Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Hide

Pretty good collection of wheelhouse tropes that I can tell you about because they're spoilers. Also really good character explorations, some more meaningful and finished than others.

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sarahbythebook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.5

Abandoned places are creepy, but desperate times will drive even the most cautious of us into doing things out of our comfort zone. And for the sweet reward of $50,000? There's not a lot the characters in Hide wouldn't do for the kind of security that money would offer. This contest--a simple game of hide and seek--would totally change their lives. For many of the contestants, it will be the last game they ever get to play.

Ultimately I did enjoy this book. It hits on a lot of real world issues and casts them onto the characters--desire to prove something to ourselves and the larger world, the gap of understanding between older generations and new, the despondency that many young people feel, the hypocrisy of wealth and religion. Add in a dose of the paranormal and a tidy reason why the haves keep getting more while the have-nots continue to suffer, and you've got a recipe for a solid book. Everyone can find themselves reflected in one of the contestants--the forever intern, the veteran, the pseudo-intellectual, the ones that just want to be seen, even the one that wants to hide forever. This group of fourteen reflect back at readers different pieces of themselves and the world we live in.

I have a few issues with this book, largely boiling down to loose strings. 1. The item their tasked with finding. It doesn't really serve a purpose expect as world-building for the reader, and that seems like a missed opportunity to fix the next problem. 2. The ending doesn't make sense. Like at all. Spoilers from here to the end.

What exactly was the point of Ava taking the book if it never got used? How will they keep the thing they've released from coming after Mac or LeGrange in the future? Surely there could have been something in that book that would have helped them. Instead, the monster is just? Loose forever? So they'll never get to feel safe again? It made no sense to me, and that was my biggest tripping point for the whole story.

I enjoyed this book, it was accessible, and not too scary for a horror story.

(CW: suicide, cults, religious abuse, classism)

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sexytinatrainconductress's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kcelena's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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