Hide - Book Review

 

Hide

by Kiersten White

What is it 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.

What did I think of it:

Once again this is a book for the Horror Book Club that I'm reading way too early, but it sounded too cool to wait.

Mack is down on her luck, and out of options, so when she's offered the chance to enter a hide-and-seek competition where the winner gets $50k she enters the competition.

From the start it's clear something is up: the secrecy, the remote location, the last minute bonus task... But all 14 participants have their reasons to want to win this competition, and are too invested to notice the signs, or ignore them.

Although Mack is the main viewpoint character, the viewpoint switches to the others at times, so you get more information about them and about what's going on. I must say that events and what's behind the competition get telegraphed well before they're revealed, but I can't say I minded. I was having too much fun with the story to mind the predictability and it's clear political message, which I could mostly agree with.

I really liked Mack, I could understand why she doesn't want to get close to others, but loved seeing her slowly open up to my other favorite character, Ava. I was rooting for them to discover what was going on and to find a way to survive.

All in all a very cool read. It will end up on my keeper shelves for sure.

Why should you read it:

It's a cool and enjoyable thriller

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The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein - Book Review

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
by Kiersten White

What is it about:
Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

What did I think of it:
This is a re-imagining of Frankenstein, but told from the viewpoint of Elizabeth, Victor's childhood friend who eventually marries him.

And this is a wonderfully dark and atmospheric story. It starts with Elizabeth going in search of Victor while he is way to university, and switches back and forth between that timeline and events from the past. Slowly revealing how Elizabeth and Victor became friends, how they grew up together, and what's happening in both their lives in the 'now'.

As the story progresses you get a clear view inside the mind of Elizabeth, and it is not a nice place to be. Elizabeth is driven by the desire to stay alive and safe, and she is willing to do a lot to build a secure future for herself. But along the way she discovers dark and dangerous secrets, and she might actually be working towards disaster instead.

I could understand Elizabeth and rooted for her to succeed in her plans, even as I wanted to kick her for getting herself into trouble. I loved seeing this familiar story from Elizabeth's point of view, and I loved the changes White made to the story. It is a dark and delicious read.

Why should you read it:
It's a wonderfully dark re-imagining of Frankenstein


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And I Darken - Book Review

And I Darken (The Conquerors Saga #1)
by Kiersten White

What is it about:
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

What did I think of it:
Ever wondered what would have happened if Vlad the Impaler (who was the inspiration for Dracula) was a woman?

Wonder no more and go read this book!

Seriously: this story is based on/inspired by the life of Vlad the Impaler, but the author decided to write Vlad as a girl to be able to explore some story ideas she found intriguing. and so Lada was born!

I will confess I loved this book. I loved both Lada and her brother Radu. They are displaced from their homeland and have to survive in a foreign country and a hostile court. Both find their own way to cope.

If I'm honest, I think I liked Radu just a little bit more than Lada. Radu is a sensitive young man, overlooked or bullied for most of his young life, and his longing for a friend, for love, is heartbreaking at times. I liked Lada as well, she's fierce, loyal, and doesn't let herself be caged, but at times she's a bit of a bully.

Lada's and Radu's relationship with each other and with Mehmed is a complex and interesting one. Together with their efforts to find a place to belong, and the intrigues at the court this made for a gripping read that I found hard to put down.

You can bet I'll be getting my trotters on the other books in this trilogy once they release. And I'll have to investigate the other books White has written.

Why should you read it:
It's a really beautiful Historical YA read.