The Blonde Dies First

The book follows a group of six teens living in the same neighborhood since childhood: Leila, a would-be artist; Gael, a horror lover who has already directed a short film; Malachi, a black queer boy; Devon, twin sister to genius Drew; Drew, the skeptic, who attends private school, and Yaya, Devon’s longtime crush. Most of the friends are Black, with the exception of Leila.

Ever since the Scream franchise began subverting the tropes of horror films many contemporary YA horror choose to also subvert these obvious tropes. In this story which sees a demon (seemingly following the rules from a very poorly received movie 'Read Your Rites' (Box office revenues 10 million on a 12 million cost) stalking the teens.

These teens are trope savvy enough (especially Gael) to bait the demon and recognise the need for the 'final girl' to end the threat. But with the required third act twist and a satisfying reveal of who was the real monster it was a Karen sorry Kendra. I found it a breezy, satisfying addition to the genre.

Thank you so much to @simonteen for the arc! I was over the moon when I got it in the mail!!!! 
With a debut like Their vicious games, the blonde dies first set some high expectations and I felt like it completely knocked it out the park for me! 
In the beginning it was a bit slow, and me being me I kept getting side tracked BUT once things started to hit the fan I was locked in. 
Now Ms Wellington knows how to make a girl feel scared! My imagination is a bit overactive, and she was so detailed with the kills and the way she was describing that monster/demon I legitimately was shaking in my boots and did sleep with my lights on (I'm also just a scaredy cat in general and VERY easily spooked). 
The only thing I wanted more of was to get to know more about the rest of the group. Because I would have loved to get to know Malachi, Gael, and Leila on the same level that we got to know Yaya, Drew and Devon. Now the character development between Devon and Drew LOVED that. I loved that we saw there turmoil just bubble over, and become uncontainable. The reconciliation of sisterhood , and the battle they fought between themselves outside of fighting for their lives was just so well done I wish we could have seen more with the others. 

Since this was an ARC I'm not going to blab too too much, but this has definitely solidified that I will read anything Joelle Wellington puts out!