Cover Image: Blood Will Out

Blood Will Out

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

The synopsis of this book really caught my attention and I was really excited to read it. However, I do have to say that I was fairly disappointed by the book. This is a fairly typical thriller; a girl gets kidnapped and then is desperately trying to get away from the kidnapper. This book was extremely slow and it just really dragged on. The beginning of the book was honestly the best part, as it actually did catch my attention.
This was compared to Silence of the Lambs, which is not accurate at all. I was also not a fan of the author's writing at all and the I felt like the first half of the book, nothing really happened. The story is told in the present tense, but we do get some flashbacks that tell some of the backstory. I read a lot of suspense or thrillers and this was just a really poorly written book. I also really don't like it when authors use words like insane when describing someone who actually had a mental illness. Insane is not a diagnostic term, nor is an actual mental illness. Now if you want to describe a character as a sociopath, that is an actual diagnosis. You have to be very careful when you are adding mental illness into a fictional book. Authors very rarely do it correctly.
Overall, I was not a fan of this book. The plot was extremely slow and boring and the writing was also not my favorite.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin, for sending me an ARC of this book.

Was this review helpful?

I was not impressed and don't feel it's appropriate to post a review on either blog.

Was this review helpful?

What type of crap is this? Such an interesting title for a book but nothing to do with the story. The MC (Ari?) wakes up in well or something like that because she has been kidnapped. From there, up to 40% where I could manage to read, NOTHING happens.

Nobody is lookinh for her. Hell, nobody even knew she was missing. Pages go on and on about Ari remembering her life and back to the present to "where am I?"

Back to remembering happy timea with friends and shit. Back to the same hole and shit. Back to remembering... you see my point. I could not continue torturing myself with story.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

Was this review helpful?

This book was nothing like I expected. Blood will out starts with Ari Sullivan, trapped and fearful. The killer is coming back for her. How did she get here? How does she escape? Eventually bloodied, bruised she managed to free herself. But nothing is as it seems as the killer wants her dead at any cost. Her best friend disappeared, her crush and a creepy loner guy all in same month. With a race against the killer and a fight for Ari's life, will she survive? This book alternates her point of view and the killers. It is hard to follow, know who is speaking. Overall not a bad read, just way too much blood and I didn't connect with any characters. Plus killer was way too obvious. 2/5.

Was this review helpful?

I tend to think that trigger warnings can be quite silly, because you should read everything, but in this case I wish I had known that this novel is full of animal abuse. Yes, we're talking about a serial killer... they have to learn somewhere and it is known that pets are the preferred victims of any burgeoning murderer. Yes, this one is also targeting teens, but violence toward animals is unbearable to me and it may be influencing my opinion of the whole book. So, please, take my review with a huge grain of salt. That said, I didn't much care for the heroine and I saw the culprit coming a mile away. I kept thinking that maybe I was the wrong reader, this seems to be a YA book but, in that case, there is way too much profanity (and, obviously violence). Again, I may just be the wrong reader. The story is entertaining enough.

Was this review helpful?

I hate to give this book another low rating, but it just wasn’t that great. And I think the author could definitely learn from the mistakes of Blood Will Out and write a really great second novel (maybe not in the thriller genre).

First off, the formatting is horrible. There are sentences with weird spacing, and still several grammatical errors, but I can look past that.

What I can’t look past is how boring the book is. Especially in the beginning. The main character Ari, is trapped in a cistern (large hole) for a THIRD of the book. To me that was entirely too long for her to be trapped in a “gripping” thriller. For the same reason 127 Hours wasn’t as popular as it could have been with a man stuck between rocks for the whole movie, Ari stuck in a hole for a third of the book was equally boring. And not as inspiring.

Another issue I had, was the killer was very cliche. In the beginning we’re not sure who the killer is, but we get a lot of their backstory, and it felt overused and a little fake. For example, the killer’s parents are extreme Christians and make the killer read the Bible, and provide whippings. OH AND THEY ALSO LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. And I don’t want to give anything away, but the killer has to do “some things” to get work, and there was never a moment where they were affected by it, or decided because of that, their victims were going to fit a certain profile.

The killer reveal also wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been. You know when you find out who the killer is and then everything in the whole galaxy just clicks into place? There was none of that.

Also, I may be stupid, but I didn’t understand the title. There’s a section that “explains” it, but after reading it several times, I still didn’t see why that specific phrase was chosen.

And the last thing I want to touch on were the character developments. Mostly, there were none. None of the pages of backstory added up to anything, which made it seem like filler. And there really wasn’t any great lesson learned, or any great change the main characters made, you know, after almost dying...

Was this review helpful?

This book has been described as 'Silence of the Lambs for young adults' and that description was enough to get my interest. I love YA thrillers and I found this a tense, intriguing read overall, although the comparison with 'Silence of the Lambs' is a hard one to live up to.

I enjoyed the alternating perspectives between Ari and the killer's viewpoints, as it's not something I've seen done in many YA books. Some readers might find the killer's sections disturbing, especially in relation to animal cruelty. I felt that overall the killer's backstory added another dimension to the story, offering clues about who they might be.

The plot kept my interest and had some scary and unexpected twists. In my opinion, some of the characters' motivations were a little hard to follow, but I found Ari's reactions to the events convincing and I rooted for her as a character.

I read this book in a short time because the overarching mystery kept my interest and there were some tense moments. I'd recommend this if you're a fan of YA thrillers and I'll definitely look out for more books by Jo Treggiari.

Was this review helpful?

