In this thrilling conclusion to the Blackthorn Peak duology, secrets and manipulations are revealed, and no one is who they seem.
Six months after Shaun Treadway and his friends escaped Blackthorn Peak Asylum, they are hiding deep in the Appalachian Mountains where food and help are scarce. When Shaun discovers that both the Agency and law are coming after them, he knows it’s be annihilated by the Agency or face the death penalty if arrested. Still, it’s always worth the fight when you’re fighting for what’s right.

Though the second in a duo, this novel can also stand alone. It’s best described as dark, intense and un-put-downable. And while the characters are diverse, well-drawn and interesting, it’s the settings that are especially powerful, keeping the reader on edge and engaged, emotionally taut.

The angel fountain to our right, hovering right in the middle of the grounds like a weeping goddess, seems to exude a sense of despair and sadness that pierces something deep inside my soul.

It’s a page-turner despite a plotline that’s a little (only a little) hard to swallow.

The Agency’s goal was to kill off our entire generation, operating off the belief that by using us to perfect new psychosurgeries for treatment of behavioral and mental health issues and then killing us, the world would eventually become a utopia.

That’s a credit to the writing, the characters and the author’s deft talents in this genre.

It’s a psychological thriller that verges on dystopian (of the characters’ immediate world), and it doesn’t just delve into mental health issues; it sometimes goes too deep for the average young adult reader, in my opinion. As in, it uses psychology terms and concepts that most teens won’t know and can’t guess the meaning of in context. No surprise, the author is a mental health therapist who “doesn’t shy away from tough topics that teens face such as mental illness, domestic violence, self-harm and pregnancy.” Whether or not the author gets carried away at times, I admire her deep knowledge and passion to educate through fiction.

While inevitably the heroes are a group of teens, the one and a half antagonists (one flip-flops as to which side she’s on) are adults. And we are treated to a few short chapters in these people’s point of view, which works in terms of increasing tension, understanding and stakes, even if it is unusual in a young-adult novel.

Interestingly, the uber-antagonist became super-horrid because he was bullied as a teenager. “The shame he experienced has set him up to be merciless in pursuit of exacting revenge.” For anyone internalizing that little lesson, this novel becomes one of best treatises for anti-bullying ever.

Strangely, however, the co-antagonist who “turns” (only somewhat), does so due to a sexual assault that results in pregnancy. First, that takes a “victimhood incident” out of the teen realm; makes it feel like an adult-book issue. And personally, I don’t buy that a diabolically evil woman who finds herself unwillingly pregnant, suddenly cares about children and teens in general, and loses her evil personality. The author calls it the “universal mother” effect. Nice notion, but are teen readers really going to relate to, or buy into, that?

One other spoiler: The main character and the two girls to whom he’s most drawn, become a ménage à trois; they form a polyamorous liason. While most teens are mature enough to shrug off (or scratch their heads) at that twist, just sayin’ for those who aren’t.

Again, this book is dark, intense and hard to put down. It also puts a capital letter H in “horror”:

We watch as the doctor positions the teen’s head. She places something in the girl’s mouth, and I assume it’s an anesthetic of some sort. Something to make her patient not move while an ice pick comes toward her eye.

Thriller and horror fans, dig in.

– Pam Withers