Thank you to PRH for an arc!

So this is a queer "horror" book, and while it did have horror elements it was more of a social commentary on queer teens coming out, and social problems.

I think this book is going to resonate with a lot of young readers who are in similar situations as the main characters in this one.

I feel as if it was couched in horror on some ways because what happens is horrible, but I was hoping that it was queer teens IN a horror story, but that wasn't the case here.

Being queer and coming out and all the issues that come with it are the center of the book, not the horror element. So it wasn't exactly what I thought the book would be, but it was good nonetheless.

This book disappointed me, especially because it was so highly anticipated for me! The best part was the beginning and then it gave this slow story without much conclusion. The moral was very good though.

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker presents an intriguing premise with a mix of suspense and drama. While the story offers some engaging moments, its impact may vary depending on individual preferences for pacing and character development.

A beautiful horror story that is perfect for fans of The Haunting of Bly Manor. Parker has a particular talent with tying other tragedy and hope. I loved this book.

Come Out, Come Out of an excellently written YA horror about two teens growing up on conservative households & trying to accept their own identities.
Fern and Jaq used to be friends, but they don't remember each other until one night at a house party when they stumble into the woods. Since that night, their memories have been returning, and they both feel as if they're being haunted.
I really enjoyed this book, it was well written with for developed characters and an interesting plot. I will look forward to reading more fun this author.

This was a wonderfully horror story, with epic queer representation with a great addition of a very haunting rhyme. This had me on the edge of my seat. I had to keep reading because I didn’t want the characters in any sort of limbo.

Thank you to the author & to NetGalley for offering me an ARC to fall in love with!

I rolled my eyes a lot at factual inaccuracies (from the get-go: you cannot just change the gender of the actor playing a character in Grease; it's in your contract) and weird tonal shifts, especially toward the end, but I really did enjoy Fern and Jaq as characters. (I wish we got more from Mal,)

I am so happy to say this book was soo good. it brought me outta a slump from a hard read, it was definitely ya but that does not mean it was bad to be honest i think it made it more enjoyable i did not have to fear i could sense the plot. 4/5 stars i will definitely tune in for the release of this book and future endeavors by this author thanks you for the arc, netgalley and the publisher.

"A spine-tingling LGBTQIA+ YA horror about queer teens who accidentally invoke a twisted spirit who promises help but delivers something sinister.

Perfect for fans of Kayla Cottingham, Andrew Joseph White, and Ryan La Sala.

It's never been safe for Fern, Jaq, or Mallory to come out to their families. As kids their emerging identities drove them into friendship but also forced them into the woods to hide in an old, abandoned house when they needed safety. But one night when the girls sought refuge, Mallory never made it back home. Fern and Jaq did, but neither survivor remembered what happened or the secrets they were so desperate to keep.

Five years later, Fern and Jaq are seniors on the verge of graduation, seemingly happy in their straight, cisgender lives - until a spirit who looks like Mallory begins to appear, seeking revenge for her death, and the part Fern and Jaq played in it. As they're haunted, something begins to shift inside them.

They remember who they are.

Who they want to love.

And the truth about the vicious secrets hiding in their woods.

This delightfully dark and pointed novel calls out the systems that erase gay and queer and trans identity, giving space to embrace queerness and to unleash the power of friendship and found family against the real monsters in the world."

Be loud! Be proud! Fight the monsters who try to take that away from you!

This book brought out a lot of complicated emotions and I just kept thinking "man I'm glad I am not back in high school". I liked how they pushed back from the pray away the gay (or in this case wish away the gay) as the only means to be safe. However, I think there was so much build up to find out what happened that fateful night, that once it was revealed, the tension and intrigue was gone for me. By then, I found the end to be both rushed and anti-climactic.

Five years ago, Mallory disappeared. She was a disappointment to her parents, sadly, a rebellious and queer teen who was asking for trouble. No one knows what happened to her, not even her friends at the time actor Fern and painter Jaq.

