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a_libraryghost's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Overall I enjoyed this. I didn’t find it scary but I was genuinely worried for the characters at times. There’s a lot of ‘head hopping’, especially at the start. I’m not sure the physical book broke it up into tiny paragraphs but the characters became very jumbled in the audiobook. I liked most of the characters although some of the dialogue was a bit meh and Kiersten’s way of including ‘diversity’ was uncomfortable. There’s one character who is the token character of colour, token queer and token disabled all in one and she’s very much the saviour character.
Despite what the reader ratings suggest, this book absolutely is not diverse.
I’m also annoyed that it seemed to build up a romance between Mack and Ava with no payoff? I have mixed feelings about Ava’s fake out death but at least her death could have been a great emotional trigger similar to her sisters death to spur her into action. I’m also fine with her being alive but why not then let her and Mack have a happy ending?
Unlike some others I actually don’t mind the ending (except for my thoughts above)
Despite what the reader ratings suggest, this book absolutely is not diverse.
Unlike some others I actually don’t mind the ending (except for my thoughts above)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Racism and Classism
shannananahey's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Grief, Colonisation, and Classism
booksofautumn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A really good thriller novel that contains just enough to be considered horror without being overly gory. It reads really fast and kept me entertained the whole time. A good read for Halloween
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Suicide, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
ecn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I originally wanted to read this book bc a reoccurring nightmare I had as a child was being chased/having to hide in an amusement park. I thought this was going to be SO tense and scare me but it was more of a mystery/thriller than a dark horror. I really liked it, but it stopped being tense about halfway through and then became a race to the finish line type of story. I wish more of the story was built in the hiding and the terror of being hunted instead of the why (maybe if it was longer?)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
connorjdaley's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted this book since DelRey first posted the cover reveal. I thought it looked so cool and the premise was promising. This was my pick in a bookstagram giveaway!
This is a fourteen person, seven day hide-and-seek competition. Two people can get out a day and there is only one single winner. With $50,000 on the line, even with the game running from sunup to sundown daily, who wouldn’t be enticed into playing? Of course nothing is as it seems, there’s the horror.
At only 240 pages, this is a rather short one. Yet it still felt like kind of a slog to me. The story takes a strange amount of time to get going, the characters’ backgrounds play so heavily into the story and yet most of them are pointless or even unbelievable. The exposition takes away almost all of the creepiness…and let me tell you, this could have been a really creepy story.
The last section of the book though I really did enjoy (although even that felt like it went on for a little too long) which saved it. Once the truth is out the novel kind of goes balls-to-the-walls for the last 40 or so pages. Still in no way creepy or scary, but at the least I was entertained and interested to see what happened.
Kind of into it, but I didn’t love it.
This is a fourteen person, seven day hide-and-seek competition. Two people can get out a day and there is only one single winner. With $50,000 on the line, even with the game running from sunup to sundown daily, who wouldn’t be enticed into playing? Of course nothing is as it seems, there’s the horror.
At only 240 pages, this is a rather short one. Yet it still felt like kind of a slog to me. The story takes a strange amount of time to get going, the characters’ backgrounds play so heavily into the story and yet most of them are pointless or even unbelievable. The exposition takes away almost all of the creepiness…and let me tell you, this could have been a really creepy story.
The last section of the book though I really did enjoy (although even that felt like it went on for a little too long) which saved it. Once the truth is out the novel kind of goes balls-to-the-walls for the last 40 or so pages. Still in no way creepy or scary, but at the least I was entertained and interested to see what happened.
Kind of into it, but I didn’t love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
nickoliver's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I'm honestly a bit surprised. Most people I've seen read this book didn't like it in the slightest, so I didn't have any expectations, but I actually liked it? Admittedly, there were a few things I heavily disliked or wouldn't be in the story if I had a say, but for the most part, I was really sucked into the story and couldn't stop reading from a certain point on.
Now, bad things first. There were way too many different characters, and White played way too wildly with the POVs. In the hide-and-seek game itself, there were fourteen people in total, and the author attempted to give all of them at least a little bit of a backstory. But some of the characters were so inconsequential that I didn't understand why I needed to know so many details about them. Plus, a lot of them were referred to differently throughout the story - for example, there was a writer named Ian, and sometimes the text called him "Ian" and sometimes "the writer". You seriously had to keep a list of the names with their job descriptions and backstory with you at all times if you didn't want to get confused. For example, I kept forgetting who the hell Christian was. Especially the contestants who lost early were so easily forgotten that it really made no sense to give them a backstory at all. And the perspectives changed so many times that you sometimes got insight into almost every single character, and that was just too much. I think White might have attempted to not make it obvious which characters were going to be the first victims by trying to give them all the same level of importance, but it just didn't work.
