A review by minimicropup
Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Setting the Scene: 🇺🇸 A fictional town in Texas, USA
POV: We follow multiple high school seniors before and during the scavenger hunt arranged by the outgoing seniors for the incoming seniors. 
 
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
  • High-stakes carnival teen slasher 
  • Fight for your life splatterpunk survival horror 
  • Halloween + late summer adventures with friends 
  • Commentary about future uncertainty, growing up stress, social media, friendship, connectedness, stability, hopes and dreams, fears, psychopathy, and survival. 
 
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕
 
🎬 Tale-Telling: There were two parts to this story: the first half was a character-driven narrative where we learned about the characters, their dreams and fears; the second part was a bloody slasher madness. The transition from deep character dives to survival horror felt feverish. There was a dark humor threading through the panic, and it brought the slasher campiness alongside what should be sheer terror.
 
🤓 Reader Role: Viewer. Felt like sitting watching from behind a screen, not quite cinematic, more like watching from security footage and piecing things together. Not complaining, I didn’t want to be too in the scene, it would have been too intense. 
 
👥 Characters: Our cast, led by Violet, was a mix of dreams and doubts. Each character was dealing with  senior year anxieties (some more relatable than others but not unrealistic), while making their journey through the nightmarish carnival. With mixed results. 
 
🗺️ Ambiance: The summer heat and the carnival were technically good settings. But the ambiance was kinda flat at times, and it was specific in location in the carnival but was hard to get a sense for where the characters were [insert my usual wishes for a layout/diagram here]. It was okay in the smaller settings, like a certain room or specific parts of the carnival. 
 
🔥 Fuel: As the night unfolded, the horror ramped up, with an even mix of gore and fear. The suspense started off wrapped in the cozy familiarity of friendship drama before bringing in the carnage. It got graphic but if you're here for the splatterpunk, you'll be fine. 
 
🚙 Journey: Despite its quirks and hiccups in pacing, it was an interesting story through the twisted tracks of a carnival from hell, with a side of teenage angst and growing up. It would probably be a good match for horror fans that like depth alongside the dread and sprinklings of camp. 
 
Random Thoughts
🤓 What worked: The commitment to making us care about the characters before the slashing starts. I wasn't just watching them get picked off, I was invested and rooting for some of them.
🫠 What didn’t: The occasionally jarring narrative choices and some action scenes that felt more staged (contrived? corny?) than spontaneous. And how long and drawn out this felt in the last half, it felt too long for me.  
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Content Heads-Up: Murder. Torture (descriptive, on page). Body horror (gore, injuries). Body shaming (jokes, teasing). Parental rejection (recall, mention). Cannabis use. Alcohol. Suicide.
Rep: Lesbian and heterosexual relationships. White and open to interpretation (racially ambiguous) characters. Cisgender.
 
👀 Format: Kindle Unlimited
 
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