I’ll be completely honest, the main thing that drew me to Go Hunt Me was the setting. I’m Romanian, and more specifically, Transylvanian. So anything set in Romania, or even better, Transylvania will pique my interest. I actually wasn’t going to pick this book up when I did, but I took a sneak peek at the first chapter and the town in which I was born, Rupea was mentioned, and from there I was hooked!

The second draw was the author because I had read a zombie book by her not too long ago, Eat Your Heart Out, that I enjoyed. The third draw was the promise of a bloodbath (I can’t resist a good bloodbath). And the fourth was the cover, which is an awesome illustration that blends the setting with the bloodbath promise. Having read the book now I can confirm that the cover matches the vibes quite well!

One of the first impressions I had was that I didn’t find any of the characters to be particularly likeable. But I wonder if maybe that was the point due to the promise that some of them would get murdered. I had a lot of fun starting to guess at things about a quarter of the way through Go Hunt Me. I also found that I was annoyed by the characters’ lack of communication with each other, but simultaneously I was aware that this would be pretty realistic when considering the setting, the situation, and the types of characters that were thrown together.

Lastly, I found the main setting of Go Hunt Me to be quite enjoyable—it was spooky and atmospheric. It gave me the urge to create a mood board on Pinterest while listening to some of the parts in audiobook format. I had a bit too much fun with that and it really took me back to when I visited Bram castle during one of my trips back home. And that’s all I can say about ​​Go Hunt Me without spoiling some pretty important things. This was a fun read!

Maybe if I was younger I would enjoy this book, but i just found the characters so annoying. The premise was mostly interesting, but I feel like the writing and worldbuilding just fell flat

Thank you PenguinTeen for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book had the potential to be better. The characters did not stand out and the plot did not match the setting of the book. It was okay to read but it missed the park of being captivating. I went it thinking I was going to read a YA vampire horror and that wasn't the case more like a YA suspense.

I loved this! It's a fresh take on the traditional vampire story and features a group of friends filming a movie. There are funny moments, whimsy, and mystery - it brings a lot to the table! The world is really fun and the plot and story development bring a lot to the table!

Great newagded Dracula story about a group of friends filming a movie. Filled with fantasy, mystery and all the vampire charm. Really enjoyed the characters and the story building.

I will give this that it is a fast read. Unfortunately, the marketing was all wrong and makes you think that there are paranormal happenings. The amount of time used for set-up would have been so helpful...if I had known what I had actually signed up for. Bummer.

Alex Rush and her friends are amateur film makers obsessed with horror, and it's Alex's mission to get into her top school with the film they make together. When she finds out that she didn't get in, a famous movie star pops in to make all their filming dreams come true by getting them access to the Pharova castle in Romania, also known as the castle that inspired Dracula. However, this trip goes awry when their friends go missing one by one.

The one thing that really drew me into this story is the plot itself. I was expecting vampires and jump scares and all the typical horror tropes but turned up to an 11. While I was still on the edge of my seat throughout the experience, I felt kind of numb to it? This is primarily because of character development. We don't get the first disappearance until halfway through the book, but even then I don't feel like I know the characters super well besides their role to play in the movie. There were also seven characters, including our main character. With a cast that large, you can expect there to be some faults in development.

A lot of the characters feel pretty one dimensional, which I hate to say but is exactly like a typical horror film/book that doesn't truly develop characters to the fullest. I barely felt sad for any of these characters when they went missing. It was more of, "Huh... A shame." and then moved on to the next paragraph. Character reactions felt out of sync at parts, which made it seem more unrealistic on top of a highly impossible plot point.

What really drove me over the edge with this story was the ending, which unfortunately falls into the trope of "the last chapter rush reveals the true story within the told story" and I despise it with the fury of a thousand suns. If that's what an author has to do, for me it reads that they didn't feel that they foreshadowed it enough in the rest of the story itself. And I agree that this story did not do enough foreshadowing with Alex to make the ending absolutely plausible. I knew going into this that something felt really off about the story that Alex tells the investigator at the beginning, but it really rubbed me the wrong way in that final chapter. Even after finishing it I'm still really confused on how everything really went down.

It didn't help that the plot/mystery felt very much shoved in your face as to who the "killer" is that it made the whole story feel too obvious for the picture it was trying to paint. I personally feel like when I read a mystery, I have to work to put the pieces together. I didn't with this, and it felt like everything was basically handed to you. I get what it was going for, but in the end it ruined the mystery aspect for me. Also, if you're coming to this book for vampires, just turn around now.

Go Hunt Me is a horror that disappoints with lack of character motivation and a plot that contradicts itself with unrealistic aspects. While it was a fast read, this "vampire" book left me wanting more than what was given.

