When best friends Sadie and Logan stumble across a strange corn maze out of season, they decide to venture inside on a lark. But when they stumble across what appear to be their own murdered bodies, they discover that they have become trapped in a time loop with a murderer on their heels.
Thank you dreadpiratekel for putting this book on my radar – their review mentioned monsters made of corn, time loops, and all the way in which toxic people suck, and I was immediately sold. Even the thought of a corn maze makes me feel itchy, so I suppose there’s a horror in that as well.
We are plunged straight into the story, as the books opens and closes practically in the corn maze. Despite this, it’s made easy for the reader to find their footing in these claustrophobic environs, and we’re off trying to understand what exactly is going on in the maze, and how to get out of it. The writing drips with atmosphere – corn monsters, time distortions, an oncoming storm! – and I found myself turning the pages as quick as possible with bated breath.
I also loved how the author explored the themes of being trapped by one’s trauma as well in many ways throughout the book, externalizing it to better study it in the very best horror traditions. For the characters in this book this centers around toxic relationships, but it can and does apply to all kinds of other scenarios.
I did think the treatment of the magic aspect was a little hand-wavey – it is definitely a soft system, ruled by intuition and not logic, which works in some ways but makes things feel too convenient in others. I also wish we got to understand Logan a bit more. The story is solely from Sadie’s perspective but she and Logan handle the maze as a pair, with his side just as important as hers – so I would have liked it if we got some of the story from inside his head as well.