This one was a little bit of a tougher read for me.

First of all, it's not horror. I'm not sure why it's even listed that way. Horrible? Absolutely. Horror? Nope.

It is a coming of age, if you like that sort of thing.

For me, the twisty bit was really kind of obvious early on. As a result, the reveal of that didn't really do anything for me.

As for our girls? Did not like. I definitely felt for our main character (my God, how we hurt our girls in this world), but I never, ever grew to like her.

Overall, it did keep me reading, but it wasn't truly for me.

*Rounded up from 3.5 stars*

The Thorns is a deep dive into abuse, trauma, and dangerously toxic relationships that is deeply disturbing. This is not a casual thriller; there are some major triggers in these pages that the author warns you about in the very beginning of the book. If you as a reader suffered abuse as a child, I would warn you to be very careful jumping into this book. That being said, the topics, while painful, are handled well, and this story feels like it's saying meaningful things about subjects that are often avoided.

My rating of this book is based more on my personal reading preferences than on any lack of good writing or plotting; I went into this book thinking it was more of a thriller, and hadn't expected the deep dive into child abuse. The book is so well done I didn't want to DNF, so I powered through it, and overall, I am glad I read this story. However, the subject matter is not what I gravitate towards or personally enjoy as a reader, and that's the only reason I'm giving it 3.5 stars. It is a well-written story, and you can tell the author put a lot of herself into this book, and I have to applaud that.

While The Thorns was not for me, I know there are readers who would really enjoy this book! I would recommend The Thorns to readers who enjoy heavier-topic thrillers or memoirs, or fictional explorations of trauma & growth past PTSD.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an arc!

"Dark and disturbing, The Thorns explores the horrifying world of adolescent abuse, controlling friendships, and blinding obsession."
Boarding school friends who share a secret game and an imaginary creature during an extremely difficult time in one of the girl's (Bethany) life. Many years later, now that Bethany is an author and disabled, she receives an email bringing the imaginary creature back into Bethany's life. Definitely check your trigger warnings on this one. This book was tough to read because of the content, and it definitely made me feel a lot of feelings in relation to the subject.

Before this story even begins, the author writes a letter to the readers, warning them about topics that will be discussed. Right from there, I knew this one was going to be difficult.

Bethany Sloane is a prime example of PTSD. Abandoned by her mother, Bethany is at a remote African boarding school and desperate to fit in with Stacey, the head 'cool' girl. To do this, she must learn all the rules of Stacey's twisted games.

In the present, Bethany is a best-selling writer. She is now married to a wonderful man, but still haunted by her past, and questions how she became disabled. Then one day, Stacey emails her.

Stacey's games are still dangerous and Bethany is still desperate to be part of it all.

This was a hard read, due to the nature of topics it covered. It's about obsession and possessiveness. It's about an abuse of power, but by adults and by a peer. There is an implied sexual relationship included and it...was uncomfortable to say the least.

I don't know that I can recommend this, but I don't know that I shouldn't. It's a topic that should be addressed, but maybe not like this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the pu

The story was intriguing, dark and disturbing. The writing was unlike anything else, and OMG the twist was mind-blowing!
I really enjoyed reading this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

how horrifying can a story get?

thank you Thomas & Mercer for providing this book for review consideration via netgalley. all opinions are my own :)

this book is a deep dive into suffering, a light shining on the awfulness of the world and the torture of being trapped in your mind. how can one live under so much violence, inside and out? this is a story of it — quiet, loud, terrible, complex.

entering the mind of a tortured, deeply hurt young girl, living in a boarding school in africa, the author explores how obsession and abusive influence can ruin a life so, so easily. desperate to belong, bethany falls deeper and deeper into darkness, losing herself, finding it back, forced to stumble into the worst the world has to offer — and it tears her apart.

the writing was what struck me at first. unique, as metaphoric as it is clear, with words spinning around beautifully. it hurts, it catches you, holds your throat and makes you look. this isn’t just fiction.

this story hurt my soul, my heart, my mind. it’s amazingly well told, the double timeline playing with you easily. the characters are haunting, the images, too. the five stars came easily.

watch out for Glass Man, friends

Very interesting way to tell a story. It's definitely been done a lot, telling a story of the past while also showing the present day but I really like the way this one handled the storytelling convention.

Okay I honestly don't even know how to review this without getting into spoilery territory but while I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style, the ending had me SHOOK TO MY CORE. If you say you guessed the twist, no you did not you are lying.

I need everyone to read it to see if we all experienced it the same.

thank you netgalley for the review copy!

While I did enjoy it, this is not my favorite of Dawn Kurtagich’s books. I found it a bit slow and predictable.

Holy guacamole that was the most shocking twist .. I am shook!!!!!

So I went in expecting a horror / thriller after reading (and loving) “the madness” by this author. I will say the only scary thing about this book is the prevalence of child SA.

If this is a major trigger for you then I’d recommend skipping this one.

This book is like one big fever dream..

The ending has left me reeling… I’m shocked and sad but also kind of relieved??? I can’t explain more without spoilers so if you read this please come back here and tell me your thoughts!!

Thank you to the author and Thomas & Mercer for the EARC!

