Book of Knives – ARC Book Review

There are thirteen knives. One by one they begin to disappear

Nora didn’t expect Hidden Lake Camp to be in a state of ruin. Dock full of rotten boards, smashed windows, cabins falling apart. To her new husband, Paul, the camp is the past he’d just as soon bury. Nora agreed to drive north with him to get his elderly parents settled while he makes enough repairs to sell the property. Only a few months, Paul said. The summer camp, however, and its deep lake have other plans.

After Nora’s first meal with his difficult family, one knife-part of a prized collection-goes missing. By the time the fourth and fifth vanish from behind locked doors and out from under watchful eyes, Nora can barely sleep. There’s talk of ghosts, secret rooms and someone at the summer camp found dead in the tall grass.

Unsettling, gripping, and totally original, Book of Knives is a literary thriller that shows how one person’s unraveling can bring the whole house down.

OK, the plot sounded interesting and intriguing and the book cover is appealing and so I decided to try this book out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book as much I thought I should be and almost DNF the book.

Nora agrees to accompany her husband Paul to Hidden Lakes to look after Paul’s elderly parents and was surprised to see the camp in ruins. Paul’s brother Gabe and the kids are also at the camp with a Gabe’s wife named Salish as well. Then for some reason or the other, the thirteen knives start disappearing one by one. There is a rumor of a ghost hunting around the cabin and also a murder that had occured in the camp. And while these things are happening, tensions start developing between the family members.

First of all, I am not sure which type of genre it belongs to–horror or a mixture of horror and thriller? Second of all, this was a slow burn and there were few parts of the story where it was really boring and there were some parts in the story that I didn’t really understand. The ending to me was somewhat confusing. I don’t know whether it was just me, but honestly, I didn’t really enjoy reading this book. The plot was interesting but the way the story was executed was poor. Overall, a 2.5 stars for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.