Picture the Hunger Games meets the Squid Game set in an abandoned amusement park & that’s pretty much this book! The story itself is a bit abstract & it reads like “YA” novel even though this is supposed to be the authors adult fiction debut (which isn’t a terrible thing if you’re a fan of YA). I will say I was immensely pleased with the creepy atmosphere of the park & I got chills as the hunt began

Some Cons: In my opinion there are waaaaay too many characters to keep track of! I began to stop caring about most of them. It didn’t feel like they were developed enough because of how many there were so their backstories & introductions all felt rushed & a bit choppy.

I think this book might have been too short for what the premise of the storyline is. There were so many big reveals & climactic moments that were delivered without the build up of tension & so it kind of fell a little flat to me.

It was still a good book book though & I enjoyed the read, it just wasn’t quite what I expected it to be.

There's a lot going on in here, and somehow it all manages to work. The initial mystery slowly building to a horrifying reveal, and then a final-girl race for survival. A supernatural twist, combined with scathing social commentary. Beautiful, heartbreaking writing. I feel like I can't say much more without spoiling the story, so just read it for yourselves.

Okay, I will say that the way the book is written is highly cinematic, and I would watch the shit out of this movie - or, ideally, a Netflix miniseries.

14 players are invited to a participate in a high stakes competition. A very intense game of hide and seek.

The theme park atmosphere added to the uncomfortable creepiness that we feel. The whole time we know something is wrong, but what? I easily found myself absorbed in the surroundings and environment the players were in.

Oh dear lord, what a terrifying read. One week, fourteen contestants, and a money prize worth the game. Only as more days pass, the players realize that this reality show hide-and-seek competition is not at all what it seems. Something is seeking them, but just what is it? Absolutely thrilling, I loved being so scared. But, I will never trust an old rusty amusement park again.

Any time I see a book set in an amusement park, I’m in, and the abandoned Amazement Park makes a great, spooky setting for a fresh twist on a classic, Greek mythology tale.

14 contestants enter the park for the ultimate hide and seek contest with a $50,000 prize. Two contestants a day are out of the competition, but that’s not the worst thing that happens to them.

A group of the contestants discover the truth about the competition, an ancient evil, and a local ritual.

Overall, this is a good book that has great spooky vibes, but the end kind of goes political and doesn’t necessarily jive with the rest of the book. It’s not wrong, just feels like a juxtaposition.

I feel like this is a 3.5 star read but rounded up to 4, because I love the premise and setting so much. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

**Many thanks to #NetGalley and Random House/ Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.**

Hide follows Mack, a homeless young woman who enters a hide-and-seek tournament with a $50,000 prize. The catch: the game takes place in an abandoned amusement park in an undisclosed location. Mack and thirteen other men and women must hide in the dilapidated park for seven days as they are found two by two. However, in the midst of alliances and sabotage, Mack realizes that the game is not as simple as it seems.

I was a little nervous to read this book. Although Kiersten White is one of my favorite authors, I am incredibly picky when it comes to thriller books. I get annoyed when they are predictable but also when they are too random. I want to be surprised, but I want the surprise to be set up well. As a result, I was worried I would not like Hide despite loving White’s story writing in the past.

However, my worries were for naught, because Hide is everything I want from a thriller. Mack is a well-developed character who is easy to sympathize with. From the beginning, I was rooting for her. I also loved how White told the story from the perspective of each of the contestants. While the story is centered around Mack, each of the characters has a backstory that speaks to their personality and their motivations for joining the game. Additionally, the relationships Mack forms in the book are incredibly realistic and increase the stakes of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the novel. Each of the surprises and reveals is appropriately foreshadowed and are entirely entertaining. Every time I thought I knew where the story was going, I was wrong. The ending, specifically, was one of the best endings of any thriller novel I have read recently.

I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone who loves Stephen King books or novels.

I'm still a bit confused on what I actually read. To say Kiersten White's upcoming horror novel Hide is at the top of my anticipated TBR list is an understatement. I've been wanting to read this book F O R E V E R. The story has Hunger Games and Fantasticland vibes, but this book is so much more. When Mack finds out that there's a challenge at an amusement park that involves hide and seek, with a prize money for the winner that could change her life, she knows it's the opportunity of a lifetime. Mack can stop spending her time in shelters and finally be able to live the life she's always dreamed to have. With fourteen contestants, the competition is tough and they all want to win. As the competition starts to slowly disappear each day, Mack realizes that this competition isn't what she signed up for—it's much more menacing than she ever expected.

Go into this book with little background because the book is short and you don't want to ruin the narrative. At 250-something pages, this book holds a lot together in a short amount of time. At times, the book kind of deviates from the main plot and I still got young adult vibes from this author's adult fiction debut, but I really enjoyed what I read. It's a speculative supernatural horror, so if you enjoyed The Cabin at the End of the World, this book is up your alley! While not perfect, Hide is definitely one of my favorite horror stories that I've read in awhile. I can't wait to read whatever Kiersten White has up her sleeves next.

Hide is a fun, quick horror/thriller perfect for a weekend read. The story follows Mack as she joins a game of hide and seek with 13 others in an abandoned amusement park for a cash prize. They do not know as they begin the game that there is something evil that lurks among them. Hide has some familiar horror tropes and a bit of a Hunger Games vibe but it's also a social commentary on the value of human life. It's creepy and more than it appears, a definite must read! Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

I loved this book so much and practically spread read it because I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was creepy, had all the elements I loved, and kinda really terrible people (which I also love) I wanted to see what happened in the end which felt just a little abrupt for me. If it wasn't for that, this book would have been perfect.

One of the most original, best books I've read in a long time. At turns exciting and terrifying, I could not put it down.

