Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons

e-Audio, 09:45:32
Narrated by: Cia Court & Paul Dateh 
Release Date: September 26, 2023
Published by: Tor Teen
Read from: September 24-26, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this audiobook from Edelweiss and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Gore, Violence, Blood, Child Death, Death, Body Horror, Fire/Fire Injury, Ableism, Forced Institutionalization
For Readers Interested In: Horror, Thriller, Japanese inspired, YA

     Kristen Simmons’s masterful breakout novel for young adult readers, Jumanji but Japanese-inspired, about estranged friends playing a deadly game in an eerie folkloric underworld.
     Four years ago, five kids started a game. Only four survived.
     Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the survivors—Dax, Maddy, Emerson, and Owen—have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: they’ve been summoned by the ghost of Ian, the friend they left for dead.
     Together they return to the tunnel where their friendship ended with one goal: find Ian and bring him home. So they restart the deadly game they never finished—an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions.
     As soon as they begin, they’re dragged out of their reality and into an eerie hellscape of Japanese underworlds, more horrifying than even the darkest folktales that Owen’s grandmother told him. There, they meet Shinigami, an old wise woman who explains the rules:
     They have one night to complete seven challenges or all of them, Ian included, will be stuck in this world forever.
     Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly, and make sacrifices—blood, clothes, secrets, memories, and worse.
     And once again, not everyone will make it out of Meido alive.

*MY THOUGHTS*

This was my first book by Kristen Simmons and I was not disappointed. I saw someone said it was like Jumanji with Japanese folklore attached and I just could not get that out of my head. Because wtf? A book that has Jumanji in it? I was thinking the like elephants and stuff, but no, it was more like the game. (And please don’t judge me lmao I know that’s crazy)

Ok so first things first, I knew this book was going to be weird. That’s why I waited so long to read it. I wanted to read it closer to Halloween, but I just couldn’t stop myself from reading. And listen, I wasn’t as scared as I thought I’d be, but it did make me put it down for a little bit. I think to truly scare me I needed some more of an explanation on what they looked like. Like it was mostly a gloss over, but I think I needed some like explanation of the monsters. Not only of what they looked like, but also exactly what a Kuchisake-onna is and what is the significance in the Japanese culture. I mean obviously I looked it up after I finished it, but I wish I could have learned it from the book.

The plot of this was crazy. All the little trials they went thorough was so out there! And that ending made me almost throw my phone. Idk what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. And I’m usually good with picking up on twists like that. That just told me how much I was into that book. I also just wanted to scare myself so I was hanging on to everything that was said in this books. I wanted to be fully immersed. Especially since I was listening to the audio. But Idk whatever the reason I just wasn’t really paying attention. And I think that was better for me. It made it a surprise for me and of course I enjoyed this more because of it.

The characters were all off the wall tho. At the end when the big secret is told and that one person goes to visit that certain someone, does that mean that there’s going to be another book? Like I wasn’t sure if that meant she was going to try and make something happen afterward? If so, I’m here for it. Idk what else there would be to say, maybe the journey of what she finds out, but I’m here to see what it is.

This book was so much fun. I don’t want to talk too much about it because I don’t want to spoil anything. I’ll just say it was creepy, weird, and it will throw you for a loop. Everything that you could want in a monster or demon filled horror book. Definitely a great book to put me in the Halloween spirit!

Overall, I give this