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A review by ribbenkast
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
What a disappointment! I was looking for a quick read and after seeing a lot of praise for Cinderella isn't dead by the same author I thought I should give this book a chance. I'll never trust Tiktok to tell me which author's are good ever again.
The characters were shallow stereotypes of teens who talk in a way an old person thinks teens talk, with refrences that are already outdated by the time the book was published. Other dialogue was just put there to be blatend exposition to the audience and felt so unnatural.
The summary made it seem like this book was going to be a meta-commentary about horror and slashers, like Scream or Cabin in the woods. However it was anything but, in fact it seemed like the author doesn't have an understanding of how horror works at all. The admittedly creative setting of a slasher-movie recreation camp was underused and might've well not been there, even though it's the selling point of the book. The only reason I kept reading was because of the way it was set up. I was waiting for the book to suddenly become clever, for all of the shitty almost parody like dialogue to suddenly make sense. it never did.
Despite the book being only 220 pages, almost nothing happens in the first 130-150. After that things are happening so quick and badly planned out un-forshadowed "twists" keep being thrown at you, you barely have time to process them. The twists don't work anyway because none of the characters who are "in on" the twist have behaved in line with their true intentions. None of their previous actions make sense in light of this new information, even if their intention was trying to trick the main characters (and by extend the reader.)
In the end it was just a simple slasher story that does nothing new with the genre and falls apart when you think about it too much. I have no interest in reading another book by Kalynn Bayron, maybe she's better in a different genre but I have low hopes. If this is the horror she writes, she should've stuck to fantasy.
The characters were shallow stereotypes of teens who talk in a way an old person thinks teens talk, with refrences that are already outdated by the time the book was published. Other dialogue was just put there to be blatend exposition to the audience and felt so unnatural.
The summary made it seem like this book was going to be a meta-commentary about horror and slashers, like Scream or Cabin in the woods. However it was anything but, in fact it seemed like the author doesn't have an understanding of how horror works at all. The admittedly creative setting of a slasher-movie recreation camp was underused and might've well not been there, even though it's the selling point of the book. The only reason I kept reading was because of the way it was set up. I was waiting for the book to suddenly become clever, for all of the shitty almost parody like dialogue to suddenly make sense. it never did.
Despite the book being only 220 pages, almost nothing happens in the first 130-150. After that things are happening so quick and badly planned out un-forshadowed "twists" keep being thrown at you, you barely have time to process them. The twists don't work anyway because none of the characters who are "in on" the twist have behaved in line with their true intentions. None of their previous actions make sense in light of this new information, even if their intention was trying to trick the main characters (and by extend the reader.)
In the end it was just a simple slasher story that does nothing new with the genre and falls apart when you think about it too much. I have no interest in reading another book by Kalynn Bayron, maybe she's better in a different genre but I have low hopes. If this is the horror she writes, she should've stuck to fantasy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail