About the book:
Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known. Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape. When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave. Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood. As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood... Rights have been sold in 14 territories and counting. Perfect for fans of Stephen King, C.J. Tudor’s The Chalk Man and Adrian McKinty’s The Chain. You can buy you copy now, released today, from AMAZON
About the author:
Sam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, making up stories and building secret hideaways in his local woods. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. He enjoys craft beer, strong coffee and (rarely) a little silence. The Memory Wood is his debut thriller.
A wee note from the Author:
I already had my crime scene. Pretty soon, I had my protagonist: thirteen-year-old chess prodigy Elissa Mirzoyan, a quietly precocious girl who wakes underground after being snatched on the most important day of her life. Her determination to survive the coming ordeal wouldn’t be driven by mere instinct. It would come from a flat-out refusal to leave her mum alone in the world, and would be tempered by a ferocious hunger for vengeance. Plotting a novel, for me, always feels more like a process of investigation than invention – the slow reveal of a dirt-covered mosaic. And as I teased out more of this story’s individual tiles, I learned something even more compelling about Elissa’s plight. While engaging her abductor in increasingly dangerous mind games, she’ll face a separate threat even harder to navigate. It’ll come in the form of a frail young boy, Elijah North, who discovers her subterranean prison while playing in his local woods. Steadily, Elissa will gain Elijah’s trust. But when she persuades him to raise the alarm, he’ll return with a tale too outlandish to be credible. More of the mosaic revealed itself, at which point I learned something about the story that knocked me flat. And then I had to write the book, just to find out how it ended...
For my stop I have my review, enjoy, if you have read it I would love to hear your thoughts.
The Memory Wood by Sam LloydMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 1 day
Pages - 375
Publisher - Bantam Press
Source - ARC
Blurb from Goodreads
Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known.
Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape.
When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave.
Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood.
As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood . . .
My Review
Elissa & Elijah are our main characters, each chapter titled who we are with a each point. We open with Elijah, twelve years old and with the police then an introduction into The Memory Woods, on day 6, and then we flip to Elissa, day 1, pre kidnap. Because that is the heart of the book, thirteen year old Elissa is kidnapped and we flip between the chapters and their journey as Elijah stumbles across her and Elissa is desperate to stay alive and survive. We also intermittently have Mairead, detective superintendent who is leading the investigation into Elissa's disappearance. As well as following the investigation we get to know the very human side and personal struggles Mairead is going through whilst trying to crack one of the most important cases she will ever face!
Despite the timeline jumping about a wee bit it is easy to follow as the chapter headers let you know what day it is and which character is that chapters focus. The scenes can be distressing, we have a child abducted, the officer investigating is going through a very trying time with some of her own scenes being quite emotive and distressing. The kids scenes, one is kidnapped and being held in horrific conditions and Elijah we know quite quickly that wee soul is living in a horrific situation also.
The book teases out the scenes, it is creepy, you know something isn't right, there is tension pretty much from the get go. This is really surprising it is a debut novel because to me it didn't read like it, you would think Lloyd had been cracking out books for years, their craft honed, that is how it came across to me. It is dark and disturbing but you struggle to put it down, when you jump from character to character you want to stay with that one to see where it is going, pulled in and immersed quickly.
As I said I can't believe this is a debut, I eagerly await their next offering as most authors will tell you they get better/stronger over the years so imagine what Lloyd has in store for us in the future, 4.5/5 for me this time!
