The Thicket by Noelle W. IhliMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Really enjoyed the story, but it was definitely an underwhelming finish.
It begins with murder, and we leap pretty quickly into the viewpoint of the killer, so there's not a whole lot of mystery there.
This is more about how one deals with grief and guilt, as the sister of one of the victims is our main protagonist. She feels responsible for what happened to her brother, and she doesn't quite know how to move on. So she re-visits the site of the murder - The Thicket - hoping to find closure, but gets more than she bargained for.
The Thicket of the title is a Halloween spectacle, full of terror and twists that have people screaming constantly. It includes haunted horror cabins and a spooky corn maze, plus food trucks that sell mini-doughnuts because that is also important.
We get a few different eyes on things - the sister, Norah, her classmate, Taylor, and of course, the Killer. It gives us a well-rounded look at the thing, from victim, perpetrator and bystander. I enjoyed that aspect of this story, because it did help really round it out.
Naturally, the killer comes back for round 2, otherwise this wouldn't be much of a horror story. What follows is underwhelming in execution, though it does feel necessary to the story.
I think maybe it was trying too hard to clean things up. My favourite part of the story was getting to know the characters, and how they all felt about the initial murder. The rest felt inevitable and it was fun enough but it just didn't quite hit the mark.
Still, a great Halloween read with a great setting and some interesting character exploration.
With thanks to NetGalley for a copy
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