Review: A fun idea
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2014
This is a fun horror story, although I enjoyed the concept a bit more than the execution. The story begins with a children's birthday party and a magic trick that goes horrifically wrong. This opening sequence is very well done and starts the momentum rolling. The pace maintains nicely through the first two-thirds of the book with a succession of murders, friends getting reacquainted and the investigation into the killings.Unfortunately it loses steam as it approaches the conclusion, this is partly due to the story retreading old ground but also because of the constant shifting in perspectives. You just get comfortable with one character and its about to reach something interesting and it shifts. Now this is a useful device for building tension and pace, but it backfires a bit here as its constant.The other big issue is the end, it's quite predictable and very familiar if you're a fan of slasher movies. There's also a few errors in the text. It's not a bad story by any means, I enjoyed reading it, but the issues did hold it back from being a great read.