I have read quite a few books by Nell Pattison and enjoyed them all. Hide is yet another fantastic story, full of tension, suspense, twists and turns. The setting is very atmospheric and was a great book to curl up with on a snowy afternoon in late November.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for my ARC.

This isolated thriller follows a group of 7 friends as they embark on a hike on Boxing Day. But when they're separated and watching a flock of birds, a shotgun blast echos through the nature reserve. One of the friends is dead and one of the friends killed them.

The cast of 7 friends are:

Emily, the sister who never lets her hearing loss hold her back.
Lauren, the sister who always feels a step behind.
Morna, who doesn’t get on with Lauren.
Ben, whose feelings for Emily border on obsession.
Dan, the quiet newcomer to the group.
Kai, who isn’t just on the hike to enjoy the wildlife.
And Alec, the one who knows all their secrets.

Overall, this book really didn't work for me. I had such a hard time getting through it and I think it was at least 100 pages too long. There wasn't anything glaringly bad with it, but the pieces were all just okay and they came together in such a way where the whole was less than the parts. However, based on the reviews that have already been posted, I am in the minority on this one (currently has a 3.68 on Goodreads with 148 reviews).

I really enjoyed the friend group dynamic and found it a bit of a refreshing take on the typical dynamic for isolated thrillers. This group is a birdwatching group and most of them don't hang out together outside of the group outings. I find that with most isolated thrillers, the group involved is often more closely tied than the group in this book was. Usually, groups that are closely tied mean that they have more history and, thus, more room for interpersonal conflict. In this case, the fact that these people are basically strangers to each other actually plays into the thriller element because they don't know enough about the others to be confident of who is the murderer and who isn't. That being said, I was very surprised at how intertwined the group actually is once we get into the meat of the story and secrets start being revealed. I did like how Emily was the most outsider of the group since she was the newest member and really only there to try and bond with Lauren. Emily was by far my favorite character and I loved how she gave us a bit of the 'outsider perspective' on the other members of the group.

I always prefer my isolated thrillers to be multi-POV so I was glad that we got to read from all 7 POV in this story. However, I did find a lot of the characters to be very annoying and tedious to read from (Emily being the one exception). I think my main issue stemmed from the author trying to build tension but it ended up being way overdone for me. At the very beginning of the book, we know Alec said something during a previous group outing that really upset everyone but each POV we got would only allude to 'that thing Alec said that upset everyone' and it wasn't until 10% in that we actually find out what he said. I thought that would be it and we would move on, however, that same tactic was then used through the majority of the book where each of the characters has some sort of big, life-altering secret that they keep bringing up in their POV but they also don't actually explain what those secrets are. And most of the time, it is the POV character wondering to themself "maybe ABC Character found out about my secret", or sometimes thinking to themselves "if my secret gets out, I'm going to jail". But none of them actually say what their secret is. And I understand this is done to build tension in the story and as a sort of red herring because if all of them have secrets they don't want revealed then any one of them could be the killer. However, it was done so often and it felt so heavy handed that I just wanted to crawl into the book and punch the characters. I think the line between intriguing and annoying is going to be different for different readers and, for me, this significantly crossed the line into annoying territory.

I thought the setting was unique and it was an interesting twist on the typical isolation thriller location. I'm a bit torn on how 'isolated' I like my isolation thrillers to be because, in theory, the characters weren't truly isolated but the actions and decisions by the characters is what ends up cutting them off for further assistance. Because of this, there were a few times where the character choices fell into the horror movie trope of "just get out of the house, why are you going to investigate the noise???" where I understand why we needed to have something waylay these characters a bit, but I found some of those situations to be a little too convenient. I was reading an ebook ARC so this might change for the final version, but I would have loved a map in the front of this book. I think it would have helped so much to understand the scale of this nature preserve and just how twisty the trails were. There were a number of times where the group had to choose between two paths - one more established but longer and a more rough short cut and I think being able to see those paths on a map would have helped me better understand the stakes in those decisions. Also, we were given a good number of distances but I didn't have a good sense of how time was passing during the chapters. Most of the time, it seemed like the chapters were in direct chronological order and we were just switching POVs but there were a few times where we would change POV and it seemed like that new chapter was taking place at the same time as the chapter we had just read. I think adding something like timestamps at the beginning of each chapter would have helped me really get a feel for the pacing of the events taking place better.

