4.5 stars Thank you Penguin for this ARC
A fun and witty queer slasher, dead bodies run as high as the cutting jokes in Your Lonely Nights Are Over.
We follow besties Dearie and Cole, friends who are unabashedly themselves, and not afraid to call out anyone and everyone that annoys them. When members of the Queer Club start dropping like flies, fingers are quick to point to the two of them. But is it the retired never-been-caught serial killer Mr. Sandman? A copycat? Either way Dearie and Cole have to discover the killer, before they are killed, or arrested!
This is such a hilarious book, I don't think I've had such fun reading a horror book before. Their friendship is so nice to see, as well as reading them "read" others when they try to come for them gave me life. I alternated between laughing and then being scared at was about to happen. This really feels like an old school slasher movie in the best possible way.
Adam Sass shows it is not impossible to write books with great POC characters, even if you are a white author. I really love how Cole's characters is written, and how different the students treat him as a murder suspect vs Dearie. There is so much great racial microaggressions in this book, so innocuous to many, I love it so much. (See guys it's not impossible!)
Without spoiling anything, I also love how relationships are depicted. Be they healthy or not, sometimes you don't realize what's going on until much later, when your brain finally feels ready to process it. There is a lot of symbolism in YLNAO and it is very well done.
This book is also very sex positive, and the discussions and situations surrounding "acting gay" reminds me of Camp. There is no reason to police how you act, or change how you talk just to be more palatable to straights. Sass hit the nail on the head with every issue he tackled.
For me the only issues I really have are at the beginning with the pacing, and some of the structuring. We are introduced to the characters, then there is a time jump of two months. A lot of what happens in that time jump is referenced later, or we get a few flashbacks. I almost wish we got to see more of Dearie's relationship and really how isolated he became from Cole. It would have had a larger impact on later events in the book if we got see more from Dearie's relationship. After the two months, the characters quickly reunite again, but we haven't seen enough of them to really understand the importance and feel that emotional weight for this event.
All in all, I had an enjoyable time reading this, and it got my mind of life. (Which is always a plus!)
This is a must read book for horror fans, lovers of queer books, or anyone looking for a fun read! This is my first book of Adam Sass, and I am going to go look at what other books he's written, because I am now a fan!
This cover!?! Obsessed. Perfection. Wouldn't change a thing. From the colors to the composition, to even the illustration, this is a perfectly done cover. 10/10 wouldn't change a thing.