My next ‘Spooktober’ book was ‘When we were Monsters’ by Jennifer Niven. I picked this book up when I was on vacation in Belgium and fell in love with the cover and the description. I’m very honest when I say that I expected more…

Being chosen as one of the participants for Jan Term at Brighton and Hove is a very high achievement, why? Only 8 students are chosen for this highly exclusive elite writer’s retreat and this year no other then Meredith Graffam will be the guest of honor that will be teaching these students how to be the best of the best.

The 16-day long retreat will have the chosen students reside in the founder’s exclusive estate. Not all the students that enter will stay until the end since Meredith doesn’t tolerate people that aren’t seeing her view or don’t believe in what she preaches- erm, teaches.

The assignments Meredith gives are so bizarre and actually bordering on dangerous that I would’ve tapped out quite quick. From jumping off a cliff, having someone’s live in your hands, standing in the middle of a busy road, finding your way back to the estate when dropped of in a forbidden forest…

In the beginning everyone is thrilled, surely a renowned author knows how to be rid of fear and knows how to write the best books or screenplays right? So, she must know what she’s doing in teaching and making students participate in these bizarre things. But as the days go by, students are getting wary of this method, because what are they actually learning?

There are only 4 students left and with a little bit of freedom with Graffam away for the day they are trying to find what is actually going on and oh boy what they find has the whole thing unraveling in minutes.

At the end of Jan Term there is always something that’s named ‘The Hunt’. A game that is played yearly in the woods where the hunter gets half an hour to ‘hunt’ the living, in this case the students. The rule is, if you catch someone that person will become the new hunter. But this year’s hunt is played in a very sinister way, but what can you expect after all the weird assignments the students have been put through?

Okay so, the story is a good one but I really thought it would be a tad bit different, but all in all a good read. Also, I didn’t want to do to much of a backstory on the characters, it gives to much away.

I’m giving this a ⭐⭐⭐.5 star!