I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

WOW what a unique horror story! I definitely did not expect the direction this ended up taking.

This story alternates between 2006 when the FMC is a child at summer camp with her two “best” friends. Both friends end up murdered, and Sabrina is the only one to survive. Our other timeline follows Sabrina in 2023 when she is 29 and reluctantly goes on a trip to the woods with her boyfriend and another couple.

Schlote-Bonne paints horrific pictures throughout the novel; including the hand antlers that grace the cover. The imagery is well done and you can definitely “see” all of the crazy things Sabrina does.

Visual horror. Female rage. Supernatural elements.

Very unique, I would say go in blind for the best reading experience.

*The Mean Ones* combines dual timelines, folk‑horror vibes, and a camp setting into an interesting but uneven package. Sadie (once Sabrina) is haunted by a childhood tragedy and plagued by voices in her head (PTSD? or supernatural echoes?)
Sadie’s present‑day arc, including her tense relationship with Lucas and an ill‑advised woodland cabin trip, builds suspense effectively, but sometimes feels predictable or under-explored as the novel races toward its climax. The twist ending lands with shock value, yet feels slightly rushed. Overall, *The Mean Ones* shows Schlote‑Bonne’s bold strengths in mood and concept, but could have used more pacing refinement to satisfy fully. A solid effort, though not quite fully realized.

Most days, Sadie pretends to be normal. But, what does it mean to be normal?
I was intrigued by the very first line in this book. We meet Sadie as a kid when the story really began, and again in present day when she’s an adult. The dual timelines weave together effortlessly, while adding to the overall tension and suspense. Grotesque and dark, but you won’t want to look away. Not something I’d recommend reading before bed…
I’d never read a character that gaslit herself as hard as Sadie does. By the end, the good for her sentiment prevailed.
Ghosts, summer camp, and a demon cult - this is the perfect summertime read.

The Mean Ones was an interesting read from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. I enjoyed how the story approaches childhood trauma and PTSD and has Sadie (Sabrina) constantly questioning what is and isn't real. The story is told through dual timelines where the reader gets to see Sadie's (Sabrina) thought process in childhood versus adulthood, and how different people in her life have impacted how she sees herself in the world. The story was definitely giving Cabin In the Woods and Midsommar vibes. Overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Creature Publishing for letting me read an ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review.

The Mean Ones is such a good book at its core it’s about the childhood traumas that stick with you wrapped in a prickly folk horror exterior that ramps up tension as you find yourself second guessing what’s real and what’s not.

Thank you netgalley and creaturepublishing and the author for the opportunity to read one early!

I have sat on this book for a few days trying to come up with the perfect review and I’m at a loss of words still.

This is easily one of my top five books of not only the year, but the last decade!!
This book is eerie, creepy, and had me in a chokehold. I did not want to put it down!!
It gave me all of the 80s slasher nostalgia. But also touched on childhood trauma and mental health.

Tatiana has easily become an auto-buy for me!!

Thank you to the publisher and Author for the Opertunity to Read "Mean Ones" in exchange for an unbiased review..
A strong, more Adult Venture, by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, the Author does struggle to fully emerge from the YA realm. There are attempts at more adult themes and language but it feels more akin to an edgy teen wearing adult clothes. Think could also have been intentional, to play into the Arrested Development the Main Character. Is experiencing and if that was the intent the Bravo as the mark was hit.

this had me hooked from the very first page. it was gross and eerie and page turning. every time i thought i had guessed where it was going i was wrong. definitely excited to read more by this author!!! a great summerween read.

This one was haunting in multiple ways. I couldn't put it down, even when it was downright uncomfortable to see myself in Sabrina, in the way she always felt like she was on the outside looking in, how she was never RIGHT, not the right size, not the right kind of confidence, not the right MEANNESS. A hella cathartic read! I loved it!

I absolutely loveeeeeed this book! It took me a while to read it because it is very eerie, and I could only read it in the daylight. Nonetheless, I had a really good time. I love when there are time jumps in books, because it really keeps me engaged and keeps me turning the page. Tatiana does a good job of setting the scene and really allows you to visualize. When the FMC thought she was seeing a deer, I could literally see it happening. Altogether, I really enjoyed this book and think it is the perfect fall read!

