Reviews

Hide and Seek by Jack Ketchum

mowry_haley's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wyll's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

the latter half was good. there were some parts that genuinely made me squeamish - but the beginning is just terrible. lots of objectification of women that really gives stephen king a run for his money. i don't know if the main character is supposed to be a pig or if it reflects what the author thought about women, but it's annoying as hell that we just can't have good horror that doesn't include terrible descriptions of women and rape/abuse shoehorned in

thegreatandwonderfulbookwitch's review against another edition

This book starts off badly and just gets worse. It objectifies women for seemingly no reason. The sentences are all really short and clunky. There is no horror here, obviously I didn't finish it, but at over half done I should have seen something at least mildly creepy. The writing just is not great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexism, and Incest

the_enobee's review against another edition

4.0

Hide and Seek was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm not the biggest Jack Ketchum fan, even though Peaceable Kingdom is one of my favorite short story collections. His novels never really got to me. I think my four star rating is more in relation to Ketchum's other works, but this is a solid horror read with some excellent writing. Ketchum really nails it with this one - the writing is stark, descriptive, and accurate. The scares at the end are intense well worth the read.

lay_kone's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Murder, Death, Confinement, Sexual assault, Incest, Grief, Rape, Animal cruelty, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, and Body horror

jendenhart's review against another edition

so, so, so boring. i have other things to read lmao

ameserole's review against another edition

3.0

The pace in Hide and Seek was pretty freaking slow for me. Or at least that is how it started off. I was intrigued when we were seeing college kids playing hide and seek in an abandoned house. Mostly because it just seemed obvious that so many things were going to go wrong throughout the game.

It just sucks that I didn't really enjoy or like any of the characters. I wouldn't necessarily say this was pure horror because it just felt like I had to untangle so much drama in order to get to that. If it had more spooky, supernatural or horrific things throughout the book then I probably would have rated this higher.

In the end, it was okay. A bit of a let down really. I'm not sure what I was exactly expecting from this book but it was more than what I got.

helaisme's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

deadlight's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

chicks50's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0