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

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.

Content Warnings

cozylittlenightmares's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

YA horror slasher turns Bohemian Grove-like cult ritual horror?

Let me start by saying that I was so excited when I found “You’re not supposed to die tonight” by Kalynn Bayron on the shelves of Target this past Summer.
I am not familiar with any of Bayron’s books but as a true 90’s horror fan (the “Scream” and “I know what you did last Summer” franchise by Wes Craven being my favorite movies and the “Fear Street” series by R.L. Stine being my favorite books as a young teen – or better said a true obsession throughout my teens, which awakened my deep love for the horror genre) the cover immediately spoke to me and when I read it being a camp slasher I knew the book was coming home with me.

I’ve saved this book for October, feeling like it would be a perfect little slasher tale to devour throughout the month of Halloween.
But, when I first started “You’re not supposed to die” I struggled to get into it, mainly because of Bayron’s writing style. It would get cringey…fast.
Being fully aware this is YA and I am not the targeted audience anymore, I still would often think to myself; even when I would have been a lot younger, I still would’ve thought quite a bit of the dialogues, phrases, and references were just a little too painful and I was just like, “ please stop!” – as it simply ruins the story for me.

However, the 90’s horror vibe of a campy horror slasher got me, I loved the concept of the “final girl” story, thinking this could potentially become a genre on its own. A “final girl” genre, portraying a modern badass final girl who survives all that 80s/90s like slasher horror, but set in our current age – but back in October I just couldn’t get into it, so I decided to put the book aside for a while.
I’ve picked it back up this month, still rooting for this concept to work, and started over, when I got through the first pages of cringey writing, it did luckily get better – as in, I got into the flow of the story and I’ll admit it started to get entertaining and I wanted to read more!

The story follows the main character Charity Curtis (a reference to Jamie Lee Curtis? Final girl of the Halloween franchise) who has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. The campground once used as a Hollywood film set for “The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake” now, decades later, operates as the playground for true horror fans. A real-life horror simulator where Charity and her summer crew create scenes inspired by “The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake”.
The more realistic the fear, the better for business – the guests even have to sign a 30-page waiver form upon arrival, that explicitly states the staff members are allowed to push, shove, and restrain the guests.

For Charity this job AND being the final girl is everything, she’s a huge horror fan and proudly plays the role of the final girl – the job is also her escape from real life and her family.
Her boss Mr. Lamont, leaves Charity in full charge of basically anything, as he apparently never shows up and fully relies on the high schooler to run his little summer horror business.

As the end of the season is approaching and Charity’s staff members seem to have become bored and start to take off without notice one by one, Charity still gives her everything to make sure she’s prepared to put on a hell of a show for the final night. Being short-staffed after all the no-shows, she’s asking her hometown friends Paige and Bezi to come to the campground to step in and help out.
Here’s also where we get introduced to a little bit of queer romance in horror.
Being a lesbian myself, I like that Bayron made her final girl queer…but not over-the-top queer.
It even took me a minute to realize when Charity’s friends Bezi and Paige arrive at the camp, that Bezi is Charity’s girlfriend. It’s a cute aspect of the story and I appreciated it.

I appreciated the in-depth detail of the campground’s eerie atmosphere and because of it, I felt like I was there with Charity and her friends running around in an actual old-fashioned slasher movie.
I just wish Bayron would’ve also gone more in-depth about Charity and her friends.
I feel like she may feel like she did, but as a reader, I never felt a true bond with any of them, they all felt and remained quite plain to me.
For example, Bayron does give you an insight into Charity’s background, she tells a little about Charity’s family; her awful stepdad, and the mother who never cares enough but as in-depth she goes into detail about the campground and the horror-simulator props they use; from a complete description of the different lodges and the tunnels underground to how the perfect fake blood is created, in my opinions she’s missing points when it comes to the characters, especially Charity. It’s just not enough, it’s missing something, and it makes me to not feel as connected to the characters.

