Creepy and Graphic, Not for Me
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 16+
Overall: 3.5 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Trigger Warnings: Death, gore, violence, somewhat graphic descriptions of dead bodies and injury to characters, rape, sexual assault, murder, serial killers, blood, grief, and probably more.
A horror novel by the author of Anna and the French Kiss??? When Penguin Teen offered me the opportunity to work with them to celebrate the release of this book (watch out for a video coming to my TikTok page on August 31!), I jumped at the chance. Anna is one of my favorite books, so I was so excited to read Perkins’s newest novel. But a horror novel? Not usually my cup of tea. I had no idea what to expect, but wow. That was an experience.
The book itself is very short, just 200 pages, so I flew through it in only a couple hours. The first half of the book was very contemporary feeling: it followed Neena and Josie as they navigated the impending change to their friendship as they backpacked up the trail. There were a few moments of creepy happenings, but nothing that could even be considered thriller, let alone horror. I actually told my mom, when I was about 100 pages in, “I actually don’t think this will be too scary!” I was kind of happy about that, because I am a chicken. But I spoke too soon. Within the next ten page of my saying that, things started going bad for Neena and Josie—fast. The book did a whole 180 from friendship troubles and hiking to “oh shit we’re going to be brutally raped and killed” in about a dozen pages. And at that point, I was very creeped out and disturbed—which isn’t a bad thing. It is a horror novel, that’s kind of what you want.
This is also where things got quite gory. I’ve read some YA thrillers and horror (Wilder Girls, House of Hollow, Erin A Craig, etc) but where those were very creepy and suspenseful and scary, they never relied that heavily on blood and gore, in my opinion. There were graphic descriptions of multiple dead bodies, as well as injuries the girls acquired either naturally or that were inflicted upon them. I’m very squeamish when it comes to things like that, so it wasn’t my favorite but that’s very much because of my own preferences and not any shortcomings of the book itself.
One thing that pleasantly surprised me and that I really liked—it was really more of a throwaway line, even—was a brief comment on disability. When Josie is catastrophizing about the idea of losing a limb due to an injury, she thinks:
“Her sobbing mother would cradle her, assuring Josie that she could still lead a full and fulfilling life.
“It would be true, of course. It would also be devastating.” (pg. 110)
I just thought, that’s a really good way to put it. Many people handle disability poorly, by refusing to acknowledge that one can live such a life as a disabled person. But others handle it poorly by thinking that it’s inherently ableist to acknowledge how devastating it is to go from able bodied to disabled. This quick line just acknowledges both of those realities really well, and I appreciate that.
In the end, I did enjoy this book. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but I did like that bit of getting to know the characters. The setting and atmosphere were also really lush and creepy and well done. Once I got to that turning point in the novel, I was sucked in completely and significantly freaked out (maybe a little too much so, because again, chicken). I’m glad I read this book. Will I ever reread it? No. If Stephanie Perkins releases another horror novel, will I read that? Possibly, but probably not. But it was a decently good book and I think that anyone who enjoys being disturbed and creeped out should pick this up.
Age Rating: 16+
Overall: 3.5 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Trigger Warnings: Death, gore, violence, somewhat graphic descriptions of dead bodies and injury to characters, rape, sexual assault, murder, serial killers, blood, grief, and probably more.
A horror novel by the author of Anna and the French Kiss??? When Penguin Teen offered me the opportunity to work with them to celebrate the release of this book (watch out for a video coming to my TikTok page on August 31!), I jumped at the chance. Anna is one of my favorite books, so I was so excited to read Perkins’s newest novel. But a horror novel? Not usually my cup of tea. I had no idea what to expect, but wow. That was an experience.
The book itself is very short, just 200 pages, so I flew through it in only a couple hours. The first half of the book was very contemporary feeling: it followed Neena and Josie as they navigated the impending change to their friendship as they backpacked up the trail. There were a few moments of creepy happenings, but nothing that could even be considered thriller, let alone horror. I actually told my mom, when I was about 100 pages in, “I actually don’t think this will be too scary!” I was kind of happy about that, because I am a chicken. But I spoke too soon. Within the next ten page of my saying that, things started going bad for Neena and Josie—fast. The book did a whole 180 from friendship troubles and hiking to “oh shit we’re going to be brutally raped and killed” in about a dozen pages. And at that point, I was very creeped out and disturbed—which isn’t a bad thing. It is a horror novel, that’s kind of what you want.
This is also where things got quite gory. I’ve read some YA thrillers and horror (Wilder Girls, House of Hollow, Erin A Craig, etc) but where those were very creepy and suspenseful and scary, they never relied that heavily on blood and gore, in my opinion. There were graphic descriptions of multiple dead bodies, as well as injuries the girls acquired either naturally or that were inflicted upon them. I’m very squeamish when it comes to things like that, so it wasn’t my favorite but that’s very much because of my own preferences and not any shortcomings of the book itself.
One thing that pleasantly surprised me and that I really liked—it was really more of a throwaway line, even—was a brief comment on disability. When Josie is catastrophizing about the idea of losing a limb due to an injury, she thinks:
“Her sobbing mother would cradle her, assuring Josie that she could still lead a full and fulfilling life.
“It would be true, of course. It would also be devastating.” (pg. 110)
I just thought, that’s a really good way to put it. Many people handle disability poorly, by refusing to acknowledge that one can live such a life as a disabled person. But others handle it poorly by thinking that it’s inherently ableist to acknowledge how devastating it is to go from able bodied to disabled. This quick line just acknowledges both of those realities really well, and I appreciate that.
In the end, I did enjoy this book. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but I did like that bit of getting to know the characters. The setting and atmosphere were also really lush and creepy and well done. Once I got to that turning point in the novel, I was sucked in completely and significantly freaked out (maybe a little too much so, because again, chicken). I’m glad I read this book. Will I ever reread it? No. If Stephanie Perkins releases another horror novel, will I read that? Possibly, but probably not. But it was a decently good book and I think that anyone who enjoys being disturbed and creeped out should pick this up.