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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A castle settled in a small tight-knit community with a grudge. A group of friends and a secret party. A dark storm and rising waters. Bessie planned to have the best Spring Break ever but now her friends are dying and she is being hunt. With the storm raging outside nobody can leave and nobody can get in...is one of the people she trusts most the one hurting them? Dark, emotional and just like the castle full of secrets and big twists.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
dark
tense
fast-paced
A trip without parents knowing, to a castle with minimal modern bits and also being protested by angry people who don't want it turned into luxury housing and are willing to commit violence to prove their point and lots of teens with even more booze? Sounds like a perfect recipe for mayhem and possible death. Add in a major storm (with a gross moat that floods bigtime) to stop people going for help or escaping and this is one thrilling killer weekend (literally).
So many twists and turns and red herrings and I did not trust any one of the teens that went to the castle. They all had ulterior motives and ran off to "be alone" at very suspicious times and it was only as the body count rises that I was able to cross suspects off my list. Yes, there were weird bits and the final reveal was oddish but you had lots of thrills along the way, and it was a quick read and hard to put down as things went so very wrong. The last sentence was a very nice touch and made it fun and raised a very good question.
Not a deep thinking book, but if you want thrills, poor teenage choices, a party gone so very wrong, and several bodies by the end, then this is good book for you!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book and review it.
So many twists and turns and red herrings and I did not trust any one of the teens that went to the castle. They all had ulterior motives and ran off to "be alone" at very suspicious times and it was only as the body count rises that I was able to cross suspects off my list. Yes, there were weird bits and the final reveal was oddish but you had lots of thrills along the way, and it was a quick read and hard to put down as things went so very wrong. The last sentence was a very nice touch and made it fun and raised a very good question.
Not a deep thinking book, but if you want thrills, poor teenage choices, a party gone so very wrong, and several bodies by the end, then this is good book for you!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book and review it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte for the ARC!
“The Party” follows Bessie and her friends as they prepare to have a weekend long party in an old castle owned by the father of two of their friends. Between a nasty storm ruining their plans, and waking up the following morning to find one of their friends dead and their phones suddenly missing, the group are thrust into survival mode. As the storm worsens and their chances of escape dwindling, they have to figure out who’s picking them off one by one, or succumb to their fates.
This book feels very similar to “The Dare”. It has a lot of parallels to that book, almost like this was one of the ideas she may have had before coming up with the concept for that book. Unfortunately, much like that book, “The Party” also dragged. I once again had to leave the book a few times, coming back, and making myself keep reading to get to a point where I was actively invested. I will admit that I did guess part of the ending fairly quickly, but I did like the parts of it I hadn’t expected. With such a big cast of characters this time, and having them not begin to die as quickly as some of her other books, it was harder to feel like they were fleshed out. I also did not enjoy our protagonist this go around, she was definitely the kind of girl you’d see die first generally. So, the book wasn’t as good as her others, but it was a fun enough read if you want a quick murder mystery for the spooky season.
“The Party” follows Bessie and her friends as they prepare to have a weekend long party in an old castle owned by the father of two of their friends. Between a nasty storm ruining their plans, and waking up the following morning to find one of their friends dead and their phones suddenly missing, the group are thrust into survival mode. As the storm worsens and their chances of escape dwindling, they have to figure out who’s picking them off one by one, or succumb to their fates.
This book feels very similar to “The Dare”. It has a lot of parallels to that book, almost like this was one of the ideas she may have had before coming up with the concept for that book. Unfortunately, much like that book, “The Party” also dragged. I once again had to leave the book a few times, coming back, and making myself keep reading to get to a point where I was actively invested. I will admit that I did guess part of the ending fairly quickly, but I did like the parts of it I hadn’t expected. With such a big cast of characters this time, and having them not begin to die as quickly as some of her other books, it was harder to feel like they were fleshed out. I also did not enjoy our protagonist this go around, she was definitely the kind of girl you’d see die first generally. So, the book wasn’t as good as her others, but it was a fun enough read if you want a quick murder mystery for the spooky season.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I received this ARC from Netgalley for my honest review.
First I wanted to say that I really enjoy Natasha Preston's books. I don't know what it was about this one but I had a hard time getting into it. The description of the book made it should like it was right up my alley, but I didn't love it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Childrens for allowing me to read and review the book.
First I wanted to say that I really enjoy Natasha Preston's books. I don't know what it was about this one but I had a hard time getting into it. The description of the book made it should like it was right up my alley, but I didn't love it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Childrens for allowing me to read and review the book.
ARC provided by Random House Children via Netgalley for an honest review.
This book reminded me a lot of those bad 80’s horror movies. You know the ones where the kids all make bad decisions and get murdered in horrible ways and there is one girl left standing at the end. If you like those kind of movies then you will probably like this book. Unfortunately I was never a fan, so this book didn’t work for me on many levels.
I found nothing redeeming or likable about the characters, mostly because we didn’t really get to know any of them. They are very flat and not at all well developed. Some of this might be because there were too many of them and they start to die so quickly that we just don’t get the chance. But even our narrator is very one dimensional and not very likable. So it was very hard to root for any of them or to feel sad when they are killed.
The setting was ok. I liked the locked door aspect of the story. They are in a castle surrounded by a moat, with a storm raging which of course floods the moat and makes it impossible for them to leave. I did struggle with the layout of the castle a bit. I was never able to get a firm picture in my mind of how it looked or where all of the various rooms were.
The plot was very predictable. The murderer was pretty obvious to me by the time I was 50 pages into the book. The pacing was also really slow for about the first half of the book, which for a thriller was not good. I did like that many of the murders, especially the more gruesome ones, happened off page, but the reactions of the characters to these murders just didn’t work for me. There were times when I was expecting the whole thing to be a giant prank and everyone was really alive, but alas no. The motive also turned out to be very weak and not at all believable which just made the whole ending ridiculous. Thrillers should skirt the edges of believability, not jump off that edge.
This is only the second book that I have read by this author and looking back at that review I can tell that I had many of the same issues with it as I did with this one. Although I did like the first book enough to give this one a chance. Many people adore this author and her books, and if you are one of them then certainly give this book a chance. If you are not a fan, then skip this one and try one of her other books.
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dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Preston's thriller centers around a group of friends planning an epic party around an abandoned castle. There's plenty of atmosphere as the body count rises. While the book starts off slowly, the ending is rapid fire. 4 stars