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A review by justinkhchen
The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick
2.0
2.5 stars
Hysteria that went nowhere, The Lifeguard has been sitting on my TBR for awhile, waiting for the day when I was craving some nostalgic vintage YA horror—sadly it didn't quite deliver.
With its isolated island setting and the appealing, if VERY on-the-nose concept of a lifeguard being a potential serial killer, it was incredible how boring The Lifeguard turned out to be; I found the killer on the lose plot very one-noted (rinse and repeat of the female protagonist witnessing something, and no one believes her), and the misdirection basically ineffective (everyone was a suspect except for one character who had no flaw—guess how that went down). Richie Tankersley Cusick's melodramatic writing was at times charmingly campy (exactly what I was seeking), but also choppy and annoyingly disorienting—finding myself re-reading paragraphs not realizing which dialog belonging to whom, and when the scene has changed.
The kitschy vibe was there, but unfortunately The Lifeguard just didn't engage (aside from a few chilling chapters from the killer POV). I loved its old-school cover art, just wished the content inside was equally compelling.
Hysteria that went nowhere, The Lifeguard has been sitting on my TBR for awhile, waiting for the day when I was craving some nostalgic vintage YA horror—sadly it didn't quite deliver.
With its isolated island setting and the appealing, if VERY on-the-nose concept of a lifeguard being a potential serial killer, it was incredible how boring The Lifeguard turned out to be; I found the killer on the lose plot very one-noted (rinse and repeat of the female protagonist witnessing something, and no one believes her), and the misdirection basically ineffective (everyone was a suspect except for one character who had no flaw—guess how that went down). Richie Tankersley Cusick's melodramatic writing was at times charmingly campy (exactly what I was seeking), but also choppy and annoyingly disorienting—finding myself re-reading paragraphs not realizing which dialog belonging to whom, and when the scene has changed.
The kitschy vibe was there, but unfortunately The Lifeguard just didn't engage (aside from a few chilling chapters from the killer POV). I loved its old-school cover art, just wished the content inside was equally compelling.