I really wanted to love this book. I mean what's not to love? 14 competitors pitched against each other in a grown up version of hide and seek, sign me up! Well actually don't, because of course it's not that straight forward. Everything is not what it seems and when you're out....well you can guess. And this starts really very strong but it suffers from too many character. A lot of characters is fine but really, for me anyway, if you're going for a POV narrative stick to the main characters and flesh them out. In this book we don't really get to know the characters that matter until it's too late. This needs a Katniss or Tris to centre the story. I guess this is meant to be Mack and had the story centred around her more I'd have been rating it higher. But there's not enough of her, enough pace,enough horror...you get the point. All that said had this been a film or limited series it would have worked far better.

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned theme park. The prize: a lot of money! Mack is sure she can win due to her dark history. But soon she realises that the competition is more sinister than she thought. And everyone is in danger.

Confession: I didn’t expect to love Hide as much as I did! I was put off by the POVs changing between paragraphs at first and the storyline is pretty predictable. But the characters are fleshed out and I was invested in their fates, even the annoying ones! Mack and Ava’s slow-building relationship is a highlight, but there are others I liked too (one death, in particular, made me sad). The ending is kinda abrupt so maybe there’s a sequel? Read this if you want scares with blood and screams!

A creepy twist on hide and seek. A high profile game that goes wrong, full of supernatural elements it was an interesting read and the concept was new. Wasn’t to sure about the characters, I didn’t feel there was enough about them to get hooked and the ending was a bit disappointing. Overall I enjoyed the ideas and it was written well enough to keep me reading.

I have been putting off this review because I am a huge Kiersten White fan and I didn't want to admit that this one just didn't work for me. I struggled to connect with the characters from the get-go and this made it difficult to become invested in what should have been a thrilling story. And maybe that was part of the problem? I had expected something really gripping and thrilling and the sluggish start didn't offer that. So dragging myself through the rest of the book was hard work. I'll wait for White's next project.

An interesting horror novel - 14 contestants are locked into an abandoned amusement park for a week, believing one of them will win a fortune if they are the last one to be ‘found’.

The main characters were rather uninteresting and I have no idea why the author thought it would be a good idea to put a love story into the novel. It was a good premise, but felt that the target wasn’t quite met - there was something that was missing that stopped this from being a very good book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review - I didn’t hate it, it’s worth a go if you like a horror novel.

I can’t deny that it was the dark curiosity that is this cover that drew me in. I also really enjoyed White’s And I Darken a few years ago and I was intrigued to read something completely different from her.

14 contestants must spend a week hiding in an abandoned theme park without being found. The winner will be rewarded with a cash prize that could change their life. Mack has already survived the horrific tragedy that killed her family, so she’s sure she can survive this. But the contestants appear to be rapidly disappearing and Mack begins to realise that there is something much darker at the heart of this.

The park itself is the perfect spooky setting and I was very unsettled as soon as I wandered into it. Abandoned, derelict theme parks are always creepy because of course, they should be places of joy and laughter and Mack definitely feels that too. Mack is quite aloof for the first part of the book and I struggled to really figure out how she was feeling. Therefore, it was a while before I could find some likeability and investment in what happened to her.

Once Mack’s past comes out, albeit via Jaden, I began to understand her. She has suffered an insane amount of grief and somehow come through a terrifying situation. Suddenly, everyone there knows about her past and will have formed some kind of opinion of her based on it. Although it’s morbid, I would love a prequel that details the events of the Hide-and-Seek Massacre as I know it would go a long way to deepening Mack’s character.

There were some really interesting characters in Hide but I do feel that there were too many of them. Unfortunately, this meant that some of them really didn’t get to share their stories or themselves at all. They were exactly like the contestants who are voted off early on in a reality TV show -they’re gone almost immediately after we’ve been introduced. Due to this, I thought the plot was going to follow a certain path but towards the end, I realised it wasn’t and I was a little disappointed in this.

I did really enjoy the strange, visceral imagery that kept appearing and I had great fun figuring things out. The more I learned, the more my anxiety levels rose and the more I just wanted answers. White does really well at creating a chilling atmosphere and slowly feeding the reader information, causing those ‘ohhh I get it now!’ moments. Although I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the direction that things took, there were still things to enjoy about the ending.

Hide is an engaging, pulse-racing horror novel with many secrets to unravel. A smaller cast of characters would have worked better in terms of forming real attachments. There are some incredibly violent scenes in the book, so beware if you’re not a fan of blood and gore.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I was intrigued by the premise of Hide but unfortunately the idea was better than the execution. There were too many characters for many of them to be well-drawn, and the plot bordered on non-sensical at times - there wasn't really any proper explanation for how or why the main element of the plot existed. I also thought there could have been a more considered approach to race given. But it was a quick read and the plot did pull you along with it.

A grown up Goosebumps style novel which might perhaps be best placed in the YA category
Whilst there were elements of this novel that I enjoyed particularly the start which reads like the book is going to be a squid game like reality tv programme,I found the addition of a Stephen king like monster in the deserted theme park just a step too far ,it started to feel rather silly and not as menacing as I had hoped .
The characters being supposed reality tv stars are rather predictable types which initially I enjoyed but didn’t feel I really ended up empathising with any one person as much as I like to when I’m reading
I loved the setting in an long abandoned derelict Theme park it brought to mind clear pictures of similar parks I had seen on tv with rusted rides and nature taking back the park
I think this is a book I’d recommend mainly to teenagers I think they would like it ,I get the feeling that it would make a great tv series or film .
I read a copy on NetGalley Uk I apologise for my delay in getting to it as I had initially downloaded earlier in the year ,the book was published by Random House Uk in May 2022

This book had me gripped from beginning to end. I loved the competition trope and the horror elements were a big hit for me. This book was brutal but the mystery element and reveal were not something I would have predicted.

I would recommend and will read more from this author in the future.

Lemme first say that I love this cover and I really wanted to love this book. The premise sounds great, just my cuppa tea, but unfortunately the execution was lacking! Too many characters as well and I really did not care about them or even remembered who was who - I found it really hard to read!

Hide is how Stephen King would've tackled the Hunger Games! An excellent opening with a great setup, then some irritating PoV jumps and a bloated over-written ending (I found myself skimming paragraphs), but a fun holiday read. It won't change your life, but the premise will keep you entertained!

This was paced really well and i liked the general premise of this novel. The action was fun and fast paced and it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Mack was such an interesting character to follow and it helped that the audience saw mainly from her perspective but also got insights into the other characters too. There were a couple of times the action veered into slightly silly territory but given the premise i was able to forgive it for that.

I like this book, I really enjoyed it. Not as much as I thought I would, but still hope that somebody will publish it in Poland someday. It was my first thriller with and hide-and-seek tournament so it was refreshing experience for me. I really like the vibe of abandoned amusement park and that horror elements, but I think I hoped for more brutality.

This is a book that has quite a distinctive cover, and it was definitely the cover that caught my eye. The basics of the story are a game of hide and seek, but this version is not the happy one, this one is sinister and it also brings back memories for one of the contestants.

The story is one that flits back and forth through the decades, it is done various times throughout and it is ideal for filling in the history and the timeline of the old abandoned amusement park. Straight away I would be heading in the opposite direction, I mean those places look really creepy and ominous when you see images on the Internet! Thank goodness the author ran with the idea as it turned out to be a cracking read.

The characters are from various backgrounds, some you will get to know better than others, and some you wish you didn't know at all. But there is a small group that does seem to be ok despite how they are looked upon by others.

The reason for the game of hide and seek is told, but not until later on in the story and definitely not in full, you will have to wait a bit longer for the full details to emerge. There are two sides to this story and what the sides are and what that means for everyone is something that the author has done well. Think of it as like "the have's" and "the have nots" and then you realise that there are more serious tones that have roots back in the history of the story.

This is partly a horror-style story, and yes there were some eerie and creepy scenes, and this kept up the tension and added to the overall mystery of the tale. It is one of those stories that you can imagine being told by a campfire to scare others at night. Definitely atmospheric and nicely paced as well, with a slower beginning that gradually sped up until a full run for the finale.

I really enjoyed this book and it is the first time reading anything by this author so I am pleased to see there are many other titles for me to read. This is one for those who like a supernatural horror-style story, with some blood, some guts and some eerily creepy moments, It is also a mystery, crime thriller story so I do think it would appeal to many different readers. I really enjoyed this and I would happily recommend it.

Where to even begin with this one.

