I quite enjoyed this book. It reminded me exactly of a classic small town horror movie. You've got the Sheriff, and deputies, and the type of place where everybody knows your name. I will say that I think this book is better suited to a male audience as some of the circumstances were quite gory and I thought the romantic relationship moved a little fast without enough development (from my female perspective). But it was well written and moved fast and I always wanted to know what happened next. I think Thomas Rydder's books will only get better.

I found this book to be reasonably well written but depressing. I could not connect with any of the characters as they were all really mean people except for Mercy's mother who was nice but incredibly stupid in her actions, and Mercy who at first was unbelievably kind and naive but quickly spiraled to be rather cruel (although this wasn't unwarranted). I am sure that there are many people who would actually enjoy this book but I did not as I didn't see that there was a real point or lesson to be learned from it. I don't think that all stories need to have a moral or a lesson that you learn but in that case they should be slightly more enjoyable to read.