If you’re a fan of Fear Street books and old school slasher movies, this story will be up your alley. This was my first time reading anything by this author and I was very impressed. The writing was solid and the plot held my attention. The story centers around an exclusive private school that is on an island. Like all creepy old schools there are all kinds of urban legends floating around. Reading this book reminded me of so many horror flicks that I love and still watch today. As the story progresses secrets are uncovered and the outcome had me surprised. The reasoning was original, sick and a little petty which I loved!! I will definitely be checking out more books from this author.

Nostalgic horror at its best. I am a big fan of teen slasher films. I grew up with Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, SCREAM etc. So put a group of teens in an elite performing arts school with a sinister secret on a remote island, you have me at page one. This is fun and scary--and even a bit funny with the author's dark comedy overtones. It may even be a bit gruesome to some. If you are looking for a lot of depth in a literary journey and deep character development, you won't find them in a teen slasher flick and you won't find them here. But, if you want an entertaining mystery where you wonder who will get killed off next, and "who done it," JINXED is it. And props to the best killer mask ever designed!

Review by Sandi for Love Romance Books Blog

I was asked by the author or publisher to give an honest review of this book.
I give this one 3.75 tiaras:


This book is a little bit of a horror book. It rather reminds me of a Halloween movie. This author is the person, who at one point wrote the Freddy Krueger character. If you like these kinds of books then this book is a great book.
This book is a constant murder mystery and in all honesty, I had it figured out before I got to the end.
That being said, I couldn’t put it down to see if I was right. I was constantly waiting to see, who the next victim was, what was going to happen next, and what the main character Layna was going to learn about herself.
Layna is a High School student with a group of friends at a special ELITE school for Arts . The school is on an island away from the rest of the world and all of its misgivings so that the students concentrate on their studies and talent. When Spring Break comes and her best friend, the Star of the school “commits suicide”, Layna is torn because she has lost a great friend, she feels guilty because they had discussed it the night before, and now she gets to Star in the big end of the year show.
However, when murders of her friends start to occur and a detective comes to the island, things start to come to light for Layna. She also realizes that her life has been a complete lie and her actual truths may be what is killing her friends and puts the killer after her. To make matters worse, her friends keep fighting and splitting up when she knows they need to stay together.
When Layna finally sees the killer’s creepy mask (the mask on the cover), it makes things even creepier being that it gives the Arts new meaning.
This book has a lot of violence, gore, and if you can’t stand or don’t like that kind of book it will not be good for you.

Jinxed was not how I expected it to be when I read the summery. It reminded me a lot of a Teen slasher movie. I found it very predictable, even with the twist at the end. I was disappointed that there wasn't more superstition woven into the plot.

I received this ARC from Net Galley and am providing my honest review

I must say I was excited to read a thriller/horror I haven't read one in awhile so I thought this one sounds fun lets try it! I thought it was a fun read and an interesting plot concept. When I read the description I thought it was fun that it was based on jinx's like breaking a mirror, black cats, cracks, etc. However, when I read it I did feel that was kind of put on the back burner and you didn't get to see as much of that. You saw some, but I wanted it to be more about the jinx and how it got them!

The characters were done alright I didn't really connect with Layna or the rest of them much and not much backstory on them for me to really root for them besides saying well hope this one doesn't die. I wasn't really sure either why Layna had to be punished for what happened to her mother because it wasn't her fault so why wasn't it just revenge for her family and her left alone? There was one twist in there that I didn't expect until the end and it was alright, it was definitely shocking.

I thought the writing was pretty good, no mistakes, flowed well, and did have some good thriller parts. There was even a time I finished reading before bed and then I got creeped out and was like okay who is there?! I like that it wasn't bogged down that the plot kept going and got to the point. I did think the deaths weren't super surprising like if you have watched horror movies you could basically figure out who was going to die, not necessarily in the exact way but kind of how it would be.

I thought overall the book was fun to read and I am glad I got a chance to read it!

Trask Academy of Performing Arts is an elite, secretive academy set on its own private island. Funded by wealthy sponsors, it teaches only the best students the arts of singing, dancing, acting and writing. But in an atmosphere of intense competition everyone wants to be the star and as the bodies begin the pile up who will survive the show?

