Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this one by the time I was 40%. A little bit too YA and too slow.

This book was pretty good, and had a lot of the elements that I like in a thriller. I was never actually scared, but I did wonder who dun it many times. It’s set on an island where “famous” influencers have been invited to a festival for a new social media app. Except once they get there nothing is as it was supposed to be, and people start dropping like flies.

It’s a good look at Instagram fame and its control that it can have over people. There’s no love story involved, but rather a story of friendship and survival.

I thought it was pretty good, and definitely one I think YA readers would enjoy!

I really enjoyed the silly, campiness of this thriller. It was a nice change of pace from the typical thriller. It gave me #MurderTrending vibes. If you like a little bit of laughs with your thriller/gore, definitely pick this one up.

George and I just returned from a hellish vacation on a Private Island in the Caribbean. It should have been called the Concrete Jungle! Never trust those “too good to be true” vacation offers my friends! 😂❤️

Thankfully, I had Ash Parson’s latest book, YOU’RE SO DEAD to keep me company. It is all about life and death as an influencer, and the ridiculous lengths that people will go to “make it” as one. Plum Winter’s sister, Peach, is an uber cool influencer. Plum decides that her senior spring break with her two best friends is going to be spent hijacking Peach’s invitation to an all-expenses paid trip to a luxurious art and music festival for influencers on a private island in the Caribbean. Turns out this festival is a bust and the island is run-down and creepy. (Kind of reminds me of a somewhat famous festival gone bust a few years ago…😉). But Plum and her friends have bigger things to worry about, like STAYING ALIVE!!!

Definitely fun and relevant to today's society. Not my usual genre but still had a good time reading this book and I think it will find the audience who loves it.

DNF at 63%

*SIGH*

This book was unfortunately not for me. The premise was interesting enough…..influencers on an island who believe they are their to attend a festival and then realize they have been lied to. Mysteriously, they start getting killed. I mean, it sounded so good! This was just extremely slow paced for me, and the characters were not likable at all. Which maybe was the point? I don’t know but it was just a little too slow paced for me, and unfortunately every time I picked it up, I ended up falling asleep 🙈 maybe I will try to finish it another time but for now, there is too many books I would rather turn my attention to.

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.

I did not finish this book; I got 30 percent into the storyline, which was not working for me. I read the synopsis and thought, oh, this is going to be a murder mystery. Well, I have no clue as I just said no more. I could not relate to the characters; the talking that they did about drove me nuts. It felt way too childish for them to be teenagers. Sorry.

I was intrigued after reading the synopsis. But I didn't find any connection with the characters or the plot as I was reading. I dislike giving one stars but this book just wasn't for me.

Thank you to PenguinTeen and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I don't even know where to start with You're So Dead. The concept of this sounded *so cool*. I mean, girls sneaking onto an influencers only island and then people start getting killed? Sign me up!

However, I tried to read this book 5 times and could never get past the first few chapters. I couldn't connect with the writing style and the first few chapters were so packed full of information (a fair amount that seemed irrelevant. Why do I need to know the details of every character's parents' lives?) that it didn't hold my interest. I haven't previously read anything from with author, so I would be willing to try her novels again in the future, but You're So Dead was a complete miss for me.

After deciding to give up my pursuit of trying to force myself to read this, I'm leaving this book one star..

When Plum steals an invitation meant for her influencer sister to the Pyre Festival, she revels in the fact that she and her two best friends are going to do something really amazing together. This summer will be amazing, and they are starting it off with a bang!

But upon arriving on the island, they quickly realize that this festival is nothing like they imagined… instead of finding them amongst famous invitees, the girls find themselves with a ragtag group of influencers. There is patchy internet service in the island, and instead of the elaborate event Plum had envisioned, there are sparse accommodations.

It’s not until people start dying that Plum and the rest of the group realize the intensity of their situation. This was a super fun murder mystery. The setting and the cast of characters was really interesting. The interactions between both Plum and her two best friends, and the strange other invitees they find themselves surrounded by were a blast to read.

This was a book that kept me fully entertained from beginning to end. You’re constantly guessing who is going to be picked off next…

I think teens that are really into social media would enjoy this book. The setting and teen drama are great for teens. As an adult I didn’t love it, but I would certainly recommend it for the targeted age group, specifically for my students that want to make it big on social media. I think they would connect with the story.

I'm a huge fan of Agatha Christie! this was a perfect combination of her stories and modern times. The suspense kept me going. Almost like a "I know what you did last summer" when they went on the get away trip. Love that type of movie! And I didnt realize how much I would enjoy this type of genre, it isnt usually something I gravitate towards. looking forward to reading more by this author!

You’re So Dead was a quick and easy read that’s a great summer murder mystery. I liked the modern YA-take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (which, in a slightly meta turn of events, was mentioned in the novel itself). There was also some interesting commentary on social media and how toxic it can be. Parsons is great at blending the macabre with humor, which is nice because this book never took itself too seriously.

Plum, Sofia, and Marlowe were all interesting characters. It was intriguing to see how everyone at the festival reacted to each of the murders. But I ended up getting most of the secondary characters confused since none of them particularly stood out to me. I also just didn’t really understand the killer’s motivation, and so the ending of the book fell a bit flat for me.

Overall, I feel like this one would be a great movie, but didn’t quite work for me as a book. But if you’re looking for a scary, summer-y read that isn’t too scary (and has the perfect amount of camp mixed in), consider checking this one out!

I was interested in this book because the synopsis made it sound like a fun read.
Sadly I couldn’t get into this book. The characters were hard to connect with, they seemed a lot younger than their actual age.

It was a DNF for me.

Huge thank you to the publisher for allowing me early access to read this title. This in no way impacts my review.

