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skyereadss's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
katechore's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
reader4evr's review against another edition
3.0
I was super intrigued by this book when I found out she was writing a horror because Anna and the French kiss is one of my FAVORITE books!
I thought it started great with the first murder but then I felt like it was super heavy on the romance. I did think Ollie was going to be involved some how with the killer but was surprised he was not. I’m not sure why she revealed the killer so early on because I felt like it was kind of a goose chase to find him the rest of the book. I did not like his motive, kind of stupid if you ask me.
Overall, if you liked the movies Scream and I know what you did last summer you’ll like this.
I thought it started great with the first murder but then I felt like it was super heavy on the romance. I did think Ollie was going to be involved some how with the killer but was surprised he was not. I’m not sure why she revealed the killer so early on because I felt like it was kind of a goose chase to find him the rest of the book. I did not like his motive, kind of stupid if you ask me.
Overall, if you liked the movies Scream and I know what you did last summer you’ll like this.
heather1999's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jaycie_90's review against another edition
3.0
Makani is trying to survive high school without anyone in her new hometown of Osborne, Nebraska, learning about why she left Hawaii. Until a serial killer is unleashed on her classmates, and soon she has more to worry about on top of keeping her secret.
This isn't a thriller or suspense story, and it's more of a gory YA. I like gore, so it worked out well for me. I thought the serial killer was dull, and their motives were unrealistic for someone who got away with as much as they did. The two main characters didn't have much chemistry. If you're going to include a romantic relationship in a story like this, at least have reasoning behind it or put more effort into it. Overall, this story was lacking, but it was an enjoyable read. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading high school drama and the movie Scream.
This isn't a thriller or suspense story, and it's more of a gory YA. I like gore, so it worked out well for me. I thought the serial killer was dull, and their motives were unrealistic for someone who got away with as much as they did. The two main characters didn't have much chemistry. If you're going to include a romantic relationship in a story like this, at least have reasoning behind it or put more effort into it. Overall, this story was lacking, but it was an enjoyable read. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading high school drama and the movie Scream.
mehsi's review against another edition
2.0
Hey, for a YA Contemporary with romance (with the occasional blood) this was a good book. For a YA horror/slasher... not so much.
This review will be chaotic, but dear Lord, I want to write a review right now. While I still very much pissed, while I am still so very much disappointed.
This was one of my MOST anticipated reads of this year. Really, when I heard that one of my most liked authors would be writing something totally different I just wanted to squee in happiness. I couldn't wait to see how Stephanie Perkins would write Slasher/Horror books. I was curious, I wanted to know more.
But sadly, after a fantastic, creepy, OMG WHAT THE HELL, opening.. the rest of the book frankly just was boring and bland.
But hey, as I said, for a YA romance it was good. I just adored Ollie and Makani together. They are a cute couple, and I was rooting for them. And of course hoping it wouldn't be Ollie who was the murderer. I loved how sweet Ollie was towards Makani, how caring he was. How he was there for her when she needed him.
It also didn't help that we knew who the murderer was around midway. Yep. That sure killed even more of my happiness. I don't want to know the murderer until the end.
The secret, the BIG GIANT secret that is so often hinted at that eventually I just was bored by it and how Makani never ever told anyone. We learn all about it around page 194, and it was so anticlimatic and so lame that I couldn't even care. Plus I found it all so highly bullshit.
The murders? I expected people to drop left and right, but instead the murders didn't happen that much, between the first and the second is 70 pages, between the second and the third are 50 pages. Between that? A little bit of fear, but yep, mostly romance. Whoop whoop.
After learning Makani's secret I still had about 80 pages left, and those pages were the lowest. I just had to struggle so hard to get through the book. Plus with the murderer know.... it wasn't even that scary any more, it was more a question of when would he hit again and if he would stay with his pattern or if he would just randomly go for things as cornered people would often do.
Plus
And oh yeah, sure, if you just bundled those murders and the parts together where the kids were terrified and trying to figure out what was going, it would have been a good book and true to the advertising/blurb. But now it just focused too much on the romance, too much on Ollie and Makani, too much on that secret. Well, I guess if you only took those scary/creepy/murder parts you wouldn't hold much of a book. Maybe about 80-100 pages max. And high number is mostly because the last 60-ish pages were mainly about the murders. Yes, about 35% of this book. Also I really don't have anything against romance, but if the book is promoted, advertised and made to seem as a horror/slasher, it shouldn't be the focus. It shouldn't be the main point.
