Synopsis:
The only thing worse than being lost . . . is being found.
Keely planned to keep her head down at her new school – she isn’t there to make friends or memories, she just wants to be left alone .
In order to get into college, she is roped into a programme that involves camping in the Welsh wilderness with five over-keen try-hards. Her plan is to keep her head down, keep her mouth shut and get through the next few days.
But Keely is running from something. Something that drove her family out of their home and to this quiet town. And when her fellow explorers start disappearing and the bodies begin to pile up, she has to ask, did she run far enough?
Review:
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead. I finished reading it over two weeks ago and haven’t thought about it since. I won’t lie, I was extremely frustrated with how long it took me to finish this book. It shouldn’t take me over a week to read a book with less than 300 pages, but it did. I was reading this book for around 9 days and by the end, I was so over it.
I really enjoyed Tess James-Mackey’s debut novel. The atmosphere was incredible and I felt a real sense of danger the entire time. You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead did have a great atmosphere for a while, but once the ‘supernatural’ element of it is disproven, I just didn’t care anymore. There’s one particular scene that involves a figure standing just outside the boundary of the campsite in the pitch black just watching them and it is actually terrifying. I don’t get actually scared by books very often but when that figure started to chase them, my heart was racing. Tess James-Macley is very good at writing paranormal/supernatural horror.
She’s also very good at flashback scenes that relate to what’s currently happening. If that makes sense? The ‘big reveal’ of the ‘bad guy’ is hinted at subtly throughout but she’s very good at throwing you off by putting the attention on someone else.
I did find Keely unnecessarily mean for most of You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead. As you get glimpses into her past it makes more sense, but I feel like the current situation (imminent death) would make you be a little nicer to the people who are trying to help you.
The lack of urgency in You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead is what ruined the whole book for me. Firstly, why would you go camping during the winter? Especially a school trip. Secondly, the group really could have tried harder to get out of this situation. Like literally walk away. They mention a local town so often and yes, two other characters go off for help, but why not all go together? Strength in numbers right? This was before the weird stuff started happening. Their teacher just died and instead of all leaving the campsite, they set up their tents and told scary stories around a fire. Recipe for disaster if you ask me.
Also, the motivations of the ‘bad guy’ were extremely contrived. I’d understand if Keely actually got him sent to prison, but he got away with everything. Why was he after her? It makes no sense. The supernatural sub plot would have been way more interesting.
There were some moments of You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead that I really enjoyed, but overall this book wasn’t for me.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too:Book Review: The Other Ones by Fran Hart
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