The Cove by Claire Rose Review

 Title: The Cove

Author: Claire Rose

Age Group: Teen/Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Horror

Series: Standalone

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

I was given an advanced reader’s copy of this book through the publisher, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley–my thanks to both!

Lindsay Weinberg has been kicked out of yet another school, and her parents send her to rural Marbury, Maine, to her uncle Levi and Aunt Irene’s farm to straighten out. Once there, she is completely cut off from modern technology, and forced to work as a farmhand. She meets the other kids who work the farm: Gwen, Dalton, Tash, Matteo. Forced to wake up at the crack of dawn to tend the farm, Lindsay discovers that her Uncle Levi is gone, and the tiny farm is ruled with an iron fist by her Aunt Irene, who is hiding secrets of her own. When she meets twins Phin and Cass, she’s certain she has found a way out, a way home. On the night of a party, she and her friends wake up on the farm with no memory of what transpired the night before. But one of them doesn’t make it back, and The Cove has secrets of its own to hide. Will Lindsay and her friends escape? Or will The Cove swallow them all?

This book was an exquisite case study in dread and terror. I was immediately drawn in by Lindsay’s voice, fierce and defiant and more than a little doubtful. One of the reasons I love the horror genre as much as I do is because there are so many different ways it can be interpreted. The atmosphere of this novel felt like a character in and of itself: the wide gray sky and the deep, unknowable sea. The pacing was breakneck, and I couldn’t put it down. Even when I was doing other things, my thoughts were on the book, desperate to reach its conclusion. And boy, did Rose deliver! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the ending! My heart stopped! This book was unique; I loved the monster that was revealed at the end of the novel. This book is easily one of my favorite books of 2026! I can’t wait for everyone else to read it! The bottom line: Full of exquisite dread and delicate terror, I adored The Cove! Next on deck: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire!