ARC Review: You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

*I was given a copy of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Bloomsbury and Kalynn Bayron*

Synopsis:

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

Review:

I’m always excited for new Kalynn Bayron releases and when I came across You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, her horror debut, I absolutely needed to check it out.

The length of this was perfect. At just 240 pages long, it’s to the point and doesn’t carry the horror to the point of cliche. Well, it’s a little cliche as most horror is and what’s more cliche than a summer camp? But it was gripping and didn’t drag the plot out further than it needed.

The cast of characters were actually pretty complex, considering how short You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is. Charity was a really strong lead and I loved how everyone had a role to play in the horrors of the night – this will make more sense once you read it, but there are classic roles that need filling in every horror and this story has them.

One thing I will say is that I was completely immersed in the story and I did find my focus drifting quite often. However, I have been powering through books, back to back, like nobody’s business, so I might be feeling a bit burnt out.

But I don’t know, it did feel like something was missing, this didn’t have the usual magic (not literally) that I find in Kalynn Bayron’s books. This doesn’t mean it was bad, because it definitely wasn’t, but it definitely isn’t my favourite release of hers.

My absolute favourite part though, I’m not going to spoil any major plot points don’t worry, was the ending. It really wasn’t expected. I don’t find myself genuinely shocked by books very often, but this one definitely got me.