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A review by ravenclaw_28
The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd
3.0
TW: Child abuses, psychotic breaks, child abduction
The Memory Wood was nothing like I was expecting. I enjoyed this book. It was gripping, intense and generally bizarre. I loved the characters, the premise and the way events unfurled. The Memory Wood was a very dark book and touched on so many disturbing themes such as child abduction, psychosis and stockholm syndrome, to name a few.
I found the split personality of the main antagonist to be more heartbreaking than scary. Finding out the background behind him, and the reasons he acts the way he does, made me want to reach into the pages of this book and protect him from his abusers.
Elissa was a little harder to connect with at the beginning. Mainly because I don't have an interest in chess, but I could see its uses here, in the way it helped her organise her thoughts and feelings about the situation she, unfortunately, found herself to be.
The pace in which events occurred took some time before the author revealed the truth about The Memory Wood, Elijah and the truth behind Elissa's abduction. Once this happened, the plot quickened, building the suspense right up to its conclusion.
As far as debuts go, this was brilliant. I will be on the lookout for further books by this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to have an ARC of this mystery/thriller, in exchange for my honest review.
The Memory Wood was nothing like I was expecting. I enjoyed this book. It was gripping, intense and generally bizarre. I loved the characters, the premise and the way events unfurled. The Memory Wood was a very dark book and touched on so many disturbing themes such as child abduction, psychosis and stockholm syndrome, to name a few.
I found the split personality of the main antagonist to be more heartbreaking than scary. Finding out the background behind him, and the reasons he acts the way he does, made me want to reach into the pages of this book and protect him from his abusers.
Elissa was a little harder to connect with at the beginning. Mainly because I don't have an interest in chess, but I could see its uses here, in the way it helped her organise her thoughts and feelings about the situation she, unfortunately, found herself to be.
The pace in which events occurred took some time before the author revealed the truth about The Memory Wood, Elijah and the truth behind Elissa's abduction. Once this happened, the plot quickened, building the suspense right up to its conclusion.
As far as debuts go, this was brilliant. I will be on the lookout for further books by this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to have an ARC of this mystery/thriller, in exchange for my honest review.