Jinxed is best described as a young adult fiction horror/slasher with some truly gruesome and well-described murders. However, for me it commits the cardinal sin of Young Adult fiction in that it tries to pass off some truly appalling writing as ‘Young Adult’. Whenever I see this happen, I always get offended on my teenage self’s behalf – my love of a good story and well-written prose hasn’t changed even though the themes I choose to read about has. Young Adult should be enjoyable for people of any age and I’ve read some great YA books recently that have shown me this can be the case. In Jinxed, the writing in a lot of places is juvenile and patronising with cringe worthy sentences like ‘his maleness hoped his good girl was about to go bad’ and ‘my pretend watch is telling me it’s time to get out of here for real’. Thankfully this does get a little better towards the second half of the book where the murders take the forefront of the action.

A lot of reviews have pointed out that the plot is predictable and I do have to agree on this. I think part of the problem is that it is set on a small island where most of the students have gone back home for the holidays so there is only a small pool of suspects. Added to this the fact that the author unnecessarily gives away the gender of the killer in the first kill and the odds are heavily in your favour of guessing who it is before the ending.

Part of the reason I picked up this book to read was the premise of it’s blurb but actually the superstition elements of the murders are actually very weak. For example (no spoilers!), the first kill is meant to be themed around opening an umbrella indoors. The killer chases the victim to their room, they grab the first thing to hand – the umbrella, to fight back and whilst fighting it opens. The killer is described as looking just as surprised as the victim that this happens and the victim then gets killed by being pushed out of a window. Hardly a pre-meditated modus operandi themed around superstition!

Whilst the killings themselves are well-described and the stakes and pacing high throughout the book the plot itself lets it down massively. The motivation of the killer makes no sense, the play that is a core element doesn’t work either – I couldn’t work out what it was actually about to fulfil the aims it was supposed to be have been written to achieve. The final ending, whilst creepy also makes no sense in regards to the previous scene.

Overall Jinxed is a fun, fast paced slasher of a story but it’s writing style and poor plot just turn it into a bit of a mess. Thanks to NetGalley, Vesuvian Books and Xpresso Book Tours for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review!

This was a fun book if not wholly predictable, and reminiscent of those Point Crime/Point Horror books.

It definitely feels like a mash up between the television series Scream Queens and the novel Ten by Gretchen McNeil.

Perhaps it's a sacrifice of the genre but the characters did at times feel incredibly annoying (like why run off alone and in the dark when there's a killer on the loose?!?!), but at the same time I didn't care about any of them at all.

Some elements were a little far fetched though the book had a number of compelling twists and an ending deserving of its dramatic theme.

An alright quick read that you could read now, or save for Halloween.

This is a great YA Slasher. Hutson has a masterful way of just creating a scenario that oozes tension and suspense. Each death scene was written with such care and with such a loving touch you could just tell that he thought the world of this book and wanted to make every scene as perfect as possible. It's dark, it gruesome, and it's reminiscent of those 90s self aware slashers I love so much.

However while the writing might be a strong point, it's also the books weakest point. Hutson tried to create this sort of omniscient narrator that told the story if every character but it caused the book to feel cluttered. There wasn't any room for the story to relax and breathe because the writing style was always trying to show the reader something new about some character.

That being said I think Jinxed is a wonderful story for everyone.

Super predictable.

Trask Academy of Performing Arts is a preforming arts school for the elite. Layna Curtis and her friends are trying to enjoy their senior year. They all hope that they can turn the head of a talent scout or director during the schools performance. Layna is more of a support cast for her talented friends but when her friend is murdered she lands the lead role. As Layna investigates the deaths of her friends she uncovers clues from a past incident that might lead to the killer. As more of her friends are violently murdered she soon realizes she might just be the killer’s prime target.

Jinxed is labeled as a YA novel but I would warn the younger side of this genre that the killings are very violent and fairly gruesome in detail. I labeled this one as horror because of the death scenes but it would probably fall into the Thriller genre just as easily. The novel is a fairly quick read and will keep you entertained. I had a really hard time liking any of the characters, making their life or death situations seem inconsequential, but that's just me personally. Overall the novel is well written and perfect for anyone who loves those very popular 80's and 90's slasher films.

This book was absolutely phenomenal! I was hooked from the very beginning and did not want to put this book down, even for a single moment. It was just that good. The mystery was incredible. The plot was incredible. Everything was so well executed. You truly don’t know what’s going on until the end. It will captivate you, confuse you, and leave you guessing until the very end. Even then, you crave more. More of the story. More answers. I seriously loved this book and only had a few minor issues. First, some of the characters were a bit cliche. Second, this can be slightly gruesome, so if you have a weak stomach, proceed with caution. Lastly, there is a point where the characters are learning something but never explain it to the reader, which was slightly annoying. Beyond that, I find little flat with the novel. It was captivating the whole way through and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!