I received a copy of this book as an e-arc from both NetGalley and Penguin Teen. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

🧛‍♂️Book Review🧛‍♂️
Go Hunt Me
Author: Kelly Devos
Published: June 14, 2022
Publisher: Razorbill
Rating: 2.5⭐️

Thank you to @penguinteen and @netgalley for.my copy of the book. All opinions unless otherwise stated are my own.

From Penguin: "Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime.
She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.
But when they get there, it’s not quite the majestic setting they planned for. Menacing weapons line the walls, the twisted halls are easy to get lost in, and with no connection to the outside world, the group is unexpectedly off the grid. After just a few hours spent under its roof, Alex and her friends have no trouble imagining how this dark, terrifying castle inspired one of the most enduring horror novels of all time.
Only soon they no longer have to use their imaginations to understand the location’s terrifying history—just as they get the film’s first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears, and she’s nearly certain she saw a cloaked stranger lurking in the shadows. As more members of the group begin to meet an untimely demise, Alex is desperate to stop the bloodshed, even if it means facing a monster she never thought would be let loose."

Read if:
🧛‍♂️You like books about vampires
🧛‍♂️You love lots of characters
🧛‍♂️You like rapid changes

💚My thoughts: As much as I hate to say it, this book did not do it for me. I read the description and was so stoked for it. Vampires, Dracula, creepy castles. I was hoping it might put me in the Halloween mood. 🎃 Instead I was just bummed. It didn't start to get good for me until a little more than halfway through, then it seemed to run helter skelter all over the place. If it hadn't been for a review, I probably would have DNF'd it. I left with more questions than answers. This one sucked the life out of me but not how I was hoping.

What's your favorite book about vampires?

A little late to give feedback but I really enjoyed this one. I know that there's not a lot of character development as people pointed out but with this genre it's really more of an extra than necessary. This is a thriller with all the players in position in such a fantastic setting. I would love to read anything else Kelly deVos puts out after enjoying this so much! Pacing was key and deVos knocked that out of the park so I think that's what really made this for me with the setting and the 'scare' factor.

The twists were fun, you could guess them then maybe second guess yourself and then you find out if you were right or not which is something I always enjoy. -Unless you're supremely confident in yourself and your sleuthing skills then, well, lucky you lol.- Anyway, great premise, was definitely conflicted on how I felt about the ending but I did love that it made me think.

Thanks so much to Penguin for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion!

Book Review

Title: Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos

Genre: Young Adult, Horror

Rating: 5 Stars

When I got the chance to be a part of this blog tour I jumped at it since Go Hunt Me was a really hyped release I have been looking forward too and it sounds like something I am going to love. The opening to Go Hunt Me was amazing as we are introduced to Alex in the hospital after her friends have been killed at Castle Prahova in Romania but we don’t know how and why. We then jump backwards in time and realise that Alex was filming a short film in order to get into her dream school alongside her boyfriend, Jax and the numerous friends in Reagan and Kenna. On Halloween night they are preparing for a party but the others decide to surprise Alex by secretly filming some of her short film before the party kicks off but they unintentionally scare the living daylights out of her. I really liked the dynamics between the friend group and how they are helping each other out and I can’t wait for them to travel to Romania and for the horror elements to really take off.

