I like a good scary story that doesn't leave me unable to go to sleep! This is that story.
The setting, an old hotel where murder mysteries used to play out. A snow storm that keeps anyone from going anywhere. A mother with a great imagination. All put together to form an intense and fun story.
If you like The Shining, but you don't like your books too scary, this is perfect for you.
The characters are fun. The scenes are well thought out. The suspense is just the right amount of scary versus not wanting to shut the book because you can't bear to read it.
I will say, I figured out things about the mystery a bit early on, but that didn't keep me from reading on to see if I was right!
Overall, a fun and suspenseful read!

I was a bit unsure about this book but overall I really enjoyed it. It was a solid scary book! I could definitely feel the Shining vibes that were present and I liked how it drew from that movie since it’s a favorite of mine! But overall I highly r commend this book to horror lovers and lovers of just unique books in general! I think they’ll really like this!

As an adult, I loved all of the horror movie, book, and even references to creepy deaths of real people. Even young adult readers will appreciate them and possibly check some of the older ones out (The Shining in particular, definite homage to that book and movie). I think this book would make a fantastic movie itself, it is vividly told and I could picture every character and event clearly as if it were on screen. The author does a superb job at keeping the tension going throughout the story, as well as ratcheting it up bit by bit until the reader has no choice but to keep reading to find out what ultimately happens.

Despite some shortfalls, this novel is ultimately spooky and creepy, perfect for a fall or winter read underneath a cozy blanket (while locked in the house of course!)

Seda is happy to spend her summer in an old mansion that her mother has inherited. Her aunt and uncle had converted it into a haunted residence and Seda and her siblings enjoy the scary rooms and all of the secret passage ways. Unfortunately, her mother doesn’t want to sell it and she is now stuck in the boonies with no contact with her friends back home. Then a group of teenagers arrive at her door following a car accident and Seda and her family have no choice but to let them in. As the blizzard rages outside, the creepiness level inside begins to climb. Are Seda’s worst fears coming true?

Alone is a mystery novel that will keep readers engaged throughout. Most readers will think they know where the storyline is going, yet Balog has created an ending with several twists and a few extra turns. The characters are exciting and readers will slowly discover more about them as the story progresses. Since this book is relatively short, readers may find themselves stuck in their favorite reading nook turning page after page until the very end. A great read that should be added to everyone’s TBR list.

First of all, thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Fire and Netgalley for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Seda and her family are isolated in a dilapidated and macabre murder-mystery mansion atop Solitude Mountain with no end in sight. She is DYING to get back to her friends and a "normal" life back in Boston and away from all the darkness and surprises in the mansion but Seda's mom doesn't seem keen on actually selling Bug House. Then, one snowy night, Seda encounters a man wielding an ax as she comes out of the walk-in freezer and she learns that him and his friends are stranded due to the snow and they need a place to stay. Against all Seda's wishes and fears, the four teens come to stay with them and things begin to unravel.

I don't know if this is because I don't read a lot of horror books or what but this book kept me on the edge of my seat DYING to read more. I even sat at the movie theater reading on my Kindle as I waited for my actual movie to start because I just COULDN'T put this one down.

From the very get-go you are constantly left wondering what it is that Seda fears and who in the world is Sawyer?! I was surprised that many of the other reviews I read didn't mention Sawyer because I was curious about him since the very beginning. I kept asking myself: Does Seda have DID? Or Schizophrenia?

HA! I can't confirm or deny my suspicions but wait until you get to this ending! I heard that Cyn Balog generally writes stories with plot twists and other surprises but I wasn't prepared for this. And, of course, I can't say anymore as that would spoil this book for any future reader. It is safe to say, though, that I feel a little stunned and I can't seem to wrap my head around what happened.

I personally didn't care for Heath because he didn't feel very trustworthy and it bothered me that Seda fell right into his arms! I kept trying to tell myself: she's sixteen, young, naive, lonely, just WANTS someone to like her but man! Did Balog ever play with my emotions. One minute I'm hating the guy and the next minute I'm feeling okay about him.

