Published By: Del Ray
Pages: 236
Released On: 24/05/2022
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 realises 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.
*****
Thanks to Del Ray for the advanced proof of this title in return for an honest review.
If you’re a fan of Squid Games, you’ll be a fan of Hide.
I mean, we all became slightly obsessed with Netflix’s Squid Game didn’t we? I was a little worried when this book was pitched as the new Squid Game, as I thought the premise might only work on screen, but it’s somehow even better in written form. It’s more finessed and detailed, with enough time to delve nuances.
I admit, I found it a little slow to begin with, but I suppose it’s all about building up the characters, setting, and story, so I don’t mind too much, but once it gets going – which isn’t too far in – it gets going with a bang!
I like how everyone’s backstories are given time and ergogenic into the present narrative, it gives the story more of a cemented feel. There are a lot of characters, some with bigger roles than others, but none of them seem like spare parts, they all deserve their time and they’re all given their time.
I would say it’s more psychologically thrilling and scary for me, rather than in-your-face horror and violence – although there is a fair bit of that too – but I think in a way, that makes it even scarier. It’s like, what is your mind capable of imagining?
I definitely think this will be one of the most talked-about books of the summer.
Books By Your Bedside 