BOOK REVIEW: Hide by Kiersten White

I’ve seen some conflicting opinions about HIDE, but I truly had a blast with this book!

The concept is very much in line with The Hunger Games and Squid Game, with an almost Halloween-esque undertone. A group of down-on-their-luck 20-somethings enter a hide and seek competition at an abandoned amusement park with the hopes of winning life-changing prize money. Unbeknownst to the contestants, they’ve been hand-selected, and the stakes are far higher than advertised.

What I loved: (1) This book is fast paced! There’s no time to be bored, because there is always something happening, always some kind of action — be it internal or external. (2) The setting! Amusement parks are horror staples, abandoned ones even moreso. This book is complete with a map of the Amazement Park on the interior cover and makes excellent use of the rides and theming of the attraction. (3) The suspense! Particularly in the unreliable narration. The main character, Mack, is deeply disconnected and untrusting. Her mysterious past is slowly unraveled over the course of the book, creating an edge-of-your-seat kind of tension that truly serves the horror.

I will say that starting with a cast of fourteen, excluding the non-contestant characters, felt a bit overwhelming. Each character has both a name and an epithet (e.g.: Isabella, “the intern”) that made it a little difficult to keep track of who was who. The core characters were wonderfully well-developed, but I do wish that the boom either kept its focus on those characters or afforded its wider cast stronger characterization.

HIDE is marketed as Kiersten White’s adult debut. The horror aspects lend itself to this, but I did find that the book still read a bit YA/NA in a lot of aspects. If you’re someone who is not a fan of young adult writing styles, this might not be the book for you.

Overall, I had a great time with this book! It was a quick, fun read with a lot of action, some super interesting lore, and some compelling characters.

TW for mentions and depictions of suicide. Always check trigger and content warnings before reading!