Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: March 5th, 2024
Pages: 288
Publisher: Delacorte Press
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived in London for the summer, and quickly discovers that girls who look frighteningly like her are being attacked.
Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! Nonetheless, there’s something eerie about the museum…
As present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realizes that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?”
My Review:
I have mixed feelings about this one. There are things that I really loved and some that didn’t work so well for me.
The concepts of this story are so good. I love the supernatural elements and the lore behind the mystery. I enjoyed the setting, especially the Victorian museum.
There are some really terrifying scenes that I wish had more page time to really ramp up the creep factor.
I like a fast-paced story, but there were some elements that went by at break-neck speed and needed more time to develop, more time for us to really engage and experience what was happening.
I even really liked the characters. But overall it lacked a certain amount of depth that I would have liked. I wanted things to be more fleshed out, like the relationships and some of the explanations for things.
Without giving any spoilers, I found the concepts and the way things progressed/ended to be so intriguing.
I’m still torn on how to feel about it. I think it was in the delivery that I got disconnected from the story.
It is a YA, so I won’t fault it for feeling juvenile at times. But even if I was in the age-range for its intended audience, I still think that I would have found it kinda cheesy sometimes.
I think this story had a lot of potential, but didn’t necessarily come through in the execution of it.
Personally, I think it would have been a fantastic adult thriller instead.
There were a couple twists I wasn’t expecting, but for the most part it was relatively predictable.
Overall, it’s a solid three-star for me. I’m not sure if I would read something from this author again. I probably would if it wasn’t a young adult, or if it had a premise that just really grabbed my attention.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Have you read this book? Planning to add it to your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love a good book discussion. 🙂
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