I’m so excited to be joining the Blood Will Out blog tour with PenguinTeen Canada! Today I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book as well as a mini Q&A with the author Jo Treggiari.
The publisher kindly sent me a physical copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Ari Sullivan is alive — for now.
She wakes at the bottom of a cistern, confused, injured and alone, with only the shadowy recollection of a low-pitched voice and a gloved hand. No one can hear her screams. And the person who put her there is coming back. The killer is planning a gruesome masterpiece, a fairytale tableau of innocence and blood, meticulously designed.
Until now, Ari was happy to spend her days pining for handsome, recent-arrival Stroud Bellows, fantasizing about their two-point-four-kids-future together. Safe in her small hometown of Dempsey Hollow. But now her community has turned very dangerous — and Ari may not be the only intended victim.
Blood Will Out Review
Thrillers are outside of my comfort zone and are usually last on my list of books to read. When PenguinTeen Canada asked me to join this tour, I figured it was the perfect chance to try something new.
Blood Will Out follows Ari who wakes up at the bottom of a cistern. She spends the course of the book trying to figure out what happened and who is trying to murder her.
Ari is an enjoyable main character. She really develops throughout the length of the book, which is interesting to see. Her friendships are integral to the development of the book and it’s really enjoyable to the overall story.
One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the dual perspective. Every other chapter is Ari’s perspective while the rest is from the killer’s perspective. Up until the end, the reader isn’t aware of who the killer is, but I had my suspicions! It’s really great seeing it play out.
The chapters written from the perspective of the killer is both chilling and eerie. It’s suspenseful because you’re always a few steps ahead of Ari and her own discoveries. I think it’s an interesting way to write the story and shows some reasoning behind certain decisions.
Another thing that’s great about this book is the writing. Because of her writing, Jo Treggiari leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting more! Her writing and her story have made me curious to try some other thrillers out in the future.
Overall, I definitely recommend Blood Will Out. I think it’s perfect for fans of thrillers or those like me who are starting out in the genre. It’s certainly a spine-chilling and suspenseful story that leaves you wanting more!
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Q&A with Jo Treggiari
How did you come up with the idea for this novel? Did anything specific inspire you?
This novel began with a picture that popped into my brain of a girl with head trauma lying at the bottom of a cistern. Sometimes it’s a particularly detailed character that comes to my mind, sometimes it’s a question that I want to answer, and sometimes it’s one vivid scene.
For this book it was the combination of the girl in the well and the question of how she got there. Once I decided that there was a person who had tried to kill her, the rest of the pieces started to fall into place. I wanted to write something dark and a serial killer just starting out was top of the list.
The novel is written through two perspectives. What made you decide to write it that way?
I’ve joked around a little and told people that the book was going to be a straight-ahead mystery adventure all told from the point of view of my main character Ari, but then this other voice started whispering horrible things in my ear. Actually though, I wanted to explore what might make someone want to kill and I could only do that by getting really close.
I thought that the dynamic inherent in telling Ari’s side in the third person and the killer’s side in the first person, and jumping from one perspective to the other was particularly effective. The reader knows just a tiny bit more than Ari. They are a step or two ahead and that raises the stakes and heightens the scary factor. Slipping into the mind of a serial killer was terrifying for me as well. I wanted to tread this thin line between sort of understanding their evolution but never losing sight of the fact that this was a monster I was writing about.
Why did you decide to write a thriller?
I naively believed I could write a mystery – I love reading them – so I just jumped into the deep end and started writing. I think that my plots tend to be cliff-hanger-y and my settings are atmospheric anyway, so crafting these scary scenes came naturally to me. That being said though, thrillers are a whole other skill set, the tight structure of them, the bones, are so important, and I think I learned the most from making (many) mistakes and then having to laboriously fix them.
What are your favourite young adult or adult thriller novels that you would recommend?
Some of my faves include Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Teresa Toten’s Beware That Girl, Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious, and Caleb Roehrig’s White Rabbit.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming books?
I’m about to start edits on another young adult thriller hopefully coming out next summer from PenguinTeen Canada. I can’t tell you much about it other than that it is told from multiple points of view – all female. And these characters! Oh my goodness – how I love them!
About the Author
Jo Treggiari was born in London, England, and raised in Canada. She spent many years in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, where she trained as a boxer, wrote for punk magazines and owned a successful gangster rap/indie rock record label. Her bestselling novel, Ashes, Ashes, was a multi-award nominee. Her most recent book is Blood Will Out. She lives with her children in Nova Scotia where she co-owns a carefully curated, community-active booksore, Lexicon Books.
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I’ve got to say, I don’t typically gravitate towards thrillers, especially not within YA, but whenever I finally pick one up, it’s rare that I don’t enjoy them!
Will definitely keep an eye out for this one! Loved your review!
Me neither! But I totally surprised myself with how much I loved this book. Definitely pick it up if you have the chance! Thank you so much for reading ❤️
Ahhhh you asked such awesome questions! I can never think of good interview questions hahaha. Great post!
Thanks! I’m so glad to hear that because sometimes I’m like ughh is this actually good? LOL
Hahaha I question myself like that too! But no your questions were GOOD!
Thanks Flavia!! ❤️
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