“A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White, perfect for fans of Stephen King and SQUID GAME.

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 realizes 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.”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of Hide by Kiersten White. Hide was published by Del Rey in hardcover, audio and digital formats on 24th May 2022. The paperback will be available to purchase in the UK on 4th May 2023.

I run a regular feature on the blog at the end of the year called #R3COMM3ND3D. It’s a chance for bloggers, bookstagrammers and authors to share three of their favourite books published that year. And oh boy, does my TBR hate me for it! 😂 I add A LOT of books to either my wish list or my TBR. Hide was one of those books. It was recommended by Jo of Jo’s Book Blog (that link will take you straight to Jo’s review of Hide but make sure you have a good look around whilst there). Jo is responsible for a large percentage of my book purchases/library reservations. So much so, I have read two of Jo’s three #R3COMM3ND3D2022 picks. The second I will be reviewing on the blog soon, so keep an eye out for that. I remember seeing Hide featured on some of my favourite blogs when it was first published last year…but I don’t think I read the blurb! (Y’know – life, the universe and everything!) Then, thanks to Jo choosing it as one of her three #R3COMM3ND3D2022 titles, I took a minute and did what I should I have done months before, I read the blurb. Why oh why oh why did it take me so long to realise this book was a perfect fit for my reading tastes? I am kicking myself that I didn’t pick it up sooner!

Mack isn’t good at much. But boy, can she hide! Being able to hide for a long period of time is the reason she’s alive today. So when a hide and seek competition, hosted by Ox Extreme Sports, is brought to her attention with a fairly healthy prize pot, Mack knows she must sign up. After all, she’s certain she WILL beat everyone else and she WILL win. And Mack really needs the cash. The venue is a rundown theme park which closed its gates following the tragic death of a young child in the mid-1970s. Over the course of seven days fourteen competitors will do their best to stay hidden during daylight hours. Two will be ‘found’ every day until one is victorious. But what if that’s not the whole story? As her fellow contestants start disappearing, Mack starts to question everything the group have been told. Because once you’ve been ‘found’, it really is game over…

Hide is a compelling, high stakes, cat and mouse thriller where the tension builds beautifully and the sense of threat is palpable. I loved the author’s concept. Take an abandoned theme park, add fourteen wannabes who are all competing to be the winner of the $50,000 prize. They all know that to win, they have to beat the others and oh boy, they are prepared to do whatever it takes (within reason) to do that! But the price those who are ‘found’ pay is so much higher than any of the contestants ever imagined. The direction the author takes the storyline in is fascinating and thought-provoking. I loved that there was a clear, strong message in amongst the fear and terror of the contestants.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Hide is a highly readable horror-esque thriller which had me turning the pages at a rate of knots keen to see if anyone would survive the Olly Olly Oxen Free Hide and Seek Tournament! There are quite a few characters in this book but don’t let that put you off. They do start dropping like flies from fairly early on in the novel. I’ve seen other reviews mention the fact that there are two characters with the same name. This is true, but they’re polar opposites of each other and I didn’t have a problem differentiating them. For me, the main cast of characters were clearly defined from the supporting cast, those just there to die a grisly death! And those lead characters all had a clear part to play. They were multi-layered and recognisable. I will just mention the love affair which I became a little obsessed with. I’m not one for love or romance in the books I read but watching the journey two of the characters took was really quite mesmerising. All in all, Hide is a well-written novel with a near perfect concept, an incredible setting and great characters, some to love and some to loathe. I thoroughly enjoyed the tension and the feeling that there was something quite monstrous around every corner and I cannot wait to read more by this author soon. Recommended.

Hide by Kiersten White was published in the UK by Del Rey on 24th May 2022 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | Foyles | Book Depository | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Kiersten White is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of many books, including the And I Darken series, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Star Wars: Padawan, the Sinister Summer series, and HIDE. She lives with her family near the ocean in San Diego, where they obsessively care for their deeply ambivalent tortoise. Visit Kiersten online at KierstenWhite.com and follow @KierstenWhite on Twitter.