Kiersten White

A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White. The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that. It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive. Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

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Mar Or

Predictable, but I had to force myself to put it down. 

Hannah Bateman

Sandrin

I hate it when authors lack the resolve to finish their own stories. 

The idea was interesting, but the execution was shit. Because the story kept switching POVs I was unable to care for any of the characters. Maybe LeGrand was the only exception, but because of his personality, rather than backstory. 

And the ending sucked. No real payoff. No resolution. Felt lazy, like the author wasnt brave enough or cared enough to choose an ending.

A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White. The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win—to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts—Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. It’s the reason she’s alive, and her family isn’t. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive. Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

kayla 

First one star of 2024! 🎉
This book was not enjoyable at all.. to be fair I did laugh a couple times but that was because I felt like I was going insane. The characters were flat, their relationships with one another felt meaningless and rushed, every stereotype under the sun was chucked in there too alongside other overused horror tropes. The writing was just baffling, the perspective jumps were jarring and ruined any chance of tension + the reader is literally told the entire backstory and origin of the threat through letters. The characters don't find anything themselves and instead luckily run into someone who can tell them everything! The primary villain is cartoonish and so annoying it makes my brain explode, the 'others' are not even in the book so that's wonderful. The plot itself felt obvious too. I want to cry.

..Apologies for the disorganised 'review', it's almost 1am and I just needed to get all my thoughts out so I could sleep without my brain exploding. <3

Rated using the CAWPILE sytem. :3

Great cover, interesting premise, but terrible execution. First two chapters start off promising, with the story getting straight to the point, but then it goes downhill.

I don't think the world-building is very strong. There were so many characters, and with so little backstory, I could only connect with about four of the fourteen hiders (Mack, Brandon, LeGrand and Ava). It's not clear if that was intentional, even though we do get to hear all fourteen hiders' POVs.

In the last two chapters, the pace became agonisingly slow and the chapters felt longer. We then got a shitty ending that didn't feel complete. After telling myself I wouldn't DNF this book halfway through and pushing myself to finish it, this felt like a slap in the face.

In the end, recommending this book would be disingenuous. To me, it's not worth it.

Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️2-2.5

Great cover, interesting premise, but terrible execution. First two chapters start off promising, with the story getting straight to the point, but then it goes downhill.

I don't think the world-building is very strong. There were so many characters, and with so little backstory, I could only connect with about four of the fourteen hiders (Mack, Brandon, LeGrand and Ava). It's not clear if that was intentional, even though we do get to hear all fourteen hiders' POVs.

In the last two chapters, the pace became agonisingly slow and the chapters felt longer. We then got a shitty ending that didn't feel complete. After telling myself I wouldn't DNF this book halfway through and pushing myself to finish it, this felt like a slap in the face.

In the end, recommending this book would be disingenuous. To me, it's not worth it.

Leticia Leal

Many of the reviews are negative because they say this book was too "woke" or was pushing an agenda. This is not why I gave it only two, maybe two and a half, stars. I gave it that rating because it is dreadfully dull.

John Lopiano Jr.

The story itself kept me interested all the way through, but overall I think it didn’t really land for me.

I thought it was well paced for a horror/thriller under 300 pages, but I had two main issues with it. The first issue was with the style of writing. It read more like a screenplay with constant switches in perspective from character to character, and flipping back and forth between characters for expository purposes seemed sort of forced. 

The second issue I had was with the character building. You’re supposed to be heavily invested in characters with a story like this so you dread them dying. I don’t really know if I felt a connection with any of the characters, especially with there being 14 of them. Even the handful of main characters you’re supposed to care about didn’t feel fleshed out. I still don’t know why I’m supposed to care about them.

I give the author a lot of credit because I also know she’s a YA writer and this was her first adult novel. I’d give her another shot if she came out with a similar novel. The concept/idea of the plot was really great. I was just hoping for better execution.

C. J. Daley 

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.

Sheena Graziano 

I was so excited when I read the synopsis of this. When the story started off, I had high hopes. Then the hiding began and as they were all being hunted I waited, and waited and waited. Only for sounds and cut aways. Of course there are the flash backs and a background story to what they were facing. However I wanted to be holding my breath. I never got to the point where I was whispering to the characters to not move, to not breathe. I wanted to love it but it didn’t do it for me.