The pacing was really hit and miss for me. I think of isolation thrillers as being very high tension but low action and this book was sort of the opposite. There was a lot of running and hiding and choosing which path to take and more hiding but I never really felt like the characters were in danger. When the one person in the group is killed, the other characters seem really wishy-washy on if someone else in the group killed that character or if there was someone else in the wildlife preserve. At different times, different characters felt like they would swing wildly from one option to the other but I never felt like the narrative, as a whole, pointed the reader in any one directly. In my experience, isolated thrillers are either type 1: 'characters think threat is outside, but is actually inside' or type 2: 'characters think threat is inside, but is actually outside'. I think in this case, the book didn't settle into one of these two main, generally accepted, branches. And, of course, Pattison didn't need to choose one of those two branches but I feel like the way she chose to plot her story was, again, the less impactful option.

The ending twist, right at the last page of the book, lowered my rating by a full star. It wasn't objectively bad, but I felt it lessened the impact of the rest of the book and made the story feel unfinished. It was one of those reveals that, sure, did turn everything we thought we knew completely around. However, in doing so, it re-opened parts of the plot that the book had told the reader were done. The ending feels like sequel bait a bit and I'm generally not a fan of that sort of ending. Also, when I look back at the story, I don't see any breadcrumbs or hints toward this ending twist. Which was especially annoying considering we rotated through everyone's POV so it, again, felt a little cheep because the author specifically left those clues out of the book. The twist is big enough that it would be something the character in question would be thinking about probably a lot in the given situation. However, we never see any of those thoughts when we are in their POV. If anything, the characterization is almost the opposite of what it would be given everything that character knows is going on.

Overall, this story just didn't come together for me. I liked some of the individual aspects, but the story as a whole was not entertaining or effective. I was often annoyed while reading this and really wished the story had taken a different angle with some of the plot lines.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is December 9, 2021

I thought this was an interesting premise for a book. I enjoyed that one character was deaf, it created a different dynamic for the relationships. I also really liked that this was in a secluded location. It created an atmospheric story!

2 things different about this book, 1 is that one of the characters is deaf and 2 is that it is set in a Nature Reserve, both things vastly different, both things could have taken over the book but the author very cleverly had both as inclusive parts of the story so we learnt about cocklear implants alongside starling mass flights in an interesting informative but not take over the story way, both elements were fascinating to read about
The story itself is about 7 friends ( very loosely friends ) who go on a Boxing Day walk in the reserve, all though have secrets and one of them knows each one of them, again cleverly the author hints at these throughout until the big reveal of each one…..meanwhile someone is trying to kill them all
It was a fine engaging read, descriptive and reader friendly and with a ‘ohhhhhhhhh’ ending
Really enjoyed it

9/10
5 Stars

It's a DNF at 80 pages from me.

I found the majority of characters far too annoying, it was slow & lackluster

I did think the representation of a deaf character was good & not something you read often.

Seven members of a bird watching group go out on a hike through a nature preserve on Boxing Day,
Alec recently claimed to know all their secrets during a drunken rant.
Now Alec is dead! But who did it? Was it one of the group or is someone else on the reserve that shouldn't be there?
While trying to get back to the main lodge, they decide to separate (never a good idea). Of course there is no cell service and they were not completely prepared to be walking back in the stormy dark. Especially when nobody knows who the killer is and where they are.
Each chapter is told from a different persons point of view. Everyone has a secret of their own and they are SLOWLY revealed.
I have loved other books by this author and was interested in the pros and cons of Cochlear implants.
I will say I liked the other books a bit more than this one, but still enjoyed it a lot. Just a little slower paced.

Many thanks to netgalley and Avon Books UK for the arc.

Hide - Nell Pattison

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Seven friends. One killer. You can run, but you can’t hide…

The winter hike is meant to bring their nature group together.
Emily, the sister who never lets her hearing loss hold her back.
Lauren, the sister who always feels a step behind.
Morna, who doesn’t get on with Lauren.
Ben, whose feelings for Emily border on obsession.
Dan, the quiet newcomer to the group.
Kai, who isn’t just on the hike to enjoy the wildlife.
And Alec, the one who knows all their secrets.

I enjoyed this book - I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book but I was drawn in by the cover. Each of the characters is hiding something and it could lead to any of them being the murderer. As the reader, I felt as in the dark as the characters I was reading about, as they were running around the reserve in the dark.

I listened to the majority of the book in one sitting and even when I wasn't listening I was trying to work out who the killer was. This book is told from the perspective of each of the different characters - with each character getting their own chapters.

