Who wouldn't want to stay in an abandoned amusement park?
The book is like a mismatch between the The Hunger Games and if your old enough to remember Total recall
Add in some Greek mythology and it's a fantastic read.

I had to read this book due to the interesting premise. I had a big idea about how the supernatural element would happen within the story (I could tell it would be the seekers) but couldn’t work out exactly what that supernatural element could be. It wasn’t actually what I was expecting.

It was definitely hard memorising fourteen different characters, so I’m glad Kiersten decided to focus more on some than others, fleshing out the characters that needed fleshing out. I definitely had my favourites and ones I didn’t care much for. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that my favourite character was unfortunately “eliminated” towards the end, and the method really shocked and broke me.

My only criticism is that the story was very, very fleshed out at the beginning and then ended too suddenly. I would have really enjoyed and appreciated an epilogue.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kiersten White and Random House UK for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Mack is the only survivor from the day her father turned family annihilator, killing his wife, her parents, & his youngest daughter, Maddie. Mack only survived as she stayed hidden for hours & her father committed suicide before the police arrived. She has lived a quiet life since then, tending to blend into the background going unnoticed, when a woman at the shelter where she is currently staying offers her the chance to change her life. There is a challenge for 14 contestants to basically play Hide-n-Seek in an abandoned amusement park for a week. Last one standing gets the prize money of $50,000. Mack has nothing to lose so decides to try, & even against her own better judgment she meets & makes several friends amongst the other contestants. The first night back at camp, two contestants are missing & the coordinator, Linda , says that they left straight away, but on following days when a contestant finds what looks like blood smears & others hear a panicked scream, they wonder if the game is being played for keeps.

There are a lot of characters at first in this book, but we hear from all of them at least once. The 14 contestants are from disparate background including media influencer, game designer, ex-military, failed author, even one who has been expelled from a religious cult. There's also the duplicitous Jaden who, along with Beautiful Ava, decides to cheat & try & get the other contestants caught out. Mack is a bit bland & I don't really have an opinion about her, but I liked Other Ava (there are two characters called Ava & the second one is referred to by the others as Beautiful Ava) who left the army after an accident left her badly injured, Brandon who is a sweet guy who lost his remaining family recently & has been struggling & just wants to make friends, & LeGrand who wants the money to get treatment for his critically ill sister.

I thought this would perhaps be a 'serial killer stalking the group' type thriller but the story is actually a little more involved than that. I'm not sure why abandoned places such as amusement parks hold such fascination for us, but they are reliably eerie places. There are a lot of deaths but a lot of them happen 'off screen', & I do think it could have been creepier & scarier. The first half is great but it seems to flag a little in the middle as I found my attention wandering a couple of times, which means I can't really award it top marks, so I rate this 4 stars - entertaining but not as creepy/scary as I had hoped.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Random House UK/Cornerstone/Del Rey, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Random House UK and to NetGalley for the opportunity.

Sinister is the correct word to describe Hide. This book is sinister from the off. Though there is no immediate link between the opening story of a child going missing at an amusement park in 1973, and Mack, an adult living, or rather hiding out in a modern day homeless shelter. However, when we learn that Mack is being coerced into taking part in a competition in which she must hide in an abandoned amusement park, we begin to see the barest outline of a link. Mack has no doubt she will win. She has been hiding most of her life. As a child she hid while her father butchered her family and she continues to carry the motherlode of survivor’s guilt and fear, driven into dark corners everywhere she goes.

There are fourteen people in the competition, some we never really get to know. White strikes the perfect balance of brief mentions, snappy descriptions painted in a wry and humorous tones, and more in depth characterisations. Among them, there are Sydney with the Youtube prank show and Rebecca the aspiring actress. There are two girls called Ava, one of whom an Instagrammer, obsessing about whether she will be known as Ava One or Ava Two when this competition is released as a reality show, the other a veteran who takes everything as it comes. There are arrogant characters and there are likeable characters. I can see these people in my head and if I struggled I could turn on the TV at any time and see people just like them. Then there’s Mack, standing out more than anyone because she doesn’t want to be noticed. Desperate for company but too afraid to allow it.

