Page Count 256
Publication date May 2022
Publisher Del Rey
Synopsis
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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
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Review
Hide has been almost top of my list for exciting releases so far this year. I requested on Netgalley and after three weeks wait thought I’d be declined. Lucky, lucky me and a big thank you to Del Ray for the ARC.
Before the main event we’re given a short introduction to the history of Amazement Park within a prologue providing a peek at main character Mack’s traumatising past.
It’s a little disorientating to start whilst each character in the competition is given a small description and the rules are laid out. I struggled a bit with the initial conversations where people were referred to alternately by names or occupations but eventually my sieve brain retained enough to follow the plot.
As the characters began to whittle down I found myself particularly fond of Brandon. The story is told in third-person present, mostly from Mack’s point of view but we do get a glimpse into the minds of each contestant. Brandon’s naive optimism portrays him as the sweet little puppy, a nice reprieve from the narcissism and distrust most of the others display.
The way White has written her characters is very black and white; they are good people or bad people no in-between. Each entered into the competition in desperate need of money for reasons revealed one by one.
Stories in old theme parks and carnivals always draw me in, perhaps its the bridge between reality and fantasy- clowns, horror houses and ghost trains make a more interesting backdrop. I was a big fan of Fantasticland and Joyland to name a few. White has written the perfect fun yet creepy atmosphere within Amazement Park for Hide, it’s dilapidation adding to the unknown dangers inside.
Spoilers prevent any speculation here on why the contest exists, who is doing the seeking or what exactly is in the centre of the maze- remember though, this is a horror novel, all is not as it seems.
Hide is a horror thriller well worth your time, I loved it.
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An Average Life 
Great review and just requested on NetGalley 🤣 x
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