You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

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With her girlfriend, Bezi, and many other friends' lives on the line, she's hoping not. She needs them ALL to survive. If you like horror and don't mind if it veers into the paranormal realm, then you will probably enjoy this book and should give it a try.

Welcome to my review, or what should probably be more accurately titled "Idiot Complains About Horror Book Actually Being Scary"The premise was really cool and I did enjoy how Bayron set that up in the first few chapters of the book. I didn't expect that much action right away and it worked really well to establish the tone of this story and also to introduce our main character, Charity. On the last weekend of the season though, things begin to go horribly awry. Charity and friends are no longer fighting their way through a simulation, they're fighting their way through a real-life Slasher. I feel like this takes a while to get going for how short it is and And honestly kinda hard to follow. It took me a while to figure out why the kids were being murdered and hunted.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review*.Maybe I had my expectations just a little bit too high for this book because the slasher horror vibes were what I was expecting here. Parts are like Friday The 13th meets Fear Street!

Bayron really shines in her characterisation. I fell deeply in love with Charity very early on, for her full-hearted love of her job, horror and a deep-rooted sense of loyalty to her friends. She is determined, strong and brilliant, but she is also vulnerable and placed within one of the highest pressured situations imaginable. Bezi is also a well-defined character, with plenty of hidden depths to uncover. Their relationship is so softly gorgeous, a welcome contrast to the horror you know is coming. I thoroughly enjoyed how their dynamic shifts over the course of the book and Bayron has been a bit of a evil mastermind herself in this story. It also helps that the characters themselves are really well done — Charity and her girlfriend Bezi are the strongest, with the genuine love and care between them obvious, and her two other friends and the remaining camp employees are fun additions. If they were simple caricatures, a common pitfall in the horror genre, there would be far less reason to care if they lived or died. Alongside the scares, there’s also a nod to the coming-of-age theme of shifting friendships —“Are we growing apart or are we just learning a new way of being friends?”Readers are in for a thrilling ride!

The location is fittingly the actual filming location of a cult classic Slasher film called, Curse of Mirror Lake and the staged experience plays out well-known scenes from that movie. Charity's role in the experience is that of Final Girl and she takes pride in her work. A haunted lake with a dark past plays host to a group of summer camp counsellors working on a ‘real life horror movie’ in You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, the latest novel from Kalynn Bayron, her first YA horror offering, and one that explores legacy, family, and what it means to be a Final Girl.