I hated this book. The animal torture certainly contributed to this, but I do understand when it's in books about killers if it's used effectively. This was not. The descriptions seemed to become excessive and gratuitous. Then there were the pov switches. They felt awkwardly placed. Also, I normally don't question book designations too much, since they're subjective, but in no way is this meant for a young adult audience. Do not recommend. In fact, I wish I could unread it.

This book was not really for me. I wanted to love this novel but the abuse (people and animal) was too much for me and I just could not continue. The writing is great and it was an interesting idea. I just think it could have used a little more work.

Imagine waking up at the bottom of an enclosed space several feet below the earth, in the middle of the night. No light, no idea how that happened, no ladder to get yourself out of there.

Just you. And darkness. And probably an unknown creepy crawly. And some bones of a dead something. HOW DO YOU DO?? I’d panic. I’m a claustrophobic person and it truly TRULY sucks to be in one.

For Ari Sullivan, survival is key. Well, panic first, then find ways to get the heck out of that frightful cistern she was dropped in by someone. As her head was hit, it was literally and figuratively a pain to tell who was behind it all. Her memories were like cutout paper, missing bits and pieces here and there. But for now, she needs to climb out of that hole and figure out the next move later… while her sadistic artist of a captor goes on a couple of silent killing spree, running around town with little notice from its citizens. Ari needs to unravel the mystery before someone becomes a museum-worthy masterpiece of blood and gore.

The way the story flowed was wonderful. A good pacing was set and I found it easy to follow through the story. There were two alternative narratives in this story, as the blurb had mentioned: the predator and its prey. The hunt was a tango with one an expert, the other an apprentice. It was such an entertaining dance that I just had to keep my eyes open.

The story kept me intrigued with who was it that set the dominoes going. When reading mysterious, suspenseful stories, I always keep in mind the thought, “Always watch out for the most innocent, shortest dialogue, and smallest scene type of character”. I should’ve known but I didn’t expect to fall in that trap! Darn it.

This genre is still relatively new for me and this book is such a good book that was able to capture my attention just right.

Blood Will Out is great for light reading and will keep you guessing and wondering who truly is the suspect.

Unfortunately, this book was not a good match for me, and I will decline to review. I hope plenty of other readers find it more compatible, and thank you for the opportunity to review!

A Thriller that is stereotypical at its very best, Blood Will Out is a crazy mismatch of violent characters, trashy writing and animal abuse. The plot gives a classic mystery novel where the protagonist is trying to outrun her kidnapper. But the characters and the world the author has created are shallow, with no potential for development.
The writing takes the story to an all-time low, especially with sentences that don’t seem to fit with each other. The ending was predictable and the story didn’t really feel like a chase. It can rather be called a monologue or a sad story being told by dozing grandmas’ who are terrible at storytelling.
Blook Will Out definitely didn’t work out for. All the elements are either misplaced, missing or irrelevant and overall, this was a total waste of time.

It was too scary for me. I'm sure a lot of people would like this. The book was written well and I think it would've been great if I wasn't so easily scared. I hope the book does well and I may pick it up some other time when I have prepared myself more.

I am a sucker for multiple points of view, and this book really delivered on that. I liked being able to read from both Ari and the killers perspective. It made for a well rounded and engaging story. This thriller was definitely that, and I enjoyed the ride. I would recommend this book to others who are a fan of thrillers with a little bit of domestic elements

This was a book I finished a few months ago yet wasn't sure even how to put a review into words. The characters were flawed. They lacked substance. It was a read that is dubbed a thriller but lacked the the "thrill" it only gave you the "errrrr....." if you know what I mean. Sadly, I have to give Blood Will Out only 1 star.

I want to extend my gratitude to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC and offer my unbiased opinion.