If you are someone who likes suspenseful...creepy...what-the-eff-moments then do yourself a good deed and pick this one up! It doesn't disappoint. I can definitely say that I'm going to be checking out more Cyn Balog books in the future.

Alone is creepy yet undeniably fun. Seda is probably one of the most insane characters I have ever read about, but I adored her. However, there was no one I adored more then her two little twin sets of brothers and sisters.

What really made this story go over the top for me was the setting. An old hotel that was once used as a murder mystery experience. With all the escape rooms and unique spooky experiences that have been popping up in the last few years I was so excited to find out that an older murder hotel experience was where this book took place.

I felt like I was watching a horrifically strange movie while reading Alone. With a eccentric mom whose a writer, twins who sleep with intestines (not real ones but still), and Seda who absorbed her own twin in the womb (whom talks in her head) Alone has all the ingredients to shock yet lead you along in its otherworldly mystery.

If you love getting the daylight scared out of you and a really good mystery I recommend this book 100%. It’s unsettling, but incredibly unique and I ate it up!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review Alone by Cyn Balog.
A desolate mansion, a girl who hears voices and an eccentric mother open this story with a feeling of Stephen King’s Shining. The more I read about this family, the stranger they seem. Seda had a twin that died before the two of them were born. His name was Sawyer. Seda has four younger siblings who are sets of twins. Winter hits and a group of teenagers ends up stranded at the mansion after a car accident. They’re invited to enjoy a scavenger hunt with the family and everything goes from strange to crazy with twist after twist. Alone is a suspense-filled thriller and a perfect read for young adult horror fans. 5 stars!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book for voluntary consideration.

This was a compelling and disturbing (in all the right ways) read, with lots of plot twists that I just didn’t see coming.

***This book as reviewed for Sourcebooks via Netgalley

Alone by Cyn Balog is one dark, creepy psychological thriller. Bismarck-Chisolm House, a grand old mansion on Solitude Mountain, was once a murder mystery mansion, but has fallen into severe disrepair. Seda and her family inherited the home upon the deaths of her aunt and uncle. They intended to spend summer vacation to get it ready for sale, but Seda’s mom decided that she would only be willing to sell to buyers who would keep the mansion as a murder mystery hotel.

Summer passes to fall with still no buyers, and storms snow them in, blocking the roads. An accident deposits a carload of teens at the mansion. To make the most things, Seda’s mom, a horror and mystery aficionado, decides to set up a murder mystery to pass the time. But there's an extra guest only Seda is aware of- Sawyer, and Sawyer plays for keeps.

I loved Seda’s family. Her siblings are adorable. All four of them. Two sets of fraternal twins. So glad they weren't identical! Talk about messed up. Dr Helm seemed a bit spacey though. Like, it seems the adult should notice psychopathic/sociopathic behaviour. Even high-functioning ones show aberrations. #justsayin

But, overall, the characters were well-drawn, with rich personality. Even the ‘mystery’ guest. You don't see much interactions with Sawyer during most of the book, but those you do give a good idea of his personality. It's great that the best 'actor’ of all wasn't even supposed to be one.

This was one creepy read, paying homage not just to Stephen King’s The Shining, which I've seen mentioned places before, but also to Hitchcock’s Psycho. The story seems to be going one way, then darts a different way, and back another way. Every time I thought I figured things out, something would happen that was quite unexpected. Looking back, though, clues to the final truth are scattered throughout. I loved the attention to detail with the mansion, and the backstories for the different rooms. I really don't think I'd like to live in a home with all those spooky props. The symbolism with the snow globes was appropriate. They are as trapped on Solitude by the blizzard as the scenes in the snow globes. And all it takes is one person to upend the perfect little scene and send flurries of panic spinning around.

📚📚📚📚📚 highly recommended for fans of horror and psychological thrillers

Arriving at the murder mystery mansion is easy...the difficult part is seeing if you're able to leave.

