Hide: The book you need after Squid Game

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White skillfully balances the terrifying solo experiences of individual characters, the tense group dynamics, and the park’s backstory to create a constantly shifting narrative backed by a growing sense of dread. October’s here, which means it’s time for us to read the books that leave shivers running down our spines and keep us reminding ourselves over and over that we did, in fact, lock the doors and no, there definitely isn’t anyone else in the house with us. I enjoyed White’s writing style, with third-person narration that occasionally jumped between characters and revealed pieces of the mystery that kept me tense and anxious for the entire length of the story. Hide’s constantly shifting narrative, peppered with loads of tension and intense dread, is incredibly propulsive, and the novel’s slim page count means that no aspect of the story is wasted or feels superfluous. 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.

All fourteen competitors must spend seven days hiding in an abandoned amusement park from dawn to dusk. Amazement Park opened in 1953 but has sat empty for many years, following the murder of a five-year-old girl there. However, after the loss of their child, Daniel quickly discovers was only the first (albeit the most brutal) cruel card that he would be dealt by fate. The colours were vibrant and each panel gave the feel of an amusement park, despite its disuse and disrepair. 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.Today the Irish connection has not gone; almost 70% of the current residents are Irish, and, although they are equally poor, few of them work or labour - most are alcoholics, and largely forgotten by society. Also we didn’t even have POV shifts with chapters or any kind of announcement, you’d just be reading through pages from Mack’s POV at one point and then suddenly with no indication you’d be reading from Brandon’s POV. The idea that generational wealth requires violence to sustain it is delivered with an anvil, while the horror elements are underbaked; there are very few actual scares to be found.

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. 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. This book touches on racism, homophobia, classism, and more, as well as exploring themes of trauma, PTSD, and finding community, and I feel like each of these topics was well-handled in a novel of this length. The premise is ridiculous, there is a touch too much exposition, it contains a weirdly interpretive ending, and there is a lot of eye rolling moments but, it's exactly what you expect from the blurb and it's fun.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. Again, there wasn’t much development with any of them but you have to latch on to some characters at some point in a story! But Mackenzie doesn’t count on forming real bonds with the other players, who slowly evolve from stereotypes to layered protagonists of all stripes over the course of the story. It would have been helpful to even have a list of the contestants at the beginning so I could tell them apart. 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.

At first, it was a little confusing with all the characters and the timeline jumps, but once you get it figured out, the story line is great.

Then with the characters that did get more page time I still couldn’t really be bothered to care because their back stories were so vague and boring. She has permanent shiny burns on her hands from where she scales the water heater, wedges herself between walls, and shimmies up. I found the book a little slow to begin with and there were a couple of places where my attention may have lagged but all the parts in between more than make up for it. You can read the book just for this, but there are also hidden layers as you learn more about the characters and the unwritten connections between them. Easy, as Mack's speciality is hiding but as each competitor begins to vanish, Mack realises the game is more dangerous than it seems and that to survive, she may have to team up with the remaining competitors.

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.I enjoyed the suspense and thrills, appreciated that I was never genuinely scared, and was pleasantly surprised by the depth and complexity of the story’s main characters. Horror hide and seek in an abandoned amusement park – this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022.