“Hide” by Kiersten White
Review by Yvonne Selander, collection development librarian
Fourteen contestants are driven to an abandoned amusement park to take part in an epic weeklong game of hide and seek – the winner wins a large cash prize that every contestant needs for one reason or another. Mack is sure she will be the ultimate winner. After all, she once hid like her life depended on it. Because it did. Each day two more contestants are out – gone from the game. But where did they go? And who is the seeker?
What starts out like a really strange reality television-like setup turns horrific quickly. But just like a great horror movie, you can’t look away. I love how even the characters who aren’t around very long feel real, you know just enough about them to care that they are “gone” and get more and more invested in those who are still playing the game day after day.
I see this as the ultimate, and perfect, literary mashup of “Midsommar,” with a touch of “Cabin in the Woods” and a hint of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and I cannot wait to read what this author writes next.