The Memory Wood - S. Lloyd

You are not ready to confront the Memory Wood and its dangers.

Venturing into The Memory Wood and wishing to return home unbruised is ambitious. When I got lost in Sam Lloyd's debut thriller, I expected to enter a frightening world where a serial killer acts in the shadows and terrifies both the reader and the inhabitants of a remote village. Instead, Lloyd's addictive narrative debunks the tale of Hansel and Gretel by distorting its moral.

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When poor 13-year-old Elissa is kidnapped during a chess tournament and kept in a secluded cottage in the woods, little Elijah is faced with a dilemma: should he let "Gretel" —as he likes to call her— escape the witch's gingerbread house, or should he listen to his heart and befriend this "girl in chains"?

Playing with his reader's expectations, Lloyd uses the character of Elijah as a pawn in order to keep them in suspense. An uneasiness is brewing as the reader is led to believe Hansel / Kyle abducted Gretel / Elissa and plans to murder her in the cabin in the Memory Wood. Yet as this twisted tale progresses, the apparent abductor happens to be a victim of abduction himself and, on the contrary, manages to overcome his inner pain to become the hero who saves his beloved Gretel from the grip of dangerous sociopaths.

“ In chess, the most powerful person is the queen”

- Elissa

In Lloyd's psychological thriller, the most powerful literary device is multiperspectivity. By introducing three different narrators, the author offers his readership three different viewpoints bound by the tragic abduction of Elissa while challenging their gullibility by foregrounding the stance of an alleged twelve-year-old boy. Treated as a tragic character, Kyle's ambiguous perspective due to his intellectual disability targets him as the perfect culprit, while nonetheless offering some of the most touching and vulnerable scenes of the book. Switching from admiration for his friendliness to awe by the sight of his betrayal, the reader is unquestionably deceived by Lloyd's unexpected plot twists.

Ode to Friendship !

The narration distinguishes The Memory Wood from other psychological fictions as Lloyd punctuates his plot with personal issues and serious subjects such as developmental disorder, schizophrenia and miscarriage. Superbly written cliffhangers, balanced pacing and endearing characters are the recipe to a captivating page-turner. The Memory Wood's immersive reading is an ode to friendship, trust and unity despite doubt and anxiety arising partway through.

Hampstead Heath, London