From the beginning, the story was horrible. This was a second chance for the author, I had read The Lake previously and I did not enjoy it. The synopsis sounded so good. People talking about their fears and then they suddenly die that way? Tell me more!

But all of the characters were bland, one deminsional, Natasha Preston somehow managed to make every single one feel unecessary. The personalities portrayed, felt like someone from high school 15 years ago try to write gen z. And the main girl? She has that annoying "I'm not like other girls" and "pick me girl" attitude that I could not gel with.

Also, what is with throwing random crushes or relationships in just for the sake of having them? They might be teens, but it's perfectly fine for there to be no love interest, especially when that love interest has no weight on the story?? It was so...cringe.

So we get our first murder. What's with these kids having the most random, irrational fears for death? Being pushed off a building? And the way the main character and her friends just *stumble* into the crime scene? Come on now. And the police interrogation? What the heck was that? It was written like Natasha Preston had never watched tapes of actual interrogations. The parents reactions? There was literally no loving connection between them and the main character or any of the others. I didn't realize it was so hard to write human emotion.

Anyways, I forced myself to get halfway through and I DNF'd this book. I skipped to the end and it was the most obvious killer and the most obvious motive. You knew who it was as soon as main girl brings them up in the first chapter. Another promising synopsis, another complete letdown.