From publisher blurb:
Memory walks the streets of Gulls’ Roost, a constant presence in a village that was all but forgotten before it was born. Envisioned as a summer retreat from crowded city life for the kingdom’s elites, Gulls’ Roost looks the part, a glittering jewel nestled in unspeakable beauty. But dismayed by tales of dangers during the village’s costly construction, the nobles never came, and Gulls’ Roost instead became a permanent home to the labourers who built it.
They were in time joined by elven adventurer Dovrenir Leafsong and his beloved human companion, who knew they would only have so much time together. What Dovrenir didn’t know is how much he would miss her, or their children when they left home. He set his magical crafts to keeping his memories alive, creating a replica of his lost love and imbuing it with a piece of her soul. It was the first of the village’s living dolls, a companion that would in time be joined by many more. And while their ceaseless ability to help first seemed a boon, soon there was little need for the living inhabitants to ply their crafts. These living memories took on a hard edge, their attempts to help simply causing more and more villagers to succumb to melancholia and forget the things they needed to live. Even as Dovrenir keeps preserving his friends in the only way he knows how, these living dolls may soon be the death of Gulls’ Roost.