Grady Hendrix has been praised many a time for being the hot new horror writer and I can see where he gets that title. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. It’s my first novel by him so I will be giving his other stories a shot, but this one just… didn’t do it for me.

The ode to slashers is definitely prominent and the horror nerd in me adored it. The premise is great; I just think six final girls was excessive and therefore had too much going on/too many people to follow.

This is one of those books that’s like a sandwich where the bread is divine, your favorite, freshly baked, but the meat is dollar store, close to being expired. I was hooked in the beginning and devoured the ending but getting through the middle bit was miserable.

I do applaud the twist, though, being teetering on the edge of “oh, it was them! Wait, no — wait, yes! Wait, *what?!*” I think a film adaption of this book could do it justice and make me like it more, but as a novel, it was the equivalent of finding a scary movie on Tubi. Could be a hidden gem, could be a grueling experience, but you still get entertainment either way.