Blood Will Out is a super creepy serial killer book. Ari wakes at the bottom of a cistern, injured, with no memory of how she got there. I spent most of the book trying to figure out the killer and was surprised by the ending. I think that the alternating points of view were extremely effective, even though the killer's chapters didn't help me discover the identity of the killer. I worry that the descriptions might be a bit too graphic for some of our younger high school readers, but this book will definitely appeal to our older readers.

Was this review helpful?

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The books description had much potential, but I did not like this book at all. Its always hard being honest, when I dont like a book.

First, the formatting, grammar, spelling and overuse of words is a complete distraction and can ruin the best of books. Please look into this before publication

Secondly, was this book YA or not?

Most importantly, if you are going to deal with serious themes- animals, murder, mental illness it needs to be done right, appropriately , and fit right into the storyline - which is hopefully a good one.

Would not recommend this book

Was this review helpful?

Really not for me, I struggle with alternating viewpoints unless they are very carefully written. I did not finish.

Was this review helpful?

When Ari wakes up at the bottom of a well with no memory of how she got there, her fight or flight instinct kicks in and she goes into survival mode. After she manages to escape from the well and is rescued by the police, they arrest a suspect and Ari's case is wrapped up nice and neat with a shiny bow. Except, now Ari's best friend Lynn is missing an no one believes Ari's suspicions about a serial killer being loose in their nice and quiet town. So Ari takes it upon herself to play cat and mouse with a serial killer and she just might find herself caught in a deadly trap.

This story kept me guessing and I never even suspected the person who turned out to be the culprit. I enjoyed seeing the villain's point of view because the look inside of this person's head was downright creepy and disturbing. They were quiet and unassuming but their true nature and thoughts were menacing and terrifying. The author obviously did research on serial killers because this book was spot-on. This is a riveting psychological thriller that will keep you perplexed until the very end.

Was this review helpful?

I don't want to give anything away here, but as I was starting this book, I remember thinking that the librarian character was really poorly written (likely because, as a librarian, I am sensitive to our portrayals in fiction). The book is compellingly written, but it's pretty far-fetched. I was disappointed at the final reveal.

Was this review helpful?

This is my first DNF for the year, as much as I wanted to try read it until the half because it looks interesting, hoping I would somehow like it but I ended reading it at page 57 and this are the reasons why:

1. Confuse af. There are a lot of point of views, different timelines or not that I just didn’t get. It’s hard to get into a world when you don’t even know what world it is. I don’t even know if there are multiple perspectives. It is an interesting way of writing, mysterious. but it’s not my cup of coffee.

2. The second chapter is so dark it creeps me out. It has animal torture that made me put down the book automatically.

It was interesting but as I said above it was not my cup of coffee (yet). I’ll probabaly read again or atleast try when I’m ready. If you love a mysterious dark vibes, then this is your cup.

Was this review helpful?

Wow okay where do I start? This was terrible, the only reason I was able to finish it was that I wanted to know who the "serial" killer was. The characters were flat, they were almost forgettable. 

It was told in interchanging POVs between Ari and the Killer, which was cringe to say the least. It just felt flat like a really bad Lifetime movie. I was excited then I wasn't. It seemed like the author didn't do much research either to make as realistic or at least logical as possible.

Was this review helpful?

i gave up after chapter 2. this was not at all what i was expecting or looking forward to. i love horror, i love serial killer stories, i love creepy. but this was just disturbing in an awful way. also, seconding everyone else who has said this: mega content warning for animal abuse/slaughter. i mean, i prefer knowing that animals are treated humanely for food (weird logic, but hear me out), but for someone to just straight up *enjoy* it and mention adding the image to their sketchbook...nah.

Was this review helpful?

I am sorry, I need to DNF this book. The torture of animals is not something that I can read. I tried to muscle through by skimming over those sections but then I was missing entire portions of the books. Pretty much all of the 'psycho' character's chapters. This book sounded interesting in the synopsis and I understand that the author was trying to show, that this person is a psycho or sociopath who began his lust for blood with experimentation in torturing and killing small animals and then escalated to where he is now, but I just personally felt it was too much. I always have a difficult time muscling through a scene or two in a book that involves an animal being killed but this was above and beyond what I chose to partake in. There are so many books out there to read, I simply cannot finish one that is so far against the grain for me. I appreciate the opportunity to read this book and wish I could have made it through. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.

Was this review helpful?

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5 so I'm rounding up. I actually really like this one. No, the writing isn't very sophisticated. Yes, the writing needs some serious editing and adjustments, but the story itself was enjoyable. This is a quick read full of suspense and twists. I didn't go to deep into the plot and perhaps that helped. If anything I did a lot of skimming, but that seemed to help me enjoy it more. Either way I liked it. Hopefully, after some editing this book will be easier to read, so others can enjoy it.

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately with so many things currently going on in my life, I didn’t get a chance to finish this title. I will however be purchasing this to pick up where I left off.

Was this review helpful?

I have mixed feelings about this book.

It certainly won't be for everyone, and it may have not have been the book for me. It is told from the perspective of the serial killer (first person) and the would-be victim (third person), and the first have contains a LOT of very graphic detail from the perspective of the killer involving animals and such.

I definitely would not recommend this book to the squeamish, as there are scenes in this book that can make your stomach turn. I did enjoy the mystery aspect, and I liked when the killer was revealed.

The writing was a little average, and I thought the flashbacks were confusing. This story had potential, but unfortunately, the premise was too ambitious for the quality of writing.

Overall, I thought this book was okay, but it certainly had its flaws.

Was this review helpful?