Arnold Ruben is very eccentric, to say the least. He's built a picture palace in the grounds of his mansion, but it's no ordinary cinema. This one comes and goes between the real world and ... somewhere else. It's a memory machine - a device that captures happy memories from his trial subjects, playing them over and over again. In the picture palace, time is a bubble, a loop of events playing like a recording.

For Arnold, the picture palace is a sanctuary, the one safe place in pre-war Britain. But for his daughter, Amaryllis, it's her prison. Amaryllis is sixteen, and an incredibly unlikeable character, but there's a reason for her prickly and unpleasant exterior. When she was little, she sat for a memory recording but lost all memories of her parents, her home and everything she had ever loved. Arnold was distraught to lose his daughter and now, as she starts to grow up, he's determined to protect her. So on her seventeenth birthday, Amaryllis is to enter the memory machine. Forever.

This book was fantastic! It was very unusual, but definitely in a good way. The theme of memory was really enjoyable, I've never read or seen another book based around it. I loved the idea of a memory machine: it was a fascinating concept to think about, especially with all the problems and dilemmas that would come with it. I think many parents would be tempted to protect their children in the same way as Arnold, if they were given a chance!

I was a bit confused by the other theme that ran through the book, that of a white tiger. It made absolutely no sense, and I don't see what it had to do with memory. But maybe I'm just missing the link. I think the story would certainly repay a second reading.

Amaryllis is really very unlikeable; she is mean to her tutor and her fellow pupil Ezra, and she is very self-centred. Yet as the book went on, she changed a lot and I felt more sympathetic towards her, as she seemed like a totally different person.

I found that the whole tone of the book changed, from a light-hearted, slightly run-of-the-mill beginning, to a much darker and more mysterious end. Slightly odd, but the second half more than made up for any inadequacies in the first.

I've read other books by Sally Gardner, including The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade. This is completely different, but equally good. All the characters are very individual. They are all unique with their own personalities, which I really liked; unlike many teen books, where they are often rather predictable and interchangeable.

All in all The Double Shadow is a great book well worth reading, especially if you're looking for something totally different to what you've might have read before.

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