"You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight" by Kalynn Bayron

I just closed my library copy of Kalynn Bayron's "You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight" and I honestly am not sure that I can collect my thoughts enough to write a coherent review. 

I am just sitting here in a mild state of shock as I try to process this story and that ending. 

 

If you are a fan of 80's and 90's slasher flick like the "Friday the 13th" franchise, the "Halloween" series, the "Scream" saga or any other horror movie of this type, then you NEED to get a copy of this book today!

Charity is the official Final Girl of Camp Mirror Lake, a remote location where guests pay to be terrified in a full contact terror simulation based on the popular slasher film, "The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake". Charity's job is simple. Play the part of a fellow guest, help give the clients the ultimate terror experience, and survive the night. 

But this year, things aren't quite going as planned. As the end of the season approaches, Charity and her friends find themselves short-staffed when some their Camp Mirror Lake coworkers decide to bail on them before the final game of the season. And then weird things start happening...

A dead owl left on the cabin's steps.

Previously locked doors being found unlocked and open.

Shadowy figures seen inside their hidden tunnels.

A dark hidden history about the camp comes to light. 

Charity and her friends begin to realize that they aren't the only ones at Camp Mirror Lake, and they are about to learn the true meaning of terror. 

As in watching any slasher-flick, I like to think that I will be able to guess the plot twists and surprises that will be coming within the story. However, this story had me constantly coming up with theories and then discarding them as new information was revealed and as characters were introduced or killed off. There were so many surprises in the last 50 pages of the book that my head is still reeling! I don't want to say more or I will be giving away too much, but this is is definitely worth the read!

The story was extremely fast paced, jumping into the action on page one, and when the story did slow down, the creep factor of the scenes was hair raising. The characters were all likable and while some of the side characters were a bit one dimensioned, it didn't take away from the story. 

If you need a suspense filled, action packed, slasher story, RUN to the library or a bookstore today!!!

 

 

"The Final Girl Support Group" by Grady Hendrix

 Holy Easter Eggs!!!

If you are a horror movie fan, then this book is a MUST-READ!!! And I'm talking about being a fan of the classic horror movies like the original Halloween franchise, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc. References to these horror movie giants are expertly interwoven throughout this suspenseful tale with just enough subtly to make the reader scour each page for more connections between the characters in this book and their story lines and the screenplays their stories were inspired by. 

I had a general idea of what to expect when I first opened The Final Girl Support Group, but I guess I wasn't anticipating the level of depth that we get as readers by diving into the minds of women who survived their own personal horror movie. That is what a Final Girl is, the last girl standing at the end of the movie who faced down the monster and won. 

The Final Girl Support Group follows Lynette Tarkington, who survived a brutal attack by a deranged serial killer and then a year later survived his younger brother's attack, both on Christmas Eve. Her parents, her boyfriend, her little sister, and later her foster parents were all casualties from these Christmas Eve slayings. 

Ever since, Lynette has been obsessed with making herself "safe", from learning self defense to turning her apartment into a fortified panic room. She cannot leave her house without feeling like people are watching her, that the monsters are still out there waiting for her. The only time she leaves her apartment is for her monthly group therapy session with a group of women who are survivors like Lynette, and their therapist Dr. Carol. Dani, Marilyn, Heather, Julia, Adrienne are all Final Girls, and they are the only people who can truly understand what Lynette is going through. 

But Lynette doesn't feel like she is a true Final Girl. Whereas all the other women in her support group fought back and eventually helped take down their attackers, Lynette merely survived the attacks and someone else took down the bad guy. So does that make her a Final Girl? Just not dying? And Lynette is keeping secrets, and those secrets could change everything if anyone ever learned about them. 

Lynette's ordered and carefully structured life comes crashing down when one of the Final Girls is murdered in her home, and it quickly becomes apparent that someone is trying to put an end to all the Final Girls once and for all. 

This horror novel is a dark, gritty story that shines some light on the depravity of mankind and the strength of the human spirit. And although Lynette frustrated me at times with her paranoia and the decisions she would make, I think she was the perfect character to focus on in this story. She truly develops as character as the story progresses, and I was content with the way Hendrix chose to end the story. 

My favorite line in the whole book was,

"Dying isn't the important thing. It's nothing more than the punctuation mark on the end of your life. It's everything that came before that matters. Punctuation marks, most people skip right over them. They don't even have a sound."

You ever read a sentence or passage and then just have to sit back and admire it? This passage did that for me. 

My favorite part of this book was trying to figure out which book character was inspired by which classic horror movie.

I am a huge classic horror movie fan, so all the Easter eggs in this book wanted to make me jump out of my seat each time I found one. I know many of the actors in these movies, and have watched documentaries on the making of these horror movies just for fun. (I'm weird, I know!) So whenever Hendrix slipped in a connection, like using part of the name of the actress that starred in the original horror movie as part of the book character's name,  I just wanted to run around and show everyone the book while screaming, "Did you see what he did there? Did you see?"

Mild Spoilers:

Julia Campbell = Neve Campbell!!!!

Heather DeLuca = Heather Langenkamp!!!!

Dani's little brother was named Nick = Nick Castle!!!!

(I'm such a nerd.) 

I had so much fun trying to pair the Final Girls to each classic horror movie. It wasn't obvious right off the bat which girls survived which movie, and that made it all the more enjoyable to me. 

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a horror movie fan and a fan Final Girls everywhere!