As the story unfolds, we learn that Camp Mirror Lake has a much more sinister past than just being an old Hollywood movie set.
As soon as Charity’s friends arrive at the campground, the secrets about Camp Mirror Lake are slowly uncovered, and the revelations of a real killer on the loose sets in.
Charity being a true final girl, this time in a real race against the clock and being faced with a real-life killer instead of the killer game she and her friends intended to be playing, is giving her everything to survive the night and even more so wanting to make sure she'll save the lives of her friends.

I’d say the middle part of the book was the best part. Fewer cringey conversations and more thrilling fast-paced horror action.
But then we get to the last part and while I usually love twists and can appreciate a plot twist...when it’s a good one, Bayron’s chosen plot twist was just, something else...

WARNING – THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS: Only read this part if you have already finished the book OR if you want a heads up on ritual sacrifices and a cult of elites, that does not seem to be made up just by Bayron but has a much darker history.

I’ve always been a little researcher, not for a living but for fun.
When something either piques my interest...but also when something just doesn’t sit right with me, I like to dig, deep, to find out truths and back stories, to try and make sense of it for myself.
Bayron claims this book to be her ode to her love for the horror genre and in her acknowledgments at the end of the book she sums up her favorite horror movies and final girls.
When we look at 70% of “You’re not supposed to die tonight” this is definitely inspired by all of that but then we get to the plot twist and we say goodbye to that good old campy horror slasher vibe and not only does the entire story shift from that to cult ritual sacrifice-like horror AND even to the paranormal genre on the very last page...it’s clearly based on real-life freaky shit.

Let me first say that a mix-up of different subgenres in the horror genre isn’t necessarily a bad move but for this particular story, I would have never done it. In my opinion, it ruined what Bayron seemed to go for in the first place, an ode to her favorite horror slashers and its final girls.
Also, the super extra paranormal last ending of the story...was just too much.
I was like, seriously, you had such potential writing a very decent ode to 80s and 90s slashers but then decide to throw in all of this weird shit and then also choose a paranormal ending and THIS is how it ends!?
Another thing that annoyed me personally, after we are confronted with the first plot twist and then get to the second plot twist where Mr. Lamont also turns out to be evil, was this really a plot twist for anyone?
Maybe it's because I've read so many horror books and seen so many horror movies throughout my life already, but I had seen this coming from miles away.
There's this old dude who owns this shady campground running a horror simulator inspired by a Hollywood horror movie the campground was once used for, but has it managed by a high schooler and never shows up to check on her or the rest of the staff AND no one ever seems to be able to get a hold of him either.
Yeah, I definitely knew there was a lot off about this guy too and him then showing up on the night of real terror, I immediately knew he was a bad guy too and I even could guess he was the mentioned boy in 1971 who went on the killing spree that shed a bad spotlight on the 'owl society'.
And then we have Sheriff Lillard, who's an unhelpful asshole dismissing all the real horrors and mocks Charity and her staff throughout the entire book, but it's not even explained why in the end?

And of course last but not least, the owls. While at first, even tho I did not like it for this particular type of horror book, I still thought her direction with the whole owl thing was unique to come up with (not liking the actual owl sacrifice at all btw, poor guy), but then I came to realize, that things started to sound too familiar as if I had read or heard about all this before. she didn’t just make this all up on her own. She could not have...
I am very confused as to why she doesn’t seem to mention anywhere what truly inspired her when it comes to all of that.
Or have I overlooked it? However, it's not mentioned in her acknowledgments at the back of the book, and I also looked up mentions and a full interview with her on the book’s release in which she goes fully in-depth about what inspired her. And nope, no mention of any of this.