So yeah, those last 60 (well ish) pages were OK, so bumping up my rating by 1, but the ending (well that last page) just plainly sucked. That is how it all ends? And I am dropping my rate by 0.5 stars. In the end I am rating this book 2 stars.
Very disappointed in this one. So very disappointed. :( *sighs*
I may have missed some things, but as I said at the beginning I am still quite urgghhh about things, my head isn't clear. But I think I got the main point across. I am not sure if I would recommend this book, though I would warn people who come here expecting a lot of gruesome stuff. There is some, but it is here and there, and then there is the last 60-ish pages.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
This review will be chaotic, but dear Lord, I want to write a review right now. While I still very much pissed, while I am still so very much disappointed.
This was one of my MOST anticipated reads of this year. Really, when I heard that one of my most liked authors would be writing something totally different I just wanted to squee in happiness. I couldn't wait to see how Stephanie Perkins would write Slasher/Horror books. I was curious, I wanted to know more.
But sadly, after a fantastic, creepy, OMG WHAT THE HELL, opening.. the rest of the book frankly just was boring and bland.
But hey, as I said, for a YA romance it was good. I just adored Ollie and Makani together. They are a cute couple, and I was rooting for them. And of course hoping it wouldn't be Ollie who was the murderer. I loved how sweet Ollie was towards Makani, how caring he was. How he was there for her when she needed him.
It also didn't help that we knew who the murderer was around midway. Yep. That sure killed even more of my happiness. I don't want to know the murderer until the end.
The secret, the BIG GIANT secret that is so often hinted at that eventually I just was bored by it and how Makani never ever told anyone. We learn all about it around page 194, and it was so anticlimatic and so lame that I couldn't even care. Plus I found it all so highly bullshit.
Spoiler
So she cut off her best friend's hair after a gruelling initiation. Her best friend almost drowned. But apparently NO ONE gave a shit about that or the whole initiation and what happened there. Oh no. Apparently all they cared about was Makani who had the word Bitch on her head and the knife in her hand. Whut the actual hell is wrong with the world that someone get arrested, suspended, death threats and other things over something as cut hair. Why didn't anyone care how this all came to be? Why didn't anyone care to punish those seniors?The murders? I expected people to drop left and right, but instead the murders didn't happen that much, between the first and the second is 70 pages, between the second and the third are 50 pages. Between that? A little bit of fear, but yep, mostly romance. Whoop whoop.
After learning Makani's secret I still had about 80 pages left, and those pages were the lowest. I just had to struggle so hard to get through the book. Plus with the murderer know.... it wasn't even that scary any more, it was more a question of when would he hit again and if he would stay with his pattern or if he would just randomly go for things as cornered people would often do.
Plus
Spoiler
Who the hell leaves their teenage daughter ALONE with their siblings when there is a murderer walking around town? I just found that so unbelievably stupid. Take those kids with you or just stay home. Really, this just stood out so much and I was face palming.And oh yeah, sure, if you just bundled those murders and the parts together where the kids were terrified and trying to figure out what was going, it would have been a good book and true to the advertising/blurb. But now it just focused too much on the romance, too much on Ollie and Makani, too much on that secret. Well, I guess if you only took those scary/creepy/murder parts you wouldn't hold much of a book. Maybe about 80-100 pages max. And high number is mostly because the last 60-ish pages were mainly about the murders. Yes, about 35% of this book. Also I really don't have anything against romance, but if the book is promoted, advertised and made to seem as a horror/slasher, it shouldn't be the focus. It shouldn't be the main point.
So yeah, those last 60 (well ish) pages were OK, so bumping up my rating by 1, but the ending (well that last page) just plainly sucked. That is how it all ends? And I am dropping my rate by 0.5 stars. In the end I am rating this book 2 stars.
Very disappointed in this one. So very disappointed. :( *sighs*
I may have missed some things, but as I said at the beginning I am still quite urgghhh about things, my head isn't clear. But I think I got the main point across. I am not sure if I would recommend this book, though I would warn people who come here expecting a lot of gruesome stuff. There is some, but it is here and there, and then there is the last 60-ish pages.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
bookish_ann's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Yeah, this was pretty bad. But not one-star bad. The writing flowed, there wasn’t any padding, and it was fast. I’ve read FAR worse. However, as a horror novel this was just beyond ridiculous, and not in a winking-at-the-genre way.
The setup, with the little mind games, had so much promise but OMFG did it fizzle. We find out the identity of the killer at the 50% mark, and despite me thinking that there had to be accomplices, no - one killer could do allll that in a short time frame. OK, fine, we have a B&E murder savant.
