A thrilling, wild ride of a slasher novel! It had my heart racing and nervous at every turn of the page. ( )

I picked this up because I loved the cover, the title and the concept. The opening was strong: dramatic, surprising and fun and I figured that I'd settle in for a fun, fast tripe-twisting read.

And that's what it felt like for the first third of the book. The scene was painted with deft economy. The humour and the dialogue worked. I loved that one of the characters kept quoting "The Rules Of Horror", lore culled from decades of Horror Movies, qw q guide to what to do and not do as things got more and more weird.

I started to lose interest about the halfway mark. The initial trigger was that the pace of the story slowed down. It was nothing terrible and was It mostly done to accommodate the arrival of fresh characters and to set up the new situation Charity faces when her boss gives her new instructions. Unfortunately, the reduction in pace highlighted just how plot-driven the story was. When the plot stalled, everything stalled. I noticed that there was no character development going on. Charity grabbed my attention from the first page. She was easy to like. Yet, halfway through the book, I knew very little about her and had only a surface view of what she was feeling.

About the same time, I started to struggle with Charity's reactions. Charity comes across as smart and quick thinking so I found it hard to accept that it never even occurred to her that some of her team may have gone missing rather than having simply left with no notice.

The use of the present tense didn't help. It was fine at the start of the book when there was a lot going in. It pulled me into the story quickly and gave the action a sense of immediacy, but it's hard to sustain and it gives a very limited view of what's going on.

I realised that I was starting to skim and that the book had become too Scooby Doo for me, albeit with an updated and more inclusive cast of characters,

I know that I wasn't the target demographic for this book when I started it but I'd hoped to be carried through by its exuberance. It almost worked but I'd rather set the book aside than skim it.

Booktube Review Here: https://youtu.be/VrO9enoexFM?si=rGxiSKrxjF4hR-xm

The setting and atmosphere of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is isolated and creepy. Kalynn Bayron creates a work experience at Camp Mirror Lake for Charity Curtis with just as many perks as hiccups. Taking advantage of an unsupervised summer job, Charity is living her best life curating a full-contact horror experience for those who are brave enough to face Camp Mirror Lake. It’s tainted, but hidden history is the main attraction. What happens when hidden history is revealed and tries to repeat itself? Strange things start happening, and what a ride it was!

Likes

What I enjoyed most about this book is the red herrings. Each character I expected to be responsible for the chaos was suspicious, but not the expected party. I was genuinely caught off guard by who we should have been leery about.

I also enjoyed how the author built suspense and tension in the story, as the mood of the book changed with the events. At many points I felt tense, scared, and a little unsettled. The setting and positioning of isolating characters and depriving them of reliable access to modern-day technology ramped up these feelings; forcing everyone to work overtime to survive the ordeals of their time spent at Camp Mirror Lake. These elements kept me reading and wondering what was to happen next.

Gripes/Dislikes

Pacing

The pacing was slow for the first 50% of the book. If it were not for the tension and suspense built during this time, I would have had difficulty maintaining interest in the book. Luckily, the pacing picks up after the 50% mark.

This may be a ‘me’ thing. I’m only partial to slower pacing when character connections are built along the way, and this story faltered for me in that area in the first 50%. Thus, the increase in pacing of the later 50% did not negate the slowness of the first 50%. My reading experience was affected by both.

Character Development

Character development is important to me as a reader, and it was somehow lost on me in this novel. I didn’t feel much attachment to the characters. For as much time as I spent with them, there was only one character I was genuinely curious about. Unfortunately, I felt like the characters were strangers, which affected my enjoyment of this book.

In addition to this, the characters seemed like they were written as half of a person. Characterization of each character was a fraction or fragment of a whole character that could have been created to better facilitate the story.

Twists

The ending of the book was surprising, but it wasn’t satisfying because there was an END to the end, and that can always be a hit or miss with me. It may be a personal preference for me, as I tire from a book with twists stacked against each other. Eventually, it’s like a game of Jenga, and there’s that inauspicious chance of the finality of the story collapsing. It’s the burden of consecutive twists. Not all of them worked for me.

