I thought I would like this book a bit more than I did, but I did really enjoy it while reading. I think the way it was marketed was perfect, but could have lived up to it a bit more. I will absolutely be giving this author another go.

It was a good read, however very gory. It had 2 interweaving storylines. In one Ari Sullivan wakes up in a cistern with no memories on how she reached there and in the other we get to read about the kidnapper's life and thoughts. Halfway through the book I was sure who the kidnapper was, however I was wrong. It was good to be surprised, though looking back I should have suspected the perpetrator.

A thriller to its very core, it heavily reminded me of silence of the lambs but YA,in the best way. You won't anticipate the twists and turns

This one has too many triggers for me to want to keep reading - nothing about the story or execution really worked for me.

Chillingly creepy, quite addictive and with lots of twists and turns - A real mystery.
Told from the point of view of the victim. Ari is locked up in an old cistern with no escape and doesn't know when her captor will return. As she tries to make sense of what's happened to her we learn about the circumstances leading up to her capture and are presented with a range of possible suspects.
Interspersed with Ari's chapters we hear the abductor's voice relating the events that chillingly set him/her on this path.
What doubles the chill factor of this YA novel is the setting - a sleepy town with little crime where everyone knows everyone else's business and maybe that's the problem.
Well-paced and carefully plotted Blood Will Out was an enjoyable read.

I started this book with high hopes and expected to like it. But, I found that it was not for me personally. Instead of possibly giving a bad review just based on my preferences, I choose to not review this book. I am giving it 3 stars because a rating is necessary and I don't want to mark it as a bad book per se.

NOTE: this review will contain spoilers. i am not hiding the whole thing under a spoiler warning because i'd like you to see this disclaimer - although there are spoilers, it doesn't matter because you're not going to read this book. please, don't read it. please. don't.


my first impressions were - mediocre, choppy writing. the way information is presented to us is lazy - we know ari's name because she thinks someone's calling her, even though... someone obviously isn't, and it's never addressed whether this is a hallucination or a metaphor or what. then, when ari is trying to center herself, she's like "my name is ari and i am [insert basic facts here]". this is just as bad as a character looking in the mirror and describing what they see so the reader gets a picture of what they look like.

and now for everything else, presented in a bullet point list to prevent walls of text and hopefully preserve both yours and my sanity.

- WE GET IT, ARI LIKES SWIMMING. so many times, things she likes are related back to the pool - the smell of books was almost as nice as the smell of pool chlorine, stroud's eyes are like pool water - OK, WE GET THE GODDAMN PICTURE.

- god, the flashbacks of the anonymous murderer. ridiculously cliche, and the author tries to go "oooh nature versus nurture" but instead ends up sounding like a fifteen year old on their first semester of GCSE sociology. the murderer had a horrible abusive childhood because of course he did. adding "oh, but maybe it wasn't that, maybe i was just evil all along" does NOT make this stupidass cliche any better.

- absolutely unneccesary girl-hate and body shaming. "Look at that Miranda. If I had scaly knees like that, I'd keep them covered." it's fucking horrible to put body shaming like this in books but especially ones marketed towards teenagers, who are self-conscious about every cell on their body anyway. if you have scaly knees, or scaly anything, wear whatever you like.

- ONCE again, another author who doesn't know what "psychosis" means - no, it doesn't just mean "evil and homicidal," it's a very specific psychological term and not inherently evil at all, and the persistence in using psychosis/psychotic as a synonym for psychopath only stigmatises psychotic mental illnesses even more.

- ok we get it, lynn's a lesbian. a big ol' lesbian. lesbian mclesbianface. would you mention it every 3.2 seconds if ari was straight? no, you wouldn't.

- this is one of the worst pieces of writing i've ever read. "She felt weird and sad about leaving stroud alone." THE MF IS D E A D AND THIS IS WHAT ARI'S REACTION IS? SHE FELT WEIRD AND SAD?

"- you're not a victim. you're strong, so strong" ok, but she literally IS a victim and there's nothing goddamn wrong with that, being a victim doesn't equal weakness you actual flaming pile of garbage.

- all the characters are the worst. all of them. not all of them are supposed to be, but all of them are.

- everyone's favourite trope: very specific, plot-serving amnesia! ari can remember everything except the shit relating to who the killer is. quelle. fucking. surprise.

- "do they think it's the same person who has lynn?" NO, IT'S A DIFFERENT HOMICIDAL MANIAC THAT LIVES IN YOUR VERY SMALL TOWN. jesus christ.

- the murderer was so out there it wasn't even good. we met this character for like 3 seconds, we had no emotional investment in this person at all.

tl;dr this was genuinely one of the worst books i've ever read. that will teach me to request books willy-nilly on netgalley.

This book wasn't really for me. I'm for pushing the boundaries, but this went a little too far for my liking.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I’m really sorry but once the animal torture commenced I couldn’t keep reading.

