Publication Date: September 24th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Source: Penguin Random House
Synopsis:
In the faux-documentary style of The Blair Witch Project comes the campfire story of a missing girl, a vengeful ghost, and the girl who is determined to find her sister–at all costs.
Once a year, the path appears in the forest and Lucy Gallows beckons. Who is brave enough to find her–and who won’t make it out of the woods?
It’s been exactly one year since Sara’s sister, Becca, disappeared, and high school life has far from settled back to normal. With her sister gone, Sara doesn’t know whether her former friends no longer like her…or are scared of her, and the days of eating alone at lunch have started to blend together. When a mysterious text message invites Sara and her estranged friends to “play the game” and find local ghost legend Lucy Gallows, Sara is sure this is the only way to find Becca–before she’s lost forever. And even though she’s hardly spoken with them for a year, Sara finds herself deep in the darkness of the forest, her friends–and their cameras–following her down the path. Together, they will have to draw on all of their strengths to survive. The road is rarely forgiving, and no one will be the same on the other side.
* I would like to thank Penguin Random House for a copy of this book in return for an honest review*
A creepy horror story told through interviews, written statements and video documentation in which lead you down the wrong path continuously due to unreliable narrators.
” Do you want to know where Lucy went?”
This book has finally given my little horror loving heart everything it ever wanted from a Young Adult Horror ! Kate Alice Marshall has developed a unique story in a wonderful, slow suspense style that you would expect from a horror film. This story was completely unpredictable and I was proven wrong so many times in what I thought had happened.
The way in which the story was told through the eyes of different characters and with video footage, the written statements, interviews and also text massages, really made it stand out above the rest. This format of story telling is perfect for horror. You slowly get to see what happen unfold and start to notice where the story doesn’t match up and the small details that bring the overall story to life.
The suspense that was built up as you were reading really had that spine chilling factor to it that gave me the creeps as I was reading. The strange weirdness of what was happening to them and the small details that Marshall added to the story to really make it so believable and had you guessing yourself.
” Don’t leave the road.
When it’s dark, don’t let go.
There are other roads. Don’t follow them.”
The characters were fantastic. In true horror fashion there were the ones you were rooting for and those you are screaming at because you know they aren’t going to make it. Everyone has secrets and it just adds to the overall story. At times I wish there was more depth to the characters, but I do understand in horror they are not the full focus. I do believe that Marshall did a fantastic job portraying the characters through the description of their mannerisms.
Overall I do not want to say much because you really want to go into this book with as little information as possible. This book had me screaming at it like I do with horror films, telling the characters not to go through that door or trust that person. There were twists and turns all over the place and you never really know what is true and what is not. When I thought I had it all figured out I was proven wrong, right up to the last page.
6 comments
I’m glad I don’t know a lot about it! Can’t wait to read it, hopefully during October ( we shall see lol) great review!