Rating: 4/5

The story line is around 7 very odd people who like bird-watching, who go out to a reserve as a group when one of them is murdered. The plot moves along from there, if you want to lose yourself in a book then just read and don't over think it. Not very believable and i found the writing quite basic, would suit young adults for definite. Not really my sort of thing.and i didn't really understand any of the characters at all. Thank you #NetGalley for the book to review.

Thank you to the publishers at Avon Books UK and Netgalley for this e-ARC of Hide!

Boxing Day, aka the day after Christmas, seven people decide to head into the nature reserve to watch a Starling murmuration together. Little do they know, not all of them will walk out with their lives. All holds a secret they don’t want revealed, but after Alec let’s loose that he knows what they are all hiding from one another, someone feels the need to eliminate him.

After finding his body, nobody trusts one another, and they decide to go in different directions; one group back to the center, another to the perimeter fence. Each chapter is told from a new person’s point of view, and we don’t know who to trust, as each person is holding something back. Who killed Alec, and are they finished, or is someone else next?

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller told from 7 different points of view. First we are introduced to each character, and then we dive into the heart of the story. I did guess a lot of the twists, which may just be from how many books I’ve read, but the final ending still ended up throwing me for a loop. That was probably the one thing I didn’t really see coming, so I appreciated that! 3.5 stars from me.

Hide releases December 9th!

This was such a quick and thrilling book to read. The group of seven that go on the walk were all compelling characters and i liked how they were all layered and had differing viewpoints and reasons why it could be them who did the murder. I thought the drama was done well and this is what kept me hooked all the way through. This definitely had the stark and wintery feel to it that the cover promises and this made the terror of the murder feel even more scary.

This gave what it promised. A cozy -for me yet claustrophobic whodunit perfect for the winter time. Wonderful. It kept me guessing and intrigued. I had a great time!

Overall, an enjoyable read. The author does a good job of creating the wintry setting and the feelings of panic created in the character when they lose their hearing aids. As the book unfolds more of each characters background is revealed, leading you to become more suspicious over everyones motives and true self. A good twist at the end.

This is a fun read but don’t think too much about the plausibility of the story.
There is a group of people who come together occasionally to watch birds. They are not friends but they share an interest in nature and wildlife and that brought them together. Lauren and Emily are estranged sisters. They grew up in foster care and did not stay in touch until lately. Emily is deaf and she developed an app that helps deaf people which earned her a lot of money. Lauren works in a nature reserve and tries to make ends meet. She is jealous of Emily’s achievements. She sees herself as the leader of the group but there is Morna who is competing with her about that. Then there is Alec, an elderly man who is a very keen bird watcher. His life evolves around watching birds and he sees himself as an expert and wants to show off is experience. Dan is a widower and still morning the dead of his wife. Ben seems like a nice guy. He tried to ask Lauren out but she rejected him. But she was about to change her mind and go out with him but then she brought Emily into the group and Ben was immediately smitten with her. One more reason for Lauren to hate her sister. The last one is Kai who seems to have his own reasons for joining the group.

When they decide to go on a hike to see a starling murmuration one day things go terribly wrong. While they split off to several watching points they hear a gunshot. One of them is dead and one of them has to be the killer.

The premise sounded good and the author did not fail to deliver a decent story with a good pace. The characters are all a bit shady and of course they have secrets which one of them seems to know about. The story is not very believable. They run around at night in the forest without any problems. In my experience it gets very very dark in nature but that seems not to bother any of them. They loose and find each other in this huge area all the time. In the middle the pace slows a bit down because of all this talk about which way to go and stuff like that. But at the end it got better and there are some nice surprises which made up for the unlikely story.

I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books.

I’ve read other books by Nell and was stoked to be accepted an arc for her latest book.

The thing that I love about Nell’s books is that she always has a main character who’s deaf and shows that, just because they have a hearing loss, it doesn’t mean they can’t have a fulfilling life like everyone else. They have their own struggles, but there are ways to overcome it.

Throughout this book it flicks between the 7 characters to show their perspective as the story develops.

It’s very much a locked-room-mystery concept where the characters are on a hike when someone is murdered.

It’s full of twists and turns, and I never guessed the who-dunnit. I had my suspicions but they turned out to be wrong!

That ending though! I didn’t expect that twist!

I have always been a sucker for a good closer room mystery, and this is an excellent approximation of one, even though it is set in the wilderness which is as open as it gets, but for the sense of seclusion. A group of friends sets on a hike, not knowing just how perilous their journey is about to get…

I received an E-ARC copy of ‘Hide’ by Nell Pattison through NetGalley when my request was approved by the publisher Avon Books UK. Thank you to the publisher for my review copy.

