I found the fact that we already know the ending to this book even before we open it really interesting and for those that love horror, guts and blood this is the book for them. Personally, I couldn't get into the story and I didn't find the characters compelling enough. Evil six year olds though...that I loved.

What a delightfully traumatizing splatter story of a camping trip gone wrong.

Well, not really traumatizing to me but I'm sure many people will be traumatized after reading about what happens to this French school class.

The first graders are accompanied by their teacher and two mothers. When one mother gets sick, the other takes her back to a place where she is picked up. The healthy mother wants to go back to the children but her plans are somewhat thwarted by her own stupidity.
The sick mother doesn't fare any better thanks to the stupidity or the guy picking her up (who, coincidentally is the husband of the other mother - so those two fit well together).
Meanwhile, the children are having dinner and getting a really weird bedtime story from their supposedly oh so pacifist teacher. In fact, the story is so bad that all hell breaks loose and the dying begins.

It's no secret and therefore no spoiler that this is a splatter story. Young children are dying and horribly - and all I can say is that it was pretty great. *lol*

The Laws of the Skies by Courtois Grégoire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I suppose I'm spoiled for truly wicked horror after reading so much Hunter Shea over the last few years, so when I grabbed this on Netgalley, loving the sound of it from the blurb, I thought I was going to be really terrified.

I mean, let's face it... the premise is sick as hell.

The text lives up to the promise, too, but expect it to be more in line with a B-Movie horrorshow that doesn't spare the kids. At all.

Think about the original Halloween meets Kindergartener Survival. Or, rather, first grade. :)

Is it sick? Quite. Does it scratch all those sensational penny dreadful urges in me? Quite.

A very nice change of pace. Mind you, only the sickest readers need to hunt for this little gem. :) This is not for you old farts who sip lemonade on the porch. This is a battle royale with ultimate stakes among six-year-olds. Gird your loins.

What's the darkest thing you can think of?

How about....[spoiler alert]

A book where literally everyone dies!

A camping trip gone bad. Teachers. Students as young as 6.

It's terrifying, it's horrible, it's f*c?ing fantastic.

This is an incredibly messed up, gruesome book! I love it! Even though I had the idea I was getting into a horror novel, I didn’t quite understand the extent of it. Courtois does a hell of a job spinning a bloody, intensely horrifying novel, and Rhonda Mullins’s translation reads extremely well. I’m sure the novel is even more successful in its native language, but personally, I think Mullins does the novel great justice with her translation.

No spoilers, but this is not a happy book at all. For horror lovers, especially those of you who like being shocked as much as you like being scared, you’ll enjoy!

'We are all children, they thought, and none of us is equipped to deal with such an adversary. We go through life under other people’s protection.We listen to instructions and try to follow them.We don’t know what’s true and what’s not. What’s fair and unfair. Our world is small. Our world is narrow.'

One of the first things adults learn, life isn’t fair, but at six children aren’t ready for this lesson! Not all of the twelve six-year-olds lost in the woods are afraid, the adults certainly are. This is a camping treat turned nightmare! All they have, when the night turns to horror, is each other but the woods are deep, dark and filled with unseen predators that lurk, plants that poison, but the cruelest of them all could be among them already. When the children scatter in terror and the adults disappear, all you know is no one is getting out alive. This isn’t a fairy tale with a moral, if only the children could have slept through the horror, the blood splatter, the brain matter… Don’t enter this tale with a lick of hope! For what horror is worse than the senselessness of evil, the creepy demise of a warped mind?

The wild creatures are sleeping, for now, unaware of the chaos, the warm bodies that could fill their bellies. Whimpering cries, cracked skulls, sliced arteries… the children sway, the children fall, the ground drops, there will be a battle, but the hero is no victor, because there isn’t a happy ending. The characters can’t hear you weep for them, words of support won’t be a beacon to freedom, to salvation… this is the end my friend.

There is nothing to give away, every child is doomed, the telling is in the hunt, the story is the who but when is there ever an answer to why? I finished this when I was still on heavy medication from surgery, I cringed a lot. Those poor little ones.

Publication Date: May 10, 2019

Coach House Books

The Laws of the Skies is an engaging re-working of the Lord of the Flies. Courtois weaves the story with panache and well defined characters.

A vicious novella that will leave you reeling. It has all of the terror and abject hopelessness my dark little heart loves.
The horror starts early and doesn't let go, so it is not for the faint of heart. It is as wild and untamed a narrative as the forest in which it takes place.
If you love horror in all of its aspects, this is one to add.

"The eagle has to fly, otherwise he’s not a real eagle, you see? No, you don’t see, because you are all little mice! All of you, do you hear me? And do you know what eagles eat?"

I have an incredible fascination with books about people finding themselves in an enclosed space with an assassin on the loose, "And Then There Were None" style basically. This story follows its premise, loosely. Twelve children and their three adult chaperones go on a camping trip in the woods. Something happens, someone loses their mind, and none of them make it out alive.

"No legend, no story, no myth to tell us what children should do if they ever have the misfortune of finding themselves here. If such a story exists, no one’s ever told it to us."

I didn't not like this book, it just wasn't enough.. gripping? For me at least. What fascinates me about concepts like this one is the thrill, is the never knowing who's going to die next, who's sneaking up on the victims and why. In The Laws of the Skies we find out who the murderer is almost at the very beginning of the story and we follow their blood-thirst driven path with almost no plot at all. I really did feel for these children but I couldn't care much for the overall story. Also, this book is really gritty and graphic, so there's a warning for you all.
Finally, sometimes the author would break the third wall and talk directly to the reader? I found it rather strange, don't really know why he did it.

In conclusion, I wasn't interested in the outcome of this story since it wasn't particularly plot driven but the concept is interesting and the writing rather good so I wouldn't not recommend, it just wasn't my jam.

Consider this entire review a Disclaimer:

I'm not giving anything away that isn't in the description when I ask this...

Have you ever read a book where every character dies?

EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. DIES.

Twelve 6 year old classmates and their three chaperones, all dead.

And they die in the worst imaginable ways. This story is dark and disturbing beyond compare. Gory graphic scenes of the death of children...

AND I FUCKING LOVED IT!!!

From start to finish I was captivated by the unfathomable darkness of this little story (only 148 pages on my tablet).

If you're into graphic horror novels then buckle up buttercups, this book is for you.

Aside from the subject matter, Grégoire Courtois is a great writer. It makes the story all the more disturbing because it's written wonderfully.

I would and will read anything this man publishes. Any writer that isn't afraid to take an unflinching high dive off the deep end of an unthinkable cliff is my favorite type and Courtois is a master.


My one and only critique is that a number of the children are characterized much older than the age of six therefore some suspension of disbelief is required and for that reason alone I had to knock this one down a star.

Dammit I don't even know what to read next because anything else is going to be a disappointment.

I received an ARC from Coach House Books in exchange for an honest review.

Even from looking at the cover of this book I was intrigued and looked forward to reading the story. I was not disappointed, as a lover of thrillers, I found this book very enjoyable even though at the times the story was uncomfortable. For anyone that enjoys suspenseful and intriguing novels, this is an absolute winner of a book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC

This is a difficult book to rate. Interesting twist on the camping trip gone wrong, Some creepy moments (I.e. the girl in the lake). Overall, more gory and shocking than genuinely scary. The villain is approximately 7 years old, and with all suspension of disbelief aside, not a terribly believable or terror-instilling murderer.