This was absolutely phenomenal.

 

It started kind of slowly, let me admit. I was a little worried at first that it was going to remain slow and that it was all going to suddenly spike to an unsatisfactory conclusion, like many a thriller/horror I have read. These fears were completely unfounded. The pacing was perfect, and the thrills and scares were real. It was a mind-bending story, and in the end, you're left to form your own conclusions about exactly what happened, without every feeling like anything is being withheld from you.

 

It is a found-footage style novel, with diary entries and videotaped segments and interviews, and it is very clear from the beginning that something pretty terrible happened, though what happened is a lot less clear for a very long time. I adore that format, though I often feel like it is not done well. This utilized it perfectly to tell a complex story without the reader feeling like an outsider but without forcing a specific understanding on you.

 

The characters were fascinating studies. I'm still toying in my head with how I feel about each of them, and with what was really going on with several of them in the end. Additional details about their lives were very carefully scattered throughout the novel that would shine a light on another aspect of each that I had never considered, so my understanding would suddenly shift. Who was crazy? Was anyone crazy? Is something paranormal happening? What on earth was going on?

 

It was a good kind of confusion, however: I became desperate to know what kind of ending we were heading towards, and who was going to come out of this in the end. Kaitlyn's diary is absolutely compelling once things start to get creepy. This would probably make a great movie, but it scared me enough just as a book that I was reading it in the car (I couldn't put it down, okay?) and my boyfriend unlocked the doors on his way back out from the grocery store and the sound made me drop my Kindle in sheer fright. I was positive something was coming to get me.

 

I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, so I'm trying to be very careful with what I say, but if you are interested in YA horror and the idea of found-footage style sounds intriguing, this is absolutely a book you need to read. I'll be watching  Dawn Kurtagich very closely and seeing what else she comes out with, because I'm extremely impressed. I've been looking for scares, and I finally found something that delivered.

 

This book was provided to me for free by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.