A ride from start to finish, Go Hunt Me was truly not what I expected. For starters, I thought this story would feature a real vampire, but it was just an allegorical one. That’s probably on me for not doing my research beforehand, but it quickly killed my mood for the whole book. Afterward, the narration was a bit confusing to keep up with, but soon I caught up with it. Sadly, I couldn’t really click with any character. Usually, I can connect with at least one character, but that didn’t happen here. The characters felt very flat and honestly? I couldn’t sympathize with the fact their parents permitted them to hop on a plane with a complete stranger to Romania. That’s more unbelievable than vampires, at least in my perspective. The only thing that I liked about this book was the ending. The 180-degree turn took me out since I was expecting a very different ending than the one we got. Overall, this was not the vampire book I thought it was, and I suffered the consequences.

This is an absolutely dramatic book. With 7 teens in an appropriately gothic setting, knowing deVos, this was sure to go spectacularly awry.

Told from Alex’s point of view, with interviews with the police after the fact, Go Hunt Me unfolds uniquely. You don’t really find yourself cheering for one set character, and that’s completely okay. You’re here for the plot. However, the character that sticks out in my mind the most is Kenna, who didn’t fit in with the friend group. She was utterly self-absorbed; deVos wrote her selfishness very well.

Alex’s relationship with Jax was odd. She repeatedly told herself she should be grateful just to have him. Jax doesn’t seem to do anything for her, and from her words, Alex is only with Jax because other girls want him. I’m also declaring her the klutziest character in the book world. Poor thing can’t help but trip, whether or not there is something in her way.

This tense undercurrent to reading Go Hunt Me generates the need to uncover what is going on and who is responsible. Why do things go from bad to worse, and who is the cause? This is a suspenseful read in an idyllic setting, ripe for things to unravel.

Gah, I so wanted this to be about vampires. A paranormal, YA horror title. It wasn't. It is a contemporary murder mystery/horror set in a historical castle where allegedly Dracula lived, Loved the setting and the location, but was disappointed by the rest. The characters were just OK. For some reason I didn't care about their troubles, or motivations to do what they did. And the ending.. I think it was trying to be shocking, but ended up not quite believable.

It was just ok. Not one I'll think about a week later.

Go Hunt Me follows Alex who wants to be a film marker. Alex and her friends get the trip of a lifetime to film a Dracula-like movie in a castle in Romania. The location is perfect for the filming of the movie. But it is not as majestic as they thought it would be and unexpected horrors lie within the castle.  Soon the horror movie they are making becomes a real life horror, and they find themselves fighting for their lives. 

I haven't read a good horror novel in a while. This was such a good horror novel. This novel also had a bit of a mystery aspect to it. Also, the plot twist was so good. This is one of those books that will leave you on the edge of your seat. You are rooting for these characters the whole time you are reading this. This book reminds me of a lot of old school horror films. Also, this is a very face paced read. A really good YA book that has more mature themes. I will say the only problem I had with this book is there is a character named Maddie and well bad things happen to her. I would suggest this book if you are into horror books or films. Thank you so much NetGalley, Kelly DeVos, and Penguin for the ARC of this book.

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥."⁣
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#GoHuntMe by Kelly deVos is a fun, suspenseful teen slasher. A creepy, old Dracula castle makes the perfect setting for this atmospheric YA thriller. It's a really fast paced read, keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Reminding me a bit of Halloween Resurrection, there are some fun twists as you try to figure out whodunnit. ⁣
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𝟒 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝟓 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⁣
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𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 #NetGalley 𝘢𝘯𝘥 Penguin Teen 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.⁣⁣
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📚 Available in stores on 6/14/22 📚⁣⁣
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#tbr #tbrandbeyond #bookreview #bookaddict #books #explorepage #bookstagram #reading #cozy #photography #photooftheday #libro #bibliophile #followtrain #arcs

3.5 rounded up

It's really hard to talk about this book without giving too much away but I did enjoy it.

It's campy, there's lots of horror in jokes, and overall, it's a good time. That being said, like all good teen thrillers it is super unrealistic, and yes it falls more on the thriller-horror side than paranormal-horror side. If you don't care about realistic plots, this is one to consider.

I did wish we got more about the characters backgrounds. There wasn't a lot of character development which made it kind of hard to keep track of all of the characters - because there was quite a few of them.

Admittedly, I also went it with false expectations that like Eat Your Heart Out, deVos' last title, we'd get some kick ass plus-sized MCs. That was not the case, but upon looking back at the description that was not promised anywhere.

Overall, this was a fun, quick read, but not high literature by any means.

Review: This was a great YA thriller that I really enjoyed reading! I don't want to write too much about the plot here, for fear accidentally spoiling people, but I will say that I thought this was a really well written YA novel, that I would recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting!

I received an e-ARC from the author and publisher.

1.5

I...did not like this one bit.

