You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz

In You're Next, Mike Wingate seems to have it all; a wife, Annabel, a daughter, Kat and a construction company that is on its way to completing a green community. He hasn't always had it good, though. His childhood was very rough. Now that things are finally going his way, a part of his past that he barely remembers comes back to haunt him. He knows things are bad when he contacts the police and they are more interested in him and his past than they are in the people who've been creating havoc in his life. Mike then turns to the one person he can depend on, his old childhood friend Shep, who's not exactly been an upstanding citizen. Together, they do everything they can to keep the family safe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story was extremely suspenseful, scary and intense. It starts off alternating between the past and the present, giving the reader the much needed background information on Mike's childhood. The book was easy to read, but parts of the writing were a bit too clipped for my liking. I know the author was going for a particular effect, but it didn't work for me. Fortunately, those sections were few and far between, so it really wasn't that bad and didn't stop me from enjoying the story.

I've read a bunch of thrillers this year, but for some reason, this one scared me the most. I don't scare that easily, especially when I'm reading. I can usually keep a little distance between myself and the characters, but this one got under my skin. Even though it scared me, I didn't want to put the book down even for a second. I had to know how it turned out in the end. I was not disappointed.

All of the characters were well written and believable. I really liked Mike. He had such a rough go of things in his early life that it was nice to see he was finally turning things around. When it all started to go bad, it was unsettling. Shep was okay, but he scared me. He was like a loose cannon that could go off at any minute. Maybe Mike trusted him, but I didn't...not totally anyway. The "bad guys" were very well written. They, too, scared me. I just wanted them to leave Mike and his family alone.

New words:
atavistic (page 122): uncivilized
suppurating (page 192): ooze pus
insentient (page 269): unconscious
paucity (page 330): rareness

Highly recommended. I'll definitely be looking for more books by this author.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit the St. Martin's Press website.

For more information about the author and his other books, please visit Gregg Hurwitz's website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at The Book Reporter for this review copy.

You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz, St. Martin's Press, ©2011. ISBN 9780312534912(Hardcover), 406p.