Nash

Alexa M

okay wow. did i really expect to be giving this horror i picked up on a whim 5 stars? nope! but!

literally  The Cabin in the Woods meets The Hunger Games. i read this all in one sitting, i could Not put it down. the *only* problem i have is that it's so short it's hard to feel truly connected but i can't think of anything i really didn't like which is why i gotta hand it its' 5 stars. i'm usually not a big supernatural fan but i feel like this was done super well. the abandoned amusement park setting was super eery and i loved slowly figuring out the truth. not only was the plot super fast paced but the writing in this was amazing !! i've never read a Kiersten White before but will definitely be keeping an eye out for her in the future. 

the last big thing i LOVED about this was the message - White sneaks in comments on class and race and more along with the creepy horror and it was done so well. 

was it the best book i've ever read? def not but since i cannot find a flaw - 5 stars. ! highly recommend.

Imma say 3 for this? Listen I love books with competitions or games in them but this was just a little weird for me. I liked the concept but the execution fell a bit flat. I think it’s the way the book was structured more than anything, sometimes I didn’t realise we’d switched to a different character’s part so I kept having to go back and re read parts to keep myself orientated so I had any clue what was going on. 

As I was reading I kept having theories about what was happening and what was going to happen and honestly all of those just seemed like they’d be better than what did happen. The ending was so abrupt, there wasn’t really any resolution at all, I was just sat here like oh that’s it?? 

I spent half the book just pulling comparisons from the movie Ready or Not, so if you liked that movie try this book? 3 maybe 3.5* for this im undecided…I’m still not sure if I enjoyed it past day 3 :’)

This book has a good concept and started off great. There is a lot of jumping around between present and past without any page breaks or new chapters so it gets jumbled. There is also a lot of jumping around between all 14 characters which was also done at random. Story line was unique at first but in the end not so much. 

Katelin Hippe

Jade Iveson

Im so confused why people didnt like this because I thought it was such a fun time. Ill write more later, but honestly would recommend

Adrian Victor

I was so excited for this book, in spite of having DNFed another of White’s works, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I’ve since concluded that her books are probably just not for me, although I am glad I gave her another shot. 

The book is equipped with a fantastic concept, but for me the payoff was just not there. I enjoyed White’s writing style, and her narratorial omniscience didn’t bother me so much as it intrigued me. It’s a good stylistic stand-in for the reality show style narrative that the characters believe themselves to be a part of, but I found myself wishing she had discarded the conceit as the stakes rose. I also felt that White included too many characters to properly flesh the majority of them out. The central cast was likable and interesting, but I wanted more of them, and less of two dimensional characters. For the record, character development is also a large part of what made me DNF The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I think that the way that White writes characters just doesn’t work for me. 

White is definitely making a statement with this book, and it’s a good one. It’s also delivered pretty heavy-handedly, and I wanted more from her adult debut. Between two-dimensional characters and the fairly telegraphed point (along with a conceit has drawn comparisons to The Hunger Games), I felt like I was reading a YA book with older characters and more swearing. And I wanted more than that.

It was okay… I got through the whole book pretty quickly but it just left me wanting more… what that “more” is I’m honestly not sure. Not a horrible read, but not good either… just meh. It feels like one of those books were I will probably forget everything that happened in a few months.

BROOKE A

A light horror novel that is more thriller than horror. Likeable characters (for the most part) and a really good plot concept. Not overly gory. Contains serious themes so please read content warnings

Amanda Autumn Berrey

sophia n

damn my expectations were SO high for this and it was such a let down. i don't think this book was in any ways bad, but i also can't really think of anything it did super well either. frustrated mostly because by the end i was just like, alright, that was a weird messy waste of time lol

i think one of the biggest misses for me with this book is the choice to have 14 main characters and to write from all of their POVs. in an almost frantic and completely unintelligible sense. this could have been interesting or well done, i actually can get down with a big cast, but here it just felt scattered and caused me to literally not care about a single character, and forget who even half of them were. it was almost maddening. i don't think this was helped by the fact that the audiobook is narrated by one person and there's little to no distinction between POVs. i tried switching to the ebook at one point but the pace was so slowwwww i needed the audiobook or i'd just DNF, and i kept hoping it would get better. it didn'tttttttt.

