Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today is my stop on the blog tour for A Night To Die For, a young adult horror published this month. A big thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours, and here’s a link to the tour scheule with all the blog posts here.
Synopsis
The Night Of meets Carrie when a boy finds a girl’s body in the ditch on prom night… and becomes the primary suspect in her murder.
All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He’s spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.
Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.
All Mario wanted was to go to prom…but somehow, he ended up in hell.
Review
Rating: 3 stars
I feel a bit conflicted about this book! It was a quick read, coming in at around 300 pages, so it was good to have something to sit down and binge in an afternoon. I would say also that while advertised as a horror, personally I would classify this as more of a mystery.
The book is broken up into a lot of short chapters, from various perspectives. Where most mysteries that use multiple POVs as a plot device, they stick to the characters suspected of the crime, or those trying to solve it. This book goes beyond that however, and takes characters such as the parents involved and even the detectives investigating, which really gives it a fully-rounded appraoch. It’s interesting seeing it used in this way, as I for one always wonder what goes on beyond the character perspectives we are given in books. Although the reader is not set out to be all knowing here – especially as it’s a mystery! – this allows us a larger amount of insight, and from many different angles.
Beyond this simply being a murder mystery, it also felt like a story about truth, and truth to ourselves. Finding ways to break free of the boundaries we have found ourselves restrained by for whatever reason, and putting faith in the people around us also played key roles, along with the simple fact that we are all humans, and no one is ever just one person. We all put out different energies with the people we are surrounded by, and you can be both loved and hated in equal messure. These motivated a story that, while I didn’t absolutely love, I will certainly keep in mind should people ask for recommendations of easy to read, fast paced mysteries.
Book Links
Good Reads
Amazon US / Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Indigo
IndieBound
About the Author
Once upon a time, Lisa Schroeder wanted to join Encyclopedia Brown on his fun adventures. Since that didn’t work out, she decided to be an author instead. Lisa’s written over twenty books for kids and teens including the popular verse novels for teens I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME and CHASING BROOKLYN, and her most recent YA novels, THE BRIDGE FROM ME TO YOU and ALL WE HAVE IS NOW. She’s also the author of the middle grade novels IT’S RAINING CUPCAKES, MY SECRET GUIDE TO PARIS, SEE YOU ON A STARRY NIGHT and WISH ON ALL THE STARS. Her books have been translated into foreign languages and have been selected for state reading lists. Lisa is a native Oregonian and lives with her family outside of Portland.
Author Links
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Good Reads
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