In The Memory Wood we meet Elissa, who is 13 years old and a bit of a chess genius. In the middle of a chess tournament she nips back to her mums car to grab her lunch when the worst happens. She is kidnapped. When she wakes in utter darkness, chained to a wall, Elissa tries to keep her sanity. When 'the ghoul' (the name she calls her kidnapper) comes in and explains that there will be rules she has to obey or suffer the consequences, Elissa realises she may not get out alive.

12 year old Elijah knows where she is and come to see her. Elissa thinks her saviour is here. But Elissa isn't the first abductee Elijah has visited. With all hope depleted, Elissa realises she must try to keep the strange Elijah on side if she ever wants to escape Memory Wood.

Holy quacamole. This is one hell of a book. It's hard to believe it's a debut as the writing and plot are so stellar and gripping.

We've all heard about the buzz of books that have a killer twist. Well this has several. On steroids. At least 3 times in this book my jaw dropped open at the devilish turns I was being taken on.

The plot was gripping, compelling, disturbing and utterly addictive. There will be a lot of buzz about this book and rightly so. I've tended to leave books that have a huge hype about them for fear of being let down, but I can assure you all praise is most deserved.

If there's one book you need to read in 2020 it's The Memory Wood.

A blinding 5 star Read for me.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Sam Wood's debut psychological thriller is unforgettable, a nightmare, a chilling depiction of child abduction. 13 year old Elissa, a bright girl and gifted chess player, and her single parent mother, Lena, make their way from their home in Salisbury to a Chess competition in a Bournemouth hotel. Elissa is abducted outside the venue, a drugged Elissa wakes up to find herself in a underground cellar. She is discovered and visited by a desperately lonely 12 year old Elijah. Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood, his home, for as long as he can remember, an intelligent boy, he has been starved of company. Elissa wants him to help her, but Elijah does not want to lose a friend, despite knowing where it will all end as he offers her the advice of complying with the abductor's demands for survival.

Elissa is a plucky and determined girl, approaching and framing her terrifying predicament in terms that she is at home with and familiar, the world of chess. She deploys the strategies of the game, one with a challenging opponent, where the stakes are as high as they possible could be, her life depends on her winning the match. Elijah's interest is immediately caught by chess as Elissa explains the rules of a game he has never come across before. He wants to play chess with her more than anything, with Elissa dangling the possibility of achieving his goal, hoping to manipulate him into inadvertently helping her. Elissa's dire scenario and relationship with Elijah is viewed through the lens of the terrors and horrors of children's fairytales, with the Gingerbread house, Hansel and Gretel, the ghoul that is the abductor and an evil witch. Leading the hunt for Elissa is Detective Superintendent Mairead MacCullagh, having to handle despairing personal circumstances that have her identifying closely with Elissa and the pain of her mother, Lena. Can she find Elissa before the worst happens?

Sam Wood writes an atmospheric, immersive and eerie novel, located in the creepy Memory Wood where so many are memorialised and remembered. It is a twisted story of malevolent forces at play, unreliable memories, mental health issues, broken souls, and the most horrifying of crimes committed against vulnerable and innocent children. This is disturbing and the most unsettling of storytelling, but it is such compulsive reading matter. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

I literally couldn't put this down until I'd finished. Without giving too much away i'm still a little confused as to why ..... but it was a great read. The characters were great but I felt that the back story to the plot could have been more prominent.

A fantastic read, very gripping from start to finish, an intriguing story told very well and wrapped up perfectly

An exceptional story. Beautifully written with lovable and flawed characters. This is an absolute must read. Dark and suspenseful story and twists throughout x

This is an absolutely fantastic debut novel and I can't wait to read more from this author. The story is gripping and haunting and stays with you even after you have finished reading it, superb!

Reading the information about this book, I was in two minds about requesting it, mainly due to the uncomfortable subject matter being the abduction of a young girl and I honestly wasn't sure if I had the stomach for it. However, something attracted me to it and I'm so glad as it's a cracking read!
Yes, it's uncomfortable subject matter, but, it's handled so well and there's no over the top gruesome images, it's a book with real heart and it's so very well written.

Woven through the story is the background of the senior policewoman, Mairead, who is assigned to the case and who is going through her own personal tragedies.
Elissa is the courageous young girl in a story full of twists, turns and shocks.

A definite recommendation for 2020. I almost read in one sitting.
Congratulations to Sam Lloyd and many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity for to preview this excellent read in exchange for this honest review.

This is not another run of the mill story about a kidnapping.  This one has teeth and will drawn you in and keep you engrossed right up to the very end. Tense, dark and often chilling. A compelling thriller that lives up to the blurb.  Highly recommended.

This is an amazing debut and had me gripped from the start and didn't let me go until the very last page. Elissa is a chess player and a very good one at that and when she attends the tournament that she hopes with make her 'big' on the circuit at 13 she has no idea what is in store for her. Whilst taking a break she finds herself bundled into the back of a van and the next thing she remembers is being somewhere very dark and cold. She is chained to the floor and the only company she has is the person who kidnapped her and later Elijah who visits but seems reluctant to tell the authorities where she is. The officer in charge of the investigation, Mairead has her own problems to work out but has to put them on hold whilst the case is over but they keep surfacing. I liked the way that there seemed to be no clues and no working out the ending as the author kept so many balls in the air which made a great read and many surprises on the way.