Why am I ranting about this?
I’ll tell you why. I am not a conspiracy person by any means, yet I do realize and will not deny there are a lot of sinister things going on when it comes to our society, especially when it comes to the elite of the world and how power is handled and abused for decades now.
Years ago, around 2015 I recall, stories about “the Illuminati” and “free masons” started trending on platforms like Instagram, Twitter but especially YouTube among young adults.
Of course, lots of it is exaggerated, but then again, some of it definitely is not.
New conspiracy theories popped out everywhere and I, not being a conspiracy theorist but a sucker for creepypasta and researching them (after which I would shit my pants and be afraid to go to sleep) one night, I accidentally came across this whole YouTube documentary by journalist and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones who attempted to film a cremation ceremony at a campground, called the Bohemian Grove in 2000.
Look up “Inside Bohemian Grove” on YouTube, that footage is wild!
The Bohemian Grove exemplifies how absurd it is to actually call those who mention this place “conspiracy theorists", as there is no “theory” here.
It's a fact that every July, the most powerful men get together here and worship a giant concrete owl. The bizarre occult rituals Alex Jones got on tape speak for themselves.

Bohemian Grove located in Monte Rio, California is a restricted 2,700-acre campground at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, belonging to a private gentlemen’s club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a more than two-week encampment of some of the most prominent men in the world – These are facts, which I simply just copied and pasted from Wikipedia. Go ahead google it and see the rest for yourself.
President Richard Nixon even mentioned going there from time to time, back in the day, President George H.W. Bush joined the club in 1973 and introduced his son George W. Bush in 1995, and a lot of known politicians, men of real power, came there to this day.
The existence of the campground is no secret, however, what truly goes on there, is.
Guests are welcome, but women and minors must vacate the premises at night. A hollow concrete owl towers over the Grove’s artificial lake, where prominent individuals often visit to give lakeside talks on pressing public policy matters.
And, during the first weekend of the summer encampment, robed figures sacrifice an effigy as part of a ritual meant to banish all worries from the gathered members.
Because of its secrecy, strange ceremonies, and elite body of members, the Bohemian Club has long been the subject of sinister online rumors.

And Bohemian Grove is exactly what Bayron’s entire plot twist (starting from chapter 11) and from there on out the rest of the book is based on and you cannot tell me otherwise.
That on its own, isn’t what doesn’t sit right me.
While I would have not used any of that for this particular book, it could have indeed been used for one hell of a scary horror novel.
I am just confused as to why she does not mention this anywhere.
To me, it comes off as she makes it seem she came up with this entire plot and backstory of “Camp Mirror Lake” by herself but seriously you don’t make this shit up. I also think it's very misleading at this point because of how literal she takes things from the Bohemian Grove and makes it ‘her story’.
She takes literal aspects of the whole Bohemian Grove location and sinister things about it that have been out in the open forever.
Bayron raves about how she wants to shine the spotlight on final girls in this campy horror tale, and then she goes here...

This is where it started to make sense to me what the plot twist is truly about (starting page 159)
Charity and Bezi find themselves in the backwoods of Camp Mirror Lake while they are on the run for the killer and looking for their missing friends.
Suddenly they find an opening among the trees. A large open space. A wooden platform in the shape of a crescent stands beneath a massive oak tree. Opposite the stagelike platform are tiers of wooden risers – seating for at least a hundred people.
There's a tree trunk carved into the likeness of a giant owl.
They also discover the whole area is soaked in what appears to be blood.
The girls find another path from this area and stumble upon a massive three-story lodge.
Inside the building they find out to whom this building belongs; "the Owl Society".
They also find pictures, including framed portraits of men, the plaques on the frames state their names and the fact that they were Grand Owls and in which year. (It goes back to around the same year as Bohemian Grove was founded.)
Charity and Bezi figure this must mean these specific men were once the leaders of this secret society.
Wikipedia states, “After 40 years of membership, the men at Bohemian Grove earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perks.” - very similar to the status “Grand Owl” right!?

While exploring the lodge, they find their friend Paige's camera. It shows a series of photos that seem to be captured in the area they just came from; A torch in the foreground and a few hooded figures gathered together. Trees crowd the frame. The next photo shows the wooden platform in the grove. The hooded figures are standing atop of it and...one of Charity's missing staff members is lying on his back on the platform. Bloody, lifeless, sacrificed.
The two girls agree they need to leave this building but then accidentally run into a cave-like room lit by a series of torches. They see a large structure in the center of the earthen floor.
Hooded figures are circled up, chanting, and raising their arms toward the wooden structure.
Suddenly a figure steps into view; an owl the size of a very tall person.
As Bayron describes “Its eyes are like the ones in the carved effigy behind the crescent-shaped wooden platform in the grove – black and glinting. It moves to the center of the room".

