Reviews with content warning for Grief - How to Survive Your Murder

Beginning was a little slow but it def picks up and is entertaining. Legit didn't know who the killer was until the reveal. And what a reveal it was!
Kind of reminded me of My Heart is a Chainsaw in some aspects with all the horror movie references, the main characters being into horror movies, and the main characters talking/thinking about finals girls and how to be like them.
I will say with everything that happened, the ending was not my fave. Is it shocking? Yes. Is it satisfying? Absolutely not.

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haley49's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I’m so mad but also so amazed. This was such a twisty ya book that constantly kept me guessing. I’m so upset yet so happy with how great this story was. A twisted Halloween take on it’s a wonderful life

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phoenixlovesbooks's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I thought that the plot twists, and terror factor was on point. There were multiple times in this book that I was actually freaked out. The ending completely blindsided me and I still can't get over it. I will say that the first 50 pages were really cringy and that's why I didn't rate this 5 Stars. If you can make it through awkward high school interactions, then I think this will be perfect for you. Once the story picks up, it goes away, and you are met with a great story with plot twists you wont be able to guess

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jessw17's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

3.5

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bri__'s review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

It started off well, I was interested. It didn't take long for it to start going downhill. I started wanting to DNF around the 25% mark because the pop culture references, dialogue and horror movie recounts really felt quite cheap. However, I pushed through because of the change in tone around the half way point and decided that I would be able to finish the book relatively quickly anyway. Once I finished it, I was disappointed. There are so many plot holes, it feels like the author just genuinely forgot about certain characters because there was no explaination of what happened to them. The ending felt cheap too because again, nothing was explained and it was left on a cliffhanger. The main character was made out to be a very intelligent girl who loved horror movies (her only personality trait) and wanted to go into the medical field. So you'd think she'd be able to solve who the murderer is, right?
Wrong. There were so many characters being made as suspects that it was hard to keep up and yet none of them were the true killer. In the end, she didnt even end up going back to the present timeline. Instead, she had just made everything worse. So what was the point? Who knows. The Angel addition felt out of place but I didn't mind that much. I don't actually understand the motive behind Claire being the murderer for all of those girls and the other ones that were basically collateral damage. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The book is a fast paced thriller, atleast it has that going for it. I'd recommend it for that but not for anything else you want in a good book.

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behindherpages's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

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

1.0

besides this being overall horrible, plotholes automatically ruin a book for me

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phoricho's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Now, to be honest, I was in a sad mood when I bought this book. I saw the cover and title and just bought it. Because that’s what you do when you’re sad, you buy more books. So I didn’t read the blurb or anything before buying.

After reading the blurb, I was slightly deterred by the time travelling aspect. To me, it felt gimmicky, and I wasn’t used to such a thing in a thriller/mystery. But I gave it a go anyways.

This book was a rollercoaster ride of liking and not liking it.

Thriller fans will love the references towards classic thriller films such as Scream, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Alice is a fan of horror films, so the mentions and references are laid on quite thick in the beginning but level out as the book goes on.

I immensely enjoyed the thriller aspect. It really felt like I was reading a slasher film, which was overwhelmingly my favourite part of this book. Most other books I read tend to focus more on the mystery, with some close calls with the killer, usually towards the end. The continuous high stakes made the pacing feel quite fast — which was good.

The only times the pacing seemed off was in the beginning, as it took a while from the introduction of the time frame (solving the mystery by midnight) to the reader getting a time check. So for a while, I was unsure how much time had passed. I found this annoying but easy to get over.

The other issue I found with the pacing was the time travel aspect and Sidney Prescott look-alike character. These scenes often felt like they were interrupting the story instead of moving it forward.

I was also disappointed with the lack of involvement and storylines for the side characters. It felt as though they were mentioned in the beginning and then barely seen or heard from again until the end.

The ending left me a little unsatisfied, as there’s no official update for a few characters that I liked. The end felt like a movie or TV series leaving things open for a sequel or second season. If Danielle Valentine (AKA Danielle Vega) were to write a sequel focusing on the aftermath of the first book, this would work well and solve those issues (my issues) with the ending.

“If you don’t come with me, I might die. Those were the last words my sister ever said to me.” — Alice Lawrence.

It may not sound like it from all my above nit-picking, but I did enjoy this book. Like I said earlier, many of my nit-pickings are things I can get over.

The thriller aspect was hands-down the absolute best. I’m so impressed with how much it felt like I was reading a slasher film. I hope Danielle Valentine (AKA Danielle Vega) writes a sequel.

I give How to Survive Your Murder 3 out of 5 stars.

If you enjoyed Happy Death Day and the Scream movies, this book is right up your alley.

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