Welcome to my stop on the Wicked Reads Blog Tour, hosted by Penguin Teen! I am super excited to be featuring Jennifer Donaldson’s I Know You Remember, along with a list of some of the creepy places you do not want to find yourself this Halloween! 

1. Alaska

So this is the setting of the book I am featuring today, and here’s the thing about Alaska: You can’t run to the next town over if shit hits the fan in yours. And for half the year, it’s not only unbearably cold, it’s unbearably dark. Let’s be real, all the bad junk happens in the dark, so for six months this place is wildly unsafe. Don’t even get me started on the woodland creatures who want to eat you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Basically visit in June and then get the hell out.

As Seen In: 

• I Know You Remember by Jennifer Donaldson
• Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake
• The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson (I mean, it’s Alaska-adjacent but everything still applies!)
• After the End by Amy Plum
• The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

2. Apocalypse Bunkers

Oooh child, the creepiest places are so often underground, right? Just ask Blodreina! While my mind first went to The 100 and all the shit that went down in the Second Dawn Bunker (seconds on the neighbor pâté, anyone?), there have been other bunkers where things get dicey (and scary!). Because there is no escaping a baddie in a bunker. And if the baddie cuts the electricity, you’re extra screwed. Talk about claustrophobia!

As Seen In: 

• The 100
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• The Rain
• After the Lights Go Out by Lili Wilkinson
• Some Fine Day by Kat Ross (Okay basically, all of the world is underground but it fits the bill!)

3. Creepyass Forests

Like I said when talking about the forest in Rules For Vanishing– just avoid. Nothing good ever happens there! Best case scenario, you’re hit with a wicked case of Lyme’s or some poison ivy. Worst case….  dismemberment I guess, nothing good waiting in there.

As Seen In: 

• Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
• The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
• And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich 

4. Under A City

This started out as “The sewer tunnels under The Capitol” because honestly I have never been so creeped out by a setting as I was by that one. I mean, between the sheer fact that it is a sewer tunnel, to knowing that Snow is in charge, to knowing the whole city is hunting you, to… mutts, the whole thing is a giant nightmare. But then I recalled a few other books that had this in them, and yeps, it’s creepy no matter what!

As Seen In:

•  Mockingjay
• Eight Will Fall by Sarah Harian
• A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann
• Breakout by A.M. Rose

5. Secluded Islands

I don’t care if you’re Michael Actual Phelps, if you’re stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere, you’re not reaching mainland. You just aren’t. So when killers and such run amok, where you gonna go? Plague coming your way? Good luck avoiding, because there’s nowhere to go. Also, I assume getting fresh foodstuffs is a nightmare.

As Seen In: 

• How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates 
• Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
• Nil by Lynne Matson 
• Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh
• The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan

6. Boarding Schools

They’re expensive, they’re cliquey as hell, and you probably have to wear a uniform. Oh yeah, and you’re gonna die. Or someone is, let’s be real. Even the ones that aren’t murdery are still pretty deadly. Just cause your fellow man isn’t offing you doesn’t mean you’re safe! But also, I’d watch out for said man, too. Creepy types are big fans of boarding schools.

As Seen In: 

• The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power
• Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young
• The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

7. Spaceships

Oy, if something goes wrong here, well. You’re doomed, of course. Space is precarious as it is. You’re only as alive as your technology, and if it fails… so will you. Add in the element of human error (and/or sabotage) and you might as well just forget it. The ground is your friend.

As Seen In: 

• Salvaged by Madeline Roux
• The Expanse
• Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
• Honor Among Thieves by Ann Aguirre & Rachel Caine
• Sanctuary by Caryn Lix
• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

8. Other Planets

Because look, you’re the intruder here! Whether it’s been occupied by other sentient beings, or the landscape just wants you gone, you’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. And even if by some chance it’s uninhabited and the land itself doesn’t want to kill you, you know you and your new perma-neighbors will be fighting in a matter of weeks. And one of ’em is probably a psycho.

As Seen In: 

• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• Contagion by Erin Bowman
• The 100
• Outpost by W. Michael Gear
• The Cage by Megan Shepherd
• Unearthed by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

9. Deserts 

It’s hot as hell. You’re thirsty. And probably sunburned. Honestly that’s all you need to know even, but how can you run from threats when your body is about to give out? You can’t! Which makes it the perfect setting for harbingers of doom to descend upon you. I feel like the desert is the setting I’d be least likely to survive, because I complain when I get a wee bit warm. Also snakes.

As Seen In: 

• Day Zero by Kelly deVos
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman
• Survival Colony 9 by Joshua David Bellin
• Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist

10. The Oregon Trail

Fine, fine, this is just a personal favorite! But think about it: you are stuck hundreds of miles from a city. You’re not accustomed to roughing it, you like your “modern” conveniences. And now bam, you’re in uncharted territory with perils around every corner. No way to communicate to the outside world, nowhere to turn for help. Just your wagonmates, and goodness knows they could all be serial killers. Foes, disease, accidents, beasts lurk around every corner, and you only reach your goal when you get to another mostly unsettled locale. Sounds terrible, but also incredibly fascinating. Someone please write more books about this, yeah? Thanks.

As Seen In: 

• The Hunger by Alma Katsu
• Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

I Know You Remember by Jennifer Donaldson
Published by Razorbill on October 8, 2019
Pages: 336
Format:Hardcover
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review

Jennifer Donaldson is back with another twisted thriller perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Gone Girl.

Zahra Gaines is missing.

After three long years away, Ruthie Hayden arrives in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska to this devastating news. Zahra was Ruthie's best friend--the only person who ever really understood her--and she vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

Zahra vanished from a party just days before Ruthie's return, but the more people she talks to, the more she realizes that the Zahra she knew disappeared long before that fateful night. Gone is the whimsical, artistic girl who loved books and knew Ruthie's every secret. In her place is an athlete, a partier, a girl with secrets of her own. Darker still are the rumors that something happened to Zahra while Ruthie was gone, something that changed her forever...

As Ruthie desperately tries to piece together the truth, she falls deeper and deeper into her friend's new world, circling closer to a dangerous revelation about what Zahra experienced in the days before her disappearance--one that might be better off buried.

In her stunning follow-up to Lies You Never Told Me, Jennifer Donaldson once again delivers a propulsive thriller with a masterful twist, skillfully creating a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

Where would you really not want to find yourself? What the heck are you going to do if you end up there?