Book Review: "You Need to Leave" by Sarah Jules

Yes, we are continuing with the same cast of characters from the book You Invited It In because this is a sequel. The first instalment's review can be found here. Now, on with the rest of it.

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I didn't think I would enjoy this little series as much as I did and I am seriously considering reading more works by this author. Sarah Jules has managed to create a cast of characters who are essentially flawed, but you definitely care about them. At this point in the story, Asher is living with his uncle Eli and everything is a bit upside down. Things are going downhill for both of them and eventually, Asher has to be pulled out of school for a bit. What happens in this book is not only a continuation of the first, but also explains some of the weirder stuff that happened that perhaps, was hidden from us beforehand.

The book begins with Eli and Asher living together in Felix's house and Eli constantly thinking of ways to communicate with the young boy who is now, needless to say, absolutely traumatised. Lilith is in prison and from there, she communicates with Eli by regularly checking her voicemail messages to see if he has left anything for her. But, when one day a video goes live online of Asher during the possession episode from the first book, he is ridiculed and mocked by peers who thought that Lilith did something terrible to their family. Sarah Jules creates a claustrophobic world in which it seems that Eli and Asher cannot exist safely. On top of this, when the prison calls Eli back - they have some horrifying news to give him.

After this, Asher begins to experience things like before - he sees and hears his father and Lilith there with him that are initially comforting voices until he doesn’t recognise them anymore. Sarah Jules blends a familiar with an unfamiliar here to push the tropes of ghost and demons together. Who knew that the demon from the first book might be destroyed and yet, we never saw THIS coming? She’s a great writer alright.

As Asher gets more involved with the spirits he tries to tell Eli who doesn't quite believe him. After all that has happened it is difficult to believe he wouldn't think that any of this is real. I am not going to lie the only thing I felt that was unbelievable was the fact that Eli wouldn't believe Asher when he said that they were back. This was mainly because Eli was there in the last book. Regardless, I'm also trying to understand how they brought the podcaster into the mix. I understand how they got Emmanuel involved (because he wanted to be) but Mona felt like a drag as a character.

Mona is a podcaster who focuses on wanting to debunk or prove supernatural happenings amongst families who claim them. Initially she is cynical but after a short time, she comes to terms with it all and believes it is real. I don't know why Sarah Jules made her a character, she was only really there as a plot device - it felt a bit shoehorned in to be honest. Mona is supposed to be this book's Lilith but it didn't really show. I felt like Lilith was the original.

I'm trying to keep away from telling you too much about this book becuase everything is a spoiler from the first book but it simply is not as shocking. I felt like this book spent a long time getting started and everything that was superior in horror happened in the last ten to fifteen pages of the book. It's not bad, it just is not as good as the first book.

All in all, this was probably not as great as the first book but if you did read the first instalment then this is pretty much unmissable. There's something really addictive about this series. I'm kind of sad there's only two books in the series. Sarah Jules is a fantastic writer when it comes to pace. I actually got upset when I had to put it down to get on with life.