I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a lot of dark parts to it, but was really good. I really enjoyed the different creatures and it was super scary at times.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

** spoiler alert ** TW: Rape, Domestic Abuse, Drug Abuse, Suicide

This book dealt with some really dark topics and had the characters go through some rough things. For me this book was really tough to follow, I could not tell what it wanted to be or what it was going to do. I know at one point I thought this book was gonna be about mermaids or about different supernatural creatures and it ended up about magic water? That gave them the ability to see peoples memories or thoughts, to see the if a person was good or bad, the "magic system" in this book felt confusing and lack luster and had a hard time with the pacing. I find it hard to believe that the people of Santa Maria would be okay with a family with "powers" taking the law into their own hands.

I originally thought this was going to be about mermaids so I was a little disappointed, but in despite of a misunderstood premise (which I take full responsibility for!) I absolutely adored this book. I enjoyed the morally grey choices by various characters, thought Laure balanced mystery/withholding details with telling an engaging and comprehensible story. I adored her relationship with Roxy, and how this fluctuated throughout the novel. READ THIS BOOK

"I need her to live. I want to tell her that I’m okay with being part of this fight and that I’m okay being covered in dirt. This is my life and it’s the life she gave me and that all the other Brayburns inherited before her ever since Juliana, and it’s the life I want."

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at St. Martin’s Press. When Mayhem Brayburn and her mother, Roxy, flee an abusive household, they wind up in Santa Maria, California, where the Brayburn family are legends. Roxy hasn’t returned since the tragic suicide of her husband, Mayhem’s father, and Mayhem is desperate to know everything there is to know about her family. Staying with her aunt and her three foster children, the kids introduce her to the world of strange magic that runs through the Brayburn women. When girls begin disappearing from the beach, they set out to bring justice upon the Sand Snatcher, and Mayhem will have to decide whether vengeance is worth the price. Trigger warnings: death, parent death, suicide, rape, abusive households/physical abuse, gaslighting, drugging, alcoholism, addiction, underage drug use, detox, chronic pain, vomiting.

I wavered between three and four stars on this, so don’t let my rating dissuade you if this sounds like something you’d be interested in. It’s a well-put together novel with a host of strong female characters, a cool setting, and a reasonably interesting plot. The 80s Santa Maria of the novel is like stepping into another world of bonfire parties, year-round carnivals, and the lurking menace of the beach at night. The Lost Boys (1987) references are clear (although that takes place in Santa Carla–I don’t understand the name change), including a cameo appearance by the Frog brothers which, while fun, has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot. There are plenty of lurking mysteries throughout the novel, from where the Brayburn women got their power and what happened to Mayhem’s father to who’s been kidnapping girls off the beach at night.

Mayhem’s complicated relationship with her mother, Roxy, is the most compelling relationship in the book. They know each other better than anyone and protect each other first, always, but there’s still tension and resentment about how Roxy could stay in an abusive home for so long and cut Mayhem off from the rest of her family. It’s as much a novel of self-discovery as anything, as Mayhem learns her family’s secrets and comes to terms with her own place in that legacy–and whether or not she wants it to be the same as the women who came before her. As a novel that explores the fallout of abusive homes and female family relationships, it’s very successful. I’m less impressed by the rest of the characters, namely Elle’s foster children, Jason, Kidd, and Neve. Neve is sort of a stock rebel, Kidd is, well, a kid, and Mayhem’s romance with Jason feels somewhat forced, but I’m usually not in favor of romantic subplots.

The world-building is a little vague for my tastes, and there’s never an explanation for where the Brayburns’ power ultimately comes from. The chapters are interspersed with diary entries from various Brayburn women that expand on their history, but those also provide few answers. While we have the sense that the characters, Mayhem and Roxy in particular, have made real progress, everything isn’t tied up neatly by the end of the novel. All those combined left me with the feeling that things never quite came together as well I was hoping, but sometimes it’s better not to have every question answered. It’s much more a novel about characters and atmosphere, and readers who go into it with that in mind shouldn’t be disappointed.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Mayhem is a story full of youthful spirit, rebellion, and magic. After leaving an abusive step-father with her mother, Mayhem seeks refuge on her aunt's farm. Shortly after arriving, Mayhem learns that her family are witches, and has to decide whether or not she will accept the powers to help protect her family and anyone who looks to harm people in her town.

