her, except she was a foster kid and has a "soul sister." While we get into her thoughts, particularly when she enters the school for children with supernatural abilities, she is mostly defined by her interactions with others. Alice stands out, particularly in her exchanges with the detectives, fellow students, and important figures like Commander James Elroy, a military leader who wants to use Alice for his own needs and political activist, Steven Taylor "Che Tay" Wichmanowski, who is aware that Alice's visions mirror his own plans for California's separation and independence. Psychologically speaking, she is one step ahead of her enemies and those who are looking for her.

It makes sense that Alice is revealed through her relationships with others and not herself. She reveals their destinies and shows their fate and not her own. She herself is something of a blank cypher resigned to her precognitive abilities and how they affect others around her. She doesn't whine about wanting to be normal like other teen protagonists in such novels, movies, and shows. She isn't normal and accepts it and her own fate to the end. 

I have a prediction. I predict that anyone who opens The Psychic's Memoirs will be in for a fascinating read of cross genres.