I think my expectations for what this book would be were too off. I saw another review comparing this to Panic (which I think had one of the most thriI think my expectations for what this book would be were too off. I saw another review comparing this to Panic (which I think had one of the most thrilling concepts in YA) and maybe having that comparison in mind shaped my expectations of this book too much into something it isn’t. The Wilde Trials is about a competition consisting of seven trials in the wilderness, with one winner taking $600,000 and bragging rights. To top it all off, all contestants will spend 2 weeks living in a decrepit and partially collapsed estate in the middle of the woods. When I first started this, I was like, why are these already rich kids scrambling to enter this competition and putting themselves in this much danger just for prides sake when none of them actually need the money? Keep in mind, I was picturing dangerous tasks that were at least somewhat on the level of what I read in Panic. I got my answer once the trials started; it’s because this competition isn’t actually deadly or dangerous at all. That’s not at all what I was expecting and was a bummer.
I can see how this can be compared to Panic, but boarding school edition, and with lower stakes as the competition itself isn’t dangerous. I found the trials themselves a total snore, since they were mainly just riddles and brain teasers, while I was expecting actual dangerous, death defying trials. I kid you not, one of the trials was literally rowing across the lake and the first people who get there wins. What is this, a relay race? I was expecting something so high stakes that people died from it, when this was just teenagers running around the woods solving riddles and answering history questions on paper? I guess I was just expecting something more thrilling than this.
The Wilde Trials did have the added subplot of discovering a mystery about the trials and the manor, which added some much needed substance to the plot. This is less about the competition itself and more about the people competing in it, and the mystery behind the blackmailing of the contestants. I couldn’t care less about the blackmailing plot for most of it but it picked up at the end and I did become invested by the end.
I think that the right reader will enjoy this book more than I did if they keep their expectations in check. Do not go into this expecting a book consisting of terrifying, or even interesting trials. It’s not going to be thrilling in that kind of way. If you go into this expecting this to be more about the mystery behind the trials and more of a whodunnit sort of thing, rather than the events of the trials themselves, you’ll likely enjoy this more. As a horror fan and high stakes reader, this was a disappointment to me personally, but not every reader will have the same preferences as me.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review. ...more
I loved this thriller from the very first page. This was so compulsively readable! I vibed with the author’s writing style immediately, and I started I loved this thriller from the very first page. This was so compulsively readable! I vibed with the author’s writing style immediately, and I started this pretty late at night, only intended to read just a few pages, but ended up not being able to put it down because it grabbed my instantly.
Two teenagers have their lives tied back to Camp Lost Lake, a camp that closed down back in 2008 after some mysterious murders committed by the Witch of Lost Lake. Olivia finds out from an ancestry test that her dad isn’t her biological dad, and suspects that her real dad is the husband murdered by Lori, the supposed Witch of Lost Lake. Regan, on the other hand, is none other than the daughter of the Lori Knight, the alleged killer. Regan sneaks off to go to the reopening of Camp Lost Lake, determined to find the true killer so her and her mom can stop living on the run. Both of these girls have reasons to go back to Camp Lost Lake and both of them seek answers.
This book was so gripping, and I just wanted to get to the end because I had no clue how this was going to end. It was expertly plotted, a Frieda McFadden level of well planned. This is a super quick read, perfect for a summer read you could finish in one sitting on the beach. This was SO much fun! Any thriller and murder mystery fan will love this one! Danielle Valentine is definitely on my radar now. I’m a fan!
Thank you to Netgalley and GP Putnam for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review. ...more
**spoiler alert** Initially I had thought this was a horror novel about the Paris catacombs, possibly even paranormal horror, which had me excited. Wh**spoiler alert** Initially I had thought this was a horror novel about the Paris catacombs, possibly even paranormal horror, which had me excited. When I looked deeper after I got an arc, not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I found out it’s actually just a thriller. But a book doesn’t have to be supernatural to be gripping and scary and I do enjoy a good thriller, so I still had high hopes!
The synopsis is pretty to the point; a group of teens visiting Paris go into the catacombs for the promise of a secret party and end up getting lost. While trying to find their way out, they are being stalked by a group of people in masks, a possible underground cult. I was expecting something similar to The Descent or somewhere in that realm, and this actually was somewhat like that, but a YA version and much, much lighter. I think what kept this from being scarier was that the villains just weren’t convincing to me. The people in masks never feel very threatening because aside from the fact that there’s strangers wearing a mask that’s, they don’t say or do anything else. There was so much potential to make them scarier, even down to better describing scary features they have and what they wear. Aside from just, they’re wearing a skeleton mask and carry knives. There was so much potential to make these villains feel more scary and threatening but you aren’t told anything more about them. There was a chance to be more descriptive about them, what’s their expression like, their stance; there’s just ways to make them feel like more than a cartoon villain. Masked assailants on film may be enough to come off as scary but in book form, they have to have somewhat of more than a description of knife wielding mask assailant to be convincing. This just felt distant and cartoony. You learn more near the end but by then it’s too late to make it gripping if the villains feel cartoonish for all of it until the end.