As they are settling into their lives at the tail end of high school, Fern and Jaq discover they know quite a bit more about Mallory’s disappearance than they believed. In fact, the lives they’ve been living these last five years are incredibly different than the ones they were most comfortable with. The two have fallen away from their true selves as well as one another, and turned toward lives their parents approve of: Fern is one of the leading actors in the school with a rivalry against the now out Kaitlyn. Jaq gave up dreams of painting for a living and has a more sensible future lined up and is devoted to her boyfriend John.

However, when the two run into one another at a party and wind up in woods they used to play in (and woods in which Mal disappeared), they soon discover someone or something has unlocked old truths hidden away from them. Neither of these young people are straight. Jaq is attracted to the new bad girl Devyn and hates the idea of marrying John. Fern is non-binary and crushing hard on that rival. Neither of them fully understands what happened to change them, but it seems Mallory’s ghost is involved. But why?

Could this have something to do with Promise House, a ruined building they half-recall stumbling across in the woods where Mal vanished? If so, what happened there? And could that place have something to do with the wish-granting legends about a being called The Patron? And will Fern and Jaq be able to unlock their memories and true selves before evil comes a’calling or their conservative parents discover how different they are and send them off to a conversion camp? Natalie C. Parker weaves together supernatural fears and real-world matters of gender and sexual identity in the provocative dark fantasy YA yarn, Come Out, Come Out.

Port Promise, Oregon, a small town with traditional roots, isn’t the best place for queer kids to grow up. Sure, there are loving parents who accept when their daughter comes out, as in the case of Fern’s nemesis (and eventual love interest), Kaitlyn. However, many of Port Promise’s young people live in fear of becoming cautionary tales at church as renegades who come out and then run away, leaving their families to dwell in a state of shame. At least the church folks will take pity on the family left behind, the ones who tried to help their kids get past this phase and back to their real, unconfused selves.

If that doesn’t make you shudder, then this is probably not the book for you.

Following a punchy prologue, Come Out, Come Out takes a slow burn approach to setting up who these protagonists think they are before pulling the rug out from under their feet and showing them the real meat and potatoes of their lives. From there, we still don’t quite enter a furiously paced story though the author does a fine job of ramping up suspense. This is not a novel interested in being the literary equivalent of a rollercoaster ride. It slips into that kind of storytelling near the finale, but readers looking for that sort of fast-paced entertainment from the start will be better served elsewhere.

However, in terms of mood, atmosphere, and character, Parker’s book has a lot to offer its readers. It works nicely as both a meditation on the world that is as well as the world of the purely imaginary supernatural. A strong sense of thematic unity connects these two parallel aspects, and the place where they meet is wonderfully creepy. Promise House might have been a refuge and a place of hopes, dreams, and wishes at one time. However, the more we and the characters themselves learn of the place, the more unsettled we can all become.

The author shows a talent for writing both hopeful and hurtful material for the protagonists, letting us see the characters’ own torments as well as their triumphs. And as the power that crushed their memories before begins to reassert itself, we get to witness possession horror slipping inside our characters, preventing them from speaking from their hearts and instead parroting the approved messages.

Where Parker’s hand grows a tad too heavy is in presentations of larger societies. When we are seeing a few characters interact, they are more organically recognizable. When we see the systems at play—and this is true both for the oppressive and supportive ones—there is a kind of blandness to the presentation. When we see a church at work, it’s monolith. When Devyn convinces Jaq to visit a Pride flag flying coffee shop, it is equally monolithic. The nuances of individuals are set aside for presenting larger than life representations both for satiric and sympathetic purposes. But they each feel oddly exaggerated in ways the rest of the book is not, and therefore any sense of reality we can lend them is reduced because we’re getting regularly bounced out of the story.

Parker’s writing is often pointed, sometimes downright savage, but never against her protagonists. She bucks conservative systems and values instead, always siding with the wrongfully shamed minority over the entrenched authorities. It’s the kind of book that will appeal to the queer and questioning demographic, with have zero chance of successfully changing the minds of those with a conservative bent (many of those characters are essentially straw men). But readers need balm books, too. This is not a kind work, it goes some dark and unsettling places, but it’s ultimately about two young people embracing their queerness.

