The Memory Hit

By Author / Illustrator

Carla Spradbery

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781444920277

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

04-06-2015

Synopsis

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 ...

'A pleasingly dark teen thriller with fun, fresh characters. Spradbery is a debut author to watch.' James Dawson

Reviews

At the heart of this fast paced thriller is a drug, Nostalgex. The ultimate memory hit. Nostalgex, or rather the effects of Nostalgex, appear to be highly addictive; the desire to relive an event, drawing a person back, encouraging them to inhabit a past that has, well, passed. We're introduced to it right from the word go through a memory of a key event. After which, we spiral forward to a string of incidents on New Year's Eve and their consequences. Cooper, the main protagonist, is in serious trouble and Jess needs to help her boyfriend; the key to the solution for both lies in the memories of New Year's Eve. But is it worth the risk of taking the drug to relive those memories? The plot works well, it pulls you at breakneck pace through the lives of Jess and Cooper, the ramifications of one event, and how their fate was sealed long before New Year. The mystery plays out right to the end. Don't read this book at bedtime in case you find you can't put it down! 320 pages / Ages 14+ / Reviewed by Catherine Purcell, school librarian.