I was expecting this to be a gripping and claustrophobic read, but I just found most of it felt anticlimactic. But, I really did enjoy the ending though, enough to consider giving this 4 stars! Mehhh first 80% percent but solid last 20%.
Thank you to Netgalley and GP Putnam for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review....more
Haunted house books are some of my absolute favorites, so I loved the premise of house sitting a creepy mansion from the 1920s! Abandoned short after Haunted house books are some of my absolute favorites, so I loved the premise of house sitting a creepy mansion from the 1920s! Abandoned short after it was built and chock full of a history of mysterious deaths, Morning House has been burying a secret for decades. The synopsis almost made this seem like horror so I went into this thinking it would be a horror, in the same vein as a haunted house book, but it actually is a mystery thriller, not unlike the Truly Devious books that Maureen Johnson is known for. It’s actually super similar in feel to Truly Devious. I personally prefer horror, but I love a good murder mystery too! If done right, a thriller can be just as creepy and gripping as horror, and this one was well executed!
The Morning House itself is fascinating and a place that I’d want to visit if it were real. It’s technically a two story playhouse, the same size as a large family home, built for the children of a wealthy doctor with a weird obsession with swimming. Two of the children mysteriously die not long after the Morning House is built, which is the core of the mystery. The rest of the family members start to die one by one, by seemingly natural circumstances, but the fact that it was practically everyone in the immediate family one after another was just….odd. The situation behind the deaths of the first 2 were suspicious and you sense from the get go that someone was probably behind them, but everyone else’s were just strokes of bad luck that I couldn’t see how a person could be behind. Things like drunk driving or heart attacks or not knowing they were walking on a frozen pond and accidentally falling through the ice. If I didn’t know Maureen’s style, I would’ve considered the explanation being supernatural and some kind of family curse, but I’ve read enough of Maureen’s books to know that the evil in her books are strictly human. So I really couldn’t come up with a rational explanation for something so odd. The whole time I was like, with the rest of the family, if this all ends up just being a coincidence, it’s a hell of a coincidence. You do find out all the answers in the end, though.
The book has flashbacks to the 1930’s, to the POVs of the children before their deaths and what their lives were like, which I thought was a great touch. It just makes it even creepier reading the flashbacks, knowing that you’re in the heads of characters that will die young. It switches back and forth to the present time, it turns out the house is open to the public for one summer, and there’s a whole group of teens who are living there for the summer, acting as guides.
There’s also something comforting about reading YA as an adult, almost like it’s nostalgic of when times were simpler. Diving into a YA book and getting into the head of a younger character is always fun because it reminds me of my youth lol. This is super similar in tone to Truly Devious, with mysterious family conspiracies surrounding a seemingly cursed family. If you liked Truly Devious, you’ll like this one.
Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest review.
If you’re looking to get out of a reading slump, this might just be the book to do it! I love to read but lately have been suffering from a wandering If you’re looking to get out of a reading slump, this might just be the book to do it! I love to read but lately have been suffering from a wandering mind and easy boredom when reading, especially at the beginning of books (which also means that books that are slow to start, take 400 pages just to set up the novel, and have nothing substantial happening until the last 80% are not my friend). Yet, this book captured me from the very beginning. I was never once bored nor did I feel like I wanted to skim. This was compulsively readable.
I love books with unreliable narrators because I love to get in the head of someone who’s sorta psychotic. It takes a talented author to pull off a book in the POV of someone who’s kind of mentally disturbed, for the reader to really get into her head and see how she processes and reacts to things. The amount of joy Hannah gets from a serial killer paying attention to her and writing her back is….odd. But also, since you get a peek into her life, you can see how lonely she is, tired of not being chosen, put on the back burner by her only friend, and now only having a serial killer to reach out to for comfort. As starved for affection as she is, you kind of can see why she made the choices she did and continued to write William, and how her desperation gave her delusions of what she thinks is love. But still…even after getting in her head throughout the whole beginning of the book, it’s still really hard to understand her because she’s so mentally disturbed. The amount of joy she found from it all was very….strange. She essentially became obsessed with him, living for when his letters arrive. Like, girl. Come on. He’s a serial killer.
This was such an interesting read, and at some parts I wanted to laugh at how insane Hannah acted sometimes. Getting into the head of a fangirl of a serial killer was something I’ve never read in a book before. You kind of spend most of the book feeling sorry for her. She really was starved for affection and validation and I think that fed into her delusion.
I saw the ending coming from a mile away and it was pretty predictable to me tbh, but I still enjoyed this!
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.
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