This book was just kind of meh and underwhelming. It has been compared/described as a feminist mix of The Lost Boys and The Craft and I haven't seen either of those but a lot of people have said it's very similar and almost too close for comfort. I can't comment on this because I haven't seen them, but something to consider

I don't know how to describe this other than just meh. I didn't really find anything super great about the book. The main conflict ended fairly quickly and then the rest of the book was fairly slow and I knew what was coming.

It was honestly a really interesting an idea and I did enjoy the writing, I just wish it was done a little bit better. I just found it to be pretty slow and it wasn't anything that wowed me. Some other POVs and flashbacks were included and felt like they could have been left out or used more to actually make them seem important to the story. There was a little bit of gay rep mentioned very briefly but I would have loved to see more diversity.

Like I said before, overall just meh. Would be interested in reading more of Estelle Laure's work though.

As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

Even after sleeping on this book, I’m still not entirely sure what to think of <i>Mayhem</i>. This is a book that I feel like had plenty of potential and I kept waiting for it to live up to it, but I don’t feel like it ever did.

Mayhem and her mother, Roxy, are running away from her abusive step-father, Lyle. Despite Roxy wanting to avoid her old home of Santa Maria, that is where they end up. Mayhem now gets to meet her estranged family and learn about the magic in her family lineage. As they begin to settle in, rumors start that there is a serial killer out and about and with Lyle calling, what they hoped might be a peaceful restart seems anything but.

This book started off with a hard-hitting topic and didn’t really let up from there. <b>There is domestic violence, suicide (off page, but mentioned a couple of times), rape, drug use, and probably others that I’m currently forgetting</b>. This is an emotional heavy book that doesn’t really let up as it goes along. While I admire the author for trying to handle all of these topics, with how short this book is, some of the points don’t have the emotional impact they could or are explored like they should have been.

<i>Mayhem</i> is a book that I feel could have benefitted from being longer. There it would have had proper time to explore all the heavy topics that the author was touching on as long as exploring the story and the characters. I’ve wondered this before, but reading this story has made me question again if magical realism is for me. I don’t feel like the magic was really developed enough or if it’s because it’s more magical realism. I’m not sure, but I didn’t vibe with it.

I feel like overall this book needs more development. From the magic to fleshing out the characters. I do feel like this is a book that is something that could be a number of individuals thing, but it simply wasn’t mine.

This book is set in Santa Maria, California, a beach town, in 1987. This is the year I was married (the first time) and actually lived in San Diego, so I could picture a beach town in the 80's very easily. It reminded me of the warm nights spent at the beach and the sense of safety that was around back in the '80s.

In the town of Santa Maria, however, this sense of safety is a ruse. There is someone stealing girls off the beach at night, yet the police don't seem too concerned about it. This is the spot that Mayhem Brayburn and her mother Roxy run to when the abuse from her stepfather finally deflects from Roxy onto Mayhem. It is Roxy's hometown and the first place where Mayhem feels like she might belong.

See - Mayhem (what a cool - yet psycho name!) comes from a line of women who have a history of magic tied to a secret cave off the beach. Water from the cave gives the Brayburn's a unique ability to be able to see through people's facade to what they are really like - either good or evil. If you are not a Brayburn and you drink the water, you will receive this ability - but it will destroy you in the long run. It isn't long before Mayhem is introduced to this water and begins to learn the history of her family through diaries and letters from her great grandmother, grandmother, aunt, and Roxy.

This was a quick read for me as I was immediately drawn into the story. I enjoyed the back and forth between the letters from the past and what was happening to Mayhem in the present. I could see this possibly becoming a series, though it did have a satisfactory ending as-is.

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FEATURED ON FRESH FICTION.COM

one
Roxy Brayburn and a broken heart
1974

Dear Mama,
Losing Lucas has embittered me to the world, to every couple on the beach, Elle, Santa Maria, and even you. You’ve had twenty years with Daddy. Why didn’t I get that with mine? I expected to live with Lucas and Mayhem and maybe a whole bunch of babies for the rest of my life.

