I really struggled to get into this novel and contemplated between two and three stars until the last four chapters, which seem to pull everything together and kept me on the edge of my seat. However, until those last few chapters, I found myself distracted while listening and forcing myself to stick with it.

If you choose to read this novel, be patient with it. The payoff is pretty good.

Lynette is both the best and worst part of this story. (Probably intentional on Hendrix's part.) She's the character with the most significant growth arc. While she seems like a pretty reliable narrator for a while, she's definitely not, and it can be both frustrating (worst) and intriguing (best) to interpret whether she's actually telling an accurate story.

With the exception of Heather, all of the final girls are pretty interesting. Since the slasher series Heather represents is my favorite of the genre, I wanted more about her character. I wanted her character to have more of a story. I thought this was going to happen at the end but then it got dropped. I'm guessing Hendrix wanted to leave the supernatural element of her tragedy part of the mystery.

Finally, Hendrix does a nice job of teasing out one of the themes and then making them overt at the end: There's more to life than just staying alive.

In the end, I'm glad I took the time to stick with this book, but it's hard for me to recommend because it plods along for so long.