Hide

By: Kiersten White

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this “marvelously creepy thrill ride of a book that keeps twisting until the very end” (Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying)

“The suspenseful plot combines elements of Thomas Tryon’s classic Harvest Home, Netflix’s Squid Game, and the social commentary of Jordan Peele’s film oeuvre and mixes these with a revelatory pacing reminiscent of Spielberg’s Jaws.”—Booklist

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 a dream future or escape a haunting past—Mack is sure 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 that this competition is even more sinister than 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.

©2022 Kiersten White (P)2022 Random House Audio

It was ok

I liked it, only problem is I didn’t really care about the characters as much as I wish I did, good story tho

make this a movie NOW

definitely scary , narrator wasn't my fave but I could picture every scene and character perfectly

Strong characters make this a horror novel to cherish

I adored every moment of Hide. Author Kiersten White creates so many sympathetic, relatable characters that are easy to care about and fear for.

The concept of hide and seek in a supposedly abandoned amusement park is captivating the whole way through, and I was pleasantly surprised by the queer representation.

Emma Galvin’s narration brought so much empathy for all of the protagonists, and it’s one of the best reads I’ve heard!

Modern retelling of The Minotaur

It has a laberynth, people taken there with dark purposes and a "seeker" that will make your skin crawl. Supposedly. The monster was never really scary and the author didn't made me care about the characters; she tried, telling brief sad stories of their lives, but with 14 characters, it was hard to make their interactions and back stories really get to me. The protagonist is also not cautivating enough and one of her last decisions doesn't make sense with her character AT ALL. By the way, the monster is not really the point of the book and it's actually a social critique that doesn't really land. BUT I still finished the book and enjoyed it.
Give it a try if you're interested. It's not great, but not bad either.
The thing that was actually annoying was the performance of the narrator. Too monotonous for my liking.

Fun, popcorn book

This was a fun book that played out like a fun horror movie. It was not too scary and exciting throughout. Emma Galvin did a great job as always.

Very Good!

I really loved reading this book even though I didn't see the twist of the seekers coming and I felt the ending left something to be desired.

Eh

Plot was mostly predictable. Reader mispronounced words and emphasized in the wrong places.
Felt like a wish version of an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Fast cheesy thriller

I' d give this a 3.5
it was a fun quick story that was entertaining. I will admit I lost track of characters and thought the repetitive inner monologs were a bit overdone.
Still considering getting the physical book to re read and possibly be easier at following each character better.

What?!

I was really invested in this story but the book does not provide any closure to the characters or story line. I hope that is on purpose to set up for a series and do a more deep dive in the characters. but yeah, if not, waste of time.

Very Cinematic

It felt like the treatment for an 8-episode Netflix show, which isn’t a complaint, but should give you some sense of the pacing and structure. It was brisk and, while the plot was telegraphed, provided some decent thrills if few outright scares. The book could have either used more time at the beginning to introduce the rather large cast or cut down in the number of contestants, as the first four or so to go out are pretty flat. The physical space gets a lot of good description and texture, and the interior lives of the characters we become familiar with make sense and are compelling. Unlike a lot of the reviewers, I liked the social messaging (although it’s a little thick in places), and I enjoyed the way the author cuts away from horror until she has to show it at the end. It’s a brisk listen, marred a little by a somewhat one-note narrator.