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3.06 AVERAGE
3.06 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you NetGalley and TBR and Beyond Tours for the chance to read and review Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos!
Go Hunt Me is a Young Adult Thrillers & Suspense book that came out on the 14th of June. It's 318 pages long and published by Razorbill, which is a Penguin imprint.
I don't have much to add in terms of a review for this book, except it's a great thriller! I had fun reading this and I loved each character! The twist was so good! I don't want to say too much because I'm afraid of spoiling the book. It's a fast paced book, from start to end which I appreciate.
I feel like the characters could have been more fleshed out and the twist could have been made a bit longer. I would have loved to get more details on that!
I will definitely be reading more by the author!
Go Hunt Me is a Young Adult Thrillers & Suspense book that came out on the 14th of June. It's 318 pages long and published by Razorbill, which is a Penguin imprint.
I don't have much to add in terms of a review for this book, except it's a great thriller! I had fun reading this and I loved each character! The twist was so good! I don't want to say too much because I'm afraid of spoiling the book. It's a fast paced book, from start to end which I appreciate.
I feel like the characters could have been more fleshed out and the twist could have been made a bit longer. I would have loved to get more details on that!
I will definitely be reading more by the author!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book Review
Title: Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Rating: 5 Stars
When I got the chance to be a part of this blog tour I jumped at it since Go Hunt Me was a really hyped release I have been looking forward too and it sounds like something I am going to love. The opening to Go Hunt Me was amazing as we are introduced to Alex in the hospital after her friends have been killed at Castle Prahova in Romania but we don’t know how and why. We then jump backwards in time and realise that Alex was filming a short film in order to get into her dream school alongside her boyfriend, Jax and the numerous friends in Reagan and Kenna. On Halloween night they are preparing for a party but the others decide to surprise Alex by secretly filming some of her short film before the party kicks off but they unintentionally scare the living daylights out of her. I really liked the dynamics between the friend group and how they are helping each other out and I can’t wait for them to travel to Romania and for the horror elements to really take off.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we are less than 2 months from the events that land Alex in the hospital and we are still getting to know her and her friends. We can see that Alex is struggling at home since her father is fighting cancer the family business has suffered meaning Alex’s sister has had to give on her dreams of dancing because they can’t afford it but Alex refuses to. However, when she and Jax check their admissions letters they learn that Jax has been accepted while Alex has been waitlisted which usually means she isn’t going to get in which is heart-breaking since she has worked so hard for this. After meeting a famous actress in the bathroom they decide to start a fundraiser for a student movie but Alex admits in the present that was a mistake from the very beginning and I want to know why. Alex and her friends start a fundraiser to make the film better and submit it to film festivals in the hopes of getting Alex into the college of her dreams but things get even crazier when the actress, Catrinel Bloom offers them the chance to film in Romania and Alex knows they are going to accept. We also learn in the present that the fundraiser ends up making over half a million dollars but by the time they figured out where the money came from someone stole it so it seems like we are in for a wild ride now.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we are now less than a week from the events that get Alex injured and her friends killed and I can’t wait to see what happened in Romania. The group eventually convince their parents to let them go since Catrinel is coming with them and they will have an adult with them. However, moments after landing in Romania Catrinel ditches them and Jax admits it is because she is going to rehab in Switzerland and that was the plan all along and he deceived everyone so they are now heading to Castle Prahova alone when they learn that their money has been stolen. Only one or two of the group are making a big deal of that right now since they are going to look into it when they get to the castle anyway but Alex is worried being in a foreign country not speaking the language and having no one there to guide them but it is her last chance to get into film school so she needs to do it. I really like the dynamics between the friends but there seems to be some tension between Jax and Reagan since Jax is dating Alex and Reagan seems to have feelings for her which is confusing Alex even if she doesn’t say it out loud. The boys also seem to be hiding something else which could potentially lead to people getting injured and Alex makes a point to ask Jax about it later.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the group have arrived at the castle which is just as creepy and atmospheric as they were promised. After arriving at the castle and getting settled in some of the group immediately begin to feel like something is wrong with the place and I agree. Keena and some of the others seem unnaturally interested in the money that went missing and there also seems to be something off with their host, Raul Stoica. In the present we learn that he might be connected to an international drug dealer and art thief but the most interesting thing now is how Keena seems to know Raul and why she is lying to the group about things and this obviously has Alex worried but I have a feeling that things are going to get darker. I love how it is phrased that maybe the only demons in the castle are the ones they brought in themselves and rather than it being a supernatural entity that begins killing them off what if it is one of their own which would make sense given the information we know about some of the characters and their currently very isolated location where help can’t be accessed easily.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really getting into the story now and couldn’t wait for the action to really take off. Things start getting really interesting here since Raul leaves the kids alone in the castle just as a massive storm hits but it is clear they aren’t alone there and Kenna has something to do with this situation. When it becomes clear that someone else is in the castle, Maddie freaks out and runs into the storm, the remaining friends divide up so some stay where they are in case Maddie comes back, some search the castle and Jax with Alex search outside. Outside they are bumped into by someone in costume and that incident leads them to Maddie’s body. Back inside they meet up with Reagan and in the bathhouse they finds Carter’s severed head. Two of their friends are now dead and two more are missing but they find Hazel locked in a room by Carter as he wanted to search for Maddie. Now the only missing member of the group is Kenna and she seems to be at the centre of everything since they found a boarding pass a few days before theirs which confirms that someone else is there along with the appearing and disappearing items and keys.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, a third of the group are dead, one is missing and the rest are terrified but between the storm and the isolated location they have no choice but to stay in the castle and they have no way of summoning outside help and there are only 24 hours to go until we catch up to the present timeline. Things get even worse from there as more of the group are killed off until only Alex, Reagan and Hazel remain and this is when the truth starts coming to light. It turns out that Kenna has pitched her own movie to Justin Bloom, Catrinel’s ex-husband and the half a million dollars came from him and everything that has happened was supposed to be staged for the movie but that wasn’t the case. Alex explains that they thought that Raul was the killer picking them off but it was really his father, Yuri, the drug dealer and art thief possibly because he didn’t want it coming out through the movie that he was still alive and that the castle contained the priceless items he had stolen over the years.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I was really excited to see how deVos was going to end the novel since she hasn’t be afraid to be gory and brutal throughout the novel. The last portion of this novel make the slow first quarter completely worth it. I won’t go into much detail since it gives some insane spoilers but that ending was twists upon twists and I can honestly say I didn’t see it coming and it absolutely blew me away. This was one of my anticipated releases for this year and it certainly didn’t let me down and deVos is going to be an insta-buy author for me in the future especially if she continues writing in this genre. Absolutely perfection and I highly recommend it as it would be perfect for the spooky season.
