Honestly one of the hardest books to rate right now because my mind is all over the place. I think I'm landing on 3.5? But the ending really brings this together and raised it from a 3.

Pacing: this one has its ups and downs for sure. Some moments are one thing after another, and then it dies down and I could feel myself drifting. There were quite a few times where I didn't really care about picking it up again... but I was too invested in the child abduction to give up.

My thoughts:
- The story starts off really strong with a solid mystery of the case of Father Silence, we have the eerie tale of his arrest and subsequent execution, which catapults the story even more.
- The way that Tess is so central to this story, it's obvious that her trauma-induced amnesia is going to play a significant role, but it really takes the entire book to get everything out there...
- This book, in ebook form, felt like it went on forever. So while it started off strong, the pacing going back and forth made this feel incredible long and drawn out. But I also don't know how it could have been any shorter and still maintained the level of depth necessary for the twists.
- This book has the spooky vibes for sure, especially when the animal masks come into play. And this is also when the story gets even more twisted than before.
- When it says psychological horror/thriller, they mean it. This book goes DEEP into the psyche and the long term effects of abuse or trauma. Although the horror descriptor is more for tone and psychological shock value rather than gore or scariness.
- As far as the twists go, I think they were really good, despite me being able to see them coming very early on. But that's just because I love solving a mystery before the characters do.
- My biggest complaint is that I feel like I have questions after the book is over. And not questions of like what comes next, but almost like plot holes that don't quite add up to the conclusion. A lot of these questions are spoilers for the twists/resolution so I can't go into detail, but at one point two characters know things about what each other are doing when they shouldn't... and based on the explanation given for the entire narrative, this shouldn't be possible? Maybe I'm just dense but this throws a wrench in the way this book is founded on the reality of psychology. (Sorry that went deep?)

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and J.H. Markert for the advance ebook in exchange for my honest review.