The premise of this had me all in. Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my vision for it. In my opinion, it reads like a YA novel, which I do not normally read, and the writing style was just choppy to me and was hard to flow with. There were also too many characters. This could've been something great on the creepy/horror genre, but it just wasn't for me.

Hide by Kiersten White is an adult contemporary horror/thriller where fourteen people compete in a hide and seek game in an abandoned amusement park to win enough money to change their lives. Mack feels like she can beat the other competitors as hiding is what she is good at but when people start disappearing two a day it becomes clear that something else is going on.

The competitors are a cross between a group that might be on their way to the next best thing and a group that is stuck where they are but might be the best to survive in this game. Some of the characters are annoying and you don't mind them disappearing but Mack and Ava are great and I wanted them to win.

When I read the description I thought the story would be a take on the tropes from some of the slasher movies, like Friday the 13th which its not. However, I enjoyed this and I'm glad that I was wrong in where I though it was going initially. The story is much more like Cabin in the Woods in that you can tell that something is not quite ring but what is really going on is not reveled until past the half way point. I loved the ending as it allows the few survivors to take charge of what is happing and make their own path while making sure that no one else will be forced into this game.

WELL. the premise was there. group of people - some seeking fame, some desperately in need of the cash prize - go to an abandoned amusement park to play a game of creepy hide and seek for $50,000. of course, things immediately go awry, and there's a mysterious history behind the park (and many of the competitors in the game).

the blurb and the initial setup seems so interesting! but almost immediately - imo - it falls apart. there are about a million characters, and initially, they're being introduced rapid fire, with only a couple sentences describing each person. reveals are slow to come, and while i can get behind a hidden object being found that tells the history behind a bad thing happening once, it happens more than once in this story and that just felt meh to me.

it's not terrible, but wasn't my favorite, and i ended up skimming.

Now THIS is the way to play hide-and-seek. I loved that the competition was set at an abandoned amusement park, that really added to the atmosphere and def brought more of the game element to the story. All the characters were different enough that I didn't get confused when they started disappearing one by one. The monster was terrifying and just perfect for the narrative. I hope Kiersten writes more adult horror!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine, Del Rey Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick and fun read, and very hard to describe without giving anything away. I will say that it's part Hunger Games, part LOST (I'm a sucker for a big cast with backstories to match), part Amazing Race gone evil, and of course a dash of that true crime element that's so hot right now.

I was kinda annoyed by some of the political/current events references (Brett Kavanaugh? In my escapism??) and some of the characters were painted as archetypal Left/Right foils. Social commentary I guess. I didn't need it.

I absolutely LOVED The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, so when I saw that Kiersten White is releasing an Adult horror novel, set in a theme park, I was ecstatic! The premise is very creepy and entertaining. The one thing that kept me from completely getting immersed and rating this 5 stars was the plethora of characters and the abrupt POV changes. This may be due to formatting with the digital ARC, so hopefully it won't feel so disconnected and abrupt when the final edition is released. That did pull me out of the story so that I didn't get quite as scared and couldn't connect with the creepy elements quite as deeply as normal when reading a horror book. Overall, though, this is definitely a book worth reading. Really entertaining and creepy! The cover is amazing!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

This book starts with a group going into an amusement park thinking they are going to win $50,000 if they last to the end. It sounded very Hunger Games/Squid Games, which was why I stared reading it. It started out well, but quickly lost any entertainment factor for me with the supernatural element.

3.5 STARS

Modern twist on a legend in Greek mythology (not telling though). Throw in a bit of Hunger Games and ready, set, go!

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

Fourteen competitors, the list is approved, seven days in an abandoned amusement park, cell-free zone, sleeping outside is part of the game, a cash prize, houses of fun and terror. It's a "horror reality show".

The descriptions of the hostess, Linda, cracked me up. She gives out all the "rules" that must be followed. She wears bright colored pantsuits and her hair exists in "defiance of gravity".

This one was full of tension, without making me terrified. You know things are going to go wrong and the author keeps you in the dark until the end when the motivations are revealed. There are quite a few characters to keep up with and two characters named Ava! Why?!

Overall, a fast suspenseful read. The plot has a complicated backstory to it, so that was a lot to take in and there are a couple of plot holes. It lost me a bit in the end. Still, I always wanted to pick up and find out what was happening. And the winner is.............

I want to premise this with the fact that I have a certain fascination for abandoned amusement parks. I think there’s something really creepy about a place that used to bring so much joy, and now evokes only dread (at least I think it does). This is what made me hit request super fast. Then when I began reading it I realized that I’ve read this author before, she has written The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, and although I loved the premise of that novel, I ultimately didn’t enjoy the journey.

The same can be said of this novel. I LOVE the premise of this novel: 14 contestants play hide and seek for a week in an abandoned amusement park and the winner gets $50,000 (now I don’t know why the characters in the novel thought you could change your life with that amount because for some that was the amount of money they owed in student debt, I personally would’ve liked to have seen higher prize money in order to understand why many people stuck it out as long as they did, even after things started to get weird).

When I didn’t love about this novel was how the omniscient POV was handled. I love multiple POVs but not when the POV changes within the same paragraph! It was very jarring at times and I had to go back and try to figure out which POV I was in.

Another downside was that the protagonist Mack had an interesting background, but other than that she wasn’t that interesting as a person, nor did I care much about her surviving or not. I cared more about some of the side characters than Mack. I’ll grant that the big reveal was cool, but up to that point, it was somewhat slow and it somehow got even slower towards the end. I also feel like the end is set up for a possible sequel, however, I don’t know if I’d be interested to read it.

Overall, fun premise, sadly it lacks in the execution, and although it’s been promoted as an adult horror, it read more like a YA (not necessarily a bad thing but most adults could be turned off).

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I always enjoy White's books, and this is no exception. It's dark & effed up - two of my favorite things in a book.