REVIEW: The Memory Hit by Carla Spradberry

The Memory Hit by Carla Spradberry
Published by Hodder Children's Books on 4th June 2015
Pages: 352
Source: *Received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review*

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 ...

Fast-pace, addictive and thrilling; Carla Spradberry is certainly one of my new favourite authors! I am not a huge fan of the cover, it is rather boring and does not catch my attention.

When Cooper is knocked unconscious and then woken in the boot of a car, he knows something has gone wrong. Likewise, when Jess is at a home that is set alight whilst her two best friends are trapped in a room together, she knows this was no accident. The one common factor between them both, Whiteface. As Cooper and Jess race against the clock to understand the incidents that have occurred around the drug Nostalgex, they are putting their life in more danger than they really understand.

You read The Memory Hit from two perspective, Jess and Cooper. Jess I found I really struggled to connect with. She came across as rather selfish, but I felt as though this was something all the characters shared causing them to do what they do. Many were selfish in their greed for power and control. However, the team between Jess and Cooper was brilliant, they worked excellently and I was intrigued by the mystery of why they never saw each other again until this night.

I have never read a novel before that was centred around illegal drugs, and so one of my only criticisms is that it felt as though they were saying that sometimes, it was okay to use them, which I completely disagreed with.

The plot though of this novel, wow. It will certainly have you on the edge of your seat. Spradberry's writing holds nothing back, it is thrilling and dangerous but incredibly addictive. Alongside that, the plot was very intriguing and like nothing I had read before. This pulled me out of my reading slump, scenes were shocking and raw, with many you can, however unimaginable for someone to do, do occur in real life. And the ending, at one point I was positive I knew who Whiteface was, but Spradberry completely shocked me and I would not have guessed. And that was one of the main reasons I loved this, she did not make it easy and for that I applaud her.

Overall this was a thrilling and exciting novel, that has certainly confirmed that Spradberry is one of my favourite authors, especially after her debut of The 100 Society.