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jazzyjbox's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
What a wild ride!
Temple is the daughter of a serial killer, and she goes back to the farm where she grew up which is now a horror camp for queer, Black girls. Temple isn't there for camp; she's trying to find answers about her mom who disappeared 5 years ago.
This is such an intense story! Temple isn't very likable, but she grew up that way. The twist was an interesting take, and there were small bits of humor throughout. My only big complaint is how many characters there were, which made it hard to keep track of who was who for the first half. Horror is by far not my primary genre, but I really enjoyed this.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Temple is the daughter of a serial killer, and she goes back to the farm where she grew up which is now a horror camp for queer, Black girls. Temple isn't there for camp; she's trying to find answers about her mom who disappeared 5 years ago.
This is such an intense story! Temple isn't very likable, but she grew up that way. The twist was an interesting take, and there were small bits of humor throughout. My only big complaint is how many characters there were, which made it hard to keep track of who was who for the first half. Horror is by far not my primary genre, but I really enjoyed this.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Murder
storiesatstarfall's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, Death, Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Bullying, and Death of parent
Minor: Stalking
sophiareads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings: murder, violence, gore, death of a parent, desecration of bodies, stalking, child abuse, fire/fire injury
Temple, the daughter of an infamous serial killer, returns to the woods in which she was raised - the woods where her father's victims were discovered - hoping to find the truth of her mother's disappearance. But the woods, now a campsite, are still a site of multiple missing persons cases, and Temple soon finds herself investigating a possible copycat of her father's crimes.
So, this was definitely different than I was expecting, but I think it was different for the better! Ellis definitely does a good job invoking the energy of a horror flick with this book - her writing sets the spooky atmosphere, and the descriptions of gore, while not my exact cup of tea, are definitely reminiscent of a slasher film. Going into this, I was definitely not expecting a paranormal kind of horror, but once this element is introduced, it works really well. Plot-wise, I think this is really great. It's full of twists and turns, and it's fun to see all of the various plot threads introduced throughout the book come together to create a cohesive narrative. My only issue with it, really, was that I wished we were given more information sooner, because frankly, I don't think I fully comprehended what was actually going on here until the 90% mark or something. I totally understand wanting that 'unfolding mystery' vibe with your book, but for a little too much of this book, I just felt a little too out of the loop, which didn't make for the best reading experience. That being said, totally possible that I'm just dumb and other people would totally have grasped everything earlier! And everything did totally come together - definitely a case of 'when it clicks, it CLICKS'.
Still, I think plot was the strongest element here. I really wanted to like Temple as a character, but she sort of gave off 'not like other girls' vibes. (Like, come on, aren't we over calling other girls 'Barbie' as an insult?) Ultimately, I think her character arc was pretty good, but I did find it difficult to warm up to her. I'm really glad the book didn't have a romance though - I was worried it might and it SO didn't need one, so I was glad everyone was just bestie vibes only at the end. Also I really appreciated the discussion of the ethics of true crime buffs - we didn't get a super deep dive into the topic, but I really like what there was, and I thought it was great to include!
Huge thank you to NetGalley, Sami Ellis, and Amulet Books for the eARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Vomit, and Child death
Minor: Stalking
jadehusdanhicks's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I LOVED THIS BOOKS. Queer BIPOC murder mystery following the daughter of a serial killer at a true crime camp based on the property he killed at? So good!
Unique, nothing I have read compares to this insane writing and plot line. I am so glad I accessed this as an arc as not only was it unique it then had the added paranormal presence??? Wow.
I loved how unlike many crime books it took well written diverse queer and black characters and didn’t criminalise them unlike how many popular crime novels do.
Unique, nothing I have read compares to this insane writing and plot line. I am so glad I accessed this as an arc as not only was it unique it then had the added paranormal presence??? Wow.
I loved how unlike many crime books it took well written diverse queer and black characters and didn’t criminalise them unlike how many popular crime novels do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Murder, and Death
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