Mack comes from an abusive past and knows how to hide and avoid attracting attention to herself, so when she receives an offer to play in a massive hide-and-seek competition at an abandoned theme park for a chance to win $50,000, she accepts.

However, she gradually begins to realize that a far more sinister plot is at work and she’ll have to work with the other contestants to survive.

Going into Hide by Kiersten White, I wanted to love this book so badly since battle royale is one of my favorite sub-genres in fiction (i.e. Alice in Borderland, Hunger Games, Squid Games).

However, Hide unfortunately lacks the well-fleshed out and compelling characters that make the others in its vein so successful. Instead we’re given an obnoxious cast of caricatures whom—asides from Mack and Ava—I didn’t remotely feel invested in.

It didn’t help either that the cast of 14 contestants are simultaneously dumped on readers all at once or that the story constantly switches POVs mid-chapter. I think the story would have been far more gripping if it had focused on three or less POVs.

Without getting into spoilers, the ONE clever aspect of the book that I liked was its integration of a certain Greek myth.

Overall though, I think the story had a fantastic premise and setting that was bungled by its hot mess of an execution.

This is basically just small-scale Hunger Games in an abandoned amusement park, but who cares? It’s so, so much fun.

All the points to White for a perfect setting for something like this (I much prefer her abandoned, creepy place in an otherwise somewhat realist setting to a Dystopia). The atmosphere is fantastic and White uses the amusement park in all its creepy glory so perfectly.

The sense of menace is exceptional and the action paces out well, interspersed with surprisingly good character development for this type of book.

Though the ending isn’t exactly a shocker, it’s a fun ride to get there and it’s the snappy, street justice finale that you want as a reader.

I loved White’s characters, sense of place, and new spin on an old theme. I don’t see how a sequel would make sense for this but…could we get one anyway? Please?

Pretty good story. The only downside was that it was a variation on several similar stories with basically the same premise. Worth a read, just didn't stand out for me.

This was a fun, fast-paced read, and I liked the setting of the abandoned amusement park a lot. The pacing is really excellent, and I liked the style of narration that jumped between the different POVs.

I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight – I think 14 contestants were too many, and as soon as I learned someone's name, they were often killed. I was also disappointed in the explanation for the monster. The monster just helps people from this town get into the upper echelons of society? For the level of sacrifices being made (14 people every 7 seven years), I was expecting a better reveal for the reasoning for the ritual.

It's a fun book, but ultimately forgettable for me.

Kiersten White is an author that has made a name for herself in the young adult fantasy world but Hide is her first attempt at an adult novel. Hide is a thrilling paranormal horror story.

Mack is more than just down on her luck and will admit to being a little bit desperate when she receives the offer to take part in a weird game of hide and seek. Transported to the middle of nowhere Mack finds herself among fourteen competitors arriving.

Taken into a shelter they are given the rules, from dawn until dusk the game is on, hide or be eliminated if found. They are told that two of them will be eliminated each day and after that return to the base until the next day when the hunt begins again. To win simply survive the seven days without being found.

Being an adult has not stopped me from reading many of Kiersten White’s young adult novels and completely enjoying them so I was excited to give this first adult novel a go when I saw it. I was not surprised at all to find myself enjoying this one with the pages flying by as the tension grew. Loved the old abandoned park as a setting and the idea behind all that was going on in the park past and present. This one was thoroughly creepy and compelling and makes me want another adult attempt from the author.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Okay, I read this in one sitting. This is it, probably my favorite horror/thriller of the year. The writing was incredible, the pacing was perfect, the characters were fascinating, and the sense of dread and claustrophobia was fantastic. Yes, amazing!

Give me a synopsis about a group of people venturing into a creepy isolated place and even creepier things start happening, and I’m going to jump at the chance to read it! Hide is about 14 people who are selected to be the hiders in a game of hide and seek in an abandoned amusement park in the middle of nowhere for a chance to win money. The contestants are told that it’s possibly a trial run for a reality show but there are no visible cameras anywhere. Each day, two people will be “out”. As time goes on, the hiders become more suspicious of the game and concerned about what is actually happening to the people who get out each day.

