Hide by Kiersten White

 

Once again, I'm shocked that the reviews for this are as negative as they are. HIDE is not a perfect book but it's a really interesting one, with some of my favorite tropes. At first, it kind of starts out feeling very dystopian, a sort of Hunger Games-esque quest for survival with fourteen contestants starring in a reality TV show about eluding capture in an amusement park. But the truth is creepier than that.

I don't want to say too much else because I actually think the twist is really great. There's a lot about breaking cycles of abuse and the legacies of violence, which I thought was really interesting. I'm guessing the low ratings are because of the unlikable characters, the supernatural elements, and the somewhat unsatisfying and abrupt ending, but none of those things really bothered me all that much. I do feel like the story is a little unpolished and it feels more like a debut than a seasoned author's work, but it's also a really fun, short horror novel and I appreciated that she held back on the violence and splatter.

There's something very Stephen King-like about this book. It kind of felt like a threeway cross between IT, JOYLAND, and THE LONG WALK.

3 out of 5 stars