Whew, that was dark at points and super suspenseful! This one gets ALL the trigger warnings, but if you've ever wanted Deliverance or Wrong Turn + a revenge story in a novel, this is going to be right up your alley. Not only does it keep you on the edge of your seat, but Kealan manages to craft characters so well. There's a fairly large cast to the story, yet each of them had their own clear motives (good or bad), and it's easy to feel some type of way about them all, whether you're rooting for their success or their imminent dismembering.

I think my favorite thing about Kin (besides the delightfully badass character that is Beau) is the fact that it's so immersive, it genuinely played out in my head like a horror film. It was so easy to imagine every scene (though sometimes, I didn't want to imagine things—looking at you, "rebirth"...) and feel like I was right there watching it all unfold. Seriously, if this novel ever gets optioned into a film or miniseries, I'll be right there on premiere night, soaking it all in.

The only reason this got 4.5 stars instead of 5 from me is that the middle of the story dragged a bit for me; while I appreciated how well we got to know the characters and to see the grief and trauma that had wreaked havoc upon these people's lives, part of me was constantly impatiently awaiting the return to the action. That said, that's totally a personal preference sort of thing, and with that in mind, it makes it such an easy decision to round this up to 5 stars here on Goodreads.

Content warnings for... uh, everything? Explicit violence, sexual assault, kidnapping, death, suicide, torture, racism, homophobia, list goes on. This one is not for the light of heart (or queasy of stomach).