Blood Will Out is the bloody and dark horror thriller by Jo Treggiari that will take everything you thought you knew about YA thrillers and throw it away. The book follows Ari Sullivan, a girl who wakes up at the bottom of a well injured and alone. With no one to hear her screams except the person who put her there, she’s not sure she will be able to get out. But as someone who used to spend her days fantasizing over her crush and their future together, Ari begins to realize that she might not be the killer’s intended victim, and that getting out of the well may be the least of her worries.
This was definitely and interesting book. Treggiari wrote a plot perfect for those aspiring sleuths who love examining every angle of the crime. From the start, she flings potential suspects at the reader, adding to the atmosphere of confusion that the author built up. I loved how the author kept this tone consistent throughout the book, making sure everything had her signature touch. Even the flashback scenes of happy times the author included, had this dark air to it.
I also fell in love with the murder’s point of view. Though it did feature some animal abuse, which readers easily triggered should be weary of, the rest of their perspective was still quite entertaining. This is especially so as the author wrote those gruesome details to add to the realism of the book (which I later found out through her guest post featured below). I loved getting into their mind as they told their story, something the killers of stories don’t often get to do. It was also interesting to follow them as they got to where they were during the events of the story, with Ari.
Lastly, I loved the setting of the book. Set in a dark and mysterious small town where things were bound to go wrong, I love how the author put a new twist on it. Because of her writing style, things just felt so much more real then they often do with other small-town set books.
If you are a fan of spine tingling thrillers, this book is definitely for you. But be warned that there are scenes where blood and gore are mentioned along with graphic descriptions of animal abuse. Though, these themes are not frequent through the book, they do occur in a few significant spots. Because of this, I would recommend this book for older readers of at least 16 years of age.

Released in the summer, “Blood Will Out” is a dark YA thriller that is sure to grab the attention of readers - both teen and adult. Seventeen year old Ari is trapped in a cistern while the man who kidnaped her bides his time. While Ari previously lead the life of a typical teenager with mean girl drama, crushes, and homework, our antagonist is the opposite of typical - he is a crazed serial killer.

Described as “Silence of the Lambs” for young adults, this teen thriller is an addictive and engrossing read perfect for the upcoming Halloween season. With descriptive writing that tempts the senses and a fleshed out main characters readers can easily imagine and will grow to care for, this dark and at times disturbing book will unnerve even the most ardent dark mystery lover.

I really wanted to love Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari, like I want to love every book I pick up, but especially once I got to the end and read the author bio only to learn that Treggiari actually lives in Nova Scotia (ie: not that far from me). Sadly, I had a lot of issues with this dark YA thriller about a girl, Ari, who wakes up at the bottom of well and reflects back on the days leading up to in an attempt to determine who put her there and when they are coming back…

While there were some moments of intensity in Blood Will Out, overall the book really dragged. For a thriller, it felt like nothing was happening, it was just Ari in the well and a bunch of boring flashbacks. Ari herself was also pretty boring and hard to root for, though I did like the strong female friendship in the book. In addition to Ari’s perspective, there were passages written from the perspective of her abductor, which were incredibly graphic with a lot of animal violence. The killer felt like such a stereotypical serial killer it was really annoying. I mean, Ari even looks up a list of characteristics and it matches pretty perfectly. There is one main twist at the end, but it was just frustrating and out of nowhere in the context of the book. Unfortunately, overall, Blood Will Out was a disappointing read for me.

A gripping, tormenting mystery from Page 1.

Ari is a true survivor. She goes through a truly horrific ordeal, suffered immensely, nearly gave up hope over and over, but somehow managed to get herself out of it all to make it home again. Her heroism is so inspiring, because she refuses to be a victim. Though this terrible, frightening thing has happened to her, though it threatens to break her, however much she may be tempted in the darkest moments, she will not back down. She scrapes and claws her way up and out, such is her determination to go home.

While she is in the darkness, she struggles to remember what all has happened and how she came to be there. The memories are slow to return to her, thanks to a traumatic head wound she received. Her story is so compelling, the reader feels like they are suffering with her, and desperately reaching for that next memory, too, trying to create a whole picture out of jumbled pieces.

Once she gets home, a new horror begins. Her best friend, who she thought of constantly during her ordeal, hasn't come to see her. Why not? She put out their secret message letting her friend know she needs her. Where is she? What's happened? Nobody will believe Ari that something is wrong, though. They attribute all of her worry and fear to PTSD after her trauma. Yet again, though, she refuses to back down.

Someone has done this to her, and someone - probably the same someone - has done something to her best friend. Ari takes a hard look at her town and her school and considers who it could be. The only question, for her, is can she figure the mystery out in time to save her beloved best friend?

Blood Will Out is such a wild ride of a story, the reader will be left gasping for breath at the end. The smallest details are so important, yet they're so innocuous as to be completely overlooked until it's almost too late. Treggiari has sculpted an absolute masterpiece here.

I had an advanced ARC of this book which I finally read when I had some offtime. The book is published now and in stores all over. It was cool to see it on the shelf when I was taking a stroll through book heaven.

I really loved this book. It starts with the main character trapped in a cistern and just keeps the suspense coming. I pictured myself in this situation and I give props to Ari because she is a beast for everything that she goes through. It was easy to relate with her because she is a swimmer/lifeguard and we both love the smell of chlorine (I have so many lifeguard sweaters that I have lost count).

