I did not go into this book with high expectations, and this was a good thing as it prevented any level of disappointment. A To Whom It May Concern -
I did not go into this book with high expectations, and this was a good thing as it prevented any level of disappointment. A group of teenagers going to a "haunted" remote castle in Romania to film a horror short is a perfect recipe for campy, silly, over the top, and reckless murder. I never expect anything remarkable from a setup like that.
In the area of campy and ridiculous, Go Hunt Me really didn't disappoint. This was not a good book by any stretch of the imagination. Its plot was as messy as the bodies of the victims after they were murdered. All of the characters blended into one; I found myself constantly confusing Maddie with Kenna - and completely forgetting about Hazel. Jax and Reagan only stood apart because Alex always brought up how perfectly hot Jax was - and Reagan was just Reagan. Colin blurred into the background right along with Hazel. The characters were so perfectly terrible at making good decisions that they honestly wouldn't have been very fun to murder.
The thing that surprised me was the lack of PC, SJW, or alphabet people messaging. For a book published in 2022, this was extremely surprising and probably the only reason it earned a "it was okay" rating rather than "it was horrid." The feminist themes are very weak and half-hearted at best. Alex tried to pull a bizarre symbology out of Lucy being the only character who is staked in Dracula, and of course everyone was convinced that Alex was rejected from the film school of her choice simply because she was female. I have no doubt that the film industry is degrading towards women - but it isn't exactly uplifting of men, either. Degradation, in one form or another, is the requirement of the film industry. Alex's supposed special connection with the character of Lucy was tenuous as it's barely explored as to why she loves this character more than Mina.
The plot was bizarre and required a great deal of suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader. Catrinel Bloom boils down to nothing more than a plot device that gets our teens to the castle where they are summarily murdered one by one due to bad choices. There are strange plot circumstances which do earn an explanation at the end, but the poor book was simply trying too hard to be clever with that. Everyone behaved too strangely for any explanation, other than it was all a hoax, to be acceptable - and the real explanation somehow felt more ridiculous than if it had all been a giant hoax. Alex worked too hard to cast suspicion on everyone; I had a very difficult time believing she considered them friends with how suspicious she seemed of them even before the murders began.
Overall, Go Hunt Me was a perfect B-read for the end of the summer. It was bad, but not in the way that kills off important parts of the brain and it didn't make me angry. There is no one to like it in, the plot is messy and scraped together like a poorly-flipped pancake someone tried to salvage - and then claimed that they meant to do it -, and the reveal is too clever for this book. But it's several hundred pages of pointless, harmless entertainment that really hearkens back to watching bad Sci-Fi originals on TV. So in that sense, I was not disappointed in this book - but I would never recommend buying it.
I am in such a state of shock and frustration and absolute glee that I don't know where to begin. I picked you up literally not havDear Cemetery Boys,
I am in such a state of shock and frustration and absolute glee that I don't know where to begin. I picked you up literally not having a clue what you were about. I hadn't read your synopsis or reviews or anything - period. But I was meeting Heather Brewer and I thought, "Why not?"
You follow a boy named Stephen, who is forced to move to small town Spencer, Michigan. His mom has been committed to a mental hospital and his dad just can't afford to keep them in their old home. Stephen doesn't expect anything big from Spencer. But then he starts hanging out with a group of boys who have midnight meetings in the cemetery. Led by charismatic Devon, Stephen feels like he might have some friends to help him through this crappy new life. But as time goes on, Stephen starts to wonder if there isn't something dark and evil going on.
I still don't know where to begin with you, Cemetery Boys. When Heather Brewer described you like an Alfred Hitchcock horror story, I was doubly intrigued. Who doesn't like Alfred Hitchcock? Not this girl!
For the most part, I liked Stephen. He has a lot of upsetting things happening and his sass is appreciative. Of course, I liked him less the more he drank and tried to get into the pants of his love interest Cara. Thankfully, you aren't a book that required me to like everything about him. His bigger complaints - his mom going mental, his bitchy grandmother, his distant father - are very understandable. Devon, of course, creeped me out the moment he showed up, and Cara I was mostly indifferent to.
But you are all about atmosphere and set up, Cemetery Boys, and you pulled that off magnificently. Every moment is suspense and mystery and foreshadowing - while seamlessly blending in Stephen's personal struggles. The climax builds and you see what's coming until - you pull a twist that I did not see coming. And then it's more twists and I was left not knowing what was real and what was coincidence.
I normally have issues with endings like yours, Cemetery Boys. They always leave me asking, "What was the point?" But you could have had no other. You were creepy, thrilling, weird, disturbing, frustrating as all hell, and awesome.