This Wretched Valley

Finished this in one sitting on account of it being brisk to read through, and having a consistently tense pace. Predictable—especially given the artistic choice to have a cold open essentially telling us the fates of the main cast—but still entertaining to read. It's a strong debut horror book, and one that will surely keep my eyes at attention for Kiefer's next book. My only primarily point of critique, would be that the characters could have been fleshed out better and made to be a bit more relatable: I didn't connect to any of the characters, and found one of them to have quite the drastic and unearned shift. 

I strongly recommend this to fans of Briardark, The Ruins, and maybe even a little bit of the Wrong Turn remake.