An atmospheric supernatural horror thriller aimed at YA readers but as an adult reader I loved it!
Zombies, evil dolls, a murder of crows and set in the 80's.
What's not to love?
A great atmospheric read regardless of age! ( )

A classic 80s horror.

I feel like there was an American vibe, despite it being set on a small British island. Probably author felt the need to emulate the more successful American authors like Stephen King at the time.

However, I really enjoyed the book and the concept. It’s was a fun B horror story. ( )

Five friends have spent the summer being very close. They have found a box in the woods and have decided, after one of them has had a vision, to place a sacrifice in the box. They leave making this vow: Never come bak to the box alone, never open it after dark, never take back your sacrifice.
It is four years later and this group has separated, really no longer involved with each other. Bad things start to happen and it seems that someone has broken the vow.

This was confusing to begin with. There were so many characters thrown in so quickly and you don't really get a feel about the relationships of any of the characters. Not a bad book, just jumbled. ( )

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When a bunch of kids, September "Sep" Hope, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley discover an ancient stone box, they decide to each sacrifice something important to them to cement their friendship. As they do this they make a pact: never return to the box at night; they'll never visit it alone; and they'll never take back their offerings. Break any of these rules and who knows what could happen...

A few years later in 1982, they are thrown tog
ether again as things started to go awry and it's clear someone has opened the box, because terrible things start happening. They try to rectify what they've done but nothing, it seems, will work, and like Pandora's box - once it's opened all the horror they can think of are released into their lives. And the box wants revenge.

From the very first scenes I was totally hooked. Why were these kids sacrificing objects they loved for this box? What will happen if they disobey the rules? Because you just know someone is going to, right? I was surprised this creepy horror was aimed at young adults, as there are some great, yet gross and even some pretty cruel stories within this book! It's not for the fainthearted ya readers. That's for sure.

An entertaining trip back in time, reminiscent of those old 80s films revolving around a bunch of kids having to deal with much more than they bargained for, with dire consequences to contend with if they don't make
a stand. Yes, it does sound rather like Stand by Me, with supernatural elements and for good reason too. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it had a very English, village feel to it. I don't know whether that was just me, or not, but its the impression I got as I read this.

Overall The Sacrifice Box had a crazy, pacy edge to it, alongside some heartfelt moments with characters which ended up feeling like my friends. An engaging coming of age book about friendship, love and hidden terrifying truths just waiting to resurface.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy. This is my honest opinion of The Sacrifice Box. ( )

I received an ebook copy of this book for an honest review.

I am quite late in writing my review of this book, and this is partly due to issues with my device and formatting. Unfortunately, this isn't the only reason why I've had this book on my Kindle for several months and am only stating what I think about it now.

I will be reviewing the actual story, and my rating isn't affected my technical difficulties.

The entire premise of the story sounds fascinating. I am quite a fan of teenagers/young adults/pretty much anyone, stumbling across an idea that's fed to them and that leads to terrible events occurring to them. The idea of incorporating a time capsule, and a group of kids who are only friends due to circumstances so their ties to each other is fragile, grabbed my attention and I started it up a few days after downloading it.

The issue with all of this is though the premise is interesting, the actual way it's laid out in the novel is disconcerting. There are too many characters involved in this, who either nearly an entire chapter dedicated just to their point of view, or else they have no input other than a few paragraphs. This back and forth stutters the story each time, pulling me out of the story. I believe the reason for this is to push the story along, to hang another tidbit in front of the reader but instead it just aggravated me. There was too much swinging back and forth, none of the threads appeared to be joining together and I was simply being led by the nose with another 'No, this is what you should be paying attention to'.

At the point where completely different characters came in, in order to try and explain a bit more about the Sacrifice Box, I had had enough. I resorted to simply skimming along, barely paying any attention to it and at the end I simply deleted it. I felt nothing by the end of it, didn't care about any of the characters and couldn't explain what the rest of the story was about. The horror fell flat, there were too many character's stories running alongside each other and I didn't care who died or who survived.

This honestly feels as though it needed a few more read-throughs with an editor before it was up for publishing. I wouldn't list this novel as finished, and will not be looking into any further books this writer produces. ( )