Personally, I also wasn't the biggest fan with the way some of the characters were written. Brandon, for example, was lovely from beginning to end, but the way White talked about him almost infantilised him. Many of the characters were more caricatures than real people. And with Ava, one of the only non-white contestants, the author tried to bring a bit of nuance to the table - for example, had her talk about how she was always expected to be the strong one -, but there wasn't enough of it. It was more of an attempt to bring depth to the story, but it didn't really work all too well. Too many characters were also very casually homophobic towards Ava in particular - or rather, not to her face directly, just when they thought about her -, which was a bit exhausting. Why not a single one of them seemed to be able to act normally around a lesbian was beyond me.
At the beginning of the book, it seemed like Mack was the protagonist, but thanks to all the erratic perspective changes, she sometimes faded a bit into the background. Which was a bit of a pity, because she was a fascinating character, especially the way she felt about bravery and what one was expected to do in the face of something dangerous. But towards the end of the story, she did a few things that threw me off-guard. I lost track of her throughout the story and she didn't feel like a main character anymore, so I was surprised by some of her choices.
However, for a book that had too many characters and a lot of unimportant and unexplored ones at that, I did get quite attached to some of the more important ones. I did really like Mack for the most part, and I developed a soft spot for LeGrand. And while it was developed a bit too quickly, considering the story was set over the course of only a week, I did also get a bit invested in Mack and Ava's relationship. Maybe also because I didn't expect there to be sapphics, and I always love being surprised by queerness.
I was mostly excited for the story because the plot really hooked me in. For me, it took about 20% for me to start being invested, which is when the game actually started. I didn't know where the story was going to go, but I did expect it to go differently. I know a lot of people who didn't like where it went and what the actual reason for the game was, and while it was certainly a bit unoriginal and generic, it didn't put me off the book the way it seemed to have done for others. I still had a good time reading and was pulled in. I actually kind of liked it. Though I do think that White attempted to start conversations about important topics at time that fell a bit flat for me and didn't really go anywhere. That could've been explored a little bit more. And the ending was a little bit anticlimactic.
This was my sixth book by White, I think? Her books are mostly around the 3 star mark for me, with a tendency to be higher than that rather than lower. So I usually enjoy her stories, and this one was no exception. I read this pretty quickly once I got hooked, and while there were certainly things that could've been improved - mostly the chaos with the characters and the perspectives -, I still enjoyed it a lot. Which really surprised me.
Now, bad things first. There were way too many different characters, and White played way too wildly with the POVs. In the hide-and-seek game itself, there were fourteen people in total, and the author attempted to give all of them at least a little bit of a backstory. But some of the characters were so inconsequential that I didn't understand why I needed to know so many details about them. Plus, a lot of them were referred to differently throughout the story - for example, there was a writer named Ian, and sometimes the text called him "Ian" and sometimes "the writer". You seriously had to keep a list of the names with their job descriptions and backstory with you at all times if you didn't want to get confused. For example, I kept forgetting who the hell Christian was. Especially the contestants who lost early were so easily forgotten that it really made no sense to give them a backstory at all. And the perspectives changed so many times that you sometimes got insight into almost every single character, and that was just too much. I think White might have attempted to not make it obvious which characters were going to be the first victims by trying to give them all the same level of importance, but it just didn't work.
Personally, I also wasn't the biggest fan with the way some of the characters were written. Brandon, for example, was lovely from beginning to end, but the way White talked about him almost infantilised him. Many of the characters were more caricatures than real people. And with Ava, one of the only non-white contestants, the author tried to bring a bit of nuance to the table - for example, had her talk about how she was always expected to be the strong one -, but there wasn't enough of it. It was more of an attempt to bring depth to the story, but it didn't really work all too well. Too many characters were also very casually homophobic towards Ava in particular - or rather, not to her face directly, just when they thought about her -, which was a bit exhausting. Why not a single one of them seemed to be able to act normally around a lesbian was beyond me.
