Alice's sister Claire was murdered on Halloween, and Alice saw it happen. A year later, she's about to take the stand as a witness in the trial of Claire's killer when she meets a girl who looks exactly like Scream's Sidney Prescott. NotSidney says she's an angel and sends Alice back in time to go after her sister in the cornfield maze where she was murdered, so that she can finally learn the truth about what really happened that night.

This has loads of horror movie references and yet is conspicuously missing any mention of Happy Death Day, a movie with a similar premise. Anyway, this was an impulse purchase that I expected would be mediocre at best. I did not predict how angry it would end up making me.

Alice may take the prize for heroine with the worst friends. Prior to Claire's death, Alice and her friends had been planning some kind of horror movie-related podcast. After Claire's death, they started the podcast without her and made its focus true crimes looked at through the lens of horror movies - basically, what could the victims of these crimes have done to better align with horror movie rules that might have allowed them to survive? If that isn't horrible enough, one of the victims they talk about, against Alice's wishes, is Claire.

Alice's crush on Wes didn't make much more sense than her friendships. The author tried really hard to convince readers that Wes was some kind of mysterious hottie, but mostly he just sounded like some kind of weird loner.

Really, though, he was bait intended to convince readers that this was going to wrap up with a cliched and mediocre ending. Instead, the ending was utterly unhinged and aggravating. I don't even know where to begin. It only made sense in the most shallow way - there were holes you could drive a truck through, and about a billion unanswered questions. The bonus chapter didn't add anything to the story and, in fact, somehow just made things worse.

Extras:

Bonus chapter (do some editions of this book not have this chapter? I wasn't sure what made it a bonus) and a Q&A with the author (where Happy Death Day is mentioned).

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

* I Got this book for review for my honest thoughts*
I have to admit slasher books are not always my favorite. I sometimes struggle to feel connected to the main characters and then the story just does not capture. Some of this books struggled with this at the the start. Since this book was so short, it had a bit of the not connecting to the characters. But the last 50 pages left me shocked and stunend. I loved the really shocking twsits and turns and wonder if we might be getting more books. It was really shocking read, but want to get clousure in future books. But it def packed a punch, i loved the time taveling elements and also the focus on the sister dyanimcs. I will hope for a sequel!!! ( )

* I Got this book for review for my honest thoughts*
I have to admit slasher books are not always my favorite. I sometimes struggle to feel connected to the main characters and then the story just does not capture. Some of this books struggled with this at the the start. Since this book was so short, it had a bit of the not connecting to the characters. But the last 50 pages left me shocked and stunend. I loved the really shocking twsits and turns and wonder if we might be getting more books. It was really shocking read, but want to get clousure in future books. But it def packed a punch, i loved the time taveling elements and also the focus on the sister dyanimcs. I will hope for a sequel!!! ( )

So this is Sliding Doors meets Children of the Corn/Freddie Kruger. Fans of Horror flicks will probably get all the references in this as the author draws on lots of plots from various horror/slasher movies. Basically Alice and her friends have a podcast about said horror films and discuss how to be the Final Girl ( i.e last one alive in the movies). This all seems to come true for Alice when her sister is stabbed to death after catching the school janitor ( duh) in the corn field on Halloween chopping off a girl's arm with a chainsaw. fast forward 12 months and many people believe he is innocent and only Alice's testimony can put him in jail when a Sidney Prescott look-a-like ( she is the Final girl in Scream) sends her back in time to that Halloween night with the knowledge that she can stop what happened.
So of course what happens is a carnage fest as character after character get killed as we the reader have to try and guess who the killer really is. Must admit I guessed wrong and was disappointed with the end of the book. Read it and be the judge yourself. Oh for MATURE readers BTW as one chapter is entitled "Stay out of the F.....ng Cornfield!" ( )

Fieldnotes:
Omaha, Nebraska, Contemporary (p.2022)
1 Horror Movie Aficionado
1 Final Girl Inspired Angel(?)
1 Mysterious Quirky Dude
1 Incel Manifesto

1 Flash Sideways
2 Rules:
1. Find Out What Really Happened
2. Don't Die

At Least 1 Murder in a Cornfield
1 Death of a Beloved Sister
OR So Many More Deaths
1 Family Torn Apart
1 Podcast in Truly Bad Taste

Surprise!PlotTwists!

The Short Version:
I am NOT a horror/slasher movie fan, but watching Alice try to apply the Final Girl rules to her actual life as she runs through a cornfield with someone panting at her heels...while also acknowledging that the audience would be shouting advice at her if she were in a movie - well that is subversive meta fun. And I love subversive meta fun.

Alice Lawrence's life is torn apart when a Halloween party turns into bloodsoaked horror in a corn maze and she sees her beloved sister's death. But all is not always as it seems and when her wish to have accompanied her sister into the corn maze is granted, Alice is transported back in time to a year ago with instructions to figure out what REALLY happened before midnight and she can keep the changes she makes - and Not to Die. But as Alice attempts to warn the others who were on the Kill List, bodies keep dropping and she uncovers a ton of unsavory secrets.

The plot twists kept on coming, and while I anticipated some of them from the outset, I was still kept guessing (and second-guessing myself). Not my usual genre (and this hasn't converted me to horror fandom), but I appreciated the narrative voice, the suspense and the twistiness. ( )