Review: "You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight" by Kalynn Bayron

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Thriller, suspense, horror

Back Cover: "Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?"

Read Time: 2 days

Rating: 4.25 stars

Review

I was super into this for about 90% of the book. The premise is fun: a group of teenagers working at a murder camp end up living through the scenario they play-act. They end up getting hunted by a secret society obsessed with owls that wants to sacrifice them. And as it turns out, the camp has a hidden past - this exact thing has happened before.

But then, a magical element gets introduced. It turns out that if you sacrifice a person a specific way, you get a wish granted. And that's where the book lost me. Basically, I wanted to read a summer camp serial killer movie. And if the serial killer - or killers, as it happens - had been motivated by the belief that the lake granted wishes in exchange for a sacrifice, that would have been fine. But the lake actually does grant wishes, as proven by the epilogue. And I don't know why, but that was just so disappointing to me.

But until then, the rest of the book was great, and I really enjoyed myself. I just wish it had ended a different way.