THIS IS A SEQUEL TO SAVAGE ISLAND. SPOILERS FOR SAVAGE ISLAND AHEAD.
I am a huge fan of Red Eye, a lesser known YA horror series following in the footsteps of Point Horror and other 90s teen horror but with a distinctly modern feel and a much creepier tone overall. Cruel Castle is the sequel to Savage Island, focusing on three surviving characters from the first book: Grady, Ben and Lizzie. After Grady killed Carmen at the end of the previous book, it turns out he faked the deaths of Ben and Lizzie and helped them go on the run. Grady works for Gold in a team of fellow psychopaths and the plot kicks off when he displeases Gold and they are all sent on a 'team bonding exercise' which might involve a few deadly escape rooms in a remote castle.
This was pretty much everything you could want from a sequel to Savage Island. It initially felt like a bit of a copout that Lizzie and Ben were still alive, but Pearce manages to make it work and create a plot which justifies it happening. The use of escape rooms to continue the theme of the previous book whilst also making it new was a genius move and those were definitely my favourite sections to read about. The rooms get pretty creative and offer a lot of fun (and genuinely intense) horror. The new characters were inventive and intriguing, and my only complaint is that some of them didn't stick around as long as I would have liked as I was enjoying learning about them.
Overall, Cruel Castle is a fantastic horror book for teens or adults alike. If you're a fan of the first one or even just a fan of the 'horrific games' subgenre, there's a lot to like here. I really hope a third one of these gets released as there is huge promise here, and I am always glad to see new Red Eye books released.
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