Hide by Kiersten White #bookreview #horror #supernatural #TuesdayBookBlog

On By Teri PolenIn Book Reviews

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.

The ferris wheel on the cover immediately caught my attention. Then I saw it was written by a YA author I’ve read before, and this was her adult debut. Once I read the description I was sold.

A week in an abandoned amusement park with a tragic history playing a warped game of hide and go seek. If you’re not found, a significant amount of cash is the prize. Mack, who bounces between homeless shelters, has a distinct advantage over the other thirteen contestants – she was the only survivor in her family when her father went on a killing spree and murdered her mother and sister. Mack knew where to hide.

Mack is the main focus of the story, but POV alternates between several characters. They come from all walks of life, but each has a reason for wanting to win the game varying from fame to making friends. After the first couple of days, it becomes clear this isn’t your average reality show. Once you’re found, you’re not just out of the game – you’re dead.

The aging, abandoned rides lend a macabre atmosphere to the story – a haunted house, decrepit roller coaster, and a sinister tunnel of love just to name a few. I actually snickered when one contestant shelved his fear of clowns to hide inside the mouth of one in a bizarre display. I rooted for several characters to make it to the end – some survived, others didn’t. Besides being hunted, the contestants also learned to be wary of each other. Some play dirty.

The description gives no indication of the direction this story takes. It’s unexpected, but I was completely on board with it. There’s a reason these contestants are chosen. I admit the multiple POVs confused me at times. There’s a good bit of head-hopping going on, with multiple changes on the same page sometimes. I had to backtrack more than once to figure it out.

Hide has an imaginative premise that immediately intrigued me and kept me glued to the pages. It isn’t heavy on the horror, so it would also appeal to supernatural thriller fans.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

24 thoughts on “Hide by Kiersten White #bookreview #horror #supernatural #TuesdayBookBlog”

    1. This one’s definitely for you, Priscilla. That setting is awesome, and now I’m really wanting some kind of reality series like this – just without the deaths, of course.

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  2. I love the creepy amusement park setting. (I wrote an abandoned amusement park in a non-unpublished novel, and it was some of my favorite writing.) The head-hopping might bug me, though.

    And YES, FEAR OF CLOWNS. That part would disturb me for sure.

    Thanks for sharing, Teri.

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    1. I thought the setting was perfect – and I’d love to read your unpubbed novel. Guess that guy’s motivation to win the money overrode the fear of clowns, lol. The head-hopping got to me at first, but I grew used to it by the end.

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    1. I’d been so excited to get to this one, Harmony, but had to be patient because I had so many others ahead of it on my NetGalley shelf. I was excited to see how this author would do with the transition from YA to adult – and I know I’ll read anything else she writes.

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