Seda has been living at the "Bug House" on Solitary Mountain in Pennsylvania with her mother and siblings for the last few months. She misses her life in Boston and her friends but her mother keeps delaying moving back to the city.

No landline, no cell service and 20 miles from the nearest store - no fun for a teenager.

The house that her mother inherited used to hold murder mystery weekends that were quite popular but to Seda the place is just creepy.

But then a blizzard hits and a car full of stranded teens ends up at the Bug House and things start to get really creepy.

This book really hit the right buttons for me to get spooked. Great atmosphere and I loved the characters. Every piece fell into the right place at just the right time.

I received this book from Sourcebooks Fire through Edelweiss and Net Galley in the hopes of receiving my unbiased review.

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll know that – as has been established – horror isn’t my genre.

And yet, here I am, reading my second horror novel in as many weeks.

Why? It’s fucking October. I pretty much feel contractually obligated.

And, maybe deep down, I like being scared.

As it would turn out, it’s good that I read Stephanie Perkin’s There’s Someone Inside Your House right before I tackled Cyn Balog’s Alone. Basically, Perkin’s book served as conditioning (a concept I vaguely understand but have no personal experience with. Unless you considered walking to the kitchen to get more wine “conditioning”). You see, while There’s Someone Inside Your House was gory…and a bit scary… this book was fucking nightmare fuel.

As Balog’s Alone opens, we are introduced to soon-to-be-sixteen Seda Hunt. Seda and her family (consisting of her professor/author mother, two sets of twin siblings and a forgettable father) previously resided in Boston but have been living in a rundown, mountain-top hotel in Pennsylvania. The hotel, which the mother inherited from her aunt and uncle, was a murder mystery-themed venue, so it’s basically scary AF.

The hotel is essentially The Overlook – a point that is reiterated several different times by several different characters throughout the book – Consider The Shining messed me up hardcore as a child, this particular point of comparison served only to heighten my already pretty significant fear of the setting.

When the Hunt family arrived at the hotel, the plan was to fix it up and sell it. To someone. Basically, to anyone. This changed when Seda’s mom developed an infatuation with the hotel and its potential and decided that she would only sell it to someone who agreed to run it as a ghastly murder-rich attraction.

At that point, Dad basically said, “Yeah, nah…” and left the hotel, abandoning his family in a scary ass hotel…a top a mountain…with winter threatening to arrive any day.

Meanwhile, Seda is struggling with her own issues – or, one issue, to be exact – an “imaginary friend” (Also, very The Shining… Might as well just scratch Redrum on the wall and call it a day, seriously).

This imaginary friend isn’t just any imaginary friend, though. The “friend” manifests himself as a voice inside her head that she attributes to that of her twin brother – a vanishing twin who she absorbed in utero. At one point in her childhood, she discovered that her mother had planned to name this twin Sawyer, so this is the name she has given the voice in her head.

Seda has “talked” to Sawyer for as long as she can remember. In her childhood, Sawyer would tell her to do bad things. Seda resisted these requests as well as she could and continues to fight against the force that Sawyer exerts upon her.

As the book opens, it’s October 31st and the first snow of the winter is starting to fall. This snow fall is promising to block off any access the family has to the outsider world (because they don’t have a phone).

With this reality settling in, Seda resigns herself to spending the winter trapped atop a mountain.

But then, as Seda is fishing for stew meat in the creepy ass walk-in-freezer (that they keep locked…because that’s not fucking terrifying) a handsome stranger shows up and tells her that he and his group of four friends crashed their car and need a place to stay. Seda is hesitant to invite them in – and even refuses to at first – because something tells her that inviting them in will result in tragedy. As a compromise, she settles them in an out building and doesn’t tell her family of their existence.

Is her foreboding premonition right?

Will she be able to keep the existence of these strangers a secret?

And, most importantly, will someone go crazy and chop everyone up with an axe before the snow thaws?

These questions keep you reading…and guessing…until the very end.