reading the author's note after the fact i'm like wow i did not get her intention at all with this narrative. i see it now after she explained it, what she was going for, but i wouldn't have even know she was trying to write a meta-commentary generations hoarding wealth and then screwing over their children and the generations to come. did not get even 1% of that. despite the fact that this book actually had two big parts of it that were completely info-dumpy, like a barrage of facts suddenly pummeling you. still.

also this is definitely a retelling, or interpretation of sorts, of a pretty well known greek mythos, and i did not enjoy this take on it at all LOL again i think simply because i didn't and COULDN'T care for any of the characters so it was just like. okay? someone died i guess? idek who it was ... why were two characters both named ava, what was the reason, i'm so

and, to round us out, perhaps the most egregious issue of all ... i was not scared, shocked, or even thrilled by this book. sorryyyyy

Jasmine

Imagine if you could read a hybrid of “The Cabin in the Woods” and “FantasticLand” by Mike Bockoven. It would be ideal if you considered getting excited at this point because you absolutely can read that within the pages of this book! White balances social commentary with horror elements (which honestly are the same most of the time, right?) to write a genuinely fascinating novel. 

Some may feel that there are too many characters/lots of details in the beginning, but I felt the pace was pretty perfect. I also loved the strong female presence throughout. There wasn’t anything about this story that didn’t work for me. It’s pretty rad when your first book of the year is a 5 star read, so hooray to that :D 

I’m so excited to recommend this book to customers! It’ll be a good fit for YA readers that enjoy a bit darker subject material and horror fans looking for their next engrossing read. 

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

McKenzie McWhorter

** spoiler alert **
           3.5 - I've never sat so long trying to decide on a star rating. 

There was a lot I loved about this book, like the premise of a hide and seek contest in an abandoned amusement park, and the supernatural horror element. I really enjoyed Ava and Mack and the friendships formed too. 

However, there was also I lot I didn't love like the large list of characters in the beginning, I couldn't even remember them all. 

The ending felt off to me too, I anticipated more from it. It was also very open ended and I didn't enjoy that, I wanted more solid conclusion. I also expected more connection/answers about Mack's dad but nothing was really given there.

Bambi Ard

I flew through this book! Within just about ten pages I was totally hooked. The story was well-paced, the anxiety, fear, and action all steadily mounting as the characters fell deeper and deeper into the game and slowly realized what was going on around them. I quite enjoyed going on this journey with them, uncovering the secrets of the game and piecing together the truth of their circumstances right alongside them.

I enjoyed the characters, as well: all of them. I know there are a lot of people who don't care for overly large casts, especially if most of them won't be sticking around for long, but I had a lot of fun learning their names, their occupations, their motives. The tiny glimpses into their pasts and presents that the author gave us were devastating and humanizing, and in my opinion enriched the story.

The social commentary was great, too. And the author's note/acknowledgements at the end broke my heart a little.

(view spoiler)[Basically, if you enjoyed the movie "Ready or Not" then you'll probably enjoy this book. The "game" element, the commentary, and the motives of the people behind the game are all extremely similar, even if everything else about the stories are very different. (hide spoiler)]

A fun, exciting, and thrilling read for me. Five stars! This was a very anticipated release of mine and I'm glad it didn't disappoint.

Holly

I read this because someone on BookTok said it gave off Supernatural season 1 vibes. I was not disappointed. I don't think this will be for everyone, it's very gory and horror based, and the POV is almost like third person omniscient but not?? Definitely a more unique sort of POV. I really enjoyed it and will be spending the next few days with it bouncing around in my noggin.

kendall p

The ending was satisfying enough considering there was really no other way the author could go.

Deborah Kerr

Absolutely wild ride.

BRANDON—my poor, sweet baby!

The ending was satisfying enough considering there was really no other way the author could go.

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