The magic system is truly unique, and I loved that there were set limits. The characters are each unique and I loved how the rebellious teens were integrated into the family drama throughout the story.

The only issue that I had with this story was that halfway through the book the characters who had been portrayed as one way, started acting completely different without any real transition. I wish there was more of a connection between the portrayals.

Mayhem by Estelle Laure is a YA novel about a teenage girl, Mayhem and her family. It was kind of confusing in the beginning. The story is told with several flashbacks that span generations and the whole backstory to this family is left completely ambiguous. Finally at around 50% of the novel does it come together and something actually happens. The last half of the book is way better than the first half.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a copy of the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book looked interesting to me both from synopsis and from the cover. The cover is so beautiful, and I was excited to start reading it. I will say this, I have never seen/read The Lost Boys or the Craft, so I had nothing to compare it to. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into in regards to that. Anyways, overall, it was okay. I really didn’t love it, or more specifically, I really liked the beginning of the book, but by the time we got to the middle I was no longer interested, and by the end I was bored.

The Writing
So, I think the writing is excellent. There is little I have to complain about the writing. I think the format of the book was lovely, we get past and “present” in this case 1987. So sometimes it made me blink to realize it wasn’t in present day. Although I feel like there could have been some benefit of it being set in present day. Overall, I think the writing was good and it worked.

The Pacing
The pacing was good at first, and then about halfway through the book it felt like everything changed, and then the book lost its momentum. It just felt awkward to me, and I didn’t enjoy the pacing all that much.

The Plot
Part of the problem with the pacing I think, comes from the plot. The plot is there, but I felt that a) the first part of the book was more entertaining before we even get to the meat of the “plot” and b) the actual plot took place in the last 20% of the book. Which is why the pacing felt awkward to me. If the book had been more plot focused I think it would have worked better. As it stands, it feels like it was supposed to be plot and character driven, and unfortunately, I think it fell down in the character section as well.

The Characters
I liked Mayhem at first. I think she was the best character of the lot. The rest of them were just…I don’t know. I felt that if the plot wasn’t actually going to be the main focus, and the character driven arcs were, we should have had more character development. We don’t really get that. For the most part the characters are static, and it is just okay overall. I liked Mayhem, and I think she was a good character. Overall, I felt that it was lackluster in terms of characters. I didn’t particularly really like anyone aside from Mayhem and to an extent Kidd.

Overall
It was an okay book. I think 2.5 stars, closer to 3 is about what I would rate this book. So strong at the beginning, and then it fell off. It was a huge disappointment to me. I was excited for it, but it just…didn’t do anything. I felt lost, and underwhelmed overall.

Slated for release this July, Mayhem is a coming of age story set in the 1980s. Perfect for fans of 80s movies this book reads like a mix of The Lost Boys and Practical Magic. Nostalgic and familiar while being fresh and unexpected, this book of magical realism provided a nice escape from reality right now!
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

It is rare that I will put a book down and not give it my 5o page quota. but this one was a rare dud that was just horrific to try to continue reading. Right away, the reader is greated with a letter from the author explaining that she started the story with a rape which was the first time she dealt with some things. That really isn't the way to greet your reader; please see Laurie Halse Anderson's treatment of the same dilemma. Instead, the letter seemed to sensationalize it. Then the opening chapter was full of dramatic language, the kind more akin to Jane Eyre than YA circa 1973. For example, an opening line: "Losing Lucas has embittered me to the world, to every couple on the beach" then later says "Fate is umbilical for her." Maybe for a Gen Xer keen on reliving her bad emo-phase of poetry age 13/14, this book will be interesting, but not for me. Reading some pages in, I just don't care about the characters, and so dear reader, I abandoned it.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

I started this book a while ago, and I couldn't get myself to continue. The summary and cover really pulled me in, but ultimately, the opening chapters did not hold my attention for long, and I found myself wishing that I could be reading something else that interested me.

TLDR;
1. The pacing was too slow.
2. The opening chapters did not provide a good hook.
3. I found little sympathy for the characters who I should've had an emotional connection to.

This book started off slow for me. I was almost ready to set it down as there was hardly no action. I am glad I didn't as it was enjoyable but it really didn't wow me like I expected. Now the way the Brayburn's take care of the town reminded almost of something I watched on TV. I can't think of it exactly but in some ways it was similar. Roxy and Mayhem which by the way I love the name! Do not have it easy, and when Roxy returns to her hometown which she swore she never would things unravel. Mayhem is more open as a teenager and we even see Roxy kind of open up to become a whole new person. It seems their hometown is one of magic for the Brayburns sadly though it is not without heartache. Mayhem and her new family have a job to do and one that the town truly appreciates. I have seen some reviews that mention certain characters remind them of The Lost Boys and since I have never seen that movie I am going to have watch it.

I think the author did good with the characters and the way they acted like normal teenagers, it just really truly lacked that wow factor in the plot. I wanted more of the magic sense, I wanted to experience the withdrawals that certain characters would have being off of the magical water. I wanted more examples of the Brayburns protecting their town. We don't truly get any other stories except a mention of vampires (which we never see) and then the Serial Killer.

It was the tagline that made me want to pick up the book

A YA feminist mash up inspired by The Lost Boys and The Craft.

How could I resist a book that is a mash up two of my favorite movies? I couldn't really see The Craft in the book but I did love all the references to TLB. I had a huge grin on my face with the Frog brothers showed up in the story. I think there was enough of the references that they didn't take away from the story. They helped add something familiar to the story. The lore around the Brayburns was really well written and very believable. As a character Mayhem Brayburn worked really well and I loved her growth. I enjoyed the darker theme in this book with the murders and magic. I would say there are a few trigger warnings for this book rape, drug abuse, abuse and murder. I have already have recommended this to few of my friends even before I was done reading it. This has to be in my top 5 books I have read so far in 2020 if not my top read this year.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley* in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

Mayhem is the name of our protagonist who has fled her abusive step father together with her drug abusing mother. They go back to her mother's home in Santa Monica, where her sister still lives on the family farm. May knows almost nothing about her family, her real father or - as she will soon learn - about her mother. She just needs to escape the traumatic experiences of her past (trigger warning here for violence / assault) while trying to find out what made her mother flee from her sister and home in the first place when May was a small girl. She soon finds out that supernatural things are afoot and that she is part of them too...

I didn't think it would go in the YA fantasy direction, but I liked the book well enough. It was mildly entertaining, yet predictable, but kinda wholesome and sweet. Fighting back and reclaiming agency with supernatural means was a nice touch too. It did remind me of some Maggie Stiefvater things, but not to the extend of weirdness that I would have wanted. How everything was resolved in the end was also a bit too easy.

3 Stars

This book has some of my favorite tropes. A girl, Mayhem, returns to her mother's hometown and discovers some of family's (magical) secrets. It's also a story about finding out who you are, breaking from the past, and finding the strength within yourself to defeat your demons, whether that demon is an abuser, addiction, or a troubled past. In that sense, I really enjoyed the book. However, the first half is kind of slow. It takes about halfway through for Mayhem to actually find out her family's secrets and for the magic to kick in fully. Before that, not much happens. As such, I think that should've happened earlier. There were some general pacing problems, as the ending felt kind of abrupt and the murder is solved very quickly (although that one can at least partially be excused as the murder is kind of a secondary problem). The love between Mayhem and Jason was also a bit underdeveloped, and a bit unnecessary as well. I really liked Kidd and Neve, and wish we'd gotten a bit more of Neve in the end, instead of Mayhem just finding her in the cave. Honestly, Neve and Mayhem had better chemistry than Jason and Mayhem did, and I wish they'd gotten more focus, whether that was platonic or romantic. I liked the magic system and the questionable morality behind it, and despite the pacing I powered through this out of a genuine interest in the characters and the magic.

"Set in 1987, MAYHEM is a mashup of The Lost Boys and The Craft with a bit of the Manson family thrown in for good measure. Its original, compelling, and a little bit rock-n-roll, and reading it will leave you feeling deliciously wicked."

I have no idea what The Lost Boys is all about and I vaguely remember The Craft, and Wilder Girls is on my TBR, this means reading this book was meant to be entirely new for me, but it wasn't so because it kept giving me Doctor Sleep, the 2019 movie vibes. I didn't completely read the blurb but I was sold because I knew magic was involved: The Lost Boys meets Wilder Girls in this supernatural feminist YA novel.

The story is told in a style that is letter-like, which made gave it a more personal and endearing touch. And as I have come to expect from books published by Wednesday Books, Mayhem comes with a storyline that is heavy...serial killer, suicide, murder, mental and physical abuse.

When Mayhem was a just kid, her mother fleed their home in Santa Maria to escape from all that was haunting her and thirteen years later, they're ready to go back home and attempt to mend all that has been broken and taken from them.

Bring in her aunt Elle and her three foster kids, Jason, Kidd and Neve who she legally wants to adopt, right on Mayhem can tell there's something not right about them as they're cloaked in mystery, but as time passes it starts unravelling until she's clued into her family history.

Mix in the serial killer in the background, the family drama between Mayhem and her mother Roxy, the drama between her and the foster kids and the terrible things seemingly normal men do to ladies behind closed doors this book was quite lax in the pacing which left me feeling disconnected after a while, which just made me want to finish the book only to see how the story was going to end.

Despite all these and the heavy subjects being highlighted in the book, it's quite an easy read and a good way to pass through time with beautiful writing.

I think I’m gonna express my feelings briefly this time. I’m giving Switzerland stars to this book! ( which means
2.5 stars rounded up 3 and I gave more points because I enjoyed the promising and exciting start and idea of feminist mash-up of Lost Boys and Craft but as far as I saw that was just the idea because what I read was way too much different than I expected!)

Yes, I could give 2 stars this book but I became generous grader and gave half stars more. But I have to emphasize two things about this book really pissed me off:

1) When I read a book I’m open to see the references and small similarities with movies or other books. I also enjoy reading retellings even though most classics’ retellings disappointed me lately (especially new versions of Jane Austen’s novels) But this book didn’t have similarities or references. It feels like it is copy-pasted from the original screenplay of Lost Boys (even some quotes, the events, two brothers’ fashion style, the way of talking, the locations are exactly the same with the movie! And as a great fan of movie, I didn’t like this semi-changed new version!) I couldn’t find any similarities with Craft! This book is way too much bloodier, wild and harsh!

2) Pacing was too slow and at the second half: there are obvious changes about the characters ( They mostly acted like their bodies were taken over by their evil twins. I actually thought maybe the author’s body is conquered by body snatchers and another author finished the story she started.

I don’t want to draw a pessimistic picture about the book. Especially you haven’t seen the movie and you get used to read slow pacing supernatural stories, this book could be a great fit for you. Mostly the writing style and dialogues were good and you may sense the author has potential and great creative skills but I wish there weren’t so many similarities with the movie. You don’t want to read the another version when there is a classic YA horror. You want to get the original taste!

I still want to read her next works because at least she chose one of the best movies to be inspired. And from the word choices and dialogue developments, I’m so sure I’ll like her next works more than this one.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sharing this interesting ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

This book was full of mystery and intrigue. I could not wait to start it. It sucked me in form the first page.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Roxy and her daughter Mayhem, move to fictional Santa Maria, California to escape Roxy's abusive husband, Mayhem stepfather. Mayhem discovers that she is a member of a family of witches, which dates back mother to daughter. The Stanley is charged with keeping the city of Santa Maria safe and will she do so against a murderer of young women.

We find the Frog Brothers and some mashup from the movie Lost Boys, which I found more of a hindrance in this novel Bennett Edition. I do not feel that the author should have blindly lifted parts of that and put it into her story. The story reads fine without the addition of these characters.

However the author writes in a clear and easy to read format with well-detailed characters and an interesting plot. I thought this was a good young adult fantasy. And do recommended for readers.

I would like to thank the author, publisher, and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and exchange for a fair and honest review.

Ok first of all, Estelle Laure is a GREAT writer. This book was incredibly well written and I loved her style from page 1. Now then why three stars? Well the blurb about this book did not even touch on some of the triggers this book has. I had no idea it would be so incredible dark. Interesting. Powerful. But dark.

There's May and Roxy's relationship which is tumultuous and for good reason. A lot of trauma there. Then there's the relationship May has to develop with herself to unleash her powers and find herself a bit.

I think I could have really enjoyed this if it hadn't had sooooo many dark issues. To be fair the author's note in the beginning mentions a lot of this, but I just didn't realize that would translate soooo heavily into the story.

Trigger warnings (another reviewer compiled this list but worth repeating!!): domestic and child abuse, drug use and abuse, PTSD, suicide, foster care issues, rape and murder to name a few.