Book Review / The Memory Hit by Carla Spradbery

On New Year's Eve, Jess's life is unrecognizable: her best friend is in the hospital, her boyfriend is a cheater. A drug-dealing cheater it would seem, after finding a stash of Nostalgex in his bag.

Nostalgex: a drug that stimulates memory. In small doses, a person can remember the order of a deck of cards, or an entire revision guide read the day before an exam. In larger doses it allows the user detailed access to their past, almost like watching a DVD with the ability to pause a moment in time, to focus on previously unnoticed details and to see everything they've ever experienced with fresh eyes. As Leon, the local dealer, says 'it's like life, only better.' What he fails to mention is that most memories are clouded by emotions. Even the most vivid memories can look very different when visited.

Across town Sam Cooper is in trouble. Again. This time, gagged and bound in the boot of a car. Getting on the wrong side of a drug dealer is never a good idea, but if he doesn't make enough money to feed and clothe his sister, who will?

On New Year's Day, Jess and Cooper's worlds collide. They must put behind their differences and work together to look into their pasts to uncover a series of events that will lead them to know what really happened on that fateful New Year's Eve. But what they find is that everything they had once believed to be true, turns out to be a lie ...

Published:    4th June 2015
Publisher:  Hodder
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

I am afraid that this one one of those books that 'I could not get into but was invested enough to continue reading until the end because I wanted to know what happened'.  I was really sad I could not get into this book, it sounded like one of those stories that would be fast paced and full of surprises.  I found that it was neither - slow paced and really no surprises at all.  I had guessed pretty much the entire story in the first few chapters.  I think if I hadn't guessed what was going on then this story would have been more of a three or four star review but as there were no surprises there was no 'hook' to draw me in and want to know more.  Jess was my favourite character in this story as she seemed to be the 'innocent' in the madness and it was interesting to follow her story.

I am really sad that I could not get into this book but if you are after an easy read and like reading this sort of thing then do pick it up.  It is worth a try if this is the type of story you are into.

After working with teenagers for more than a decade, Carla decided to start writing for and about them. Having had a lifelong obsession with dark literature, it only seemed natural to write stories that would thrill, scare and maybe make her readers think twice about reading alone in the dark.

Carla lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children. She still enjoys working with teenagers, although she finds it harder and harder to understand why the music they like has to be quite so loud.