But then Lucas jumped off the cliffs like he was late for an appointment. You know what that means...

Was I the only one who was left feeling like something was lacking from this narrative? With a very promising blurb, there were quite a few expectations. While I can not claim that the book was not a good read, it did leave me feeling underwhelmed.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital advance reading copy of this book.

I am sorry that it took me so long to read this book because this book was great! It talks about physical abuse, drug addiction, murders, losing family and coming home. I love that the author shares stories from Mayhem's female relatives as she learns more about her families history.

I would like to see a sequel to find out what happens to Neve, Kidd, and Jason. I would also like to see a prequel that focuses on Roxy and Elle's stories.

Mayhem by Estelle Laure drew me in with comparisons to The Craft and The Wilder Girls, and it takes place in the 80s, which is definitely also a draw.

While the premise of this book was strong for me, it fell a little short on delivery. The plot was a bit haphazard with a slow pace. I think it'd be good for strong fantasy fans, but it wasn't quite tight enough to hold my interest.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Content warnings: child abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, rape , murder, serial killer, drug abuse and general themes of violence

When Mayhem and her mother, Roxy, leave her mother’s abusive ex (for good, this time), May’s aunt welcome them home to Santa Maria – a place Roxy has been running from for years.

But all is not what it seems. Family secrets, magic, and a serial murdered on the loose bring May the potential to heal deep wounds and a chance to explore identity.

What a throwback! And the writing is exquisite.

The book takes place in a late 80s seaside town and, damn, does the author take you there. The detail is absolutely exquisite, with the Boardwalk taking the crown. I felt like I was there, I could see exactly where Mayhem was walking. Add in to the mix a few treasures, like a comic book store named We’ve Got Issues to give a bit of light relief from an otherwise pretty heavy read, and the scene was set.

The characters were unique and incredibly well developed. Complexity between relationships was not shied away from in this book and it was brilliant to see this play out on the page. My one critique, is that it would’ve been interesting to have Mayhem’s character at least explore sexuality within the novel – I think the setting really lends itself to that and to have a hetero relationship play out seemed a bit obvious.

The author acknowledges in a note (before the main text begins) that this novel is paying homage to the 1987 film, The Lost Boys. Now, I feel like I should be upfront and let you know that I have not seen the film although a quick google (thank you, Wikipedia) has let me see that there are some nice parallels and a few Easter eggs for fans of the film.

As this book is touted as a feminist take of the film, I can totally see that link. A gang of kids going around taking out bad guys? Yep, that’s happening. Do I think that it’s detrimental or edging into fanfic territory? I don’t think so.

My main takeaway? Give it a chance.

I won’t lie, I was very confused at the beginning and the book takes a little bit of time to get settled. But I’m really glad I powered through. The authors writing develops with book and, to a certain extent, with the character. I don’t think the pacing is off, I think there’s just a lot of elements to be introduced at once and I definitely found myself having to skip back a few pages to make sure I had things squared in my head (the one time I didn’t make notes in a notebook whilst reading…).

This one was a tough rating for me because I honestly have no idea what I read. I was excited to read this book because of the promising and exciting hints to feminist mash-up of Lost Boys and Craft. However, as I read the book, I was sadly disappointed and my expectations were dashed. I know there were teenagers and a family’s job was to protect the town. There are some trigger warnings that should be taken into account like rape, abuse, and language. I will say the author did a good job with the characters and the how they acted like normal teenagers, but it just lack the WOW factor I was looking for. I think if the story was more fleshed out on the magic side (which I was looking for) it would have been amazing. I think there should have been more showing instead of telling how the Brayburns protected to town the rating would have been higher. Also, the ending was very last luster. But again overall, I enjoyed the book for what it was. Thanks Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the e-arc of Mayhem by Estelle Laure.