As a concept (filming a horror movie in historical dracula's castle, things go terribly wrong) it's good! It's intriguing. But in practice, this felt like constant shock value, rather than building up suspense and the feeling of dread. Usually YA horror is written really well and this...dropped the ball.

The entire first half of the book was buildup. You have no idea what's happening, other than they're going to this castle and at the same time, there's a flash forward to our main character telling fbi or some other agents what happened. You learn about the characters--they were all so forgettable I can't even remember their names--and that each of them is into filmmaking.

That's it, though. There's really no delving into who these people are, so I didn't bother to care when the inevitable horror happens. Which, let me say, felt completely unbalanced with the beginning of the book! It's literally meandering, meandering, boringness, then BAM action action action blood until the end.

It was lazy to me, and again, not well plotted.

And then there's the twist, which felt gratuitous and unnecessary. The only reason I finished this book was because I wanted to know what happened--and then I was so angry with how it twisted, so annoyed because OF COURSE this was how it was going to go, an obvious and frankly, stupid ending that felt out of left field and just....lazy.

I'm really sorry to say I didn't like this book.

Thank you to Penguinteen for the earc!

I was really looking forward to reading this book because the premise sounded amazing. A group of teenage horror buffs travel to a remote Romanian castle to film a horror movie for college admissions. Amazing!

Unfortunately it fell very short for me. I felt like overall it was lacking plot and the characters added nothing to the story. It was a little all over the place.

Tw:- murder, death, violence, bloodshed, human-hunting, drugs, criminals
Well i am quite complicated about this read... i don't know whether i like it or not. Like i enjoyed the suspense but also didn't quite like it. So imma divide this review into two parts, postive elements & negative elements. And you could be the judge of it ~

POSITIVE ELEMENTS - The suspense at the end had my eyes glued to the phone like, i was making so many guesses but the author managed to not end the book with predictable endings. I was quite contented with the last part of the book, suddenly it had become too dark. It was messy, scary, suspenseful, and bloody. I liked that we didn't know who the murderer was till the end which maintained the interest. The pacing for the second part of the book was fast af, and i loved how the author didn't waste time for kept the book interesting. The writing is super easy to skim through except for some phrases which are talked in the negative elements.

NEGATIVE ELEMENTS: The word "elegant/elegance" were used too often... at the worst times. They were running for their life, and what the main character chose to focus on was how elegant other character looked. A person might even have died, but they were described as elegant. Tbh i was like huh? The first part of the book was basically the premise, and the story didn't actually start till like the 40% of the book. It took them too long to get to the castle, which wasted huge potentials for the castle scenes. I really wanted an actual dracula to enter the scene, but its not fiction and entirely has no dracula scenes. The ending was twisty but i think it could have had a betted ending. I liked the ending, yet it felt like motive was missing.

I have summed up all my thoughts, and its for you to decide if you'll like it. For me, the postive elements win over the other.

♡ thanks to @tbrbeyoundtours for the copy!

This book is really hard for me to write a review without spoiling the whole plot of the story. Just trust me when I say while this book gets little slow in the middle for about 50 pages or so just push through. The ending is worth it.

Alex and her friends want to film the most memorable movie ever- and the best place to do that is none-other-than Dracula’s Castle. Once home to the great Impaler, the group of friends venture together alone to film the best scenes of their lives….or maybe the LAST scenes of their lives. Not long after the friends arrive, they are picked off one-by-one by the hands of a murderer…the very killer from their own movie. Will the friends make it out of the castle? Or will they be another group of victims to the castle that haunts the hills of Romania?

This was a great story! It was certainly interesting enough to keep you guessing with enough spook to leave you shaking.
Though I wasn’t a big fan of how it ended, it’s definitely not like any book I have read before!

Okay, so this book was not perfect, but I want to give it 5 stars anyway because I think it did what it was trying to do so well and it was incredibly entertaining the whole way through.
There are some things in the plot that I think don't fit the story so well (like the MC's father having cancer, and her drama about sleeping with her boyfriend).
But I had a lot of fun with the horror parts (there are no vampires, don't expect that), it was thrilling, and I really appreciated the ending!

A spooky setting reminiscent of old slashers.. Loved the suspension and going back and forth of timelines to keep it going. Red herrings that threw me way off just when I thought I might have figured it all out.

Thank you to Penguin Teen Canada and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

*Thank you to PenguinTeen and NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.*
Kelly DeVos is becoming one of my favorite authors! I loved Eat Your Heart Out and so it was an easy decision to pick up Go Hunt Me. This book is wonderfully spooky. I want to see this adaptated for film or television because it would be amazing. Go Hunt Me starts at the end and shows the main character telling her story to a detective. The story then unfolds until you find out what really happened to Alex and her friends.

Go Hunt Me follows Alex Rush and her friends as they go to Romania to film a short film. The reason behind this, is that Alex didn’t make it into the film school she wanted. Her friends set up a GoFundMe page to try and earn some money to allow Alex to make a better version of her last short film. When actress Catrinel Bloom gets involved, they earn more money than they imagined. Plus Catrinel sets them up with the perfect location for the film. Castle Prahova, located in Romania, and also a former residence of Vlad Dracula. What better place for Alex and her friends to film their Dracula retelling?