The rules are set, hide in the amusement park by day, eat, sleep and recharge by night. Two people are knocked out of the competition every 24 hours. For Mack, though, something doesn’t add up. There is no drum roll or fanfair heralding the departure of the failed competitors, but there is a creature snuffling and stalking its way round the park, and then there is blood. The build up is so good that the monster reveal is almost an anticlimax but it turns out that human monsters can be the most disturbing.

This book has a horror movie structure: slow build of sinister, suspenseful questions, a violent, explosive climax and an ending that doesn’t quite resolve everything.

The most compelling words in this book, though, come after the ending, where White describes her inspiration for the story. Here is an author with some quality rage building. If you want you could read this book looking for allegorical parallels to modern society. Or you could just enjoy the ride.

14 players are invited to spend 7 days in an abandoned amusement Park and play hide and seek for a 50k prize there can only be one winner but all is not what it seems and they soon realise they are fighting to survive.

This is a very Spooky Atmospheric read. The tension I felt as the story progressed was nail biting ! Literally ! The ending disappointed me a little bit which is why not 5 stars but I hope that maybe we will get a sequal.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me, and I think I need to admit to myself that Kiersten White's writing style just doesn't gel with me.

In the case of Hide I found the pacing to be incredibly slow, with little to no build up of the world and far too many characters. The giant cast left little room for overall development or any kind of emotional connection to them. This means that when they alll start getting bumped off, I just didn't care. I did like the overall setting, a creepy carnival/amusement park with high stakes, but even this dwindled after a strong opening chapter.

Not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC. I hadn’t read anything by this author before, but on reading some of the other reviews I wasn’t surprised to find her previous works have been YA, as I spent most of this book thinking it fell into this category. I also don’t read a lot of horror, though I remember reading Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ till 4 in the morning because I was too scared to put the light out!
This book did not have that effect.
The prologue was excellent, a real teaser of what was hopefully to come. The rest of the book fell just a bit short of the expectation.
Good aspects:
The early chapters, where you are introduced to Mack. You get hints and glimpses of her life, and her development and growth as a character were well done. The descriptions of the abandoned, overgrown theme park were well done, and kept short enough not to affect the flow of the story.
There was a good mix of characters, with very different backstories, though few of them were fleshed out enough, and some were quite stereotypic.

But for me the story just fell a bit flat. There were aspects of the story that should have had a scalp-tingling effect, but didn’t. The explanation of the ‘why’ of the story didn’t convince.
To me, this was a story of ‘almosts’… almost intriguing, almost scary, characters you could almost invest in.
I didn’t hate the story- I was invested enough to want to know how it ended. It would make a very good film in the hands of the right director.

When Mack is offered to enter a competition to hide in an abandoned amusement Park for a week in order to win a life changing amount of money, she jumps at the chance. After all she's spent her whole life hiding.
Unfortunately for Mack and her apponents, this amusement park is not at all what it seems.
I really wanted to like this book and it started off great, getting to know each character and their back story was interesting but I quickly got bored.
I felt it was long winded and just went on a bit. I do think this book is just not for me but I know who to sell this book to and believe it will definitely have its fans

How to review and not spoil it....lets go with the blurb for those of you with no idea what this adult debut by Kiersten White is about...

"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."

I loved this!
I was dragged in from the first page, I really enjoyed the multi POVs and the way they could almost blend together if it weren't for each charater having a distinct personality (and inner monologue), and the twisty revelations, just *chefs kiss*

One of the best supernatural thrillers I've read in a long time!

A new horror thriller that can be described as Squid Game meets Cabin in the Woods.

I do love a good thriller, and Kiersten White's adult debut caught my eye! I love a good competition plot, and Hide ups the ante: if you're out, you're out (if you know what I mean). I ultimately had a great time reading this book - it's a great summer thriller - but I felt it could have been stronger. You know that feeling when you're approaching the last 50 pages of a book and are wondering how the author will manage to wrap it up? That was how I felt in the last 5-10 pages. The ending was so abrupt and rushed, I wish a little more time had been dedicated to it. We also have so many points of view - we see through the eyes of pretty much every character at some point in the book, adding up to over 13 different POVs! It was a lot to keep track of, and I think some readers will really dislike this.

Despite this, I really enjoyed the characters in the book (I would die for Ava) and the heightened tensions made for some excellent tension. Mack isn't the strongest character in the book, but I really enjoyed her chemistry with some of her fellow competitors. I was totally invested in their journey until the very end. And the setting? Perfect.

