Madeleine Roux is best-known for her YA horror books with two popular series Asylum and House of Furies, however she also released an excellent underrated adult sci-fi/horror novel Salvaged in 2019. Fans of this subgenre will be delighted to know that she has a new novel Reclaimed due out this month which furthers her brand of claustrophobic horror in space.
Reclaimed takes place on a small intimate scale introducing us to three damaged characters struggling to deal (badly) with trauma from their past who seize on the relief offered by the idea of erasing the troublesome memories to allow them to move on with their lives, unburdened by their current emotional pain. The universe that this novel takes place in is very minimally sketched out, but that’s forgivable as it’s largely irrelevant to the story—all you need to know is that this is set two centuries in the future where mankind has spread out among the stars and advanced technology is now commonplace.
What the author does well is to humanise the three main characters from the first page they’re introduced to us, making them sympathetic and easy to understand even if we can’t relate to the circumstances they’ve regrettably found themselves in. Senna is the sole survivor of a cult whose members were slaughtered by its leader, Zurri is a supermodel with a deranged stalker and Han is a gifted teenager who lost his mother in an explosive crash. It’s not hard to imagine why they would take up the invitation of a reclusive genius to visit his isolated base on a distant moon to undergo a cutting edge procedure to remove their respective traumatic memories.
Often in a horror novel, there are moments when you facepalm in disbelief at the unrealistic actions of its protagonists staying in a clearly dangerous situation for longer than reasonable. In this novel, we’re presented with each character’s viewpoint in alternating chapters and can see how they handwave away troubling signs out of a desperation to be able to function in normal life again in Senna’s case, out of a desire to not require constant debilitating self-medication in Zurri’s case and out of hero worship in Han’s case. Plus the isolation of the tech mogul’s facility is compounded by dangerous atmospheric conditions making shuttles out of the area infrequent and unreliable. Finally the very nature of the treatment they’re undergoing makes it easy to dismiss the unsettling visions they’re experiencing – of course having brain surgery could come with bizarre side effects, no reason for them to panic! Until it’s too late…
Each chapter is from a different protagonist’s viewpoint, however it’s not written from the first-person which is crucial to the great hook of the story. The main characters have memories being rewritten and experience gaps in their recall, but the reader is perfectly aware of what took place on the page, so there is a delicious horror when we are aware of something that the characters have been made to forget. The incongruity of seeing them in terror one moment and then perfectly calm and happy the next is a special kind of terrifying and sends chills down the spine as we contemplate how the trio can escape from a nightmare they don’t even know is happening.
Reclaimed is a brilliantly plotted science fiction story with an exhilarating take on classic sci-fi tropes and majorly creepy psychological horror elements. It features a strong cast of diverse characters you’ll be praying will survive and a nail-biting suspenseful atmosphere that keeps the reader frantically turning the page. Pick this one up once it’s out and join me in hoping that the next sci-fi novel from this author isn’t far away!
Reclaimed is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of August 17th 2021.
Will you be picking up Reclaimed? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
In this claustrophobic science fiction thriller, a woman begins to doubt her own sanity and reality itself when she undergoes a dangerous experiment.
The Ganymede compound is a fresh start. At least that’s what Senna tells herself when she arrives to take part in a cutting-edge scientific treatment, where participants have traumatic memories erased.
And Senna has reasons for wanting to escape her past.
But almost as soon as the treatment begins, Senna finds more than just her traumatic memories disappearing. She hardly recognizes her new life or herself. Even though the symptoms for the process might justify the cure, Senna knows that something isn’t right. As her symptoms worsen, Senna will need to band together with the other participants to unravel the mystery of her present, and save her future.
