This is a phenomenal book!! I love horror, and I knew this book had hype, so I went into it with high expectations. It did not disappoint! All of the characters are well-developed and nuanced (even the 'monster'/antagonist), and while I don't love the slasher sub-genre, the first 2/3 of this book provide a particularly compelling example of it that left me breathless and unable to put the book down. It's also very gruesome and includes A LOT of animal death (dogs, elk), in addition to the perhaps obvious human death, so reader be forewarned on that count. However, while I was ok with the first 2/3 of the book, it was the final third that cemented this book as a favorite of mine and made me go out and buy it (I first read a library copy). The denouement of the story, with its twist on the 'final girl' trope that Stephen Graham Jones has played with before, was utterly spectacular. [minor spoilers] It introduced the idea of hope and healing into a world that seemed utterly despairing and bereft of such things, and it made me cry. Loved it.