And there’s plenty of room for cheek. That title alone is both an invocation of a children’s game as well as a call for the closeted to step into the light. It is worked into the nursery rhyme type local legend in the novel itself and turned around on itself by occasional cries to “come in, come in,” along with forceful shoves back into the closet of “outward respectability.”

The steady trickle of information, which causes us to refine our expectations and views on what has come before is nicely done. And the book has a few lovely surprises in store for its readers. This is as much a haunting mystery as it is a dark fantasy or high school drama story. And Parker’s writing is at its most relaxed and conversational with it is exploring the cooler topics and how they apply to her characters’ physical and emotional lives.

The myth building is also a treat. We start out with a fragment of a poem and a legend about a penitent ghost who lost his charges and seeks to do good. This is expanded upon as the story unfolds, adding wrinkles and erasing assumptions in favor of something far more intriguing and darker than first glance might hint at. Of course, powers that make wishes come true have always been suspect: One need look no further than cautionary tales of the djinn or Saki’s “The Monkey’s Paw” for examples of wishes turned against their users, but examples exist in just about every culture.

Come Out, Come Out is a slow burn YA chiller that tackles some very real fears as well as some supernatural ones. It’s the kind of novel that will likely wind up on a Challenged Books list at some point because it is frank about kids who are bucking their parents’ controlling natures and being true to themselves, the kind of individual spirit that some folks cannot tolerate. However, it is a sympathetic portrayal of the challenges of finding your own way in high school years, of trying to balance being true to yourself alongside not disappointing your parents. Parker’s storytelling sides with the outsiders, the queer kids, and even provides them a safe space where they can be seen and supported. And as we get a better understanding of the supernatural horror at work, we learn how it is integrally tied into the oppressively conservative world these kids are challenging. But never fear, friendship and honesty can overcome even the most overwhelming big terrors, no matter how many big feels the protagonists must endure.
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A special thank you to NetGalley and G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for offering an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time reading young adult queer horror and it didn’t disappoint!

The story follows Jaq, Fern, and Mallory, a trio who have bonded over their queer identities and created a safe place with each other to escape from their families who would be less accepting if they were to come out. One night, the friends go to an old abandoned house in the woods, but Mallory doesn’t make it back. Five years later, Jaq and Fern are close to graduating and living straight, cisgender lives, until their memories come back and they remember who they are.

This book handles topics of queer identity and acceptance so well through all of its different characters, both side and main. I loved that the characters were all complex and relatable in one way or another with their struggles. I especially enjoyed Jaq’s character and her being pulled between wanting to be the perfect daughter/who her parents expected her to be and living her truth. It’s a struggle I think that many queer teens (and even adults) can relate to.

I also enjoyed that we got to see different queer experiences through these characters and their experiences because there’s not one way to be queer and not everyone has the same coming out experience. I think it really added to the story. It was all handled so well and was really compelling.

Oh my goodness, the writing was phenomenal. This was my first Natalie C. Parker book and I can’t wait to read more by this author!

The plot really kept me engaged and I think flipping between the past and the present was done very well. It kept me wanting to read to learn more about the mystery behind the horror our characters were going through. I also thought the ending was very fitting. Nothing felt rushed or really out of line. It made perfect sense for the story that was being told.

Overall, I’m highly recommending this one, but please look at the trigger warnings first, just in case!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I LOVED THIS ONE SO MUCH. The premise was unique, the characters were divine, and the horror aspect was everything I wanted and more! It was different, abstract, and delivered eerie WELL. I am obsesseddd and will be keeping an eye out for future novels by Ms. Parker!!

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐! Full review forthcoming but if you're on the fence about adding this to your TBR don't be! This isn't my normal genre and wanted to try something new and I'm so glad I did!

Dynamic, complex characters. Emotional storyline and plot twists. A unique take on telling local folklore and scary stories in a particular town.

Come Out, Come Out was such a powerful coming of age story, and, more importantly, a self discovery story meant for lost, opressed teenagers, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Not all kids and teenagers are lucky enough to grow up with supportive parents. Parents who love them unconditionally and only wish for a their safety, happiness, and success in life.

