A review by sarah_shelf
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

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

2.5

I think I need to acquaint myself more with the slasher genre. I’ve seen the last half of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and that’s it. So I went into this novel with expectations carried over from the other horror books I’ve read, but I don’t think they’re generally present in a slasher.

Overall, this was a short fun read. I didn’t fall in love with this book but I didn’t hate it either. It feels like there’s a lot of exposition. We spend a lot of time on one level of the “mystery” when weird stuff is happening, but everyone ignores or rationalizes it because it’s all supposed to be a game. Then when we hit the action it just takes off and all happens within the last third. So the pacing just felt kind of weird. 

I honestly could not take the cult seriously. My only thoughts were: “so they’re a rip-off of the Court of Owls. Where’s the Batman character?” Obviously this is about the Final Girl so no one’s gonna show up to randomly save the day, but it weakened the power of the Society so I found their gimmick more humorous. Also, re the no savior’s gonna show, it’s no surprise Mr. Lamont was in on it.

The characters, backstory, and mystery weren’t super developed, but I think that’s due to length and again the slasher genre. To that end, I can’t decide if I like the final slasher or not.
When you consider the circumstances, Kyle makes sense. He called his grandma which prompted Tasha’s group to go investigate Ms Keane, so they could be snatched from the woods. He didn’t go into the house and tried to warn them out, but only after they were already inside. He stayed behind with Javier and Tasha and he was the one who told Charity and Bezi that they were taken to the hospital. He went mysteriously silent on the comms when the girls ran into the Head Owl. I also should’ve made the connection between him playing the role of the Mirror Lake serial killer, and Charity’s comments that he’s too nice for anyone to believe him dangerous outside of the mask. However, his lackadaisical attempts to “warn them away” just made the character seem very underdeveloped. He couldn’t decide if he was loyal to his friends or to his family/beliefs, but not in a way that causes internal conflict. Rather, in a way that makes the character very weak. If he wanted to get away so badly, why didn’t he just tell his friends & run away? We were given no reason to suggest he was trapped or would be tracked down. There were no adults at the camp and he knows where all the cameras are. He could’ve very easily made a different choice, but he stuck to the ritual. Yet he doesn’t seem to actually want the power that much beyond escaping. It doesn’t make sense.
 

I did really like the epilogue. The final chapter leaves you in a state of “it can’t end that way!” So Bayron gives you a more satisfying ending. It is in some ways a definitive ending and an open-ended one.
Was it truly Charity who climbed out of the lake? Do our final girls get their happy ending? Or is there another story, where Charity isn’t truly human or Charity anymore. Would Bezi care? If so, can they be happy together, or does Bezi have to handle whatever is wearing her lover’s face? I presume it’s truly Charity, but it’s interesting to think about other possibilities. Though, as my friend said during my rant about this book, why didn’t Bezi wish to bring all of them back to life?
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