I don't see how this book only got a mediocre rating on Goodreads. I thought it was so good. It was a story full of layers that kept slowly unraveling as you went. I thought I knew who the killer was and changed my mind 3 different times to still be surprised at the end.

Jesse was a character I related with. He was the creepy dude that was kind of just did his own thing and was just a blip in the main characters life. A shadow that is there but not seen. Lynn was really fun too. She just stood up for herself and what she believed in and didn't let anyone tell her otherwise. She and Ari have a strong bond and a friendship that you know will last.

If you wish to see my reaction to the ending, check out my blog post where I have the spoiler viewable. You can find it at this link: https://breakevenbooks.com/2018/08/28/book-review-blood-will-out/.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants a suspenseful, intense, action-packed adventure that will scare you to your core. It actually made me feel like I was watching a scary movie in my head when I was reading this masterpiece. Haters can hate but this book was phenomenal! Enjoy it bookworms. Seriously, buy this book! You will love it. Or get scared but it will be worth the thrill.

Penguin Teen and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Blood Will Out. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Ari Sullivan awoke to find herself in unfamiliar surroundings, hurt but not dangerously so, and totally oblivious as to how she got there. When Ari realizes that she is in a cistern, with the cover on, the events of the moments before slowly start coming back. Will she be able to free herself or will things go from bad to worse for the young woman?

Blood Will Out is told in two perspectives; that of Ari and that of an unknown person. I did not find this writing strategy to be overly successful, as it ruined the continuity of the story. The author does paint quite a picture of a psychopath, as it is a chilling portrayal of a decent into madness. I just wish that the author had found a better way of conveying both parts of the story in a clear and concise manner.

*I received an ARC of this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Okay, so after finishing this book I had to take a little break to properly think about the twists and turns in it. Afterward I searched for other peoples opinions and was shocked by the bad response and misunderstanding of this book.
Ill give you the synopsis again, so you can see, that we really were prepared for that book to be a handful to handle:

„She wakes at the bottom of a cistern, confused, injured and alone, with only the shadowy recollection of a low-pitched voice and a gloved hand. No one can hear her screams. And the person who put her there is coming back. The killer is planning a gruesome masterpiece, a fairytale tableau of innocence and blood, meticulously designed.
Until now, Ari was happy to spend her days pining for handsome, recent-arrival Stroud Bellows, fantasizing about their two-point-four-kids-future together. Safe in her small hometown of Dempsey Hollow. But now her community has turned very dangerous—and Ari may not be the only intended victim.“

In my opinion it was a great Psychothriller and I had no idea who was the murderer until the very end. And thats what a good thriller is about for me. The research was on point and the author wove some of the most important signs and tips together in the story, and still I had no idea what happened to me and Ari. (Thats a strange one for me, because my name is „Ari“ too, maybe the experience was more fearful for me because of that fact :D )

We are thrown into the story and only know what Ari experiences and what the murderer knows, without any idea who it could be. The story is gruesome and bloody, exciting and super surprising in my point of view! The writing was fluent (and as many reviewers haven’t realized here, ranting about the format and grammar, is, that this was still an uncorrected proof and therefore wasn’t ready for grammatical judgement ;))

I loved, how the book was more about friendship than love, and that the reader was so often missleaded. You believe deeply in what Ari believes, even if she is completely wrong. Also there is a homosexual main character and thats always a pro!

BUT there are also some problematic parts, which haven’t bothered me as much (because yes one of the POVs was a psychotic mass murderer and what do we expect from those?), but was a breaking point for a lot of other readers:

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ANIMAL ABUSE

(I don’t want to tell you more about that specific topic, because if you hate hurt animal in books, please just don’t read this book.) For everyone else: A lot of mass murderers began with murdering and torturing animals so in my opinion it was just a research fact the author used for the benefit of the story.

All in all I enjoyed reading this book a lot!

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I normally don't do this before I read a book, but I happened to glance at people's reviews of this book before I started it. So needless to say, I was expecting a terrible read. When I didn't hate it after 40 pages, I was impressed and I found myself totally engaged in the storyline and I absolutely needed to find out what was happening and who was responsible.
It was very violent and graphic when discussing animal slaughter but you can't read a book about a serial killer and not expect violent and vivid descriptions. They definitely weren't the worst things I've read.
I had mixed feelings about the ending. I felt some confusion with how things were left with the main characters, however I was satisfied with another characters ending (I don't want to give it away).
I thought it was a decent book and I enjoyed it. I think this author's writing style is going to get better and evolve and I would definitely check out more books by her.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I remember very little about this book, other than I really hated it.