So, I was provided with a copy of Jinxed in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Vesuvian Books for a chance to read this debut novel from author Thommy Hutson. First off I can say I like this cover, it is understated and yet captivating enough for you to question it.
Next, I will say as a murder mystery this is not my normal genre read. I picked this up because I felt the description was an interesting concept and something I had not seen done before. Of course I looked at some other reviews on this novel and found most people had this as a DNF, which made me want to read it even more to see what was so halting about it. I can say after finishing this book I have some mixed feelings.
On a whole, I found the book to be just ok. The writing style is an odd mixture of very detailed and sometimes graphic deaths, (I mean it is a murder mystery) and gothic horror. I can say within the prologue there is a death, described in some graphic detail. Which made me think twice about reading this, but I wanted to see where it went. For a mystery I was also aware of the use of pronouns where the narrator should have used them, which game away something to the plot right off the bat. A few times I was moved by the imagery and descriptions the author was able to draw out, and other times I was thrown by outdated catchphrases being used in present day. Come on; “Checkup, from the neck up?” Are teens today really saying this? Also the characters made a few random Game of Thrones references, just so you know the story was being told in the present it was just odd to me.
Towards the end I was waiting for the climax and the killer to be found out I found myself reading faster, anxious to see if my predictions were right or wrong, I have never been good at mysteries so I knew I’d be wrong. So I can say the killer was not who I was expecting but as they did they exposition, I found myself rolling my eyes and just put out by the outcome. Not really sure what I was expecting but this was not it. I feel like this book will appeal to some people out there, but unfortunately I was just not one of them.

“She acknowledged that she committed a cardinal sin when she left the group. She tried to push aside the silly thought that just because splitting up worked in Scooby-Doo didn’t mean it was going to work for her.”

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Vesuvian Books. Trigger warnings: death, violence, gore.

At Trask Hall, an elite high school on a secluded island, the competition can be murder. Students compete to be the best actors, singers, and writers in the school, and the senior showcase is a coveted opportunity to show off their talents to the rest of the world. But someone else is on the island with a sinister agenda, and as Layna’s friends begin to die one by one, she’s forced to question the story she’s been told about her past and her connection to a student who died decades ago in a theater fire.

I’m always pulled in by this premise even though it almost never goes well for me. I’m an avid lover of horror, and it’s clear that Hutson knows his scary movies. I could easily see this as a film (in fact, I practically have seen this film as the plot closely resembles Cry_Wolf), and there are frequent scenes of graphic gore, stalkers in creepy masks, and–of course–a villain who is near supernatural in his ability to be everywhere, know where everyone is, and never die. As YA murder/thrillers go, it’s better than The Cabin, about on par with The Assassin Game, and not quite as good as Pretty Dead Girls.

The biggest problem is that Hutson chooses some of the worst horror tropes to include in his novel. There’s a bad love triangle, characters who frequently run off on their own with a murderer on the loose, and a killer who’s constantly dropping his knife (but no one ever thinks to pick it up?). The worst part is that I don’t care about these characters at all, and I get the feeling that Hutson doesn’t either. They exist only to be killed off in gruesome and unrealistic ways, and while that can be entertaining, it’s better suited to film than fiction. Books, especially YA books, live and die (ha) by their characters, and there’s no depth or development for any of them. They’re cardboard cutouts of people who talk like an adult man thinks teenagers sound (but probably don’t, because who can even fit that much slang into a conversation).

The writing isn’t bad, but it borders on the pretentious at times, with a narrative voice that probably couldn’t hold any more disdain for the characters. There are some uncharitable descriptions of Alice as the “fat” one, because girls with good personalities obviously can’t be skinny or pretty. I was interested by the premise of characters dying due to superstitions–open umbrellas, broken mirrors, the number thirteen–but it doesn’t feature near enough in the story, and the aspects of it are more incidental than anything. There’s no indication that the killer planned to have an umbrella open inside or that he purposely got a character to walk under a ladder.

Like many horror/thrillers, there’s no opportunity to guess the killer because everyone has a motive. It takes the punch out of the reveal, and the ending is badly predictable for anyone who’s ever seen a single slasher film. It’s fun escapism if you happen to like graphic murder scenes (I do), but it’s rarely more than that. Fans of scary movies (and possibly ones who aren’t so fond of reading) should enjoy it.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

dnf at 36%

I thought for sure i was going to love this book
i mean the whole concept of this book sound so good
Break a mirror
Walk under a ladder
Step on a crack

Innocent childhood superstitions.

i would have finished this book if it wasn't for such gory detailed and i mean DETAILED word for word of how somebody died it took like almost 3 pages just for that.

NO THANK YOU