On the surface of it, this is a typical YA novel about a kidnapping and escape and solving of a mystery. Ari awakens at the bottom of a cistern in the woods, and escapes but is plagued by memory blanks and a serious lack of awareness from the people her teenage self should be able to trust.

Some background:
The book is written from dual point of views: Ari's, and the kidnapper's. This was a great technique, and helped with story building as the reader was able to watch the progression of a serial killer as they developed. The parts of the story told from the killer's view point of view are very graphic and detailed, and show that the author has put a lot of thought and research into this book. The parts of the story told from Ari's POV come across as a little unsophisticated and basic. I like my thrillers to thrill me, and I feel like this book missed the mark a bit.

I feel like this book can be divided into three sections. The first was some background and world building, and then Ari awakes in the cistern. Good so far. Then, about 37% of the way through the book, she was still in the cistern. I get it, she's alone, and cold, and sore and can't remember what happened. I thought to myself, is this going to continue for much longer? Is it going to be another Room type novel? So for me, the first part dragged. It could do with being sped up a little (a lot) quite frankly. A third of the book where the main character doesn't move a lot is a chore to read.

The second part of the novel made me angry and I found it a bit unbelievable. If a teenager escapes in the condition Ari is in and tries to tell people what happened, I can't believe that everyone would try to pass it off as imagination and delusions. <spoiler>I find it curious that her parents just let her go along with her life the same as always, and take herself to school and wandering around the town with no supervision and a potential killer on the loose. Knowing how good her and Lynn's friendship was, why were her claims rubbished so badly? Why was the police chief so antagonistic, especially if it is being reported that his son's best friend is a potential victim?</spoiler> All of those things made me angry to read and made the story ring a bit less true in my mind.

The third part of the story is where the action starts to happen. I found the writing got better for me at this point. Grammatical errors were less and the story seemed to flow much better and was set at a better pace. This is the style of writing I associate with the Thriller genre. The unveiling of the killer was a surprise, and I can see that the author may be leaving the door open to continue with a sequel.

I also can't let it go without making some comment about the formatting of the book. It was <i>awful</i>. I realise that the novel isn't scheduled for release until next year, so I hope that there is time to fix the e-version. Chapters were not clearly marked, and there were random letters appearing at section breaks all the time. The beginning letter of each 'chapter' (or what I think it meant to be chapters) is obviously meant to be a decorative character, but it is just formatted badly and sits alone and bolded on a line with the rest of the text several rows below. There are also spelling and grammar errors which constantly jarred me out of my reading groove.

I did consider not finishing the book a few times, especially in the slow first section, but since it was an ARC, I continued. The story has potential, and there is still time to correct some of the things that irritated me about it. I think maybe YA me might have liked the novel a bit more when I wasn't so widely read and just getting into thriller and suspense. Having said that, there are books out there that do this subject better... if there is a sequel, I'm not sure I would read it.

* I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley to voluntarily review *

I just couldn't get into this – gave up at 10% in. I didn't find the characters believable, the story surprising or the prose interesting. Although I didn't think much of the author, top marks to the publicity team as the blurb was much more enticing than the actual book!

As a big fan of true crime I have to start by saying the author did a lot of research in order to craft the background and overall character development of the villain in this story and I have no doubt she pulled inspiration from the multiple literary works and actual serial killers mentioned in the story and I can appreciate and give credit to that, but the book itself is something that’s been done before.

I liked seeing the flashbacks that served as misdirection for who the culprit could be and that insight into the mind of a growing serial killer was well done, however when it flipped to the current plot and lead characters I was bored and sort of annoyed at the cliched police officers and the parents who must hate their child to have acted the way they did at some points in the book and that made the whole thing kind of drag for me where I wanted to just skip ahead to see who it was so I could stop reading altogether but that would be cheating so I kept going.

I’m not sure if there are plans for more and the ending suggests it’s a possibility but this is the end of the line for me with this series.

**thank you to netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

This is an example of YA horror done well. This book is creepy, very creepy. If you want just a murder mystery and chase between Ari to save herself and her friends, skip everything that is in italics. If you are a great animal lover, or hate creepy children who love murder, skip the italics. The killer's backstory is rightfully hard to read, and is what I would call horror, rather than the thriller the rest of the book is. The author got very graphically in the head space of a budding serial killer and it's like watching a good horror movie.
The mystery thriller of the rest of the book feels like a mix of Scream and Criminal Minds when it was still about the science of catching murderers. Ari researches famous real life killers, analyses how they caught and killed, and tries to apply the data to her situation. A well informed protagonist is an interesting one, and she does not just wander the book passively waiting to be murdered.
She and her best friend Lynn feel like real people and real teens. Their friendship is strong, and something to rely on in times of trouble. The boy Ari is interested in is not her priority, or strength, but Lynn is. Friendship in this book is stronger than romantic interest, and even though Lynn is a lesbian, there is no sign of the old trope of the lesbian in love with her straight friend. I really liked their bond; it felt like my own high school friendships.
A lot of the thrills come from the psychological horror, as Ari struggles to remember what happened to her, and what memories are real and can be trusted. The end of the book deals with the real consequences and damages of dealing with this kind of trauma, and reveals that not everyone is who we think they are, both good or bad.

