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.
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[Sep knelt beside the box. The forest was tight with heat, and sweat prickled on his skin]***
(Penguin, 11 January 2018, ebook, ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I thought The Sacrifice Box was a cracking read.
It's been ages since I read a proper horror novel and this book ticks all the boxes. It's like something Stephen King would have written; friendship, ancient evil, creepy woods and things coming to life.
I liked the way the novel is structured, moving back and forth between the present events, the past when Sep and his friends made the sacrifice and further into the past when similar friends made the same sacrifice.
The Sacrifice Box has some unsettling moments. I really don't like reading about teddy bears coming to life and getting all axe-murderer-happy. Some events made me the utter creeps. And some get me started on the crows or what happened with the stag.
The Sacrifice Box is a great horror novel. Well worth a read.