The writing style of this book hooked me and got me into the story right away. It had a slasher/culty feel which I really liked. There were maybe one two many cultural references that took me out of the story a bit but I didn’t let that hinder my enjoyment. I found this to read quickly and was quite gruesomely entertaining. It doesn’t not take itself too seriously and is morbidly funny at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the earc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a good summer read! The camp atmosphere was perfect for a ‘summerween’ vibe (even though I’m kinda sick of the word, it’s the best word to describe the energy!) I’m not usually one for gore and this had some pretty graphic scenes but it wasn’t so much that ruined the book for me.

I didn’t totally love present day Sadie in the sense that I wanted to yell through the book “JUST TELL HIM” but I can also understand the reasoning behind her decisions. Also, her boyfriend was the worst so I wouldn’t really want to tell him anything either.

I really loved the chapters that were set in the past. Reading about that part of the storyline was interesting and I felt like the characters, though awful, were really realistic and friendship dynamic felt relatable if you’ve experienced being in a 3 person friend group as a kid (I sure did).

One of my favourite reads this year so far!

5★

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc of this book.

I loved this! I’ve been enjoying the book from the beginning and knew straight away that I’d give it a high rating. However, the ending was the make it or break it moment, and this ending did not disappoint in the slightest.

This is my first book I’ve read by this author, even tho her debut has been on my radar for a while, and won’t be the last. I’ll be picking up her debut soon for sure because I very much enjoyed the way she writes.

The writing was very easy to follow and fast to read, and I enjoyed a lot of the gory and spooky imagery that was described.

The characters were mostly unlikable but that’s the point, isn’t it? However, our main character Sadie/Sabrina? I LOVED her. I loved how strong and weird she was. I enjoyed being in her head and following her throughout the story. And we support a strong queen - I also love weightlifting so I liked her even more for that.

The story was very entertaining. I’d recommend reading this if you enjoy summer camps and cults. There are dual timelines and while the current timeline doesn’t revolve around the summer camp, the past one does. And I really appreciated having Sabrina’s backstory and knowing what happened back then.

The ending? Slay queen - quite literally. The ending really made this a 5 star for me. It was that good.

So if anything I wrote sounds interesting to you, go pick this up! You’ll have a good time with this book.

Read if you like:
☆ Summer camps
☆ Cults
☆ Folklore
☆ Dual timelines

Descriptions that were loveably disturbing and gross, all wrapped into an intriguing plot - a real page turner!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The story unfolding in the present (2023) and in the past (2006) was executed really well. Kept me on the edge of my seat - and I was really keen to learn what would happen next on both ends. Parts of the 2006 descriptions of childhood felt very nostalgic (having been about 10 at the time myself and being reminded of this time).

It didn’t play out as I had expected in the beginning. It was engaging. Suspenseful. There was gore.

Massively enjoyed this read.
The Mean Ones.
Recommended!

Thank you Creature Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This really surprised me - this tiny book packs a punch! I struggled to connect with Sadie/Sabrina in the beginning, but thankfully after I’d read about a third, I felt really settled into the story. I also loved the ending - glad it took the direction it did and surprised me! It also had me laughing out loud in places, particularly the list of the top 5 worst ways to die. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

Tatiana Schlote-Bonne - The Mean Ones

It’s been a while since a book genuinely made me squeal with glee, and this book did just that… the ending… It will explode your mind. I loved every second of this book. Not only is it spooky, drenched in 80's horror vibes, but it’s also really original. This book is packed with cult like elements that will make you squirm with the gory kills. I honestly loved the kills in this book. It’s graphic and just so intense.

It's emotional, tragic, and overall packed with a female main character that I personally found highly relatable. Sabrina is just so deserving of everything. Her life has been a shambles, her friends and family, well... they are assholes and this book explores those toxic relationships, some stuff that everyone can relate to, especially if you are also the introverted kind of girl that doesn’t make friends easily.

The mean one is about a girl named Sabrina who goes unwillingly goes to summer camp with her friends. A tragic incident follows, and those friends sadly get killed. Leaving Sabrina with a lifetime of PTSD and running for her life. She changes her name and moves to a different state. When she meets her boyfriend Lucas, things seem to fall into place... but this doesn’t last very long, unfortunately.

I highly recommend this book! Especially if you’re into cult, summer style slashers with elements of mental health struggles and emotional rollercoasters. It's a real ride!

The Mean Ones releases on September 30th and is now available to pre-order!

