Love the first half of this, which is tense and spooky and brimming with the kinds of chills that arise from knowing that the characters are doomed. Love the Dyatlov Pass references. Love the classic scene with the waitress trying to warn them. Love the anticipation building up almost unbearably until inevitably something horrible happens.

But the second half takes a turn that feels almost cartoony. Sometimes seeing the Big Scary Thing makes horror fall flat for me, and I find it scarier and more effective to languish in wtf-ery for longer. I also wish that the writing were a bit tighter, because the wordiness slows the pace down a lot. The book peters out instead of ending with a punch.

But that first half really is killer.