As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we are less than 2 months from the events that land Alex in the hospital and we are still getting to know her and her friends. We can see that Alex is struggling at home since her father is fighting cancer the family business has suffered meaning Alex’s sister has had to give on her dreams of dancing because they can’t afford it but Alex refuses to. However, when she and Jax check their admissions letters they learn that Jax has been accepted while Alex has been waitlisted which usually means she isn’t going to get in which is heart-breaking since she has worked so hard for this. After meeting a famous actress in the bathroom they decide to start a fundraiser for a student movie but Alex admits in the present that was a mistake from the very beginning and I want to know why. Alex and her friends start a fundraiser to make the film better and submit it to film festivals in the hopes of getting Alex into the college of her dreams but things get even crazier when the actress, Catrinel Bloom offers them the chance to film in Romania and Alex knows they are going to accept. We also learn in the present that the fundraiser ends up making over half a million dollars but by the time they figured out where the money came from someone stole it so it seems like we are in for a wild ride now.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we are now less than a week from the events that get Alex injured and her friends killed and I can’t wait to see what happened in Romania. The group eventually convince their parents to let them go since Catrinel is coming with them and they will have an adult with them. However, moments after landing in Romania Catrinel ditches them and Jax admits it is because she is going to rehab in Switzerland and that was the plan all along and he deceived everyone so they are now heading to Castle Prahova alone when they learn that their money has been stolen. Only one or two of the group are making a big deal of that right now since they are going to look into it when they get to the castle anyway but Alex is worried being in a foreign country not speaking the language and having no one there to guide them but it is her last chance to get into film school so she needs to do it. I really like the dynamics between the friends but there seems to be some tension between Jax and Reagan since Jax is dating Alex and Reagan seems to have feelings for her which is confusing Alex even if she doesn’t say it out loud. The boys also seem to be hiding something else which could potentially lead to people getting injured and Alex makes a point to ask Jax about it later.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the group have arrived at the castle which is just as creepy and atmospheric as they were promised. After arriving at the castle and getting settled in some of the group immediately begin to feel like something is wrong with the place and I agree. Kenna and some of the others seem unnaturally interested in the money that went missing and there also seems to be something off with their host, Raul Stoica. In the present we learn that he might be connected to an international drug dealer and art thief but the most interesting thing now is how Keena seems to know Raul and why she is lying to the group about things and this obviously has Alex worried but I have a feeling that things are going to get darker. I love how it is phrased that maybe the only demons in the castle are the ones they brought in themselves and rather than it being a supernatural entity that begins killing them off what if it is one of their own which would make sense given the information we know about some of the characters and their currently very isolated location where help can’t be accessed easily.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really getting into the story now and couldn’t wait for the action to really take off. Things start getting really interesting here since Raul leaves the kids alone in the castle just as a massive storm hits but it is clear they aren’t alone there and Kenna has something to do with this situation. When it becomes clear that someone else is in the castle, Maddie freaks out and runs into the storm, the remaining friends divide up so some stay where they are in case Maddie comes back, some search the castle and Jax with Alex search outside. Outside they are bumped into by someone in costume and that incident leads them to Maddie’s body. Back inside they meet up with Reagan and in the bathhouse they finds Carter’s severed head. Two of their friends are now dead and two more are missing but they find Hazel locked in a room by Carter as he wanted to search for Maddie. Now the only missing member of the group is Kenna and she seems to be at the centre of everything since they found a boarding pass a few days before theirs which confirms that someone else is there along with the appearing and disappearing items and keys.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, a third of the group are dead, one is missing and the rest are terrified but between the storm and the isolated location they have no choice but to stay in the castle and they have no way of summoning outside help and there are only 24 hours to go until we catch up to the present timeline. Things get even worse from there as more of the group are killed off until only Alex, Reagan and Hazel remain and this is when the truth starts coming to light. It turns out that Kenna has pitched her own movie to Justin Bloom, Catrinel’s ex-husband and the half a million dollars came from him and everything that has happened was supposed to be staged for the movie but that wasn’t the case. Alex explains that they thought that Raul was the killer picking them off but it was really his father, Yuri, the drug dealer and art thief possibly because he didn’t want it coming out through the movie that he was still alive and that the castle contained the priceless items he had stolen over the years.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, I was really excited to see how deVos was going to end the novel since she hasn’t be afraid to be gory and brutal throughout the novel. The last portion of this novel make the slow first quarter completely worth it. I won’t go into much detail since it gives some insane spoilers but that ending was twists upon twists and I can honestly say I didn’t see it coming and it absolutely blew me away. This was one of my anticipated releases for this year and it certainly didn’t let me down and deVos is going to be an insta-buy author for me in the future especially if she continues writing in this genre. Absolutely perfection and I highly recommend it as it would be perfect for the spooky season.

This was such a fun book! I love a good Dracula story and felt like this one did a great job. What this group of friends thinks is an amazing opportunity quickly turns deadly when people start disappearing. The setting of Vlad the Impaler's castle was very atmospheric and perfect for this YA horror. I loved the snippets of Dracula history throughout the book and definitely did not see the ending coming.

I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for their next YA Horror. I'm also a huge fan of Kelly deVos and recommend all her books!

As a horror-movie and supernatural-stories lover, I was intrigued by the premise of Go Hunt Me and very disappointed when I started to read and could never get into the story. I found every character to be painfully one-dimensional, both in the ways the protagonist/narrator described others and themselves and in the ways they interacted. Each person fit a label as to what their role was (i.e. Hot Boyfriend, Rich Brat, Pretty Girl, etc.) and were otherwise entirely forgettable and indistinguishable from one another. The idea of friendships being tested in a setting of murder and mystery had a lot of promise, but the execution in Go Hunt Me fell flat. The first 30-40% of the book was a series of repetitive narrations about the characters and gave some basic context, with a couple plot points thrown in. The rest of the book was basically non-stop chaos as the teens realize there was a murderer in their midst. Throughout it all, they acted in ways that did not at all seem plausible or realistic (even for "dumb teens", they are high school seniors who all love horror movies so WHY do they keep splitting up when they know there's a murderer loose?!); many of the "scary" plot points also happened so quickly after one another that I was unable to follow a cohesive narrative and ended up skimming through portions of it due to how every new event was essentially a different-flavored version of the same thing (finding creepy signs of someone being there, finding bodies). As for the twist ending...I was not impressed. It came completely out of left field and I felt it was added for the shock factor instead of being an actual twist that the narrative had been crafted around and could be seen throughout once you knew what to look for. And again -- the character motivations were severely lacking in proportion to the events, leaving me feeling dissatisfied. While I personally would not recommend this as a mind-bending thriller, if you're looking for a spooky, YA slasher that doesn't take itself too seriously, then you might enjoy Go Hunt Me.