Hide by Kiersten White was an interesting horror book that follows the trope of a group of people being in a secluded place and try to figure out why creepy things are happening. This book reminded me of the set up for "The Lost Village" but executed the trope much better (and much less offensively). I really enjoyed the setting, which is definitely the selling point for the novel. The characters were intriguing and all had clear motivations for agreeing to be a part of the game. It also felt like Kiersten White was trying to make a point about society in this novel without being blatantly political, which I appreciated.

I would recommend this book to people who like horror, and also like books about games. I think people who liked The Hunger Games could appreciate this book, as the horror aspect isn't too scary or excessively gory. I would give this book 3.5 stars.

Happy release week to Hide by Kiersten White! Hide is Kiersten White's first adult book and man was it a great one! Thank you so much to Del Rey Books and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of Hide!
Hide 4/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads:
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.
A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
I loved the concept of this book so, so much! And it had the potential to be the scariest thing (and I'm sure if it ended up being a movie or a tv show it would be), but I've realized that books don't scare me. ANYWAY, the whole idea of a game of hide and seek in an abandoned amusement park that actually ends up being a front for something bigger and more sinister. I liked Mack and her backstory a lot, but I didn't really feel like I had connected to any of the other characters that much (I was constantly getting some of the other 13 contestants confused), so I wished we had had a little more in terms of backstories for them so that we felt more tied to their outcomes. Pacing and plot wise, the first 2/3 of the book was definitely more interesting and compelling than the last 1/3, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the last 1/3. I pretty much read the whole book in one night, so that should tell you exactly how much I enjoyed it! Overall, I highly recommend reading Hide, but if you're easily scared, maybe don't read it at night.

I had just read the upcoming Middle-Grade contemporary Gothic novel WRETCHED WATERPARK by Kiersten White a few days prior to reading her adult-audience novel HIDE (May 24 2022 Release). I adored both! These are the first two works I had read from Ms. White; now I am on a mission to read all she writes. Her writing is vivid, full of imagery, and the mysteries and Spookiness are tautly plotted. She's also quite gifted at both creating a way Scary plot, building settings, and blurring the line between human and non-human monstrosities. I finished HIDE asking myself, "Who is the "real" Monster here?" This novel reverberates, subtly and without bludgeoning the reader, with issues of Society and Culture that have persisted for centuries and are still overwhelming, such as racism, class conflict, elitism and entitlement. There are also subtle emanations of Lovecraftian resonances.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

A fun week-long competition playing hide-and-seek where the winner gets $50,000 sounds too good to be true. That's because it is. For Kiersten White's latest novel, Hide, she came up with the concept of a hide-and-seek contest by basing it on a real competition. The real contest has rules and safety measures in place. White's game is set in an abandoned amusement park where not everyone will make it out alive.

White said she did not want this to be a YA book but a horror novel. She succeeded in her goal.

Each chapter covers one whole day of the competition. Doing so made all of the chapters much longer than in most novels, but it is an interesting way to define the passage of time. The book is a quick and easy read. I found myself reading it in one sitting because I did not want to put it down.

The development of the characters allows you to root for a favorite and decide who you want off the island next. The setting completes the ambiance and adds to the horror story.

I have not read Kiersten White's other stories but added them high up on my to-be-read list.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila .com on 5/24/22.

14 contestants partake in a hide-and-seek competition in an abandoned amusement park. Things get end up getting deadly.

I got drawn into the interesting premise and the great cover art almost immediately! It was a quick-paced, easy read that had very unpredictable aspects. It had the vibes of The Hunger Games and Squid Games.