At the beginning of the book, it seemed like Mack was the protagonist, but thanks to all the erratic perspective changes, she sometimes faded a bit into the background. Which was a bit of a pity, because she was a fascinating character, especially the way she felt about bravery and what one was expected to do in the face of something dangerous. But towards the end of the story, she did a few things that threw me off-guard. I lost track of her throughout the story and she didn't feel like a main character anymore, so I was surprised by some of her choices.
However, for a book that had too many characters and a lot of unimportant and unexplored ones at that, I did get quite attached to some of the more important ones. I did really like Mack for the most part, and I developed a soft spot for LeGrand. And while it was developed a bit too quickly, considering the story was set over the course of only a week, I did also get a bit invested in Mack and Ava's relationship. Maybe also because I didn't expect there to be sapphics, and I always love being surprised by queerness.
I was mostly excited for the story because the plot really hooked me in. For me, it took about 20% for me to start being invested, which is when the game actually started. I didn't know where the story was going to go, but I did expect it to go differently. I know a lot of people who didn't like where it went and what the actual reason for the game was, and while it was certainly a bit unoriginal and generic, it didn't put me off the book the way it seemed to have done for others. I still had a good time reading and was pulled in. I actually kind of liked it. Though I do think that White attempted to start conversations about important topics at time that fell a bit flat for me and didn't really go anywhere. That could've been explored a little bit more. And the ending was a little bit anticlimactic.
This was my sixth book by White, I think? Her books are mostly around the 3 star mark for me, with a tendency to be higher than that rather than lower. So I usually enjoy her stories, and this one was no exception. I read this pretty quickly once I got hooked, and while there were certainly things that could've been improved - mostly the chaos with the characters and the perspectives -, I still enjoyed it a lot. Which really surprised me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Infidelity
corncake's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I want to start by saying I really enjoyed the premise, and the themes of this book. However the multiple points of view and all the character names were very confusing. Maybe it would be better if I wasn’t listening to the audiobook, but I found myself quite overwhelmed when trying to remember each character and their story, especially for the first half of the novel. It definitely took away from the atmospheric spookiness and dread for me personally. But if you don’t struggle with multiple POV, I think this book would be a fun ride especially if you like character-driven reads, or are craving a supernatural “Squid Game” if it was written for teens.
Which brings me to my next thought - this was not a super scary book. I was intrigued, but never really spooked out or horrified by anything, and maybe that’s just cause I have read more scary novels. So for my fellow spooky readers: come for the eerie vibes, the characters, and the lore - but don’t come into this to be scared this spooky season.
Which brings me to my next thought - this was not a super scary book. I was intrigued, but never really spooked out or horrified by anything, and maybe that’s just cause I have read more scary novels. So for my fellow spooky readers: come for the eerie vibes, the characters, and the lore - but don’t come into this to be scared this spooky season.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Body horror, Child death, Blood, and Lesbophobia
lindsbrarian03's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gore
Moderate: Violence
wishling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Lesbophobia
tarynlannister's review against another edition
dark
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
4.0
First of all, I came to the reviews before reading to try to find out if the LGBTQ character(s) die, so I will provide that information in spoiler tag for you!
They live :)
I'm really not a horror fan usually, but my book club picked this and I'll be the first to tell you I devoured it in a day. I was really pleasantly surprised by so much about it. Yes, it's horror, people are killed off, but once the story really picked up deaths weren't just gratuitous for the horror element. Most of the fear came from the unknown, not excessive descriptions of gore. So if you're like me you may enjoy it, but it may not necessarily be for more hardcore horror fans.
I'm really not a horror fan usually, but my book club picked this and I'll be the first to tell you I devoured it in a day. I was really pleasantly surprised by so much about it. Yes, it's horror, people are killed off, but once the story really picked up deaths weren't just gratuitous for the horror element. Most of the fear came from the unknown, not excessive descriptions of gore. So if you're like me you may enjoy it, but it may not necessarily be for more hardcore horror fans.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Animal death and Racism
A side character who is cruel and unsympathetic is severely injured by another character and does not die immediately. There are descriptions of blood, gore, and suffering, which may be disturbing. A main character considers a mercy killing but does not do it. A character is traumatized by the murder of her family, including her child sister. She occasionally flashes back to this, and descriptions of the event are creepy and sad but not very graphic. A character was raised in a cult, and occasionally briefly discusses it.