She Treads Softly: The Memory Ward

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

The Memory Ward

The Memory Ward by Jon Bassoff
3/4/25; 292 pages
Blackstone Publishing

The Memory Ward by Jon Bassoff is very highly recommended psychological suspense novel with a science fiction connection. This page-turner had me fully engaged and speculating right from the start.

Mailman Hank Davies knows it is always beautiful in Bethlam, Nevada. He is surprised one day when a letter he is delivering isn't sealed and he sees it is a blank page. He checks two others and realizes they are blank too. When he arrives home, he mentions the blank letters to his wife. Then he starts to notice people watching him. Finally, a woman knocks on his window late at night and tells him to trust no one and check out what is under the wallpaper in the bedroom.

Mailman Wallie Daley knows it is always beautiful in Bethlam, Nevada...

The eerie and mysterious atmosphere created in The Memory Ward immediately appealed to me as the plot explores identity, memory, trauma, observation and suspicion. The quick paced narrative is divided up into five parts and the story of three different characters is told. Gradually, the three story lines converge, and the truth about Bethlam is revealed. This mind-bending novel is short, so it can be read quickly and is best started only knowing the basic plot information.

There are strong Twilight Zone vibes with a snippet of the X Files in The Memory Ward and I loved it. Thanks to Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.