Review: You’re So Dead

Title: You’re So Dead
Author: Ash Parsons
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Thriller
Publisher: Philomel Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 15, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A hilarious Agatha Christie-inspired YA thriller-comedy about three best friends who sneak into an influencers-only festival event (gone wrong), only to discover a killer is in their midst–and they have to uncover the truth and solve the mystery before it’s too late. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Truly Devious . 

Plum Winter has always come in second to her sister, the unbelievably cool, famous influencer Peach Winter. And when Peach is invited to an all-expenses paid trip to a luxurious art and music festival for influencers on a private island in the Caribbean, Plum decides it’s finally her time to shine. So she intercepts the invite–and asks her two best friends Antonia and Marlowe to come along to the fest with her. It’ll be a spring break they’ll never forget.

But when Plum and her friends get to the island, it’s not anything like it seemed in the invite. The island is run-down, creepy, and there doesn’t even seem to be a festival–it’s just seven other quasi-celebrities and influencers, and none of the glitz and glamor she expected. Then people start to die…

Plum and her friends soon realize that someone has lured each of them to the “festival” to kill them. Someone has a vendetta against every person on the island–and no one is supposed to leave the island alive. So, together, Plum, Antonia, and Marlowe will do whatever it takes to unravel the mystery of the killer, and fight to save themselves and as many influencers as they can, before it’s too late.

Review:

When Plum Winters finds an exclusive invitation to an influencer festival addressed to her older sister, she has to go. Plum arranges for her two best friends to travel with her to the Pyre Festival to spend spring break with celebrities and influencers. But when they arrive, the festival isn’t what they expected. There are only seven other minor influencers there at the rundown villa on a private island. Then, people start to die. They realize that they’ve been lured to the fake festival in a revenge plot. Plum and the other people on the island have to figure out who is out to get them before they’re killed next.

This was a fun horror twist on a classic murder mystery party. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is one of my favourite books. In that book, the seemingly unrelated people who were invited to a private island are slowly killed one by one over a weekend. This story has a similar plot, though it had different twists. The obvious horror tropes used also made it a funny thriller.

Even though this story was quite dramatic and had some cheesy horror moments, there was an underlying message about cyber bullying. All of the influencers had done something to the killer, but they didn’t know what they did. When everything was revealed at the end, it all made sense. The original plan that the killer had wasn’t obvious at first, but when I thought back to the rest of the story after I knew who it was, it made sense. It’s important to be thoughtful in your actions, because even something that doesn’t seem like bullying or that it’s harming someone else, could leave lasting effects.

You’re So Dead is a funny horror mystery!

Thank you Penguin Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Have you read You’re So Dead? What did you think of it?