4/5 stars

TW: Abuse and rape

You may see these trigger warnings and feel hesitant to pick up this book, but there is something about this book that felt inherently empowering to experience.

The themes this book covers are super tough, but I think the way that Estelle managed to discuss these topics was really great. I think the fact that this book uses magical realism to tell all of its characters stories is brilliant, and I loved being able to read about the family line of incredibly powerful and brilliant women in the Brayburn fam.

I’d never read a book by Estelle before (much to the annoyance of one of my friends who ADORED This Raging Light) but ‘Mayhem’ has definitely done its job of bringing my attention to Estelle’s books. I can definitely see myself reading the rest of her works!

If they cover such themes as ‘Mayhem’ did to half the capacity I would be extremely happy (and I’m sure they do!)
I would 100% recommend picking up this book! Well worth the read ❤️

When I saw this book on netgalley, I got excited. It had a lot of what I was looking for in a book. I knew it borrowed from The Lost Boys, but I feel like it was almost a little too heavy with the borrowing. It did kind of dampen how much I enjoyed the book. If the borrowing hadn't felt so heavy, it would have been a 4/5 book.


HOWEVER. I still enjoyed the book. I will still recommend it to my friends, especially the ones that love The Lost Boys.

I received an e-arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

triggers: abuse, rape (mentioned), death of a spouse, the ocean/bodies of water, suicide, grief, drug use & withdrawal

I read Mayhem by Estelle Laure the summer of 2020, around two full seasons before I finally got around to writing this review. I have pages and pages of notes, and I remember the plot more than I should for a book I ultimately didn’t care for. And yet. Here we are.

Mayhem is a book I was set up to love. It is girl-centric, focused on messed up family relationships, and has a weird soft magical element. Our titular character moves back to her mother’s home town after the two escape an abusive household, and she is quickly pulled into some magical vigilantism.

I have a few different issues with the book.

My first is that I felt like the book was shaming me. It is a book that is set up like a revenge story. It is about vigilantes who get powers from magical water hunting down a man who is killing teen girls on the beach. It is a book that is, inevitably, going to draw in people who are looking for the catharsis of stories like that. Instead, what we got was moralizing that essentially condemned that need, that power fantasy that many people have.

In all honesty, this is a my biggest issue. With anything else, I might look past it. I might move on with my day and give this book a 3-star and a quick mini review. But, to me, this completely ruined the book for me. I wanted revenge and a reclamation of power. Mayhem simply did not deliver that. Instead, it felt like it was condemning me for wanting that. It was not an enjoyable experience for me and is 100% what has kept me from recommending this book.

Another issue I had is with the magic itself. The magic is passed down to the women of this one family. They get it from drinking magical water from this cave-type thing. This isn’t really an issue. I do not care that much. However, it is revealed that people who are not blood-related can drink the water and get the powers. Which I thought was fun, and it did get rid of some of my initial issues with the idea in general. Later on, though, it is revealed that the non-blood relatives, Neve’s adopted kids, are being twisted by the water and are losing themselves in a way that Mayhem never will and that Mayhem, because she is a blood relative, has stronger powers.

That’s eugenics, folks. The idea that someone is better because of a genetic difference, because of something unchangeable (science nerds, do not correct me in the comments. I know whatever you are going to say and I do not care), that is very close to the rhetoric of eugenics. It’s something that is simply baked into media. From Sky High to Wonder Woman (yes, I watch Jack Saint videos), it is not something you will have to search high and low for to find. It’s still something that makes me incredibly uncomfortable and especially because of how common it, I will always try to point it out when I see it.

On the more technical end, the plot was a bit rough. As engrossing as it was, there was far too much going on. There was the romance, the stuff with the murderer, the aftermath of the abuse, family drama, and then the discovery of the magic. It was all just a bit much, and after the murder of the murderer, the entire thing simply felt incredibly muddled and lost my interesting almost entirely.

It isn’t all bad. I loved the characters. Their characterization and arcs were so strong and well handled (with the exception of Neve, one of the adopted cousins), and I loved them all. And like I said above, I really enjoyed the plot for the most part. But none of that was enough for me to feel anything other than steadily increasing contempt for it.

Books are hard to write, and because of that, I want to be respectful of what Estelle Laure tried to do with her story, Mayhem. I was so excited when I saw the premise of it, because The Lost Boys is one of my all time favorite movies. Something about the way the story was structured and the characters were fleshed out made my connection to it just out of reach. I wanted to like this book and its characters, but I never felt that rush of I need to know what happens next.

I had high hopes for Mayhem by Estelle Laure especially when I heard it would be a female retelling of the Lost Boys; however, it fell a bit flat for me. The pace of the overall book was too slow for me and I could not completely keep focus while reading.

Mayhem story definitely falls into the coming of age sort, as she and her mother navigate what will become of her life as she takes on part of the family's magical secret. The coastal setting and bit of mystery added some nice elements to the story.

“At night when I’m holding on to my mother because she’s trying to get away from you so she can have a few hours of peace, I think about ways you might die. I’d love to stab you, to pull your dreamy blue eyes from your head. I’d love to hear you scream, too see you beg for your life and then take it from you anyway. You’re a plague and pestilence, and the way you carry your manliness likes it’s a permission slip from God to act like you rule everything and everyone in your path, like you can do whatever you want-well, I think the guillotine is a good option. I’d love to watch your head roll across the grass.”

Mayhem and her mother, Roxy, find themselves back in Santa Maria, California, after Mayhem’s abusive stepfather takes things too far. After the death of Mayhem’s father, Lucas, many years before, Roxy packed her daughter in her car and left Santa Maria, her twin, and her mother, with no intentions of ever looking back. Until now. It’s quite clear to Mayhem that there is more to this town, old house, and family, than meets the eye and she is determined to uncover the legacy her mother ran from all those years ago and to finally take her own place in in the Brayburn family.

A diary exists in which the Brayburn women have added their own stories and experiences in the hopes that it would help the next generation own their power while also staying true to themselves. Mayhem finds this diary and the reader learns alongside her about the magic in her family. Throughout the book we are given glimpses into this diary and learn quite a bit about where the Brayburn Legacy originated and why. The magic of the Brayburn women was ultimately born of powerlessness. Starting with the rape of Mayhem’s great-great-grandmother, the brayburn magic manifests in the water found in a cave near their home. While the water loves Brayburn blood and the strength of the magic varies for each person, it is not required that you be a Brayburn to consume the water and adopt the power from it. Although, it is said that if you’re not a Brayburn the water will eventually drive you mad.

“Drink the water.

Find true love.

Embrace your fate.

Protect Santa Maria and you protect yourself.

And never, ever tell another about the spring.

We are none of us invincible. We are all of us made of flesh and bone.

It is for us alone to carry.”

I am fascinated by this concept. Estelle Laure created this interesting magic system set in a contemporary world where women who are so often powerless are given this unimaginable power and they use it to fight the injustices visited upon them. Over the years it becomes the duty of the Brayburn’s to protect their town and the people within it are grateful and show their thanks by leaving gifts at their home. Laced within this story there is also a serial killer on the loose and the constant threat of Lyle returning to take Roxy back to their old life. Meanwhile, Mayhem is learning where she fits into the family and is starving for details of her past, especially of her father, but her mother is self-medicating leaving Mayhem to learn what she can from her Aunt Elle and her aunt’s adoptive kids. Roxy and Mayhem’s relationship irked me at times. So many situations arose that I wish had been dealt with differently by both of them and I also wasn’t sure what relevance the author was attempting to portray by having Mayhem call her mother by her given name. This detail created a divide between mother and daughter that I didn’t think was realistic considering that the two of them only ever had one another for love and protection and I’m not convinced that a relationship cultivated in that type pf environment would leave room for such a thing between them. I don’t consider this a fault of the story; I love that this book leaves so much room for interpretation from the reader and this is just one small example of that. At the conclusion of the story I found Roxy and Mayhem’s relationship and the moments they experienced to be pretty accurate of what a mother/teen might experience.

There is so much to unpack from this story. Mayhem is not for the feint of heart. It deals with many heavy topics and while there is an underlying theme of hope, it’s still very much a dark tale. There are a lot of contradicting personalities, especially from the group of kids that Mayhem meets when she first arrives in Santa Maria. I found Neve to be especially abrasive and didn’t care for her character much. Here is a book about women taking their power back and yet no one ever challenges Neve or her behavior in a meaningful way and I felt this contradicted the purpose of the story. I also would have liked if Elle was a stronger character. This story would have benefitted from a strong matriarchal presence and Elle had so much potential to fill that roll but then sort of fell flat when faced with any sort of challenge. Most of the characters are really fleshed out and I was able to connect with them as the story progressed but for some reason I didn’t have that same connection with Kidd. I kind of felt that her character was unnecessary and sometimes annoying. All in all these are small criticisms that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book in any substantial way.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Summer of Salt, The Wicked Deep, and Sawkill Girls. Mayhem is set in the 1980’s but definitely has that seaside, magical feel with an underlying theme of darkness, similar to the settings of the titles I’ve listed above.

<i>Mayhem</i> by Estelle Laure is a story of growing up and finding your own footing in a world where magic is real. In the summer of 1987, Mayhem Brayburn and her mother, Roxy, make a fast escape from Mayhem's abusive stepfather. They find themselves on the steps of Roxy's childhood home, in Santa Maria, California. They are welcomed with open arms by Roxy's twin sister, and Mayhem is grudgingly accepted by her three foster children. However, Santa Maria isn't all sun and fun on the beach. There's a serial killer hunting teenage girls, there's magic generated by the Brayburn family tree, and just because they ran away doesn't mean evil stepdad is really done with them.

When people compare this story to <i>The Craft</i>, they're not too far off the mark in the best possible ways. A young woman coming into her own strength with the help of magic, Mayhem finds strength in herself and her family history to face evil forces and save not only herself and her family, but her town as well.

One of the really beautiful things about this story though is that it's not just about Mayhem and her immediate time, but also about her family's struggle over time. The Brayburn legacy isn't just some magic passed own, but an inheritance based on pain that can be understood and discussed and turned into something better. Mayhem learns to grow not just for herself but for future generations.

I will say, the reading level on this is a bit lower than I'd expect. It does feel like it's written for younger readers, while its contents are for older ya readers. There are mentions of rape, domestic violence, and one of the major plot lines is hunting down and stopping a serial killer. That kind of bummed me out. As much as I loved the story, I would've loved for the author to trust her readers a bit more. However, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to read more of this all over again.

I received an e-arc from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It's 1987 and unfortunately it's not all Madonna and cherry lip balm. Mayhem Brayburn has always known there was something off about her and her mother, Roxy. Maybe it has to do with Roxy's constant physical pain, or maybe with Mayhem's own irresistible pull to water. Either way, she knows they aren't like everyone else.

Mayhem
By Estelle Laure

There is nothing more I love to read about than stories set in the 80’s and in my home state of California. The story has elements of magical realism, witches, a thrilling murder mystery and supernatural – which I enjoyed reading about. The story flowed well and written in a very distinct voice that I really enjoyed including diary entries. The story is about Mayhem Brayburn and her mother Roxy who leaves to Santa Maria, California, a beautiful coastal town to escape an abusive father. Moving back to their hometown, May befriends the kids adopted by her aunt where she discovers some magic and what life will look like for her in her future.

I thought that the writing was immersive, and I did somehow get the Lost Boys feminist take of this story. I thought the weaving of the story line with the backstory was creatively written and well done. This was a real enjoyable read that I will continue to recommend to readers of YA and anyone looking for a great supernatural feminist read.

Well done Estelle Laure!