shereadytoread's Reviews (806)

This is a book that reads as very disturbing, but not because of gory description (which there are plenty of), but more because in true southern gothic fashion it takes a supernatural look at addiction through the lense of grief. It's difficult to see an extreme of a feeling that likely everyone will experience at some point in their life. 

The plot is full of despair, body horror, social commentary, and genuinely creepy moments that made my skin crawl. Reminders of the death and horror that is part of our country's unfortuante history and current every day life.

This book was amazing. I went in expecting something Carrie-esque. Although we see the clear inspiration, this book is in a league all it's own. The black characters represented such depth in exploring very different aspects of their relationship with their blackness was so well explored. I knew Kennys (and Ken Srs.). I know Kailas. I've run into my fair share of Jules and Wendys in my life. To present not only the denial of race, but also the strained relationship of, and the acceptance of one's own identity was explored thoroughly. I absolutely LOVE horror. It's one of my favorites and outside of a few black female horror writers, I rarely get to see such variety represented in a genre that I love. To get all of that while still presenting such a great horror plot. AMAZING. 

I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous of the depth of YA today. I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up with this type of representation. 

Overall I enjoyed the book. I thought that the splitting into nights was a great way to pace the book overall but it still felt a bit uneven. The aspect of the friends being of different races was explored poorly imo and some of the dialogue around that rubbed me the wrong way. The ending was not my favorite but it was a twist! I thought the scares were well placed and effective. Some moments I found genuinely scary. It was a read to kick off October!

This book is not an easy read, but this a truly genre-defying anthology. Most of the stories do have a darker, horror element to them, but they run many other genres as well. The stories were really interesting and tense. They revolve in some ways about the bodies of women, but present that theme in very different ways.

These are written in experimental ways, they include a very unique writing style, which in my opinion can be off-putting to some, but I think it fits well with the overall theme.

This book had all the makings of a 5 star read for me but fell short in two big areas:

1. The pacing was off. For a book that has a lot of moving parts, it felt like nothing happened for most of the book and then a ton happened very quickly 
2. There were so many references to horror movies and urban legends that you think are going to pay off and they end up meaning nothing. It made the book much longer but it wasn’t needed for the plot 

Otherwise it was a fun read! The pranks, although cruel, were well planned and interesting. Seeing the dynamics of the group and how their strengths and faults play out in the climax was very fun.