The Sacrifice Box Book Review

From Goodreads: Sep, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley: five friends thrown together one hot, sultry summer. When they discover an ancient stone box hidden in the forest, they decide to each make a sacrifice: something special to them, committed to the box for ever. And they make a pact: they will never return to the box at night; they’ll never visit it alone; and they’ll never take back their offerings.

Four years later, the gang have drifted apart. Then a series of strange and terrifying events take place, and Sep and his friends understand that one of them has broken the pact.

As their sacrifices haunt them with increased violence and hunger, they realise that they are not the first children to have found the box in their town’s history. And ultimately, the box may want the greatest sacrifice of all: one of them.

I got an ARC of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Okay, I have to admit it. This is the first book in a very long time that I did not finish. The Sacrifice Box sounded very good on paper, but in reality it just read like a poor man’s Stephen King. It was set in the 80’s, about a group of friends who feel a bit like outsiders. The key to everything seems to be about the bond of friendship, and the monster that stalks them takes the shape of the thing that scares them most. Oh, and there’s a kid who bullies everyone. Now, am I talking about IT or The Sacrifice Box? And there are way too many characters. The book tries to be clever, switching points of view and using outside characters. But it just doesn’t work. It’s difficult to follow, and I just didn’t care enough about the characters to keep going. I ended up getting 50 percent through, and by then nothing much had happened, and all I could think of is how much better off I would have been if I’d re-read IT. Sorry, but I can’t recommend this. I was half tempted to stick with it long enough to see how it ends, but I really couldn’t put myself through more of it.

2/10 stars.