Review: Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons

Author: Kristen Simmons
Publisher: Tor Teen

Publication Date: September 2023

 
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.

Find Him Where You Left Him Dead is a YA horror/fantasy story.  It definitely was not what I was expecting.  I think it is really best to go into this book blind.  Basically, it deals with 4 friends who are visited by the ghost of their dead friend.  It has been 4 years since they thought he died while playing a game.    He is the one the left for dead.

I wasn't sure if  I was going to like this one in the beginning.  The main cast of characters seemed to tick off the usual diversity boxes and boy did they let the reader know it.  It was annoying.  However, once I got further into the story, I was sucked in and the characters grew on me. I ended up really enjoying this one.  I liked the challenges.  They were intense and had me rooting for the group.  The ending left room for a second book.  I do look forward to reading it.