Once they arrive in Romania, things start going from bad to worse. Catrinel promised the kids parents she would be their guardian and yet she leaves them to their own devices. Once at the castle, they realize it’s not as nice as they were led to believe. Then strange things start happening. Soon they realize they’ve become the target of a twisted killer.

If you love books with an unreliable narrator, teen slasher flicks, and spooky settings then you will love this book. It definitely has the teen slasher vibe, however nothing too gory. I couldn’t read this book fast enough. The plot twist is awesome, even though it’s not what I wanted to happen, I still enjoyed it. I would highly recommend this book for anyone wanting a fun and fast paced read.

This book reminds me of the House on Haunted Hill. Incredibly creepy story which will quickly find yourself invested in and can’t wait to find out what happened. The characters are fun and people you’ll recognize.

This one is %100 for Dracula lovers. It’s a YA paranormal thriller taking place within a gothic castle pretty much in the middle of nowhere so the atmosphere is already set up nicely. It’s following film students who get the very rare to make a movie at Dracula’s castle in Romania where clearly nothing goes as expected. They are suddenly stranded at the castle and realize they may not be the only ones there. Like some fellow reviewers have mentioned, it really does read like an old slasher film. Even hovering around the cheesy side like slasher films can be. Its a pretty cool concept. I do wish it did a little more vampirey things and was more scary. I was hoping for more of a paranormal aspect but it stays pretty mundane.

This was a good ya horror story! I loved the young, energetic kids getting ready to make it in the big world of cinema! I really enjoyed how they end up in the castle, and what happens to them. It was just the right amount of creepy for me, and I enjoyed it!

This was not the book for me. I thought I would step out of my comfort zone and read a YA thriller, hoping that it would not only be great, but that I could also have it in the school library. Unfortunately, it failed on both parts. The set up for this horror story almost matched that actual horror action section of the book. We didn’t even get to Romania until around 40% into the book and I was already so bored. The killings help pick up the pace for a bit, but I also guessed the major twist very early on and was disappointed to learn I was correct and it didn’t feel very original. All the teenagers are super privledged, whiney kids and you end up not caring about ANYONE. Oh well, at least I won’t be up all night being terrified. This wasn’t scary at all, and I’m a wimp.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Teen Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alex and her friends, all horror movie fans, are shooting a short film that they hope will get some of them into film school. When they get the opportunity to shoot on site at a remote castle in Romania, they’re sure it will be the perfect setting for their story, a reimagining of Dracula. But when they arrive, things are not exactly what they expected. The dark and creepy castle certainly is the ideal backdrop for the movie, but as soon as they get there, their crowdfunded money goes missing and all the adults in the place take off, leaving them alone. Except, they aren’t alone at all. When the power is knocked out due to a storm, one after the other, members of the group start to disappear and turn up dead, and Alex is certain she has seen a stranger in a cloak lurking around at each spot. With no way to contact anyone, the friends are on their own and must figure out a way to escape before it’s too late.

This was a thrilling, fast-paced read! I don’t often pick up horror themed novels, but something about this one was just too intriguing to pass up. As it turned out, while this was certainly creepy enough, and it had its fair share of bloody and horror filled moments, I didn’t find it scary per se, and was more focused on the mystery aspect of it and finding out what and who was behind it all. The narration and location were both perfect for this type of story and the way the location is described was extremely atmospheric and set the stage very well, making it easy for the reader to imagine themselves in the spooky castle with an unknown enemy stalking around. I also liked the pieces at the end of the chapters with information from the police case and Alex being interviewed. The story hopped around the timeline a lot, but it was never confusing, and knowing how it ends made it all that much more exciting to figure out how it happened.

I wasn’t too impressed with the characters, mostly because the only perspective we get is Alex’s. Her friends were not distinct enough in my opinion and I got them mixed up more than once. They were barely developed, and it made it their deaths feel very distant and impactless. As for Alex herself, my biggest complaint for most of the book was that I could barely connect with her at all, but the ending makes it clear why the story was written that way, and it certainly makes so much more sense now!

My first question when I picked up this book was why seven teenagers would ever be allowed to travel – with only a relative stranger as chaperone at that – to a creepy, uninhabited castle basically out in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country. It just wasn’t realistic. I think my biggest peeve with this book though, was that I didn’t feel drawn in emotionally at all. Usually, I would be freaking out at such plot twists and yelling at the characters to not do such stupid things, but that didn’t happen here. The lack of attachment created to the characters was very much to the detriment of the story in this aspect.

The final twist was excellent and despite the many hints, now that I look back on it, I definitely didn’t see it coming at all! I do wish however, that the ending had not been so quick. Everything was revealed in the span of a chapter and an epilogue at such speed that it took some of the thrill away. Overall, this was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genre!