My Review
In 1982, a girl named Hannah was teased and emotionally abused by a group of girls, and despite that, she didn’t recognize it and thought that they were her friends. They pulled horrible pranks on her, including one that went way too far one Halloween night.
That was the year of the Hannah-Beast.
The girls dressed up, giving Hannah bits and pieces of their costumes to allow her to come trick-or-treating with them. They gave her the name “Hannah-Beast” to describe what she could say she was dressed up as, and she rolled with it – she scared people and acted wild, and the girls loved it.
And then the latest prank, cruelly organized by the three girls she thought were her friends, ended tragically – and Amanda, the one girl who assumed it was over and in the past – has never forgotten that night, and how she could have stood up to the other girls and potentially saved a life.
“If you spent enough time blocking something out, built sturdy enough walls around it, then it’s almost like it didn’t happen.”
Now, it is Halloween of 2016, and Amanda has her own daughter, who wants to dress up as Hannah-Beast, based on the town’s legend. Amanda, however, doesn’t want her to dress up like that, despite the fact that so many other teenagers do it every year. When her daughter goes trick-or-treating with her friends, strange things start to happen to Amanda – she thinks back on that Halloween of many years ago, and realizes that maybe the real Hannah-Beast never left her alone, after all…
Hannah-Beast is the first book that I have read by Jennifer McMahon, despite hearing so many amazing things about some of her other books. I was completely blown away by her writing style and her ability to craft such an interesting story in such a short amount of pages.
Hannah-Beast was such a thrilling treat – I’ll admit that while the story itself wasn’t exactly scary, I did find myself on the edge of my seat while turning the pages, completely absorbed in the story. The whole plot was just so wonderfully written, that despite the fact that I could (kind of) guess the ending, I didn’t even mind – I just loved the story!
The setting and plot worked together to create such an atmospheric read that really pulled me into the story. Add in some great characters and you have a definite short story to remember.
Hannah-Beast is the first short story in Amazon’s Dark Corners series, which is a series of thrillers/horror novels that are meant to be read in one sitting to help you satisfy that craving for spooky, scary, or nail-biting reads.
I’m incredibly impressed with the first book in the series and I can’t wait to read the next one!
