I have some guilt because it feels like I keep saying the same things about Unnerving’s Rewind or Die series. What can I say? This whole lineup has been a ton of fun in an otherwise dismal year. Trampled Crown is no exception.

Valerie is a teacher at Canary Lane High School, who ends up in charge of the school’s homecoming dance. Valerie is written in a way that makes her easy to relate to and commiserate with, Kellogg delving back and forth between Valerie’s attempts to pull the event together and history revolving around her sexuality, as well as an injury sustained when she was younger. Kellogg establishes that necessary atmosphere where something’s up and neither the main character nor the reader are privy to the full picture.

Our fairly large for a novella cast of characters includes students, other teachers, parents, and administrators. While not every character is as fleshed out as Valerie, the large cast gives the author a lot of room to have fun, dropping clues and red herrings left and right as to what’s going on.

It’s a fast, fun read with an LGBTQ main character, handled plausibly and respectfully. Something you love to see in your horror fiction. It’s a perfect fit for this series, and continues the mark of high quality literary callbacks to the 90 minute fright feature on VHS.