The cult members in Ropes are called the “Owl Society", them being powerful elite men (this is explained further into the story and is almost exactly as how the members of the real Bohemian Grove are described), the actual mention of a “grove” with a statue of a giant owl (The Bohemian Grove is situated in front of a 40-foot tall image of an owl, at a small artificial lake amid a private old-growth grove of Redwood trees), the rituals...and whether sacrifices are a real thing at the Bohemian grove or not...it's been said by many (journalists, ex campground workers) that it is...

I could go on and on but it’s not just similarities, it’s literally her writing ABOUT the Bohemian Grove and its sick cult of elite men doing very, very questionable dark things.
Why she doesn’t come clean about this huge part of her book, I’d love to know...
If it was something for us to figure out on our own like a hidden message in her book, then props to her. But as I said, if she intended to take credit for creating this unique plot twist as if it came from her own mind, then I think it's misleading.
It also took me by surprise, that so far, I have literally seen no one mention this in their reviews.
I mean, I am not even from California, and I have never crossed paths with anything or anyone Bohemian Grove-related, yet I’ve heard about it more than once – after which, yes, I researched some of it, just for the spooky fun in it...years ago. But when I realized that this is not just a creepypasta, but an actual place with actual powerful men who are in charge of our world gathering yearly to do who knows what...I didn't even think of it as spooky fun anymore and it creeped me out.
It spooked my mind for a while and then I ‘forgot’ in the following years, until I came to Bayron’s ending of this book.
I think this whole thing ends up being more eerie than the actual book she wrote.

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever written such a long review, in which I also got side-tracked of the actual story THIS much. I didn't have a review like this in mind for my first written book review in AGES but, here we are. I have been left with SO many unanswered questions about the author’s chosen inspiration to base her plot twist on and that will be the main thing now when I think of this book.

As for the actual story. Minus the, at times, cringe writing style, and the sudden mix-up of sub-genres that just did not work for me personally, I’d say it wasn’t nearly as good as the potential it had at all but still pretty entertaining and a fast-paced thrill-ride read, nonetheless.
I give “You’re not supposed to die tonight” 3 stars.

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

safton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? No

3.5

So I have always enjoyed horror, especially slasher films. It only recently came to my attention that slasher *books* existed, too. As an avid fan of both slashers and immersive haunted houses and the like, the premise of "You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight" immediately intrigued me.

The first half of the book is great. We get introduced to a diverse and well-rounded cast of characters who are all legitimately interesting in their own ways and easy to get invested in. Bayron does a good job of slowly ratcheting up the tension with the use of atmospheric set pieces and showing us what the camp is like as the plot builds toward the final act.

However, I'm sorry to say that the narrative sort of falls apart under its own weight in the last half or at least the final third of the novel. It's not unreadable by any means, but the quality of writing noticeably drops off. Everything feels a tad rushed and forced, abandoning the nuanced, suspenseful, and mysterious atmosphere that had been crafted so well up to this point. For instance, we start to have multiple sequences filled with awkward & stilted dialogue which blatantly serve only as an exposition dump for the audience. The characters start acting in weird and unbelievable ways solely to advance the plot (including the ones that are supposed to be "savvy"). Without going too heavy into spoiler territory, the book does try to use false trails and plot twists to throw off the audience from what they were likely expecting. I won't go so far as to say that it isn't still fundamentally a slasher story at its core, but it probably isn't what you go into the book expecting. For me, the build-up and payoff on the twist(s) was lacking and didn't really hit... but I admire the attempt.

Overall, however, I consider the book to be a nominally positive experience. I give it a 3.5/5. I read it in record time. It's great for the Halloween season given the limited amount of titles in the genre, but I don't know how much interest it would hold for non-horror geeks.

Content Warnings

mia_1608's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

sharib's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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