But the town - after three gory murders back to back and an attempted 4th, nobody does anything! Kids are still left home alone, those same kids still go into dark isolated places, and guess what? They die.
The MC has a horribly dark past that she’s running from and it involves familiarity with a hunting knife… and the reveal there is what almost pushes this down to 1 star. It’s some serious BS, and it’s only there for the romance plot.
This book was very, very dumb.
The setup, with the little mind games, had so much promise but OMFG did it fizzle. We find out the identity of the killer at the 50% mark, and despite me thinking that there had to be accomplices, no - one killer could do allll that in a short time frame. OK, fine, we have a B&E murder savant.
But the town - after three gory murders back to back and an attempted 4th, nobody does anything! Kids are still left home alone, those same kids still go into dark isolated places, and guess what? They die.
The MC has a horribly dark past that she’s running from and it involves familiarity with a hunting knife… and the reveal there is what almost pushes this down to 1 star. It’s some serious BS, and it’s only there for the romance plot.
This book was very, very dumb.
togidemi's review against another edition
3.0
Yeah no high school romances don't work with the slasher genre. At least in this take.
It did do, I guess, a fairly decent job at making a paranoid atmosphere early on. Items moving around and being rearranged? Every time anything was out of place I mentally went "OPE", so that's good establishing. But it fell apart because I was expecting too much from the book, man. It had the promise of a tantalizing mystery - why the flair? Why these victims? How the hell is Mr. Murderer managing to get in all these places? Why the hell do Makani and Ollie keep going on about their Big Dark Secrets? - and it just... fell apart. I was waiting for a twist that never came. Also, I'm starting to realize I hate when books hype up a character's Big Dark Secret because 9 times out of 10 it just leads to me being disappointed at it. That's it? That's what you've been foreshadowing for a dozen or so chapters?
Ollie was probably the most interesting character, even though I will always dunk on him for looking like Jeffree Star in my head, but the romance was bland and was an unwelcome distraction from the actually intriguing murders. The characters in general were pretty bland paper cutouts. I hate that the killer had basically no characterization beyond and I HATE THAT And there were so many loose ends that I had to reel back when I flipped to the Acknowledgements page. That's... that's it? You're ending it there? Aight.
TL;DR Yeah the book sounds like a B-movie because it reads like one. Gorgeous cover though.
It did do, I guess, a fairly decent job at making a paranoid atmosphere early on. Items moving around and being rearranged? Every time anything was out of place I mentally went "OPE", so that's good establishing. But it fell apart because I was expecting too much from the book, man. It had the promise of a tantalizing mystery - why the flair? Why these victims? How the hell is Mr. Murderer managing to get in all these places? Why the hell do Makani and Ollie keep going on about their Big Dark Secrets? - and it just... fell apart. I was waiting for a twist that never came.
Spoiler
I figured David HAD to be a red herring, since he was discovered far too early in the book to be legit and also I was given so many names that I literally couldn't even remember who he was until the book reminded me of the sole Suspicious Conversation he was in. Like, MAN, imagine if Chris was the murderer, or at least the mastermind. Leaving the files out? Most of the victims making life difficult for his brother? He's literally a cop who can cover this up? I don't want to tell someone how to write their story, but... MAN.Spoiler
It's probably the limitations of YA, but like... if you're going to put gruesome mutilation and murder in the book, Makani thinking she's Cruel and Damaged and a Monster for slicing a ponytail is just not gonna do it for me, chief. "B-but she was my best friend, she could've died, I could get that mad again!" YOU SLICED A PONYTAIL. GODDAMN. TALK TO ME WHEN YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING ACTUALLY NOTABLE.Ollie was probably the most interesting character, even though I will always dunk on him for looking like Jeffree Star in my head, but the romance was bland and was an unwelcome distraction from the actually intriguing murders.
Spoiler
Like yass queen, do interrupt the contemplating over the killer to MAKE OUT during a PRAYER RECITAL. We love it.Spoiler
if i can't leave this town you can't either >:(Spoiler
GRANDMA YOUNG BASICALLY PEACED OUT OF THE STORY AFTER GETTING STABBED. Like I feel like Perkins planned to kill her, but figured that'd be too sad for Makani's arc so she kept her alive, but then she didn't have anything to do with her anymore since she didn't plan to keep Grandma in the first place.TL;DR Yeah the book sounds like a B-movie because it reads like one. Gorgeous cover though.