Scream meets Happy Death Day in this terrifying stand-alone horror novel from YA scream queen Danielle Valentine.
\”This terrifying book reads like a horror movie. No, wait. It has the suspense and shocks and screams of TEN horror movies in one. Great nasty fun!\” -R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street
Alice Lawrence is the sole witness in her sister’s murder trial.
And in the year since Claire’s death, Alice’s life has completely fallen apart. Her parents have gotten divorced, she’s moved into an apartment that smells like bologna, and she is being forced to face her sister’s killer and a courtroom full of people who doubt what she saw in the corn maze a year prior.
Claire was an all-American girl, beautiful and bubbly, and a theater star. Alice was a nerd who dreamed of becoming a forensic pathologist and would rather stay at home to watch her favorite horror movies than party. Despite their differences, they were bonded by sisterhood and were each other’s best friends.
Until Claire was taken away from her.
On the first day of the murder trial, as Alice prepares to give her testimony, she is knocked out by a Sidney Prescott look-alike in the courthouse bathroom. When she wakes up, it is Halloween night a year earlier, the same day Claire was murdered. Alice has until midnight to save her sister and find the real killer before he claims another victim.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Imprint: Razorbill US
Publication date: 12/09/2022
How to Survive Your Murder
by Danielle Valentine
Review by Alex P
This is a fun book about a girl obsessed with horror films, who finds herself stuck in one. It has all the tired horror tropes, but delivers them in a fresh, exciting way. The tropes: A killer in a mask who is targeting pretty girls; our protagonist going back in time to relive the tragic day and find out who the real killer is; a handsome love interest who is just too good to be true. All of these are played out and overdone, but here they are revitalized and made for a new audience. It’s basically a campy 80s horror set in the present day, a modern slasher that you know is eventually going to be turned into a Halloween movie on some big streaming platform. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and, like the best horror films, it ends abruptly and bizarrely, with potential for a sequel.
I found myself constantly wanting to stop what I was doing and come back to this book, and obsessing over who in the world the killer was. I will say that as an avid horror enthusiast, I did figure it out, but it took me far longer than usual to guess who the chainsaw wielding madman was. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of horror, or wants to escape reality for a while in a fun and engaging book, or fans of Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series. Age rating 13+.
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