This book follows the seven members of a nature group as they meet up on Boxing Day. Lauren works at the nature reserve and has managed to get them all exclusive access for the day.

There is tension in the group due to a drunken revelation when they met up before Christmas, but they still are keen to bring the group back together and have a great day.

The group disperses into different hides to get ready for the spectacular bird watching views they are expecting.

Suddenly a gun shot is heard, and after investigation they find that one of their group has been shot dead.
Suspicions fly, but is it one of the group or has someone else trespassed onto the land?

What follows is the uncovering of many secrets, and a tense and terrifying night whilst they try to work out who is the killer and try to find safety through the increasing bad weather.

The book is told by all the seven members of the group, as the chapters move between them all. I did find that this made it a little slow unravelling the storyline. I didn’t get to fully relate or click with any of the characters as the story concentrated on too many of them rather than a select few. I can see why it was done in this way, to reveal as many secrets as possible and increase the mystery as you try to work out who is the killer.

I like the fact that the author always includes a deaf character in her books, not only does it make the books more unique and inclusive, but you can tell that they come from experiences the author has faced herself or in her knowledge from teaching in the deaf community.

There are many mysteries to reveal in this book, as not only do you need to work out the murderer but also the secrets each one of the members is hiding.

Overall, a mysterious thriller with lots of secrets to reveal.

2.5 stars
Hide follows a group of people who are going bird watching. The problem is though is that one says he knows everyone's secrets, but we have no idea what those secrets are and we get to spend the entire book figuring them out, as well as why a person was murdered.

This is a multi-pov book that switches between all the different characters at the start of each chapter. We get to see what is happening through all the different people which could have been enjoyable, but honestly just made it more drawn out. We should have just had one or two have been the main pov's and then the others just be occasional snippets when necessary.

Overall this book was lackluster. So much of this is drawn out and just so many unnecessary things, no one needed a whole chapter about things that never got addressed again. I have also never read the words murmuration so many times in my life until now and I can do without reading them for a long time now. I did figure out some of the secrets beforehand because of how obvious they were. While others and especially the killer I didn't get until it was revealed (granted this was mostly because I just didn't care anymore by the end).

The one thing I did enjoy about this book is the representation of a deaf character. She does have cochlear implants and that was discussed as well as the difficulties she faced all throughout her childhood and even into adulthood. That was very nice to see as it's not something we get a lot of.

However the ending of this book, and I'm talking the very last page.. What in the world was that? What is this person's problem, because jeez get a grip and get over it already. I just don't get it. Is that the start of a setup to a follow-up book? Cause if not what was the point of it?

While the last chapter ended with a bit of a shock, this book takes a long time to get there. With every character having their POV shown, I found the pacing slow & repetitive. I found the characters to be unlikeable in varying degrees, so didn't feel any sympathy towards any of them. While the synopsis of the book got my attention, the book itself did not hold my interest.

Hide, by Nell Pattison is an atmospheric chiller thriller. It’s short chapters make for easy reading and encourage you to read just that one more chapter, with you not realising you’ve already raced through half the book in no time at all. It’s full of twists, turns and reveals and an ending that will certainly surprise you.

Hide is set on a snowy Boxing Day, when 7 members of a nature group gain exclusive access to a nature reserve in Lincolnshire for their walk. But owing to a pre-Christmas meet up tensions are running high. Members of the group are worried about who knows what about them, after all nearly all of them have secrets to hide. Then during the event they were there to watch, one of the group ends up dead, now they’ll need to hide and figure out what’s going on and who the killer is.

The chapters are written from the first person perspective of the 7 different characters. This is a useful device for building up the tension and allowing for pieces of information to build up about each of the characters, until they reveal something that changes the course of the story. The characters are certainly a mixed group but each of them are well developed that you really get a sense of who is who whilst you follow them through the forrest.

Some of the twists I guessed earlier on, though some really surprised me as they unfolded. Like many others I was certainly surprised by that ending!

This was an enjoyable, easy to read, seasonal chiller thriller. It was entertaining, but one that I don’t think will stick with me for long after.

Wow! This was absolutely fantastic! I loved that we saw chapters from the POV of all the characters, it gives the reader so much to think about and possibilities of who the killer could be. And the author shows the personalities of each character so well, including for one character in particular making you think there’s more than meets the eye to them, which as you see at the end there is! I cannot recommend this enough

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book