ARC BOOK REVIEW - The Hallowed Ones

The Hallowed Ones
by Laura Bickle
To be published September 25th
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
YA, Horror/thriller

5+ stars

In short, WOW. I absolutely LOVED this book and it has easily made it´s way into my favourites of the year.

The book tells of an Amish girl close to her Rumspringa she has decided to go on with her lifelong friend, and more, Elijah. Rumspringa means leaving the familiar community and seeing the world outside without all the restrictions. But before that can happen something in the world Outside happens.. and everyone is forbidden to leave or enter their lands. As strange and terrible things starts to happen they are faced with the only conclusion. That something has already gotten inside..and Katie is among those fighting of the evil.

The horror in this book sneaks up on you and before you realise, you are feeling like YOU should be running for your life. Most of the time I need romance in a book for me to really love it. In this book there is a part for romance too, though it is definitely not the focus of the story. The book has made me flinch a number of times and hold my breath like watching a movie that makes you scared. There were moments when I had to think that I cannot continue reading in the dark, that I had to quit and wait for morning and light. So yes, I pretty much loved this book for the terribleness of it!

If you can´t handle gory details, this book is not for you, also I wouldn´t give the book for anyone really young either. But for others I would definitely recommend this book! It goes straight to my absolute favourites of the year! There were many themes woven into this story which made it the more intense. I am sure the book would´ve worked only as a story about Amish people being faced with paranormal danger from Outside, but all the other themes made it more powerful a story.


I got this book as an ARC kindle copy (advanced reading copy) courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. A huge thank you to them and NetGalley!!