Thank you to Tatiana, Creature Publishing, and Netgalley for this outstanding read.

#creaturepublishing #netgalley #themeanones #horrorbooks #horrorrecommendations

This book reads like a haunted whisper between *Midsommar* and a straight-to-VHS slasher you watched through your fingers as a kid. Creepy forest cults, traumatized final girls, talking deer, and a boyfriend you’ll want to throw in a lake—it’s got all the ingredients for a late-night, lights-off kind of read. Sadie, formerly Sabrina, is trying her best to be normal. She’s got a job, a gym routine, and a boyfriend who vacillates between tender and terrifying. But seventeen years after surviving a massacre in the woods, she finds herself lured back on a couples trip (because of course), where her carefully constructed life starts to split at the seams. The past comes clawing back, one bloody memory at a time.

The dual timeline works well—twelve-year-old Sabrina's voice feels raw and vividly uncomfortable, capturing the weirdly cruel ecosystem of middle school girls in a way that hits a little too close. The present-day chapters show a Sadie who’s stuck in survival mode, emotionally numbed and placating everyone around her, especially Lucas. She’s frustrating. She makes awful choices. But there’s something brutally honest about the way trauma flattens a person’s sense of self. The horror is grimy and surreal, never quite tipping into full-blown supernatural, but always feeling just slightly... wrong. Dead animals talk. A strange voice murmurs in Sadie's mind. The forest watches. It all builds to a finale that’s messy and cathartic, if a bit rushed. Some readers may want more agency, more strength earlier on—but the payoff, when it comes, is earned. She's not an action hero; she's a girl who was broken and finally claws her way back. If you’re into horror that’s atmospheric, character-driven, and a little deranged, this might just scratch the itch. Just don’t expect logic to always prevail. You’re here for the blood and bones, after all.

3.5 ⭐️

This slasher horror book was perfect for a summerween read. 🔪

The dual timelines for the main character worked throughout the book. It worked well with the flow of the story. Sadie was a good main character. I definitely felt like I was having a fever dream when she described "The Other place". It was a good mixture of creepy, gore, and horror.

I felt like the ending was rushed which was disappointing. I still enjoyed this book very much.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC of this book. ❤️

3.5 rounded up.
Sadie is just trying to live a normal life with her boyfriend. Lifting weights at the gym, and having their jobs in physical therapy.

Well, as normal as it can be with the hellish gory visions she has every now and then… and the deep sultry voice in her head that tells her to do bad things.

Sadie was born Sabrina, and she witnessed her two childhood friends die by ritual sacrifice from beneath a bed in their cabin at summer sleep away camp. Ever since, even into adulthood she’s had these visions of distortion that turn the world around her into a landscape of bodily horrors.

The only thing she’s found that’s helped her to escape these visions, is a carefully crafted routine with her boyfriend Lucas, and he doesn’t know about her dark past.

Ngl, Lucas is an actual turd. He’s everything you hate about narcissism, embodied. But he helps to restore balance in her life following her trauma as a child, so she makes up every excuse in the book to excuse his miserable behavior and treatment of her.

One day while they’re at the gym, Lucas’s friend Eli calls him up, and invites them on a trip to a secluded cabin for a weekend away. For anyone else this would sound spectacularly relaxing, but for Sadie, it’s a disruption of her equalizing routine, and more of a nightmare than Lucas could ever understand.

This story took a very interesting turn at the end, and you know what?

Good for her.

The Mean Ones by Tatiana had all the ingredients of a book I should have loved, an intriguing premise, excellent pacing, and vivid, immersive descriptions that made every scene easy to visualize. The dual timeline was done well, which isn’t always easy to pull off, and I appreciated how seamlessly the story flowed between past and present. The sense of dread and tension kept me turning the pages, eager to see how everything unfolded.

That said, a few things didn’t quite work for me. The heavy emphasis on weightlifting and gym culture felt out of place and, at times, unnecessary to the story. Also, while I understand the book explores themes of mean girls and frenemies, the frequent fatphobia and body-shaming were hard to overlook. As someone who didn’t personally experience that kind of dynamic growing up, those moments made it harder to connect with certain parts of the story.

I can appreciate the book’s strengths like the atmosphere, the suspense, and the structure. It just didn’t fully resonate with me due to some of the content. mixed feelings but still compelling read.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC