I requested this book from NetGalley because it was called "a mashup of The Lost Boys and The Craft." (With a dash of the Manson family, apparently.) As the world's leading expert on those two movies, I decided I would be the judge of that.

Well, I didn't quite see the resemblance to The Craft. It was more like if the witches from Practical Magic did more murder. However, it was more than clear the author borrowed from The Lost Boys—almost too much actually, and it began to hamper my enjoyment.

1. The book is set in 1987, in a fictional beach side town with a thriving boardwalk culture and a little too much murder and missing people. There is also a secret hideout, much like the sunken hotel in the movie.

2. The literal Frog brothers from the movie are in this book. Edgar and Alan, dressing in military-type clothes, working a comic book shop, speaking in faux-action hero parlance, and totally obsessed with vampires. How is this possible? How can the author take characters directly from a movie and put them in her book without making any changes to them?

3. The sax player from the movie also makes an appearance. Shirtless, oiled, curly-haired, totally outrageous. It was a bit on the nose.

4. The book even borrows a quote from the grandpa in the movie, where he says the one thing he could never stomach about Santa Carla was all the goddamn vampires. The book gives the quote to one of the Frog brothers, changing "Santa Carla" to "Santa Maria."

While I really love The Lost Boys—or maybe because I do—I started not to like these references so much as they became more and more obvious in the text. You can't just straight up lift things from other creative works and lay them directly down in your own.

I loved the beginning of this book a lot. It was so good. My enjoyment plateaued after a while, when things actually started to happen. It was such a great setup, and the characters were varied and interesting (with pretty great wardrobes). I don't know exactly what I expected, but this book just didn't have the punch I was looking for.

2.5 stars.