I received an ecopy of Hide in exchange for my honest review and I am so glad I got the opportunity. This creepy survival horror was unexpected and right up my alley as I LOVE supernatural and emotional horror.
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.
Hide is Kiersten White’s artistic commentary and response to the issues we see previlent in the United States (specifically but also elsewhere in the world):
- School shootings and gun violence
- Racism
- Classism
All those issues that cause those white, cis, het people with money to claim they obtained it by hard work and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps in honor of the sacrifices their parents made when times were hard. Their willingness to sacrifice those that are “other” that are “outliers” to continue their own comfort. All those issues that those who are marginalized by poverty, race, sexuality, and more struggle against every day.
Its a horror story that comments on the real horrors of our world – the monsters are real but they’re not what you think.
This book whas an emotional gut punch. I knew this was a survival game (very much like Escape Room or Squid Game) so I went in like Mack – determined not to get attached to anyone but the main character. I knew they were all going to die some horrible death and the last thing I wanted was to cry over a horror story. Well Kiersten didn’t allow me or Mack to stay aloof.
Characters like Ava, Brandon, and LeGrande worm their way into your heart and you find yourself cheering them on even when you know its hopeless.
I cried. I admit it. It was brutal.
I can’t get into my favorite parts of this book without major spoilers. I’ll simply say the twists and turns not only in the story but also in Mack’s mind are INTENSE.
Speaking of intense, while this game is easily relatable to survival game horror shows and cultist stories like Archive81 (see my review here), Mack actually made me think of one of my favorite thriller characters – China from Koontz’ Intensity. Her trauma, determination, and cleverness were spot on and made me love Mack as much as I love China. Great work.
My only issue with this book is the monster could have been scarier BUT I understand why it is the way it is. I also felt like the end could have had more punch after the final twist. It was ok, but after all that adrenaline reading…I was like “and then?”
A great book. Highly recommended reading Hide by Kiersten White for fans of Escape Room, Squid Game, Archive81, Intensity, and other twisted, fucked up horrors with characters you love even as you fully expect them to die.
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