Thursday, January 22, 2015

Book Review: The Memory Closet by Ninie Hammon

The Memory Closet
by Ninie Hammon
Publisher: Ninie Hammon
Published: June 7, 2014
ASIN: B00KUIE5MG

Amazon Synopsis:

When Anne Mitchell was 11 years old, something happened to her that erased the whole first decade of her life, and 25 years later, she has come home to re-claim her past.


Oh, she gets it. She understands that something profoundly evil lurks in the swirling purple haze of her amnesia. 

For 25 years, she was enslaved by what she called the "Boogie Man"-- images from her lost childhood that appeared in the shadows behind her reflection in mirrors and wine glasses, haunted her dreams and attacked her in screaming night terrors. Fear of facing that secret held her hostage. Like a schoolyard bully, it twisted her arm behind her back and forced her to accept that her life began in the dirt beside the ditch where the family station wagon burned like hell had opened up a crack in the world right there in the back seat. 

Then the monster shattered her career. 
 
And Anne saw him in her dying mother's eyes. With her last breath, Susan Mitchell begged for her daughter's forgiveness. She didn't mean for it to happen, she gasped, but she'll burn in hell for what she did all the same.  

What did her mother do? Anne has to know.  

So she has come home to a small Texas prairie town to live with her crazy grandmother in the rambling old house where she grew up to take her stand against the Boogie Man. But Anne isn't really prepared for how expensive remembering might be. The cost of her memories could very well be her sanity.  

Each new revelation loosens Anne's grip on reality. 

Surely her crazy grandmother didn't do THAT to Anne's beloved parakeet! Yes, the old woman DID! No ... actually, she didn't. The horror that attacks her in the garage--it can't possibly be real...can it?  

And most important: what happened to the little girl with a face like a china doll whose name was Laughs in the Wind?  

The Boogie Man knows.  

He also knows Anne's here. He knows it's showtime. And he knows what she doesn't--that Anne might very well have to pay for her past with her future, that the cost of remembering could be her life. 

Book Links

My Thoughts:

The Memory Closet started off as a fascinating tale of Annie a 36-year-old woman who moved back to live in her childhood home with her grandmother to take care of her after her mother died. When her mother died, her last words were "Annie I didn't mean to do it." Now Annie is determined to return to her childhood home and find those memories.

This tale is quite the psychological thriller as events unfold. Annie meets some of the children who are now adults from her past. Dusty has become the Sheriff of the town and he he has helped to fill in a few of the blanks. It's when the memories start to return on their own and hallucinations begin that Annie truly thinks she's going crazy.

There are so many twists and turns in the plot of this storyline that you will need to put your seatbelt on for the ride. It's a dark journey but there is hope if you hang on.

I enjoyed the way that Annie grew throughout the book in her journey of self-discovery and was able to work on a resolution of the issues that brought on the total amnesia of her childhood and integrate it with the woman she had grown up to be.

This was an excellent book. I would highly recommend it. I give it 5 stars out of 5.


Thank you to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

I was born in Socorro, New Mexico, sometime shortly after the earth cooled off. I grew up in Texas, got a BA in English and theatre from Texas Tech University and snagged a job as a newspaper reporter. Didn't know a thing about journalism, but my editor said if I could write he could teach me the rest of it and if I couldn't write the rest of it didn't matter. I hung in there for a 25-year career as a journalist. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but as soon as I figured out that making up the facts was a whole lot more fun than reporting them, I never looked back.

Now, I write suspense--every flavor except pistachio: psychological suspense, inspirational suspense, suspense thrillers, paranormal suspense, suspense mysteries.

In every book I write I try to keep this promise to Loyal Reader: I will tell you a story in a distinctive voice you'll always recognize, about people as ordinary as you are--people who have been slammed by something they didn’t sign on for, and now they must fight for their lives. Then smack in the middle of their everyday worlds, those people encounter the unexplainable--and it's always the game-changer."

Author Links
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2 comments :

  1. Thanks so much for the review, Kathryn. I am really glad you enjoyed the book.

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    Replies
    1. You're very welcome. I take it that it was based on a true story from the note at the beginning of the book?

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