What I Wanted More Of

Lastly, I desired better usage of space within the story to explore the history of Camp Mirror Lake. I understand that the mystery behind its history is intentional. However, from my viewpoint, it was a disservice to the overall story. If the history of Camp Mirror Lake was tied more into the story, we would have had more opportunities for red herring appearances. I think integrating more of the history could have served as the foundation for creating characters that deliver massive confusion and suspension; messing with readers’ heads. Think along the lines of “ABSOLUTELY nobody can be trusted.”

All in All

I liked You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, despite it not being as impactful as expected.

For what it’s worth, this book did not disappoint with the killings. If that’s what you looking forward to, this book is for you.

Don’t let my review prevent you from picking up this teenage slasher. Give it a try and see where you land on the scale of literary enjoyment. ( )

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight is a short, fast young adult horror tale, one that I had high hopes for at the beginning, one that took a sharp nose-dive into a direction I was hoping it wouldn't go, hence the rating. It definitely has a unique premise, one that intrigued me, even sent me on a Google search to see if the place actually existed (sadly, it did not). The characters were fun, even making smart choices, until that deep-dive halfway through the book.

First of all, the main characters were interesting, but I especially liked Charity. I definitely like it when then MC makes smart choices, especially one who is familiar with slasher films and know what not to do when things go bump in the night. Charity and her friends work at Camp Mirror Lake and the objective is to create a scary experience for paying guests; they recreate scenes from slasher films and have the guests go through these scary things and the one left standing at the end wins a prize. I enjoyed the discussions around the difficulties creating the scenarios and what Charity and her friends had to do to fix props, create props, etc... The author definitely establishes this atmosphere of fear and foreboding right from the get-go through this whole set-up. There is also great and realistic LGBT representation in the story, and I enjoyed the funny, light-hearted comments between the characters.

The plot itself would have been great if the author had stuck to the tone of the first half of the novel. There was this element of tension and fear that had developed through little things happening, and I enjoyed Charity's mental discourse as she talked herself out of going to places alone, reminding herself what happens to girls who get too curious. However, right at the beginning, three camp workers go missing, and this is where I started having problems with the story. Why would Charity and her friends not even think to investigate? Why would they not check their rooms or call their homes to see if they went home? Why just assume all three just up and left? And I know this sounds picky, but I also had a problem with the fact there were no adults on the premises. I guess the responsible person in me just couldn't let that point go.

The plot takes a steep turn about halfway through and while the writing was still enough to keep me reading, I wasn't a big fan of the paranormal element in the story simply because I feel like the author wasn't committed to going that route, as if they didn't know if it was the right path to take. Personally, I thought it was strong enough to stay the more traditional slasher route and would have been a lot more fun. I also thought the other characters lacked depth and this is probably due to the length of the book as there was not enough time for the reader to get to know all the characters. Also, one of the tropes I hate in horror novels is one where people are told NOT to go in there or go in the lake. That one drives me nuts as honestly, that would be the first things I would do.

Verdict
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight had a great premise, great writing, and if it had stuck to the slasher-type of story-writing, would have been great. I wish it had stayed campy, included more humour, and witty dialogue, as that it what drew me at the beginning. However, the author is very talented and I really hope they write more horror novels in the future as I would definitely be on board. ( )

Charity is pretty much running a horror camp in the woods. Camp Mirror Lake has a horror movie experience for guests to spend the night. The group of high schoolers in charge are kind of left to their own devices by their boss. Cell phone service is shoddy and three employees just left before the final few nights of the season. Weird noises, open locks, and dark figures are clues that all is not right. When the boss calls up and tells Charity to close and cancel the last night, the remaining staff starts to shut up the venue for the year, but that is when things really fall off the rails and the final girl has to see if she can save herself and her friends. ( )