The Recall Paradox
In an alternative 1987, a disease ravages human memories. There is no cure, only artificial recall. The lucky ones—the recollectors—need the treatment only once a day.
Freya Izquierdo isn’t lucky. The high school senior is a “degen” who needs artificial recall several times a day. Plagued by blinding half-memories that take her to her knees, she’s desperate to remember everything that will help her investigate her father’s violent death. When her sleuthing almost lands her in jail, a shadowy school dean selects her to attend his Foxtail Academy, where five hundred students will trial a new tech said to make artificial recall obsolete.
She’s the only degen on campus. Why was she chosen? Freya is nothing like the other students, not even her new friends Ollie, Chase, and the alluring Fletcher Cohen. Definitely not at all like the students who start to vanish, one by one. And nothing like the mysterious Dean Mendelsohn, who has a bunker deep in the woods behind the school.
Nothing can prepare Freya and her friends for the truth of what that bunker holds. And what kind of memories she’ll have to access to survive it.
Julian R. Vaca has been immersed in creative writing for over a decade. He was a staff writer on season three of PBS’s Reconnecting Roots, a nationally-broadcast show that drew in millions of viewers over its first two seasons. He is the co-writer of Pencil Test, a feature-length documentary that’s being executive produced by Disney animation legend Tom Bancroft (Earnest Films, 2023).
His writing has appeared in The Nerd Daily, Writer’s Digest, and more. He is a PEN/Faulkner Writers in School author, a member of the SCBWI, and a Hey! Young Writer mentor.
Julian also has an extensive background in acting, earning a principal role in CMT’s Still the King for two seasons. He also stars as the host of Lifeway’s “Gospel Project for Kids,” and dozens of other projects.
Julian is the Creator Community Manager for Soundstripe, a Nashville-based music tech company that serves tens of thousands of filmmakers worldwide.
The Memory Index (HarperCollins) is his debut. The sequel, The Recall Paradox, publishes in 2023. Julian is repped by Natalie Kimber of The Rights Factory.
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