Overall, I rated this a 3/5 stars!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

I wanted to like this, but honestly I’m not even sure what I read. There was A LOT going on, and the abrupt POV shifts sometimes made things confusing. I did struggle a bit during the first half of the book because of this. When the characters start figuring out what is really going on things picked up. The ending left me hanging… like wtf happened?? Overall it was good, but could have been better.

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a fun and creepy story with mixes of horror, mystery, thriller, suspense, fantasy and paranormal elements in it. The tension in the book builds deliciously slow until you get to the point where you want to make sure the lights are on in the house while you read it.

The competition sounds easy: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. So when Mack runs out of options and is convinced to join the competition, she figures she's got the challenge in the bag. After all, hiding is her specialty. It's why she's alive and her family isn't.

The other thirteen competitors are there for their own reasons. Some want to get famous, others want to escape their past, and others desperately need the money. Whatever their reasons, Mack knows she can beat them all. She doesn't need anyone's help, and certainly has no intention of getting close to another contestant. But when people start disappearing each day, Mack realizes that something more sinister is going on than a simple contest. She also realizes that in order to survive, she just may need other people after all.

This is a hard book to review because I don't want to give anything away. The author does a great job of building characters, especially Mack. You can almost feel how tightly wound she is and how she closes herself off from everyone and everything in order to protect herself. Feelings are not something she can afford, let alone feelings that she needs or wants friendship or companionship. So, she's surprised when she starts to feel those things for people in the contest. First one person, and then another. Liked a kicked puppy, she doesn't trust these emotions, or the people, but discovers that she wants to. This surprises her. The author does a great job of providing just enough information about the minor characters to let the reader understand why Mack would or would not align herself with them, or even start to care about them.

There are some shocking and sad parts of the book that will get you in the feels. Some loving acts of sacrifice and friendship that will perhaps resonate with the reader's feelings about people in their life. The book subtly, and not so subtly, deals with issues of racism and elitism. Issues of the "haves" and "have nots", and how unfair the world is with the "haves" always seeming to be in charge and have all of the advantages. The "haves" steadfastly work to keep themselves up and everyone else down, no matter the cost. That's a universal problem that everyone can understand (unless perhaps if you're a "have").

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even thought it did give me the creeps - in the best way possible, of course. I highly recommend you read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Del Rey Books. All opinions are my own.

This book in 3 words: Chilling. Convoluted. Creepy.

The whole premise of Hide is 14 people get the opportunity to win a game of hide-and-seek, over 7 days, for $50,000. Our main character, Mack, has no home, no family, and nothing left to lose.

Hide wasn't what I expected (multiple POV, 5ish characters, general thriller vibes) and I'm pleasantly surprised. I found this definitely more horror than thriller but think readers of each genre will be pleased. The plot is detail oriented and jam packed - definitely keeps you on your toes as you're reading it.

One of my favorite things regarding Hide is that I barely had an inkling of where the story was going. Literally thought I had it pinned down 2-3 times only to be LAUGHABLY INCORRECT. I love books that do this!

Another big win is our main character, Mack. The back story, family history, mannerisms, and streams of consciousness are all so vivid and intentional. She swims with ~15 other characters but still stands out. I really liked that.

This is a solid, spooky, daunting read. I loved what Kiersten White put together and think this book stands out among others in the genre.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are."

Set in a long abandoned Amusement Park, Hide, by author Kiersten White, is a high-stakes hide-and-seek competition that takes a deadly turn in this dark supernatural thriller. Sponsored by a group called Ox Extreme Sports, they are putting together a contest of Olly Olly Oxen Free aka Hide and Seek tournament. The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park that was closed after a little girl disappeared and don't get caught. If you get caught, you're out. No second chances. The winner will get $50,000.

For Mackenzie (Mack) Black, the price money is enough to change her life and make up for her past mistakes.Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run. 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 little sister isn't. It's the reason why she agreed to participate in this contest since she blames herself for what happened to her sister Maddie years ago.

