When Mindy McGinnus puts pen to paper i know the story will be extraordinary.  This is no exception, and DAMN you for making we wait for book 2 when book one isn’t even out yet.  Now that that is out of my system…

Friends drift apart.  It’s natural, it happens, especially when transitioning between grades.  However, there is a difference between drifting and being torn apart. In this case the tear is a set of missing parents, and a ride home that never made it there.  

Tess is a parentless girl.  She now lives in the “white trash zoo” with a poor excuse for a grandfather. She has an important family name and family line Montor, but she is no longer important, just a girl on the fringes of society who acts as a punching bag for those who see themselves as her betters.

Felicity turnado, may not have the name, but her family has the money.  As long as they don’t show it off too much that is.  Felicity was present when Tess’s parents disappeared but remembers none of it.  She knows she is the reason Tess is a pirah, but between her secret health issues, mistrust of others around her, and her want to remain at the top of the social ladder, she is a mess.  

Then Halloween happens and a grand master plan kicks off.  However, Halloween is not just Halloween.  There is some flu going around the town, and they have canceled everything, including football games and dances.  But teens will be teens and the party must go on.  But unknown to a lot of them, there has been an escapee from the local zoo, who stalks his prey and will get what they want, blood and all.  

This story is super unique. There are so many things going one.  The story is told in multiple points of view including the view of the animals at the zoo.  I was privileged to listen to this as an audiobook.  And even though the narrator was an AI reader, it didn’t matter.  I was hooked.  I binged it and could not stop.  I had to know what happened next!!!  I still need to know what happens next.  This book is one of the best horror/thriller books for YA I have ever read, and I can't shut up about it.  It’s not out til Feb 23, but add it to your TBR, put your preorder in, or ask your library to buy it, because I can guarantee you don’t want to miss this book.