The Sacrifice Box: Martin Stewart

We meet again!

Seemingly without meaning to (I really didn’t plan it, I promise!) I have been channeling the spooky season vibes and my last read was yet another that dove into the weird, macabre or just straight up not your usual rom com novel. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining at all. Just pointing out that the gloomy weather has definitely gotten me feeling some type of way. I also have to make a confession here that’s probably going to be pretty taboo: I have never actually read a Stephen King novel. HOWEVER, I have read one of his son’s (Heart-Shaped Box) and this book definitely gave me similar vibes. Here we go :) Brief Synopsis: A group of five friends find a stone box in the woods one summer after significant rain, and instead of doing the smart thing and leaving it alone they decide to leave five “sacrifices” in the box to solidify their friendship forever. Sep was the one that had this idea and gave the friends the words and rules to say, though he isn’t sure where it all came from. A handful of years later, however, the friends are no longer friends anymore and Sep is desperate to get away from his island home and experience a new life.

However, when he’s cornered by his old pals that tell him that weird and scary things have begun to happen to them, accusing him of opening the box, taking a sacrifice and breaking the rules, Sep quickly learns that it isn’t that easy to leave his past behind.

When someone in New York City dies, seemingly unconnected to the sacrifice box, everything gets even stranger. Sep’s teacher is hurt, his mother seems sick again, he has this toothache that just won’t give up and he can’t shake his old friends. The real kicker is when his teddy bear (the very thing he sacrificed) shows up on his windowsill… for revenge?

Sep and his old friends are on a race against time to figure out why the box is after them after four years, why it was opened, who opened it, and just what is going to happen to all of them if they don’t figure a way out of this.

Very… gross things happen in this book. I’m not sure if I can put it a different way? I know I told my husband there were a couple times that I was reading while eating and I was like “well, that was a mistake”. If you’re looking for an easy sort of thriller, I would not necessarily open this book. It goes deeper than that in a way I can respect, even if animals do get hurt in the process and I brake for birds.

The story connects from tales in the past, because this sacrifice box couldn’t have just come about, and those that are dealing with it now. A very surprising undertone of the power of friendship and genuine love is found mishmashed into this very off-putting tale of teens that really just should’ve left that box in the woods alone, and haven’t they ever watched a horror movie before?

I fell in love with this rag-tag group of kids. Is that what it would feel like if the Breakfast Club was made outside of the United States and there were supernatural elements to it?

My rating:

I’m giving this book a good 8/10. I really enjoyed it but it’s not something that I would re-read if I were looking for anything lighthearted. It definitely goes there more than once!

Favorite Quote(s):

“We’re all little miracles, everything about us: all our stupid habits and our jokes and our weird faces, on a spinning ball that’s the perfect distance from the sun. And now here we are, you and me, sitting on top of a million years of history.”

Other books I have read by this author: Nothing yet, but I’ve already added another to my TBR pile!

Check out my Goodreads (Traci Bishop) to see what I’m currently reading and to see a good chunk of the books I have already read. My Instagram can be found on the home page and I will share whenever a new post is up as well!

Until next time <3