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.

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!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I was intrigued by the unique premise of The Memory Woods, and what a ride it was.
This narrated from the POV of three characters:
* Elijah, a 12-year old boy, who at the start of the novel is at a police station because he got lost. He’s taken home by his parents. Later we learn he plays in a cottage in the Memory Woods where a young girl is being held hostage and Elijah has befriended.
* Elissa is a 13-year old chess player who goes to Bournemouth for a tournament when she gets abducted. She’s held in a basement and uses her wits in a desperate attempt to stay alive. But who has abducted her and why?
* The third POV is from a detective investigating Elissa’s disappearance.
This was a compelling read. I tore through the first half and was stunned at the midway twist. The first half of this brilliantly maintains suspense and intrigue. Unfortunately the second half was a letdown with twists and twists - a few predictable - thrown the reader’s way. For me personally I wanted more of an explanation behind the antagonist’s actions, who were caricatures and not developed enough for my taste. I understand the author was going for a fairytale like atmosphere which was fine but the entire book hinges on the antagonist’s depraved actions which kickstarts the story and I felt they weren’t given enough room in the book for the story to completely work for me. In the end I had more questions and just didn’t feel satisfied by the climax.
An unique premise with a fresh spin on familiar abduction stories that could’ve been something but let down by a weaker second half, in my personal opinion. It’s 3.5/5

A young boy , Elijah, in custody returned to parents after initial concern over his welfare. A young child prodigy, Elissa, preparing for a major chess tournament: . Although incredibly gifted with a high IQ, limited exposure to her peer group and spending time with her single parent mother, chess master or a very few limited number of other adults demonstrates a childlike view of the world as she continues to hold her soft toy for confidence and reassurance. So far a gentle introduction into two families with very different lifestyles. Suddenly out of nowhere the unimaginable happens. A child goes missing. Police scramble to apprehend the perpetrators well aware that time is of the essence. Weighed down with her own major problem the chief police investigator begins to believe that the finding of the abducted child will enable her to bring her own issues to a satisfactory conclusion, but for both nightmares, time is running out. As the reader we are given limited information and like the victim, attempt to fit together the random pieces of the jigsaw. On the one hand the story unfolds as a desperate police investigation. Simultaneously we move from this frantic activity to a dark and frightening place where each turn of a key exposes Elissa our terrified victim to increasingly bizarre exposure with an increasingly unstable and dangerous assailant. This story is complex in that we the reader are as frustrated as the police even though having the advantage of knowing what is happening to the child if not why, by whom or where. The puzzle is ever consuming and the story develops a life of its own. Totally impressed by the style of writing, the ability to strike an atmosphere of terror and fear with limited words and the descriptions of the black empty void from which our prisoner can find no release. I could not put this book down. The conclusion was as exciting and terrifying as anything I have ever read or seen. Fully believe this book as good as any of its genre, worthy of Stephen King and expect the film rights to be snapped up for the big screen .

This book was sensational . I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanting to read more. Very well written and by 3 different characters. It grabbed you on the first page. Highly recommend.

The beginning and ending of this book is what made me rate it 3 stars. Although the beginning was a bit slow going, I now understand why that was necessary as you really start to understand the relationship that’s building between two of the characters. However the ending definitely dragged on too much. I feel like the author didn’t want it to end, so just kept writing. The ending did get a bit boring. However the middle of this book is fantastic. I was completely shocked by the storyline and the twists - although all of the twists were revealed quite early in the story, so there was nothing shocking at the end. I really enjoyed getting to know Elijah as a character. It’s a very interesting storyline and well written at times. There were times when I wanted to stop reading or skip ahead because of how long it was dragged out. Overall I liked it, but didn’t particularly enjoy it. The middle of this book and twists are the only things that stopped this from being a two star rating.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for letting me read this early. I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the three P.O.V’s. The writing was great and the plot and wording was amazing. I highly recommend this book. I gave it 4.5 stars

I couldn't put this book down! It was brilliant - I have never read a thriller quite like it - what a twist at the end. Can't recommend enough - it is a MUST read.
Thanks to NetGalley for my free copy!