If you're looking for a solid summer read, with a side of horror, I'd definitely recommend looking into Hide.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

CW: homophobia, suicide, murder, child abuse

When she enters a hide-and-seek competition based in an abandoned theme park, Mack is pretty confident in her chances of winning. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. But as the other competitors begin disappearing one by one, the competition takes a sinister turn and Mack starts to realise that the stakes might be higher than any of them could have imagined.

I absolutely loved this book. Firstly, the premise of a high-stakes hide-and-seek competition really appealed to me, and was surprisingly plausible in the current age of reality TV. Secondly, Hide is really, really well written. The pacing is good and Mack is a very likable central character.

The one area where it lacked a little was in the split narration following all fourteen competitors. Fourteen is a lot of characters to try to keep track of, so this was a little confusing at times. Luckily, they start dropping like flies pretty early on, so the number of characters to follow cuts down quickly!

There’s also a supernatural twist which was right up my street.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

the competition to spend a week in an abandoned amusement park

the reward $50,000
14 competitors

survival of the fittest whoever remains at the end of the week will be the winner

its a game....right....

what an interesting concept and an enjoyable read, even at its most gruesome...

I really loved the sound of this one and the art work on the cover drew me in immediately. I thought the concept sounded really different and exciting, however I just couldn't finish it. I found the characters to be quite cliche and unlikeable and the narrative just didn't grip me how I thought it would. Really cool concept but maybe just not for me.

Fourteen competitors, seven days, one abandoned theme park. The game is hide and seek, how hard can it be?

Mack is a survivor, her father killed her family and she’s still alive because she hid. When she’s offered the chance to win a life-changing amount of money, she knows she’s in with a chance. She just has to stay hidden in a creepy old theme park for a week.

The other competitors all have their reasons for being there; half are aspiring, they’ll be the next big influencer or their startup will take off any day now, the other half down on their luck, they all just need their one break. This reality game show must be it. Right?

If you’re into your Greek mythology the number fourteen is significant and you’ll soon work out what the inspiration for this story is. But if you don’t really like retellings, it doesn’t really matter, the story stands well enough by itself.

I can totally see a game show being based on hide and seek in abandoned places. It’s all very hush hush, they sign non-disclosure agreements and their phone signals are jammed. Of course this is to keep up the secrecy of the show, not at all for nefarious reasons… The players are all convinced this is a TV show, even when doubts start to creep in, they convince themselves it’s all part of the entertainment.

At the start, it may feel like there are too many characters to keep up with, but it follows a classic horror formula, picking them off one by one. The longer they survive, the more you get to know them and the more they seem like real people. I was a bit upset some of them didn’t make it, others I wanted gone quickly.

If you don’t want any hints on what the myth is, stop reading now.

I did think it was an interesting premise; how in this modern day and age do you go about placating the beast you’ve ended up being tied to? In ancient Greece, it was all very well for a king to summon youngsters to offer up for sacrifice, but people might notice now. Well if you lure in those on the edges of society with a promise of success, maybe their absences will go unnoticed.

The theme park is deliberately maze-like, hard to find your way out of. One might just think that was to keep guests in and spending money longer.

There is a societal message in amongst all this. The rich just keep getting richer off the backs of the poor and the young. It's easy to scoff at their life choices, but they never stood a chance, things are set in motion that they have no control of.

Hide has been on my TBR for quite a while now and I must say, it’s been my most anticipated read of 2022 so far. A Hide and Seek competition set in an abandoned fairground? Count me in!

First of all, just to set expectations, this is a thriller with a supernatural horror twist – please do not go into the book thinking it will just be a straightforward thriller! There are of course some elements of suspension of disbelief with this genre but if you go into it knowing that it is a horror it’s a lot easier to get your head around.
The book has 15 characters – 14 competitors in the Hide and Seek game and the mysterious organiser Linda. This is a lot of characters and I often have trouble when it gets to this number to keep everyone straight in my head, particularly when the book switches points of view. I think this is one of the only books I have read that takes this mechanic and makes it straight forward and easy. We get the majority of the perspective from Mack, a homeless woman with a disturbing past, and she is used as our entry way into the rest of the story. We then get small paragraphs of perspective from the other characters - there isn’t a huge ton of detail or backstory to each character though, they each have their own personalities and this is reinforced by what each character thinks about the others. This repetition in personality traits allows us to quickly get a grip on who is who and makes the characters distinct in our minds without getting muddled and lost. As the character count goes down as players start to lose the game more detail & backstory is then added to the remaining players.

