14 down on their luck strangers get chosen to participate in a reality show where all they have to do is play hide and seek for 7 days. They are “minnows” who must hide from the “sharks” during the day in an abandoned amusement park. At night, they can return to the camp, wash up, eat and rest. Each day, two contestants will be eliminated–however, the terms of elimination are a little vague. But no matter, the prize is $50,000 and each of the contestants are determined to be the winner with very little thought about the actual game.
No stranger to the game of Hide and Seek with major consequences; one of the contestants is Mack, a young woman who was the sole survivor of her father’s deadly rampage as a family eliminator. Her hiding skills kept her alive, but she feels the weight of the guilt of taking her sister’s favorite hiding spot that day. With nothing to lose, Mack enters the contest and she’s not there to “make friends”, BUT SHE DOES!!! And it’s super wholesome and I loved it. After the first few contestants “get out”, the rest of the contestants realize that this game may be a little more sinister than first expected–can anyone get out alive?
I really liked this book, I liked it even more when I read the acknowledgement…what a perfect analogy of school shootings and the world today–having the innocent hide, and knowing that there are people who believe that there are an acceptable number of sacrifices to be made for “the greater good” (read: their own interests). It really made the book BRILLIANT. Without the acknowledgement, the book is pretty fun. I think maybe cutting the number contestants down would’ve make the first half of the book a little more enjoyable, but overall, if you want a little horror in your life, read it!
Here was the acknowledgement: 
