Dang, if this author doesn’t have big issues with God and Christianity.

This is fine, you don’t have to be a Christian if you don’t want to, but why was it necessary to constantly bring it up? It didn’t add anything to the plot, in my opinion. I do see why the characters would feel that way, but it just seemed a little extreme to the point it felt like the author's opinion and not the character's opinion.

Anyways!! It started off promising. I thought it was a quirky kind of murder mystery. Kind of like Knives Out. Not super serious, but still a murder mystery. The Beast chapters were fun to read for the most part.

There were a lot of different characters. I worried it would be hard to keep up with them, but it wasn’t that bad once it got started.

But then as you went on, it got a little repetitive. I did enjoy that we got to go inside each of the minds of the characters and see what they were each feeling and thinking.

I thought the way/reason they died was a nice idea. I don’t want to explain that part so to not spoil anything.

I can honestly say I didn’t really see the twist coming. Everything wrapped up well enough.

So, I give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

(2.5 rounded down to 2) If a book is described as having both Scream and Agatha Christie vibes, then I am going to read that book. A bunch of people are locked in a mansion with no clue how they got there, and tasked with a mission to find a kidnapped woman within the house in 24 hours. I could absolutely be in the minority because I watch a lot of scary movies, but the plot twist is taken nearly wholesale from two movies, which was a real disappointment. I did like the writing - I found the dialogue to be overwritten and cringey at times, but there’s a reason for that, and I liked those choices. Even though I was frustrated with the twists and blurb and similarity to prior pop culture I’ve enjoyed, I sped through this. it’s fast-paced, there’s a good balance between interior monologues and dialogues, and I really liked the fact that we spend time in each of the trapped guests’ heads, along with someone referred to as “the beast in the cellar” who is basically used to inform the reader about the characters and provide interstitial beats. I think I was overall a bit disappointed, but I did have a good time while reading.

I really, really wanted to love this. Based off the description/ blurb, it felt like this was exactly the type of book I needed this October. It started off super interesting but about 1/2 through I felt it was just static. No progression of the story or mystery.
The Beast parts were fun though. After the mystery "reveal" there is another mystery that was better but also a bit drawn out and underwhelming. I dunno. I just really wanted more from the ending but less from the redundancy, I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, 2.5 stars rounded up. Solid enough for me to finish.

This ARC was provided by Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.