I enjoyed this book, it's well written with a good fast pace. It was a good idea to leave the reader guessing who the killer was and it had a good twist at the end. This book gave good insight into the killer's mind, but sometimes it was a bit repetitive with the psychological traits of serial killers.

Read my 2-star review of Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2192861922

Well, that was graphic... horrifically so. Ummm, I’m not sure delving that far into the mind of a serial killer is good for any book marketed as a teen & young adult book.

I didn’t expect those kinds of graphic descriptions. Not my kind of book. Also, the whole part of the police and her parents not believing Ari or taking her seriously is a little ridiculous.

The good points first. It's well written. Well edited even in ARC form. This just feels like something I've read before. I think has been many books and movies done that closely resemble this story.

This is a really creepy little book that makes me want to not sleep for a week. Is it Silence of the Lambs for teens? No, because Silence of the Lambs had a lot of subplots and directions and complexities and this book is pretty straightforward with one storyline and no deviation or exploration. That’s not a bad thing, but the only thing it has in common with Silence of the Lambs is that there’s a girl stuck in a well. So it’s not Thomas Harris for Teens but it is really creepy and hard to put down.

I'm highly disappointed because I feel like this story had so much potential, but the writing was poor, at best, and all the flashbacks were very confusing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

I seriously think this book needs to be reformatted or something; the chapter headings sometimes appeared at the end of the paragraph, and then the word say it was 'Ari', appeared like this

"A




ri shouted..."

It was super annoying! It looks unprofessional and threw me off every time. Add to that the blatant spelling errors, and times there was no space between words and the whole book just appeared like it wasn't ready to be published yet. Also the writing is clunky and repetitive, and I just generally didn't enjoy it. I will say i was surprised at the 'serial' killer, but more because the writing wasn't leading me any where, let alone towards understanding.

There are elements of a story here, but it needs a bit of editing. I actually considered DNFing numerous times, but continued on simply because it was an ARC. Two stars.

I received this ARC from the publishers in the form of an ebook. I like the cover art, however I think it could be improved to better catch the eyes of readers. It could include a more shadowy and mysterious design to engage the reader and give a feel for the book. If I saw this in a bookstore I would pick it up based on the current cover. 
This story follows Ari, a girl who wakes in the bottom of a cistern out in the woods, and it details her journey to find her kidnapper. All she remembers is a gloved hand and being pushed. The story is told from two perspectives, Ari's and the kidnapper/killer. I really enjoyed this type of writing/presentation. It gave the reader a really good insight into the killer and their mindset. It was obvious the author had done quite a bit of research into the criminal mind.  
However, this been said, there were moments when I had to turn back a page or two to reread things to continue following the storyline. I felt that it chopped and changed quite a bit because of the changing perspectives and timelines (past vs present), and some things (like certain sentences or paragraphs) felt unfinished. I am not sure if this is because of the writing or the format in which I received the book. 
Overall I enjoyed the book, as I very much enjoy mystery and thrillers, however I don't think I would read this book again. I continued to read it because I wanted to know the identity of the killer, and the author surprised me at the end with their identity. Not many mystery books can continually conceal the identity of the killers, and I was impressed that the author kept me guessing the entire book. Thank you to the publishers and author for allowing me to read this advanced copy. 
Note: this book does contain some graphic descriptions. I would recommend this for readers older than the age of 16

I tried to read this book through the eyes of the teenage me who loved horror movies. In that regard, I have to say that this is a highly effective novel. The tension between Ari and the killer pans out well, and Treggiari does her best to draw out the tension to her best ability. It skews a bit adult, but I remember my time as a teen and know that I would have loved reading a novel like this. It's a tense, fun thriller that only suffers from a brief culmination.

Oh boy is this creepy. Edge-of-your-seat, pants-wettingly creepy. This is ostensibly a young adult novel but just in case you didn't work it out from the blurb, this is definitely not for children. A serial killer, tantalisingly revealed through memoirs of their childhood, is stalking the small town of Dempsey Hollow, where best friends Ari and Lynn live. But who is it, and who are they really targeting anyway? A dark and scary horror novel, not for the faint hearted.