Wow one of the most chilling tense books I’ve read.A girl is kidnapped and at once I was drawn in to her story as more and more is revealed as the tension builds I could not stop reading. .I predict this will be one of the years best sellers.#netgalley#randomhouseuk

I finished this book few days back and its still haunting me. It is so hard to believe this is a debut book, it was that addictive and absorbing.

Elissa Mirzoyan is aiming to be a chess champion and attending a tournament with her single mother, Lena turns out to be the worst nightmare of her life. She's kidnapped and left in a underground cellar.

Elijah- do we hate him or pity him, its evident that something about his mental capacity is not right, or why else would he refuse to inform the police of Elissa's whereabouts when he finds her?

Mairead is the senior officer in charge for whom the case of abduction becomes a personal fight considering the situation she is in.

And then there are other colorful characters like papa, Magic Annie, Leon Meunier each of them becoming angels or monsters thru the description of 12 yr old Elijah.

The Memory Wood is sinister and ominous, the brooding and eerie atmosphere created by the author giving goosebumps to the reader. A pulse pounding and heart in the mouth thriller that its no wonder publishers are touting it as the <i><b>" must-read novel of 2020" </b></i>. Reading the book filled me with so much despair and sadness as the major characters in the story are all suffering. I only wish there was something 'feel good' as an epilogue chapter in this chilling tale to counter all the misery and wretchedness oozing out of the pages.Don't get me wrong, it is just a minor complaint in this brilliant book where each twisty reveal had left me with 'crazy eyes' turning back pages and reading it from a different perspective.

Many Thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers Bantam Press, Net Galley and Sam Lloyd for a chance to read this outstanding debut novel.

#TheMemoryWood #NetGalley

The Memory Wood is so incredibly tense, from the start you can feel the tension building and although you know something is going to happen, it doesn’t get easier to read. Elissa, a chess prodigy is abducted from one of her tournaments and whilst she is being held she befriends Elijah who visits her in her prison. There are plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming, and whilst I liked the ending, I still have plenty of questions.

First of all, really beautiful cover that will really pull people to the book.
The book is creepy, gruesome and everything I enjoy in a thriller. This book will sell well!!

Very clever and extremely emotionally challenging from the minute we meet Elijah it is clear that something is not quite right..with him, his family situation and of course the "gingerbread house".
Elissa on the other hand is fantastically clever and extremely good at planning each and every chess move and indeed life move.
The pair meet in dire circumstances and Elissa tries her best to befriend Elijah and pump him for information about the memory wood, where she finds herself captive.
Each character is wonderfully described and the memory wood is both heartbreaking and creepy in equal measures.
The twists in the tale are very unexpected and unpredictable and really keep the pages turning.
I swayed between loathing and empathy for Elijah many times throughout the book but was always firmly rooting for Elissa!
The use of several different narrators of the story works well and brings home the vast differences between the main characters.

The pace of this book was perfect. I’m not good at writing reviews, what I would comment on would be spoilers. Elissa was so brave and clever. Eli was an enigma to the end. I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it, and would definitely recommend this book.

Sam Lloyd’ debut novel, ‘The Memory Wood’ is an unusual read and has much to recommend it, not least its central character: clever, introverted, insecure, chess playing, Elissa. Ironically, it is her imprisonment in a derelict cottage in the ‘memory wood’ that forces her to become expert in interpreting others’ motivations and emotional states so that she can play her best moves in a bid for freedom.
The novel is populated with a few other credible characters. Elissa’s mother’s anguish is entirely believable. Without straying into melodrama, Lloyd manages to show the depths of her pain. Likewise, the determined Detective Superintendent Mairead MacCullagh who identifies closely with mother Lena’s loss. Perhaps those less plausible are the kidnappers. In part, this may be because Lloyd has to balance their roles in the plot without giving away too much too soon.
There are moments in the storytelling when a tighter edit would have benefited the pace, particularly thinking about the many, many visits to the cellar. Nevertheless, Lloyd’s writing is vivid and well-crafted and he certainly understands the power of different narrative perspectives.
All in all, this is a novel worth reading, mainly because of the way in which Elissa is developed, and I was pleased to see that, given the many complexities involved, there wasn’t a totally neat ‘happy ever after’ ending. Overall, this made the series of events a little more convincing. However, I’d be interested in reading something in a different genre by this new author. I’m not convinced that his talent is best served by the thriller.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House (UK) for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

This book is a very different read. Rather harrowing and not a little horrifying in it's detail. At times I felt complete revulsion, but I persisted and in the end I felt that it was a good book.
It is a rather strange book and at times, you do not know where the story is going or who is who.
It is not a relaxing read but it is well written and worth reading

The Memory Wood is so incredibly tense, from the start you can feel the tension building and although you know something is going to happen, it doesn’t get easier to read. Elissa, a chess prodigy is abducted from one of her tournaments and whilst she is being held she befriends Elijah who visits her in her prison. There are plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming, and whilst I liked the ending, I still have plenty of questions.

Fantastic novel - recommended! I started this book thinking it was going to be just another supermarket pulp fiction thriller, however, I found myself on the edge of my seat trying to work out who was who and why they were doing what they were! If you're looking for a thriller with a twist that lasts then this would be the one.

This was a book that I shall recommend to the bookclub as there is so much to discuss and I think people will have different feelings about the characters involved. I wanted to read on to find out what happened but didn't want to finish the book. Always the sign of a good read!