Find Him Where You Left Him Dead is perfect for fans of “Jumanji”, Haunted Houses, and friends. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this mashup, but I sincerely enjoyed the way the core characters pull us through this YA Horror. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived.
Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors―Owen, Madeline, Emerson, and Dax―have reunited for one strange and terrible they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.
Together they return to the place where their friendship ended with one find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished―an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.
As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:
They have one night to complete seven challenges or they’ll all be stuck in this world forever.
Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices―blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.
And once again, not everyone will make it out alive.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
We love to see a combination of Japanese Inspired spirits with bite as well as Jumanji vibes. Immediately Find Him Where You Left Him Dead is immediately haunting and eerie. There’s a feeling in the pit of your stomach as you wonder what happened to Ian. Why they left him behind and what the game demanded of them. This multiple POV YA Horror showcases character dynamics. The distance between them for the last four years has turned their relationships, each other, unrecognizable. In many ways this story is about figuring out who they are now and if anything of them, their relationships, remain.
As Find Him Where You Left Him Dead only increases the tension as the game progresses. They are tested, have to be unwilling allies, confronting the challenges as well as the tension. Tests of friendship, of what kind of person we will be. The challenges forces them to be honest with each other and themselves. It’s a great YA Horror with some gore and blood, sacrifices and obstacles, but balancing the character development with the action of the games. Will everyone make it to the finish line?
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