A black lab infected by the Strangeness transforms and is attacked by Erin. The attack and subsequent death is very gory. However, the dog later comes back to life and is alive and well by the end of the book.
Many, many animals are killed by hunters and the description of the pile of dead animals in the hunter's cabin is fairly gnarly. Specific animals that are killed include rabbits, coyotes, and a dog.
Rabbits are among the animals hunted and discovered in the hunter's cabin. There is no explicit scene of a rabbit dying, but their bodies are commented on by the crew that finds the cabin.
As the girl in the creek is taken over by the Strangeness, horrific changes start to happen to her body. All deaths after Erin and Matt are kidnapped in the woods are described with extreme body horror.
Matt's head is crushed when he is swung into the mixer after he and Erin are kidnapped. Other characters who die after being infected with the Strangeness melt after death.
At the end of the book, Jordan sets the lair of the Strangeness on fire, killing everyone inside. The people who were infected are still "alive" and the description of them burning is graphic.
Kind of. The Strangeness "feeds" on some of the bodies of those infected. People are never eating people, but the nutrients from some of the infected fuel the collective.
When Erin enters the cave looking for Kayla after the bakery cave-in, she has to squeeze through a rock fall and ends up enclosed on the other side. There is a definite trapped feeling to this scene.
The ending is satisfying and our main character lives, but most of her friends die and she ends up having to destroy her brother, who she has searched for throughout the book.