I rarely say, “I couldn’t put this book down,” because:

1) It’s cliché AF
2) It’s not often true

But, in this case, it was true.

Pretty much from the moment I started this book, if I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it.

My mind was constantly occupied, trying to puzzle out the ending. Despite all of this dedicated time and attention, however, I didn’t figure it out – not fully – until all was revealed.

The writing was solid, the characters round and dynamic and believable, and the setting clearly described and effectively chilling.

There were some points that were a bit hard to believe – but this is a horror book, so would you expect any less?

All factors considered, this was an exceptionally enjoyable read that I would recommend not just to horror fans, but to readers who regularly pick up mysteries or thrillers as well.

I give it 4 out of 5 cocktails.

When Seda's mom inherits a creepy old mansion full of secret rooms and passages, Seda isn't thrilled to be leaving her home in Boston, but her mother swears it's just temporary. As more and more time passes, Seda's mom decides she wants to renovate in order to find the perfect buyer for the house, which means they'll be living there longer than expected. 

As winter sets in and a blizzard hits, a group of teens ends up stranded during the storm, and ends up staying with Seda and her family. When her mom decides to set up a murder mystery for them to complete to stave off the boredom, Seda's nightmares may just become reality...

I was really intrigued by the premise of Alone, especially because I always want to read creepy books around Halloween! I absolutely loved the atmosphere that Alone created. It was dark and creepy, and I felt a definite eerie vibe as I was reading it, which a lot of books fail to do for me, so I was thrilled with that aspect of the book! 

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and the set up, and I absolutely loved the last 40%, but I did feel like there was a period of the book from 30-50% or so of the way in that it felt like not much was happening, and I was waiting for the main plot to start. Despite that, the book is short and engaging, so it's super easy to binge read! 

I won't spoil anything, but I absolutely loved the ending of the book, though I do have a few unanswered questions! I like that though - not everything needs a black and white ending. Overall, I loved the book and rated it 4 stars! I've had Unnatural Deeds by the same author on my to read list for a while, so I'll definitely have to get to that one soon! 

Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Cyn Balog for an advanced copy of the book. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review. Alone is out today, so be sure to check this one out!

If I had to describe this novel in one word, it would be creepy. Absolutely nerve wracking and spine tingling. Cyn Balog's Alone was riddled with enough anxiety that kept me from reading it at night. I could not put this down.

Seda, being the main character in this novel, is living in this creepy old murder mystery house as her mom prepares to sell it to someone who will uphold its tradition. Meanwhile she is stranded in the middle of no where, no contact with her friends back in Boston, and slowly feeling like she is losing it. Enters five teenagers needing assistance in the middle of a blizzard.

From the first page in this book to the last I found myself reading with one eye as if this was a scary movie and someone was going to jump out at me. I never knew what to expect and there was always a weird twist or turn, or even a comment, that had me re-guessing what I thought was going to happen. Not only did it keep me guessing, but it kept you in full suspense the entire time. Balog wrote some dynamic and multi-layered characters, like an onion, that were a lot more than what first met the readers eye. The ending will leave you absolutely dumb-struck.

This novel is an absolute must read for any murder mystery/thriller lovers. I'll be checking out Balog's other novels soon!

Such an interesting concept. Totally something I'd recommend to my students. It's creepy and moody.

I loved how powerful the first sentences of the book were. How could I not continuing reading when the first sentence was "sometimes I dream that I am drowning". The first few pages were filled with powerful, attention grabbing internal monologue that I loved. I think that it will easily draw readers into the story and make them want to read more.
My issues with the book began fairly early on within the book. I didn't understand what the author was trying to convey or where she was going with things. I assumed that Seda was going to end up doing something bad or that the author was trying to make readers think that when in reality someone else is the villain. Things got more confusing when the group of teens show up in the book because Seda began acting odd and the teens were acting odd as well. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to think. I also found Seda's mother odd. I'm not sure if this was the author's intention or not but all of the characters seemed a bit awkward to me.
It seemed to turn into a typical horror movie with the typical characters that break down on the side of the road and come upon a creepy house thinking that everything is fine when all of the sudden they start getting picked off one by one. All that I will say concerning this plot point is that all is not what it seems. I did appreciate the fact that the author attempted to do something different but she also attempted to keep a thriller-esque vibe with a twist ending. The issue that i have with that is there was no enough background or hints in order to take the book in that particular direction. It didn't make a lot of sense. Frankly, the explanation behind another one of the twists in the story didn't really sit well with me either. There were subtle hints that something wasn't quite right but other than that there is nothing to go off of.