I was expecting to hide when I read this.

The location was creepy, the plot sounded scary and even the events they were seeing were scary and fun.

But this pushed the limits of my ability to suspend my disbelief.

I just could not get to the end.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the e-ARC of Go Hunt Me & to PRH Audio for the complimentary audiobook!

Okay, so I DNF'ed this book at about 90% because I didn't want it to count towards my reading goal because at one point I just stopped caring & started to lose focus on what was going on. However, since I did get almost to the end, I'm confident about leaving a star rating.

To start off with the positive -- I did like the atmosphere, castle setting, the fact that the characters wanted to make a horror film, and, in true Becca fashion, the gore-y bits.

But unfortunately, the rest didn't work out for me. The characters were Dry & I didn't like anyone. The actual execution wasn't any good. & honestly, Go Hunt Me was just.. boring.

*thank you Penguin Randomhouse for this netgalley arc*

3.5 stars

We follow Alex and her friends, who all come from money and are excited to start their careers after they high school. Except Alex didn’t get into her top choice like everyone else.

And so begins the adventure to film Alex’ vampire movie in this historical Vlad Dracul castle mor convince film school she deserves a spot. But what’s supposed to be a fun Spring break trip turns into the worst days of their lives.

A classic horror set up, this story had a lot of potential. The setting was fun. There was plenty of intrigue as to why are these things happening. But i hated every single character. They were all the worst charicatures of terrible people wrapped up in high school angst (which on its own can’t be faulted, it’s ya). The twist at the very end was also worse than the initial why in my opinion.

This book—woah. I was not at all expecting the twist that came at the end!! I loved how we had the unreliable narrator trope and the flashes to present day as well as to the past. This book was so cleverly crafted and just when you thought you’d figure it out you’d be proved wrong in the next chapter. It was utterly thrilling and the setting and storyline made the perfect mystery, high stakes novel that sends a chill down your spin up until the very last page.

Go Hunt Me is the perfect story for a young Dracula lover looking for a thrilling tale.

In this YA thriller, a group of aspiring theater students travel to Romania to shoot a horror film…only to find themselves being hunted.

What I really appreciated about this story was that by chapter one you knew the outcome of the story. This was a clever hook because I found myself reading on eagerly wanting to know how it would all unfold.

The author switches up the timeline between the present day in a transcribed police investigation recording and the past events leading up to the investigation. I found the jump from past to present really clever as the police recording kept my interest peaked in times when the plot slowed down.

That being said I wish the author had jumped the timeline up a bit. There’s a long section of the story where group is traveling and the airport and taking a lengthy trip to the castle that I wasn’t interested in because I was so keen to know the gory details.

The last plot twist in the ending wasn’t my favorite but it was definitely unexpected.

Overall it was a solid story perfect for a younger audience.

3.5 stars

The premise of this book was great! Filming a horror movie in Dracula’s castle? Yes please! But overall this just didn’t work for me.

First off: there was a random antisemitic line right near the beginning of the book and I honestly do not understand why it was there. The author basically makes a reference to the trope of Jews controlling money. Considering the book takes place in Romania, home to lots of antisemitism, this was such an ick moment for me.

Then the ending was just so… gratuitous. It didn’t seem to make sense or really be that much of a twist. It was kind of lame and expected, if I’m being totally honest.

So I have mixed emotions on this one.

For the forst 150ish pages I was really struggling to connect to the story and I just didn't want to keep picking it up. But around page 200 (keeping in mind this book is only slightly over 300 pages) I SIMPLY COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I was sucked in and engaged to an extreme I have not had in a while. Upon finishing this book I was GOBSMACKED and immediately wanted to reread it despite the rough start.

Sooo... I'm not sure what that says about this book but... pick it up if you are a fan of clue (the board game and/or the movie), or if you just want a fun, relatively quick twisty, dark, spooky murder mystery set in an abandond castle!

This is the fourth book that I have tried by this author, and it is just as disappointing as the rest. The premise was so enticing (VAMPIRES!), but the execution was just not it. This book is just flat out boring for lack of a better word.