2 Star Review

This book immediately intrigued me by the spookiness of the cover and the synopsis, I was definitely getting Friday the 13th vibes. I was expecting to read something so horrifying that I would have nightmares and be forced to sleep with my lights on, head tucked tight under my covers. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for me with this book.

Beth has left her hometown to move to New York City after her father passes away from suicide and to get away from her neurotic mother that tries to control her entire life. There she meets Anthony Marino who she is low-key obsessed with after watching his movie (even though she tries to play it off that she hasn’t seen it). As her luck would have it, Anthony is filming a new movie and is in need of an actress and she auditions and receives the part. After arriving at a private island and realizing there’s no script and there are cameras literally everywhere Beth starts to feel hesitant about this movie and her part as a pawn in all of it.

I kept waiting for something exciting to happen as they were supposed to be filming a horror-esque movie but most of the book was very slow and nothing too exciting happened. It wasn’t until the end when things started to really pick up and get twisty but I wasn’t impressed by any of the twists, I was expecting more of a heart racing, whirlwind thriller and this one fell flat.

Beth’s character irritated me throughout the book with how naive and obtuse she was being. I understand she was still reeling from her father’s death and trying to make it on her own but girlfriend’s radar was telling her things weren’t right a lot in this book and she chose to ignore it all. I also didn’t understand her obsession with Anthony. He was so cocky and self-centered with a certain “charisma” that I guess was appealing to her but turned me off from his as a character.

The idea behind this story is why I’m giving it two stars instead of one, the premise was great but the follow-through didn’t work for me.

*Many thanks to Berkley Books and NetGalley for the free copy for my review*