The premise is what drew me in here; the promise of a high-stakes hide and seek challenge in an abandoned amusement park - Yes Please! Then I saw it was by Kiersten White, and I LOVED her novel 'The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein'.

My expectations were high... too high? Maybe. But I had previous with this author, she writes cleverly, she writes engagingly, she writes stories I want to read, characters I need to know, worlds I want to explore....

The opening was interesting, I was in, I was up for the challenge. And then something happened. It fell flat. I disconnected. I just didn't care.

I'm so sorry this was a miss for me. The setting could have given us a deeply dark atmospheric book, and this just wasn't what we got.

A quick, fast paced read.

I started reading not expecting much, but ended rooting for the main characters (I loved Ava).

Part of the plot was kind of obvious and I predicted a lot of things, but It was so we'll written that I had fun even when I knew what was going to happen. That is my main goal nowadays, to have fun and this one was spot on!

Imagine Squid Game, but it's also A Quiet Place. That is the main plot for the recent novel from Kiersten White, called Hide.

I've read and loved the And I Darken trilogy, which makes me more interested with the author's other works.

Hide is the kind of mystery / thriller that will keep you in the dark for some time, then BAM plot twist after plot twist, the turn of events making you fear for the characters.

Unfortunately, it is not without error for me. Yes, it is interesting, since the point of view keeps changing also, and the writing is easy enough to read that it keeps up nicely with the fast pacing. However, it could also get confusing, because I'm telling you, there were a LOT of characters to keep up with.

For some readers though, this could be the kind of confusing that is actually great for the mystery (I can see it). It just kinda fell off for me a bit early on at the novel, because the only stake going on is the poverty lure - the prize money for the game itself. I kind of expected to find the horror early on but it doesn't exist until almost halfway through.

If you're in a mood for a horror-ish mystery to pass the time, this is probably for you (since I wouldn't really recommend it to detail-attentive(?*) readers because there were plot holes and unanswered questions)

*I just meant readers who like to dissect a book's plot (I'm way too lazy and dumb for that)

Giving this book a 3.5 stars. Thanks to the publisher through Netgalley for a review copy.

This did not work for me. The beginning couple of chapters had me interested. But once the "game" started I began struggling.
The characters just felt flat for me. Maybe a case of too many to build within a relatively short book. I just kept confusing the characters. They didn't feel that different from each other.
The atmosphere just wasn't there for me. I expected it to be much darker. Just underwhelming when the idea sounded really interesting.
The format for the arc. (Granted not a final copy) made me lose my place at times. I became lost trying to figure out the POV that I was reading.

I thought that I was going to really like this book. But it just fell flat for me. The writing style just didn't do it for me, it felt like information was all over the place. I didn't even enjoy it and I rarely do not enjoy books. It's a shame because this was such a good premise.

Described as ‘the book you need after Squid Game’, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of Kiersten White’s adult debut novel, Hide. I didn’t know much about the premise, other than it would take 14 individuals battling it out for a $50,000 prize in a game of hide-and-seek. What could possibly go wrong?

The book’s central focus point is a young girl called Mack, who has a tragic and violent past which has led to her being completely incapable of moving on and carving out a life for herself. Entering this competition, where she must hide within the confines of an abandoned amusement park for a week without being found, she feels she has found her calling and will make the easiest $50,000 of all time.

As the competition gets underway, however, it becomes apparent that the two people being eliminated each day haven’t simply been sent home with their tail between their legs; there’s something much more sinister going on. With friendships and bonds being forged as the group of contestants grows smaller, will they pull together or, is the promise of riches going to prove too tempting?

White has paced this book perfectly, only offering a slither of the truth behind the story up at integral moments, rather than delivering it in lashings that would overwhelm or spoil the reader’s experience.

I did find at times, that there was a lack of character development with some of the 14 contestants involved. It’s hard to keep a reader’s interest across so many different people, so it’s understandable and, White does her best to ensure we get a little bit of information about each person, whether it be from her description or a segment told from their point-of-view.

At just under 250 pages, Hide is a quick read, but one that will keep your heart pumping; especially through its final moments. Just as you think you know what’s coming next, the author twists in an unpredictable direction, shining a light on the very real issues of those in positions of power and wealth stepping on the ‘little people’ to ensure they remain at the top of the totem pole.

There’s a undefinable monster in Hide, and it’s one that many generations will be able to recognise.

Hide by Kiersten White is available now.