And was really disappointed because I was really looking forward to it as well. The weird title caught my eye when browsing on Netgalley, Pitched on the Netgalley page as ‘Silence of the Lambs’ for YA readers, that got my attention immediately as Silence of the Lambs is one of my all-time favourite movies.

Unfortunately for me, this book was just awful. Every serial killer cliché in the book. And an annoying heroine. The writing didn’t grab my attention and everything about it was very mediocre and boring. I wasn’t immersed in the mystery, after the first 20% or so I was quick reading and skimming just to know what the hell was going on.

To be fair at least when the novel starts the girl who’s the victim, Ari wakes up to find herself trapped in an empty cistern. Her panic is believable, and she is actually fairly resourceful in trying to figure out how to get out of there.

The narrative chapters flash back and forth between Ari waking up in the cistern and remembering what happened earlier that day trying to figure out what happened and who put her there. There’s also eye rollingly clichéd chapters from the killers point of view – the killer is isolated, has potentially abusive parents, forced to work hard on a farm, discovers very early on in life cruelty to small animals which is horribly depicted.

From then on, it gets kind of stupid and really boring.

The characters have no redeeming features, there was nothing outstanding about any of them. There was a twist when the true killer was revealed I actually didn’t guess. There’s quite a few red herrings thrown in as Ari goes through her suspect list, which should have been kind of obvious. Too bad the rest of the killer’s point of view were tropes so done and overused.

Just can’t really think of anything positive to say about this book really. Or anything much at all to say really. Not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for approving my request to view the title.

2.5 Stars

***Trigger warnings for graphic violence, animal abuse, gore

What I liked:

The story started in a really engaging and mysterious way. We know that the main character wakes up injured and terrified, with no memory of how she got there and no way of getting out.

The killer’s POV has tremendous back story and is ridiculously graphic. You truly gain insight into the crazed mind of this serial killer-how the proclivities developed, the transformation from minor fixation to full-blown obsession. It’s both sickening and fascinating.

A twist that was so unexpected, I’m not sure that what I thought was the twist wasn’t actually a twist within a twist. By the end, I was still uncertain.

What I disliked:

Despite the rollercoaster of a start, the pacing was slow. I skimmed through page after page, where there was so much unnecessary detail that it extended scenes for pages that should have been much shorter. The sentence structure was also weird and oddly scientific.

SO MUCH GRAPHIC VIOLENCE. If you are an animal lover, steer far, far away. If you are at all queasy when it comes to blood, slicing, dissection, anything of that nature, quickly step away from this book and don’t look back.

The main character is dull. Predictable. Makes some choice decisions that will leave you wanting to throw things across the room. When the reveal comes where you find out how Ari ended up in the cistern, it’s really no surprise with her poor decision-making skills. Completely naive and judgmental to her detriment. Also explosive anger, crude and misogynistic insults.

This is definitely a book I wish I hadn't read.

It wasn't enjoyable, it didn't have all the elements a good thriller should have, and as for the writing, well, I think this book should have been redrafted a few more times and edited a couple more, before eventually being published.

In terms of plot, this book felt boring, slow-paced and, honestly, quite predictable. Also, I thought I were the only one who paid attention to that, but there were other readers as well mentioning there's homophobic content in this book and I was like "Really?". We live in 2018 and stuff like that shouldn't be acceptable!

Also, the concept of demonising mentally ill people has gotten so old and so boring that I feel like thrillers and horror books (and movies) should find a new, spontaneous way to frighten us. This doesn't work anymore.

Overall, this book wasn't pleasant by any means. It was just... boring and very, very, very problematic.

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2 Cookies

First off I wanted to say I think the author did a really good job with the actual writing. I didn't see any grammar issues, and thought it was a good start. However, I think there were a few things that could have been done to really improve the writing overall.

Cons:(start with the bad...)
I wanted to start with the fact that I didn't like the animal slaughter. It was really hard for me to read. I was cringing half the book mainly because of this. You can't really skip over it either because it gives the characters their personalities? I don't know I guess thats what you call it. Another thing I didn't like, and maybe this was just personally, was I just didn't find anything very interesting. It was a book I had to force myself through. I had such high hopes when I read this last year and I feel let down.

Pros:(end on a good note!)
Overall I think the author had something going. The author did have a pretty good idea. It just needed to have been executed a bit better.