Publish date: March 4th 2025

Super dark and disturbing, but interesting at the same time! I enjoyed this story and found the plot to be intriguing. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

At first, I was a bit hesitant, since it was very different from what I'm used to read, and I struggled to pick it up. However, after a few chapters I couldn’t put it down! I loved the characters and that ending wasabsolutely mind-blowing and has been on my mind for hours now. This book surprised me in all the best ways, and I'm so glad I took a chance on it.

This is such a creepy book. It was so entertaining and it had me feeling paranoid and scared while reading it. The creepy and cryptic emails, the mystery of it all, and the character work was all very well done by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

I’m 60 pages in, and I’m really struggling with this book. I don’t know if it’s too dark for me, or if maybe I don’t understand it. The obsession, the dark themes and constant questioning… I’m just not sure this book is for me. The writing can be a bit underwhelming at times, leading to me questioning certain things. Then the writer asks the questions like “should I be doing this?” Or “what can I do to make this up to her?” And I feel like those are things that the reader needs to be able to question themselves, without the help of the author.

I’m afraid I don’t think I’m going to finish this book.

This was a strong concept for a imaginary creature story, it had that concept that I was looking for and was invested in what was happening during the story. Dawn Kurtagich was able to weave a strong story going on and enjoyed the way the characters were written. It had that mystery element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall story being told.

These little girls are crazy, holy ending! I went into this thinking that this was going to be some typical high school reunion of sorts between two friends who had a falling out with some lore between the two sprinkled throughout, and now I’m sitting here staring at the wall. The way the twist in this was crafted was so good and so unpredictable, there’s no way anyone could have guessed that.

I don’t usually go for these kinds of book, I’m not super into thrillers because they just send my anxiety through the roof, but this literally had me hooked from the very first chapter. There’s a very defined split between how narrator is split between her teen self and adult self which made the time jumps easy to follow. I really want more, let me keep reading about her life after!

Dark, disturbing g and unsettling.
I don't know what to say about this book.
Unique plot and good characters.
Had me gasping.

4.5

Setting: South Africa
Rep: protagonist uses crutches and a wheelchair

I absolutely loved this book! I can see why people might not like it - I foresee it being a marmite book - but it really worked for me. Loved the tension, the toxicity of 80s boarding school friendships, the horror of the men in Bethany's life.

I actually finished this a couple of days ago, but I was so angry by the end of it, I had to step away to recenter. This is for a number of reasons--some of them personal, some of them related to the way the book was written. Ultimately, this was both not a good book and not one I enjoyed.

This review isn't going to be extraordinarily detailed (despite my issues with it) because it's a horror/thriller and those are the types of books it's best not to spoil. There's only one spoiler I'll give and it's because I think it's one I would've appreciated having going into this. There is a content warning list at the start of the book, however, it doesn't give enough details, in my opinion. The author mentions there's sexual violence and abuse; what she doesn't mention is that a big portion of this is CSA. The protagonist, Bethany (and, oh, what a curse to have the same name as the protagonist of this novel), tells her story both in the present and the past, starting when she's about 13, at a boarding school. The CSA happens here and, despite the author saying that not only was it not gratuitous or graphic and necessary to the story, it was too graphic for me. Like the author states, it does play a big role in the story, however, there's absolutely no mention of it in either the summary or specified in the content warnings. So, if you're planning on picking this up, I greatly urge you to reconsider if you find CSA triggering.

Like I mentioned earlier, this story is told in 1st-person (part of what makes the above even more difficult to read). The problem is that the past sections barely read any different from the sections where Bethany is an adult. There's an attempt made, sure, but it mostly reads very much like "adult trying to write from the POV of the child" rather than a believable child protagonist. That, and the author seemed to favor one POV of the other, so much so that I honestly questioned why the adult POV was there in the first place, even after getting to the ending. There definitely needed to be more balance there in order to make that ending feel weightier and more impactful.

Also, the central conceit of the story is just... not well explained at all. The summary of this story gives a much different picture of what the bulk of the novel is going to be about. There are elements there, sure, but I don't think they were done to the fullest extent of what they could have been. Neither the "Thorns" or "the Glass Man game" were really explained well, which made them feel inconsequential, even though they were honestly pretty vital to the plot.

The characters, including the main character, are all very bare bones. There wasn't a lot connecting them to each other or the plot. I think it's largely because the writing is very central focused and not, I think, detailed enough to build the characters in a way that ends up satisfying.

Lastly, and I can't say anything more detailed because it would spoil the entirety of the plot, is that this book employs a trope that I absolutely can't stand in horror/thriller novels. It also doesn't do it well. So by the time the ending came around and all the pieces were put together, I was near ready to throw my phone at the wall. The way the author wrote it just didn't work and, honestly, left me mostly confused until the end.

Overall, I just didn't have a good time and I don't even think I can recommend this. Not just because of what I personally didn't like, but also because I don't really believe it's well-written.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

A woman hears from an old friend and finds herself revisiting their twisted shared history at a boarding school in the desert. It seemed like most of the book was focused on young Bethany, and I would have liked to see her more as an adult. However, I really enjoyed this haunting and memorable novel about an obsessive friendship.