Gut Instinct: Based on a True Story

By Hannah McNamara

Book Overview

"When your instincts are wrong, can you ever trust them again? Only if you want to live..." -Cam Torrens, award-winning author of the Tyler Zahn suspense series

When seventeen-year-old Willow Carter and her parents head to their annual camping trip at a small Pacific Northwest beach town, the last thing they expect is to have their vacation upended and their safety threatened.

Twin Harbors State Park is all too familiar to the Carters, who have been camping there for years alongside their longtime family friends. As the two families settle into their neighboring campsites, they are greeted unexpectedly by a stranger who has no problem inserting himself into their daily activities. While her friends and family grow more and more comfortable around him, Willow has a gut instinct that something is not right.

One night, the unthinkable happens-someone tries to break into one of their tents. This is only the beginning of the dark and dangerous events that take place. Over time, Willow realizes someone she once completely trusted might be at the center of this mess, someone she wasn't ever expecting to betray her. Eerily shocking and jaw-dropping, Gut Instinct will have readers at the edge of their seats, hoping desperately that Willow will untangle her past before it becomes too dark to decipher.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1685136540
• ISBN13: 9781685136543
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Black Rose Writing
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 14 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Un-put-down-able

Gut Instinct by Hannah McNamara was one of those books that completely hooked me. It’s a YA thriller/suspense centered around a family camping trip gone wrong, creepy neighbors, buried secrets, and the terrifying realization that sometimes the people you trust most might not be who you think they are. What really stood out to me was McNamara’s writing style. It felt super accessible and easy to fly through without ever feeling watered down or boring. Every chapter seemed to end on a cliffhanger that forced me to keep reading “just one more chapter” until suddenly I was way farther into the book than I planned to be. I was so invested that I literally read it during breaks at a concert because I needed to know what happened next. Knowing the story was inspired by true events made it even creepier. I kept finding myself wondering which parts actually happened and even messaged the author multiple times like, “Wait… did THIS really happen to you?!” That extra layer of realism made the tension hit harder and made the whole story stick in my brain long after I put the book down. This is definitely a great pick if you like fast-paced YA thrillers with suspicious characters, mounting tension, family dynamics, and twists that keep you questioning everything