The book is also really well written with flowing prose and atmospheric descriptions of the eerie setting. The fairground is well described and makes for a fantastic backdrop to the story. The pace is kept high throughout and with the switch in perspectives you never really knew which characters would be safe and which would ‘lose’ the game.

Overall Hide is an atmospheric thriller with a supernatural horror twist – with flowing prose and a great perspective mechanic to keep you engaged throughout. Thank you to NetGalley & Ransom House UK, Cornerstone & Del Rey for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc ebook to read.
This book didn't go where I was expecting it to - but I really enjoyed it! There's interesting and well written characters, the further into it the harder it was to put down!

The premise is simple. Fourteen contestants are involved in a giant game of Hide and Seek in an abandoned amusement fair with a $50,000 prize for the winner. For Mack, the offer is too good to be true. As a family annihilator survivor, Mack is only alive because she is so good at staying still. She remained hidden long after the police discovered the gruesome event and swept the house for clues. It’s a game suited to her skills, and the prize money will change her life. How can she not win? But her competitors feel the same, and when the game starts, when people are ‘found’, Mack starts to wonder if her initial misgivings were correct.
Hide caught my attention straight away. I loved watching Channel 4’s Hunted, and an abandoned amusement park for the central location is perfect for a taut thriller. The story starts pleasant enough with everyone making ‘friends’ and treating the experience like a game. In fact, they are primed to, told by the organisers that their game might be a pilot for future series, and having a good time. However, once the game starts, factions form, and the tension mounts as contestant numbers dwindle, especially when the remaining contestant find their erstwhile rivals’ belongings in the park.
White uses the third-person present tense narrative style and head hops between the characters. Usually, I would avoid any book that uses either of these techniques, but in Hide, it really works. Although we spend most of our time with Mack, getting into the heads of the other characters, even only for a paragraph, unlocks their motivations, and I found myself sympathising with characters I normally wouldn’t.
Some characters appear superficial, interested in appearance and wealth over other things. They believe this competition will springboard them into fame and fortune if only they can meet the right person. In Mack’s point of view, these people are ridiculous in their desires, and she’s dismissive of them, choosing not to speak to them or anyone else in the ‘game’. But when we visit their perspective, we witness their deepest fear that they will always be a YouTube prankster or mediocre Influencer or app designer. They are trapped before they even get into the park, and their raw vulnerability lifted them off the page and made them real to me.
That’s not to say there weren’t times I was confused by whose perspective I was with sometimes. When the action picks up, so does the head-hopping, and I had to re-read sections to follow the flow. However, I’ll forgive that because those moments were few and far between.
The horror element was well done. For most of the book, we don’t see anything, leaving what happened to the’ found’ people to our imaginations. When things are explained, you realise Hide is an imaginative, feminist retelling of a Greek legend involving a labyrinth (no spoilers, but you know what I’m talking about) that will keep you guessing if any of the characters will survive.

I found this story creepy and atmospheric with a YA feel rather than adult - it is described as horror but I did not feel it quite landed in that genre. As a thriller with a supernatural element, I thought it was a really interesting premise and after an initial slowish start I was hooked and drawn into the action.

I like the third person POV used as it helped to fill out the character details from different perspectives which I felt added to the story overall. While there were hints and suggestions made around why things had become what they were and what the origin of the supernatural element was, this was never properly explained. I was also frustrated by the abrupt ending - I wanted to know what happened next and what the outcome was!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I loved the initial premise of this but the ending wasn’t quite for me. Still a good read

The concept of this book is great - a group of people have to hide in an abandoned amusement park, with a cash prize for the winner.

The novel is well-written, in a third person omniscient style, which is interesting. Hide has a strong start, but I felt it wandered slightly in the final third. I'd recommend to people who want something a bit different.

Many thanks to Kiersten White, NetGalley, and Random House UK, Cornerstone for this copy.