I was really excited about this because I loved the author's other book but this fell flat. I failed to connect with the characters & the plot. It felt very slasher film and while slasher films are fun, I go in watching them knowing that they probably won't have a lot of good plot or be very logical. It felt very insubstantial in that way and that was not what I expected after reading the author's book last year, Eat Your Heart Out. I felt very detached from the characters so when they started getting killed, I didn't really feel anything. Plot-wise, I guessed where the story was going so it made me indifferent to what was happening. I really wanted to love this, especially with the setting being in a castle in Romania with film buff characters.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was so excited to read this one and really wanted to love it! The synopsis sounded like my kind of book! So I’m disappointed not to have loved it.
One thing that disappointed me was that, despite the cover art and synopsis, this is not a supernatural/paranormal story. There are no actual vampires or anything, so I feel a little misled. But without vampires, it’s still a pretty good set up! A dark, crumbling building in a remote location, no connection to family back home or even the outside world, flickering lights…so where did it go wrong for me?
I loved the setting and the atmosphere, and it seemed like it was trying to say something about patriarchy and sexism, but I think the characters all felt so flat and one dimensional, which made it so hard to be invested in the life or death stakes. It didn’t mean anything to me when one of them disappeared or turned up dead, unfortunately.
And the ending…it’s the kind of ending that I think I could have appreciated if I thought the rest of the book was stronger, but as it was it sort of came out of nowhere and then left me feeling a bit tricked.
So despite my high hopes, this one unfortunately just wasn’t for me.
(Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)
I loved the setting and the atmosphere, and it seemed like it was trying to say something about patriarchy and sexism, but I think the characters all felt so flat and one dimensional, which made it so hard to be invested in the life or death stakes. It didn’t mean anything to me when one of them disappeared or turned up dead, unfortunately.
And the ending…it’s the kind of ending that I think I could have appreciated if I thought the rest of the book was stronger, but as it was it sort of came out of nowhere and then left me feeling a bit tricked.
So despite my high hopes, this one unfortunately just wasn’t for me.
(Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book.
After being waitlisted at her dream college for filmmaking, Alex and her friends come up with the idea to create her short film in Prahova at the castle of Vlad Dracul. With the help of an actress, they make their way to the castle...but everything turns out wrong when the power goes out, the adults disappear, and her friends start going missing.
I would say the best part about this book is the interplay of "scene descriptions" between chapters, including information from the script, the investigation, and other elements. The rest of it was a little boring and predictable, but still fun to read. This is the book equivalent of a slasher film. I think this would have been better if the ending hadn't been so predictable and the main character hadn't been described one way for most of the plot, then changed at the end. The end part of the character was interesting, but the way Alex was depicted for the majority of the book was just bland and sad.
Also...none of the side characters were interesting. So that was sad.
After being waitlisted at her dream college for filmmaking, Alex and her friends come up with the idea to create her short film in Prahova at the castle of Vlad Dracul. With the help of an actress, they make their way to the castle...but everything turns out wrong when the power goes out, the adults disappear, and her friends start going missing.
I would say the best part about this book is the interplay of "scene descriptions" between chapters, including information from the script, the investigation, and other elements. The rest of it was a little boring and predictable, but still fun to read. This is the book equivalent of a slasher film. I think this would have been better if the ending hadn't been so predictable and the main character hadn't been described one way for most of the plot, then changed at the end. The end part of the character was interesting, but the way Alex was depicted for the majority of the book was just bland and sad.
Also...none of the side characters were interesting. So that was sad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Drug use
I think this book needs a disclaimer that it isn't about Vampires. Because I feel like one is lead to believe that it is. But it is about a group of high schoolers who are filming a vampire horror movie to get into college. And after the half way mark it turns into a slasher. However, you have to getting through half for anything to happen.
What I liked is the fan service to all the horror movies and books of days gone by. And it was interesting but it wasn't what I was expecting. And I would have liked to see action a lot sooner.
I think if you can handle slow burns then you may like this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and Razorbill for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
What I liked is the fan service to all the horror movies and books of days gone by. And it was interesting but it wasn't what I was expecting. And I would have liked to see action a lot sooner.
I think if you can handle slow burns then you may like this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and Razorbill for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.