This book reminded me of all of those WHODUNNIT books where everyone is a suspect. I love how it makes the twists and turns more interesting because no one is without suspicion. The fact that this hits home with influencer culture is even more entertaining but also scary and eye opening. There's a diverse cast of characters that have risen to stardom through various means, beauty, gaming, true crime podcasts, etc... except for our MC Plum. It's her sister that has reached high ranking status and steals her invitation to the fire festival, I mean, luxurious island music festival!

I had a hard time guessing who the killer was, I usually let books sweep me away and this did not disappoint. I think that sometimes the characters didn't make the best choices, but what young adult does? Plum wasn't that likable in my opinion, I think she was kind of bland but I also think that's okay considering she wasn't a star influencer and doesn't have that SPARK. I think this book touches on cultural topics related to social media very well.

I really enjoyed this!

From the get go, this book confused me. Not because of what was written, but how it was written. It was written like it was trying so hard to be marketable to gen z, but also too hard. The dialogue, the narrative, all of that was so weird and it didn't flow very well. But then the actual events and plot of the book was so well written and good.

This book was such a conundrum that at one point I was considering DNFing it, but then it got good and I decided to keep going. I was very surprised to find myself at one point literally absorbed in the book and unable to put it down. I thought the actual writing would be so off putting, but it got better as the book went on and I could get through it. 

Now, I've always been judgemental of authors who try too hard to make a book relatable to a certain generation or age group. Even as a child, adults trying to capture teen culture has definitely made me roll my eyes, which is why I don't even try to understand their jokes and slang, because it's really only relatable to them (For context, I'm 23 and technically Gen Z, but I'm a total cusper aka Zillenial). It was so clear that the author was making jokes that might be relatable to teens now, but then they kind of fell flat. It was pretty unbearable to read at times.

And the whole influencer plot line was good, until anyone opened their mouths and spoke. I don't want to sound too harsh with this book, because ultimately I enjoyed the story, until the ending, but man some things were just not great. 

The characters were all pretty one dimensional and spoke so weird. All of the dialogue was just ... strange? I guess that's the best word. And then you have the motivation for this whole fiasco in the first place. 

No spoilers, but it did not make sense and I think it actually ruined the book for me in my opinion. Like this had so much potential to be so witty and funny and good, but it just wasn't. I feel so mean for saying this, but the characters were ultimate flops. And this combination of a relatively good plot, good build up, excellent mystery, mixed with these one dimensional, lame characters was so disappointing. 

And don't get me started on the main character, Plum. While I love seeing bisexual main characters, something about the way Plum was written was annoying. Like she's obviously in love with her best friend from the first page, but constantly denies it, then we get constant reminders through her goo-goo eyes that she's in love with her friend. And I'm not a fan of that style of writing in general, so this isn't an attack on the author, but I just thought that Plum's constant need to be "seen" and in the spotlight, mixed with her denial of her feelings, and then obsession with her friend was a horrible mix. She was kind of annoying at times and it brought down the book even more. 

Then we have the side characters, which I won't even go into, because then we'll be here all day. But in general, just annoying people and even the most "normal" people could come off so irritating. Yikes...

I don't know, I have very mixed thoughts on this. Like I said - the plot and murder mystery itself were relatively good (though I hated the ending), but the characters kind of sucked. And the ending was so abrupt that I was actually mad the book ended because I felt like even one more paragraph would have made this story feel more complete than what we got. 

Overall, I liked the story, but I had some majors issues with the characters and the ending. It was honestly so hard trying to rate this because on one hand I could say it was two stars and on another, I could say three and a half. So I'm gonna go with three for now, but might drop it to two and a half if I think about it more.

Great concept, extremely poor execution.

As a huge fan of Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, and a closeted consumer of both the Netflix and Hulu documentaries on the disastrous Fyre Festival, I was prepared to love this YA spin. Unfortunately, this one just missed the mark. I didn't love the writing or really any of the characters, and found myself skimming a majority of this novel. I wanted to know what happened so I didn't DNF, but the ending wasn't clever enough to leave me feeling satisfied at the end. Without Christie's intricate plot-mapping and confounding explanations for everything, I was just left feeling, "Oh, okay, they're the killer." Nothing about the ending was particularly unexpected or exciting, despite having our MC being chased by an actual serial killer.

I will say, I think this has the potential to be a great teen slasher comedy movie. I could see this playing much better on the big screen, where the characters' annoying personalities are more humorous than grating, and some of the scenes have the added benefit of visuals and special effects. So, despite not really enjoying the book at all (and wouldn't recommend it to others), I'd consider seeing a movie based on it.

Edit: Also, it was an incredibly poor idea to give two characters short names starting with "J." In a cast book like this, it was nearly impossible to keep track of who was who, so I gave up trying.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

2 stars - 3/10

I felt like there's way too much “pay attention to me” kind of thing going on in here but I can't also deny that some characters are funny. It was an okay read.

Plum and her best friends sneak a weekend getaway to a remote Caribbean island for one last hurrah before graduation. How? Plum takes her older sister’s invitation to a social media influencer event. Stuck in a run-down villa on a deserted island, the girls are faced with one other challenge. Not only is there no wi-if or cell phone signal, there is a killer among them. What could this Motley Crue of B-list social media influencers have in common?

It was addictive, chaotic, satirical, in a Clue murder mystery Scooby Doo kind of way. It was on the longer side with no clear character development, except for the main character Plum. In a sense, come to think of it, the story might’ve been better narrated by Plum. While it wasn’t my favorite, I still enjoyed some scenes, the guessing game of who could the killer be, and I definitely laughed at some parts.

In my opinion, YOU’RE SO DEAD would be better as a movie adaptation! The characters would come alive on-screen, and the story’s got the bones for an entertaining cinematic experience.