Possible Triggers: Extreme gore
This is a dark horror story that’s filled to overflowing with blood, gore.... with a secret society of high society elites who are murdering the young, and the poor in order to secure the success of their own families. I had to wonder when they would turn on those like themselves when they became too much competition. Fodder for another book maybe. I do not misspeak when I say that it is grisly. The plot is well thought out and cleverly presented with a diverse cast of characters that are almost entirely TOO memorable. The central character and the heroine of this dark tale is very often totally unlikeable, and we learn that she is fighting a very dark past. The storyline is frighteningly simple...the game is composed of fourteen contestants who are dropped off in an abandoned amusement park for a game of extreme...and I do mean extreme... hide-and-seek. The winner is promised not only glorious fame but also a fifty-thousand-dollar cash prize. Believe me... we quickly find out what folks will do for that kind of money. The competitors range from an internet influencer who is looking for viral content for his program, to a couple of techies hoping for a chance to spend earn time with the executives of the extreme sports company that is sponsoring this "event". There is even a young woman trying to rebuild her life after an abusive relationship... and last but not least...a rural gas station attendant who just wants to make some "real-life" friends. Who in the world would want these people as friends??? Why doesn't he just go to a club or to church, or just go to the library??? Oh yeah now I remember...fifty thousand big green ones!! So, our little murdering groupies are composed from all walks and stations of life...all with one common goal in mind...kill before you're killed, then take the money and run quickly to the bank. I will have to say that it was less bleak than I expected after the first couple of chapters, but OMG...the amount of blood gore and body parts that was crammed into these pages! You probably will need to be HUGE fan of horror, or you'll spend a few weeks or months locked away in your house hiding under your covers with ever light in the house on, after finally closing the book. Of course, you'll have to eventually go out for food...but watch your back and stay away from the amusement park!! ( )

*4.5 ( )

This book won't be everyone's cup of tea and unfortunately, it wasn't mine either. This is a story with a great premise, but I think could have been executed better. I appreciate the themes and message the author was trying to convey, though I wish it was done more subtly and not so much in your face about it.

The writing style is very easy to get into and there are some great lines in here, though at times it did go a bit overboard with the similes (using three in a row). However, the story does pull you in the beginning and it's pretty fast-paced so it keeps you turning the pages.

There is a large cast of characters in here that could have been cut down. We're introduced to over 14 characters in the beginning of the story and because there's so many characters and such a short book, we don't get to know each of the characters well. This sometimes made it hard to keep track of who is who and for a while I thought LeGrand was the writer not Ian. Also, because we have so many characters and it gets confusing and we briefly get the character's backstory right before they die, it's hard to connect with the character or care about their death when we didn't get much time with them. This was the same mistake I think was made in Stephenie Perkins There's Someone Inside Your House. Giving us a character's backstory moments before they're about to be killed does not make readers care about that character's death. We need more time to grow attach to them if we're supposed to care about their death.

This book is told from 3rd person omniscient POV, which isn't done often these days, so when it switches characters and we get glimpses inside each characters head, it can be jarring and bring readers out of the story as well as confuse them as to whose head we're in. There are no chapter breaks when switching between characters though there are some scene breaks and the character's name whose head we're in is usually used at the beginning of the sentence/paragraph to help indicate whose POV we're seeing from.

The last thing I want to point out and is the biggest problem/let down for me is the open ending. The story literally stops mid-action and leaves the ending open. I have always hated open endings and if I know a story has an open ending I will steer clear of it. I definitely wouldn't have picked this book up if I knew it had an open ending, so for any readers out there like me who hate open endings, this is my warning to you to skip this one. It is not the book for you. For those who love open endings, you'll probably enjoy this one.

Content Warnings: Domestic violence, child abuse, child murder/family annihilator, alcoholic parent, sexism/misogyny, racism, ableism, abuse/neglect of a sick/disabled child, PTSD, Suicide (on page).

I legitimately don’t know what I thought of this book. It was confusing at parts, interesting at parts, funny, intriguing, but ultimately I just didn’t care. ( )

It's a 3.5, really. I liked the novel as a fun horror read. Good beach book if you like the genre. ( )