The Rules
-30 minute hiding window given at the start of each day
-the game is active from dawn to dusk
-no allowance for medical, bathroom emergencies or food runs
-a beacon will shine in the sky at dusk calling the contestants back to camp
-2 contestants will be eliminated each day.

As the people 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. She chooses to make an alliance with Ava, who is a veteran who nearly lost her legs in Afghanistan. To make things interesting, the author doesn't leave the reader hanging. She actually allows you to read certain sections of a dairy that explains what happened years ago, and why every 7 years, 14 people are chosen to come to this abandoned Amusement Park.

As the game progresses, Mack realizes the prize for winning this mysterious hide-and-seek game is her life. Mack's an interesting character whose name is famous to those in this world's Horror genre. She has to choose whether she can win by hiding by herself, which she's good at, or finding someone to align with so that they can survive until the end. Mack's story literally begins with her in a homeless shelter where she just lost everything and later we find out who she really is as a character.

I don't believe that you have to pay attention to all 14 characters in this story. By the time the game begins, 2 will already be dead, and then 2 more, until Mack and her allies realize something is really, really wrong here. It is fair to say that I will not compare this story to the Hunger Games. More like The Cabin at the end of the World. I am happy with the way the story wraps up. The story isn't all that gore filled as with other more dastardly horror novels. Readers get a look at the monster, but only through the eyes of Mack who is one of the only people in the entire contest who can see it.

White masterfully handles the switch from YA fantasy to adult horror with eerie grace. She's an experienced writer and brings YA-pacing to this story and it feels like a purposefully decision-- the book is rollercoaster fast and it helps with the creeps and thrills. PERFECT summer read for a horror fan looking for something "light" for the beach.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really liked the game concept. It started out really well and made me think of the Hunger Games or Deadly Games. It dragged a little with the character development and towards the end I just wanted to know how does it end. It lost something along the way..

This was so wonderfully gripping, once I took it up, I could not put it down. Kiersten White has ticked all the boxes for things I've been craving lately given my recent descent into poppy playtime-esque horror games - thrillers with a death game premise, creepy fun/childhood-associated settings, and survival of the scrappiest. Unfortunately, the pacing and atmosphere left something to be desired. While I did enjoy it, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed. Nevertheless, I love the promise this book brings to the genre! And I'm hoping to see more from Kiersten White.

QUICK BITS
-Amusement park Hunger Games
-Page turner
-Multiple 3rd person POV

REVIEW
When I heard the description for this book you best believe I RAN to Net Galley to get my hands on it. So thank-you to @netgalley and @delreybooks books for this eARC!

This book follows a group a strangers placed into an abandoned amusement park competing in a game of hide and seek to win 50k. However, they start to realize this is one twisted game of hide and seek.

I want to first say this book is a PAGE TURNER. When I had it in my hands I could not read fast enough and when I wasn't reading it, all I wanted to do was pick it up.

One disclaimer before picking this one up is to expect not only a 3rd person perspective, but also a 3rd person perspective that jumps from character to character sometimes making it hard to find your feet as a reader.

Okay another disclaimer, I promise you this book will NOT go the way you expect. Part of the way through, just when you start coming up with your guess as to where it's going to go it takes a BIG TURN that I think some will love and others will abhor.

So yeah to summarize this is an unputdownable novel with an occasionally dizzying 3rd person perspective that is not afraid to take creative liberties that will leave the reader either in love or displeased.

My recommendation... a must read because I NEED people to help me digest what I read!

RATINGS
4.00/5.00 SOS Rating (scale of surprise)
4.50/5.00 Overall Rating

One of the best books I’ve read in years. I always love books with deeper meanings and social commentary on how our society trains us to think instead of thinking critically. I will absolutely be recommending this book to everyone I know. I absolutely fell in love with Mack, Ava and their cohorts, almost wish there was a follow up book so we could see where certain characters ended up. Bravo!!!!