You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I didn’t know what to expect from Young’s first dip into the Adult world but I was really excited. I buddy read this with Julie from One Book More!

All August wants to do is go back to his home Island and bury his mother. He left everything behind fourteen years ago when he was blamed for Lily’s death. He and his mom left after the town blamed him without actual evidence. They uprooted their lives and he left behind the love of his life- Emery. Of course, when he gets back to town they start to riot. They don’t want to relive the memories and don’t want a killer around. He just wants to bury his mom, sell the house, and leave. Things never go as planned and the longer he stays, the more questions arise. With Emery’s help, they start to look into what else this town is hiding.

This book was fabulous! I couldn’t put it down and the mystery was just so well done. Young did an amazing job creating such an eerie atmosphere. If you love reading spooky and intense books during Halloween, you need this!! It’s the perfect book to capture that mood. I can’t stress how perfectly she does this! Everything was so vivid and clear, it felt like I was watching a movie.

One of my favorite things about Young is the way she can create such compelling characters. From the very beginning, I loved Emery. She’s had such a hard life but at the same time feels stuck. She stopped living after August left and she just can’t seem to move forward. The sparks these two have are off the charts! I loved the way they just couldn’t help but hang onto one another. They had such a tragic love story but I was pulling for them the whole way.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book. This island is scary and I don’t know that I ever want to visit one, ever! The way these characters would go to any length to protect their secrets kept me on the edge of my seat. I remember that Julie and I had several messages back and forth with a lot of exclamation points. It was intense but so good. The only gripe I have about this book is the ending. I don’t want to get into it because I don’t do spoilers here. I just had a lot of issues with it for more than one reason.

Overall, this was a great adult debut for Young. It was different than what I normally get from her YA but I was all for it. She did a fantastic job creating wonderful characters, a creepy atmosphere, and a story that will be hard to forget! If you love any of her work, I think you will love this one too.

Many thanks to Netgally and Delacorte Press for an e-ARC to review!