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

This book was so awesome-and so very creepy! I loved the alternating chapters between Ari and an unnamed narrator who was pretty creepy to the max. It was an entertaining and pretty fast paced read, and it's pretty short, too. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I didn't know where this book would go. After all, Ari wakes up in a cistern, and I didn't know what would happen next. And the beginning was a bit slow, setting things up, but once they were, the dominoes started to fall and didn't stop. I had to know what was going to happen next!

The other narrator, their story was compelling, but oh, so very dark. I enjoyed seeing how they progressed, even though what they were doing was absolutely wrong, I couldn't look away. Because there was also a kernel of, this might not have happened if some things had gone right in this person's life, instead of wrong. That perhaps all of this could've been avoided. And that's a little sad.

And that ending though! That was evil, that ending. Well, the last page of it was. But the climax and fallout and everything but that last page, that was so great to read. That last page though, that was just killer! Leaving it like that, oh!

This book was a great read, I really enjoyed going on this adventure with Ari.

Unfortunately I could not give this book a positive rating based on the animal murder and the demonization of mental illness.

This was not for me animal torture a big no no!! Also the book dragged for me overall a big disappointment

This thriller is very stereotypical. It is a crazy mismatch of violent characters, trashy writing and on top of that there is animal abuse which I absolutely detest. The plot has a vibe of a classic mystery novel. Here the protagonist is trying to outrun her kidnapper, but the disappointment settles when we found out that the there is no room for actual character development. If it wasn't enough, the writing was pretty much blah and there was unfitting sentences all over the place. The ending would have saved the book a little bit but that too was predictable.

The animal torture and abuse part were just some of the biggest disappointment, hence I didn't finish reading this book. There's no outstanding character or part in the story that will awe readers, and the flow of the story is too dragging and quite common. Ari, the main character, is irksome and her point of view is too bland; the conversation between the characters is also quite annoying to read.

I had high hopes before reading this because I was really intrigued by the synopsis; I even pushed myself on finishing it but I just can't seem to find any sense of why should I do it. I should not have set any expectations just because of how I love reading young adult fiction and just because of the plot of the story.

Honestly, I was impressed by the way the writer made the story of Blood Will Out. The story is made with a changing perspective between Ari and the killer. Very thrilling, when the author makes details of the murder that is rude and gripping.
The killer is really cold blooded. Created to be a character who has no emotions, sympathy, and cruelty. Actually this is also a very terrible thing because of that I really imagined the killer.
The story does flow smoothly and well. The emotions of the characters involved are also quite bound. I imagined Ari, and was so scared. It's hard to find out who the killer is, but there's always a smart clue from Jo Treggiari.

Ok so going into this book, I was not expecting alot, but after 4 pages, it just didn't hook me at all. I would also say I tried to read something out of comfort zone and this didn't do any justice for me. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this. But so am hoping that later on, I will jump back into it, once I'm in a thriller mood.

This was not my cup of tea. The premise was engaging, but the main character felt undeveloped. Her personality and actions would change pretty drastically for a regular teen throughout the novel, which made it feel like perhaps the author wasn't completely set on who this character should be. The ending was very very rushed and resolved too nicely for the plot of the book. There were several un-true to life moments (like everyone calling a DECEASED character by a nickname that only the MC and her best friend use, instead of his real name). This just wasn't a strong enough book for the premise.

I unfortunately couldn't finish this book. I read the blurb and it drew me in as it sounded like a sort of mystery / thriller. However, I struggled to empathise with the protagonist. Her girlishness also clashed with her situation and it made me uncomfortable to read about it. The POVS about the guy the who captured her in his early life was also difficult to read for me, because it was gruesome at times and also I couldn't empathise with him. I don't think he is a character to empathise with, but I need a reason to want to read about him.

This was all my own opinion and I'm sure other people will find this story interesting. It just wasn't to my tastes.

Blood Will Out is a standalone suspense mystery novel, also classified as a horror story. Jo Treggiari has made herself famous for her earlier YA novel, Ashes, Ashes, which I haven't read. Yet. Anyways, we get two POVs in Blood Will Out - murderer's (mostly flashbacks) and Ari, who is kidnapped and is supposed to be the victim. It kinda works during the story. It keeps suspense level up and you are still wondering who the killer is. I couldn't personally figure it out - eventhough I had a list of suspects. Never saw it coming though.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is fond of animals and cannot stand hurting them because our killer is obsessed with hurting and torturing animals (pigs, cats, dogs etc.). I am animal lover myself and I had a hard time to read through the scenes like that. But I understand it's part of story and I shouldn't be complaining about that. I enjoyed the twisted flashbacks from murderer's past. That shows how much twisted I am. Anyways, I liked it. Even Ari's moments after waking up at the well. After one certain point I got a little bit bored and I didn't enjoy it as much as I did before. I can understand Ari's feelings though.

Characters were quite enjoyable, at least for Ari, Lynn and the killer. I hated Stroud though and the jock clique as well. Idiots. I wish we got even more Ari/Lynn friendship, because it was beautiful. I am also glad this book didn't have almost any romance - that would be a waste of potential.

Moreover, it was an enjoyable read and I'd recommend it to anyone who might be interested in this type of genre.