You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

i ended up DNFing because the second half twist just completely lost me. i liked the set up and beginning a lot though, like “fake horror camp ends up experiencing real murders” is a concept i really like. one of my favorite psych episodes is about that! but unfortunately when the twist came i just couldn't do it.

maybe if this book had been written in the spirit of hot fuzz + sean of the dead, or even scream (which is referenced) where it wholeheartedly embraces how campy/goofy it is, the story would have worked for me. but from what i read i really don't think you're supposed to take this as a comedy and therefore what should have been really scary moments just didn't work. like the scene where charity sees porter's corpse. instead of being terrified of that, i kept thinking about the fact that there's a grown ass man in an owl fursuit standing right next to it.

i still gave it three stars because i love the concept and i liked the characters, i liked charity + her friends/girlfriend being qpoc/poc. i think bayron is really good at setting up a creepy atmosphere and writing gore. the supernatural element tho just really undermined the whole thing.

also have to say, the casual transphobia in the very beginning made me :/. if charity was outing herself to javier anyway, she could've just said she had a girlfriend instead of her and porter making jokes about only liking a certain type of genitals. there are obviously women with penises and men with vaginas. and usually i would let it slide because they're meant to be teenagers and teenagers are cringey/aren't the most informed, but if you want me to believe there's a giant owl god out there granting wishes to people killing children then i think even the teens could be a bit more informed on that front.