When this book was first recommended for me, I was told that it's "a mix between Mean Girls and The Exorcist." Let me tell you: they weren't wrong.

The first few chapters, I really thought it was a Mean Girls parody book. You have the shy and awkward new girl, Sofia Flores, who is immediately claimed by the clique of popular girls. Everything seemed very cliched until Sofia comes across a mutilated cat underneath the bleachers. Yeah, I didn't enjoy reading that part.

The popular girls immediately blame their troubled class mate, Brooklyn Stevens. They popular girls start to tell Sofia that they want to "save" Brooklyn. Sofia doesn't think anything of it until she finds herself in a basement with Brooklyn tied up and gagged with popular good-girl Riley performing a crude and violent "exorcism" with her clique.

This being the author's first book, I think it is really well done. She was really able to execute this blend of genres extremely well. Especially because these are two genres I'm not a fan of. I didn't even see my first horror movie until I was 16 years old.

I also think I've always underestimated horror novels. As someone who has grossly sobbed over a book before, I never thought fear was an emotion I could get from a novel. Merciless had some moments where I had to set it down because I was overwhelmed with fear and thrill. The scene of the exorcism had my hands sweating.

The exorcism leads to a thrilling turn of events of Sofia trying to escape horror-filled situations. You never know who to really trust, making it a bit of a mystery.

I would highly recommend this book for someone who is a little bit too scared to read horror. It makes for a perfect first.