Tags
Danielle Vega, Drugs, Friendship, horror, Mystery, Survive the Night, Thriller, YA lit, Young Adult
This young adult horror kept me on the edge of my seat, and once I started I couldn’t stop! Casey is the narrator told in first person POV, but since she is drugged for most of the story, she is quite unreliable which adds to the intensity of the story.
Casey has just been released from rehab due to a pain killer addiction, but she decides to go out with her wild friends — Shana, Julie, and Aya. Shana is the leader of the group, and one of the best parts of the book is the conflicting relationship of platonic love and jealousy between her and Casey. Shana takes them from Philly to New York City to watch Sam, Casey’s ex-boyfriend, and his band play in an old warehouse nightclub. While there, the group learns of an exclusive underground rave in the subway.
Casey, Shana, Julie, Aya, Sam, and Woody (Sam’s friend) go in search of the rave and after much searching, finally find the subterranean party. The real terror begins when drugged, Casey, discovers Julie’s decimated body in an isolated tunnel. The police break up the rave, but Casey and her friends become trapped underground.
The entrapment below ground, the dark, the rats and snakes, the loss of cell phones, the murder(s), the wading and swimming through subway water, the disorientation and distortion of drugs would have been enough to creep me out, but Vega brings in an element of science fiction with the source of the terror coming from a monster. Personally, I would have preferred a deranged ax murderer to a monster. Of course, since Casey is high on drugs the reader really doesn’t know for sure what actually happens.
I was really not expecting to enjoy this book, but surprisingly it sucked me in and I could not stop reading! It is recommended for high school+ due to the mature content, for those who enjoy a nail-biting page turner.