The heartbreaking take away here was: No one should have to feel unsafe or ashamed to show who they truly are. Parents should not push their own beliefs and prejudices on their kids. Religion should not be forced on, or introduced to, kids who are too young to truly understand it. Family should be loving and supportive and the only expectations should be for members to be themselves and do their best at whatever they apply themselves to in life.

Bigotry, racism, sexism, religious hatred etc. are such ugly, vile things, it's sometimes hard to believe that they don't originate from a sinister, supernatural source. Come Out, Come Out had some Nightmare on Elm Street vibes, but the real horror was the afore mentioned issues. The author created a beautiful story of friendship, love, loss, and coming to terms with, not only who you are, but, finding love and support from found family, and not being ashamed of how you feel.

Thank you Penguin Teen for the e-ARC!

ARC Review!!!
Fern, Jaq, and Mallory have been living in fear of coming out to their families. They form a friendship during times where they don't know that's happening to them or how to describe it to other people. There's this lore in their town about a "Patron" who will grant kids wishes and keep them safe when given something. Fern, Jaq, and Mallory knowing this head into the woods with the intention of getting away from their parents and wanting to live their true lives.

Once night heading to the woods to get their wish granted, Mallory never made it back. Fern and Jaq did but don't remember that night or the friendship they formed throughout their hard times.

Five years later, Fern and Jaq are seniors and ready to continue with their life after high school. They have all these plans figured out and a path set but they begin to see a spirit who looks like Mallory and keep getting these flashbacks and hearing voices. As these continue to happen, both Fern and Jaq start to remember who they truly are and what happened that night.

This was written so well!!! It was so good to read, had that hint of triller and mystery where the reader had no idea what was going to happen next! It flowed so nicely! The beginning through me off in the beginning with that night in the woods and then the time jump! But as it continued shortly after the time jump, it flowed so nicely!

I personally can't imagine what it must feel like to hide yourself from those around you and feeling trapped within your own body but these characters made me feel that. They were written so well that I was able to relate to them and connect to them on something I have never experienced. The plot was amazing! The ending is everything! It's such a sad but good ending and made the book even more perfect!

Come Out, Come Out is a different style of horror than you may be expecting. It's more speculative queer horror with some paranormal horror and elements at the core of it. We all know that real people and actions can be scarier than any made up creature.

This is a story about what happened to 3 young queer friends living in a community rampant with homophobia, parents who won't accept queerness, some attempting to erase their identities, and the terror of not only not being able to be yourself, but being afraid of people finding out who you really are. It is also a journey to self-acceptance and courage.

The book was steadily paced, kept my interest, and the representation and thought provoking content was well-done. The title is clever and I like the double meaning.

First off, I LOVE the cover of this book! Without even reading the synopsis, I was instantly drawn in by the colors and the artwork on the front.

Come Out, Come Out is a perfect example of why even as an adult I still love reading YA horror/thrillers. The characters in this story are diverse, the story has just the right amount of scare mixed with excellent writing, and those two things combined make for one of the best YA books I've read all year.

Gripping, profound and eerie every step of the way, Natalie Parker’s COME OUT, COME OUT is nothing short of sensational. Parker masterfully blends supernatural elements with real-life horrors in a haunting tale that’s simply unforgettable.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn’t work for me. Well, not all of it worked at least. As far as dealing with heavy topics? This book did well, but when it came to being a horror, this book fell short. This was more of a coming-of-age story with some creepy undertones at times and that’s not what I wanted going in. I really did appreciate the three young people dealing with homophobia in their everyday lives. I live in a very purple area, and a lot of gay people aren’t able to live their true lives because of fear. My closest friends can’t even hold hands while they walk their dog because of comments they get directed at them, it’s horrible. So, reading books like this is important, it helps people learn that this type of behavior is unacceptable. And while I loved this part of the book, I really wanted a YA Horror story, I’m not a huge coming of age fan. The horror element was confusing to me and I don’t feel like it was fully developed.

I would recommend this book to a younger YA audience, even perhaps middle grade as it reads very young.

Overall, I didn’t dislike this book, it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

3.5 Rounded up