2 stars

Plot: I still can't put my finger on what kind of story Alone was. It definitely delivered in the creepy, but it never had a point. From the start, we were introduced to Seda and her family. What was unique about Seda was that she absorbed her twin brother in the womb and she had been hearing his voice in her head from an early age. Then we had Seda's family, her mother refused to return to Boston in hopes of selling her aunt and uncle's murder-mystery house and her father recently abandoned them. Stir in a group of stranded teens and we've got ourselves a weird series of events.

I liked some parts of Alone but thought that Balog was trying to cram too much in, especially for a supposed horror novel. The ending was definitely twisty, but I can't say that it was satisfying.

Characters: Like most books in the horror category, there wasn't much time spent on developing the characters. Seda's mother was unusually absent and I can barely remember the names of Seda's four siblings. The group of stranded teens all played into horror movie archetypes and were unforgettable by the end of the novel. And that brings me to the dreaded love interest: Heath. Unsurprisingly, Seda fell in love with the leader of the teen group almost instantly, complete with furious blushing and "I've never done this before" moments. The two were way too obvious in their flirtations and seemed out of place given the tone of the novel.

Worldbuilding: Alone took place mostly at the murder house which was missing a lot of information. It took me until the 80%-mark that I understood what a "murder house" actually meant and I truly think the reader would have benefited from a description of the house's layout. Each chapter opened with some information about how to "play" at the murder house but it felt out of place and really didn't add much to the novel.

Short N Sweet: Alone was weird and creepy, but in the end, it all felt unnecessary.

So I am happy, and a little creeped out, to find a YA Horror novel that actually started to creep me out. Granted, I read the majority of this book in the dark, but there were moments that I felt that tingly, don’t-look-behind-you feeling, and I really enjoyed being connected to the story like that!

Not to say that this book will make you want to forever have the lights on, but sometimes it can be a little hard to get a book YA Horror that doesn’t have the typical, predictive side to trying to creep the readers out. So if you are looking for a scary novel to pick up this fall, I highly recommend Alone.

But this novel is not just captivating through the spine-tingling moments. What I loved about reading this book was the mental health aspect with Seda and Simon. The main character does battle an inner struggle that just intensifies the story because this is something that people definitely struggle with in your real world. I think that this is what brought myself to find the book captivating with the horrors not only inside the mountaintop, murder mystery house, but also the horrors that the mind can exert on the beholder.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. Let me tell ya, I could not put this one down. Just overall, the author did an awesome job picking a setting and situation that flowed together from cover to cover while also trying to scare you in the process. The characters slayed their parts and made the book fly by through a non-predictable storyline.

Perfect setting for horror. This book was dark and twisted. Good for teen readers. If read alone leave a light on!

I liked this one. Man, it was creepy. I mean weird girl, dead brother, strange house, creepy siblings, and then that entire twist! I can't really say much without ruining it for you. So, I'll say read it but just don't read it ALONE! Hahaha

Alone is a great story to get you in the mood for the Halloween season. The mansion and blizzard made for a creepy claustrophobic atmosphere. The characters were equally as creepy, especially the AtoZ twins. The story kept me guessing, especially since I wasn't sure if Seda was a reliable narrator. It reminded me a bit of the 80s movie, April Fool's Day with a twist. Have to say that I loved the twist at the end. I definitely recommend this one. It's good creepy fun.