Reviews with content warning for Racism - You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

my first five-star of the year! i devoured this

▷ Representation: Black sapphic protagonist; BIPOC & queer scs.

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vixenreader's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

More of a cult folk horror than a slasher, and with a messy narrative structure, a cast of likeable teens with strong friendships, twists that I genuinely did not see coming, and visceral horror and gore made up for the book’s shortcomings.

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anxious_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

"Be careful," she says. "You know what happens to Black folks in slasher movies."
"I'm the final girl," I say. "Guaranteed to survive the night."

Charity is working as the Final Girl at a full contact horror summer camp. Her job is to scare the pants off paying customers eager to experience the cult classic slasher flick The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake for themselves. Things get a little too real though when unplanned horrors start playing out at camp, and before she knows it she finds herself fighting to the death to keep her title of "final girl."

This is the first horror-thriller I’ve read in ages and I am so pleased with it! That killer cover pulled me in and the promise of a Final Girl summer camp scenario dragged me the rest of the way down into the dark.

Charity was great. I felt for her so many times over the course of the book. Her summer job, bloody as it is, is her one escape from a world that doesn’t seem to care much about what happens to her. Her friends and girlfriend bring a lot of light to her life, making it clear early on just how hard she’s going to fight to make sure they all get out of there safely.

She’s very self aware and a horror movie stan making her a great final girl with a good chance of surviving the night.

The setup was great, all the little hints something is not going right at camp slowly building into something more sinister. The atmosphere was amazing. I felt the pressure of the pitch black woods, the sense of someone peeking over my shoulder as I read. Bayron did a fantastic job with this book!

It’s worth noting how YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT highlights the characters often victimized in horror films. The first people to die are always those of color or the queer kids. Not this time! This time the story is theirs.

As much as I enjoyed this, I do wish two things would have happened, however. One being that the thriller aspect started a bit earlier. I think I was at about 70% before anything started to actually happen. The book is already so short (I finished it in a day). Some pages dedicated to increasing the scares would have been fun.

And two, that the author had gone a bit harder on the scares and deaths.

Now I’ve been wondering if this specifically relates to the book being published as YA - like maybe there are restrictions I’m unaware of regarding killing off a bunch of teenagers - but still. By the end of the book

nearly every single person is dead. But we get almost no on page kills, which has always felt like a big part of the slasher genre. Most of the deceased are never even seen, making the gruesome discovery aspect kind of moot as well.

That being said, this actually makes YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT a great book for anyone who thinks they’re too squeamish for a slasher. There’s violence, but the gore is so minimal and so quick I think most people can handle it.

That last chapter and epilogue hit me like bam, bam, BAM! I did not see those twists coming! Like four big ones right at the end! Gosh, I just want to talk about it more but nothing is worse for a book like this than spoilers.

This is a thriller you don’t even have to wait for the spooky season to enjoy! What’s more summery than a summer camp? Definitely check out Kalynn Bayron’s YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT. It’s to die for.

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arkwen452's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

You're not supposed to die tonight, dated me in the beginning of the book but as Charity is the main narrator of the story, her thoughts and back history, as well as the back history of her friends, all became repetitive and the actions of her friends and those who might be involved ended up spoiling the narrative for me.

There were several instances where there was this buildup of the stereotypical, crazy woman rambling all things in the woods, and is perceived to be the scary entity in a story. There were the stereotypical of the lake that were ignored, and the disappearance of the other Staff set on the team that was over look for basically a week. While charity is only 17 years old, she was basically the manager of the entire crew.

They were points where she seemed like she was capable and in charge and then in the same sentence would express how she was scared, and shaken up. it did not help to suspend my belief in charities character as being a regular old team, who was in love with her movies and being the "Final Girl" and then turning around to be scared in certain instances.

The whole thing with Kyle secret was clear on. And I didn't help that with charities perception of him in the narrative because it was like the author was trying to oversell , how he was feeling or acting. And it didn't make sense when they got back to the campsite that he was still there and a number of other things. I think that it had a good build up overall until the midpoint, and then things started to just fall altogether. I was disappointed by the end to learn that it was all connected to some secret society, and although her girlfriend Bezi was not into the hard stuff and was very kindhearted, I did not really care for Charity and her relationship at all. No matter how much charity said her girlfriend was like her anchor, and that they were in so much love at that point . There were plot holes that bugged me at the end too. Why was Ms. keen there at all if her husband owned the camp site? She was going to show up later anyway. No need to be there. What happened to Charity and Bezi's friend? And why did they leave the camera behind? That was a good thing to use as evidence

Overall, the book is riddled with stereotypes from scary movies; down the line about unwanted kids going missing while away at camp.

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amandaboyer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

faduma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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lizacorn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was a great take on the slasher genre. Really enjoyed the Easter eggs and premise. Could have spent more time at the top of the book but the focus was on the action which tbh made sense

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This is a very fun halloween slasher. If you are looking for a popcorn book that reads like watching a movie, this is perfect. It does take awhile for setup but the setup and characters were fun for me. Liking the characters does make it a little less fun in the actual slasher part though, since movie tend to have rough sketches and stereotypes so you don't have to feel the pain of losing their best friends. I did have higher hopes for the intelligence of the plot, thinking it would play on the fact that it is aware of the tropes, like Scream or Cabin in the Woods, or use how the leads all being POC and/or Queer. I think that was a missed opportunity but it just wanted to be a fun dumb slasher and it lived up to that.

Also it's literally the Psych episode Tuesday the 17th, which in my mind is a plus.

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