The Hallowed Ones by Laura Brickle
4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Goodreads Description: Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

It’s always interesting reading about the Amish, but reading an Amish horror story just seemed so much cooler! This book was fantastic! At the beginning I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it and not too much was going on at first. It was interesting though, even when I wasn’t sure how to feel. It started off a little slow, but it eventually started to pick up and ended up being so good.

Katie and Elijah are excited about leaving their homes for Rumspringa, where they get to taste life outside of the Amish to determine if they want to join the church and stay apart of the Amish. They never get the chance, because something happens on the outside and they are forced to stay where they are. No one knows what is going on and they choose to ignore it for the most part. Katie breaks the rule of “no one gets outside, and no outsiders come in” when she brings in an injured outsider and then leaves to get supplies from the near outsider town. When she goes to town, she discovers what is really happening on the outside.

Someone lets in the evil in their Amish community and everything just goes crazy! Elders and the Bishop refused to believe what was going on and refused to do anything about it. They wanted life to go on like nothing was happening. They wanted to trust in God that they would all be saved no matter what the cost of ignoring was doing. It was so frustrating every time something would happen and the Bishop did nothing about it. I wanted to shake him and knock sense into him and all the other Elders!

I loved Katie’s character and thought she was so smart and definitely a strong person. She had to deal with so much and she was the outsider in her Amish community. She questioned the Elders and the Bishop a lot before doing what she was told. She tried so hard to make everyone believe and also tried so hard to protect her family and friends. There is one pretty gruesome part of the book that the Bishop and Elders made her do, but I thought she handled it well for what it was.

The book had a few twists, which were exciting and made it even better! It’s a pretty quick read; only a little over 300 pages. Honestly I probably would of had it finished quicker had I not been in this little reading slump. I loved the way Laura writes and how she described what was going on and what was causing all the havoc and destroyed the outside world. There were some pretty gory stuff, but that’s always fun! 😛 She went into great detail about things and it was so easy to visualize things even the not so great (gory) parts.

Overall, I thought this book was great! It did start off a little slow, but everything going on makes up for the slow start. I highly recommend this book and I can’t wait to get my hands on the second book!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Do you think you’ll be adding The Hallowed Ones to your TBR?