I am delighted to be one of the Book Bloggers opening the Blog Tour today for The Memories of Blood by Guy Cross. This is a wonderfully creepy psychological thriller that I really enjoyed.

My huge thanks to Zoe at Zooloos Blog Tours for my spot on the tour and for arranging my copy.

From the notebook of Gregory Rook: “Sacramental power is born from extremes: obsession, desire, passion, pain, ecstasy, desecration… True holiness transcends morality…”

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A stormy night; a hit and run and Stephen Porter unleashes a train of events that delivers him—and his family—into the clutches of a terrifying dark magician…

… whose magick works through the medium of blood – and the innocence of children.

Stealer of souls, shapeshifter devil, how can he be defeated?

The answer lies in the memories of Jonny Sorrell, a teenage boy who has no idea they form the key to ending Rook forever.

The question is, will he realise in time?

PURCHASE LINK – HERE

MY REVIEW

This is a wonderful book that definitely has some creepy moments in it. The cover describes this as a psychological horror, and in some way, I do agree, but I would say more psychological than horror. Although there are some nerve-wracking moments and very tense spooky scenes. I don’t read as much horror now as I did when I was a teenager, I think I was much braver then!!!

This is a book that is set around a family, a patient in an institute and has its roots in the past.

The author has used the characters to good effect. Most are actually likeable, but there are exceptions. As the synopsis states, this does use the innocence of children for the blood magick to work, rituals and basically abuse. While the author doesn’t go into detail, thank goodness, the implications are there.

This does have some things in it that I do associate with horror, a priest, a doctor, a family with children, a psychiatric institute and also a remote setting. I suppose it could be seen as slightly stereotypical, but for me, this was great as I found things easier to imagine and associate with as there was a familiarity about some of the aspects.

The characters are really well used, they are a mix of good, bad and evil. There are some characters that randomly appear, this adds to the psychological aspect of the story and it also gives a tense mysterious atmosphere to the story.

I finished reading this book in bed, I had to finish it to make sure things were safe! I told you I wasn’t very brave 🙂

This does have a strong psychological thriller feel to it, and a good horror vibe without being too much horror. I thought it was intriguing and wasn’t sure how things were going to pan out or how some of the characters would be used. I have to say that even though it did creep me out at times, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is one I would definitely recommend.

Guy Cross has been painting and writing from ever since he can remember, leaving a career in teaching to pursue his true loves: writing, painting and making music. His writing is psychologically deep and very dark, reflecting his love of the arcane and occult. Gothic horror is his speciality. 

Check out the other stops on the Tour…

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx