Sam wants to leave his past of surviving a massacre behind him as he goes off to college. He wants to live a normal live and join a fraternity. But when his soon-to-be fraternity brothers start getting murdered by a masked killer, he knows he can't sit back and watch.

I think that The Pledge is everything you want in a YA horror novel. It was fast paced. It kept me gripped the whole time. And it had an ending that left me wanting more. Now, did the entire novel leave me wanting more, a little. I wish there was a little more development in the characters. I also wish that there were clues leading to the twist ending. Maybe other people were able to see to end, but I don't think there was a way to guess.

I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. It was a good combo of slasher horror and gay romance. A little gory as it described what each victim felt as they were killed. Loved the "final boy" aspect of the plot.

Gay YA thriller/horror…count me in! I think there is a lot here that could have gone really badly. However, I love the way this was written. I was constantly changing who I thought the killer would be and actually guess incorrectly. Darn! I do with there was a little more depth to the reasoning and a better build-up to the reveal. I think a good reveal should have the reader get there right before the characters do. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, but it definitely had to be revealed to me. Overall, I really love this story and, with the cliffhanger, I am curious if there will be a sequel.

This is a story about how your past can come back to haunt you.  Sam is a survivor of a brutal and well-known crime, when a killer hunted down Sam, his boyfriend, and two others that were on a camping trip.  Sam and his boyfriend survived what became known as the Lake Priest Massacre only because Sam, in self-defense, stabbed the killer.  Their two friends, though, did not survive.  Sam has spent the last several months recovering at his dad's house.  He is largely estranged from his mom, who wrote a thinly veiled novel about Sam's experience.  

Sam is now beginning his freshman year at Munroe University, hoping for a fresh start.  On his first day, he meets a very cute student, Oren, who invites him to a fraternity party.  Although he has some reservations, Sam begins to think that joining the fraternity is the key to a fresh start -- and he is not sad at the possibility of spending more time with Oren.  But then the unthinkable happens -- one of Sam's new frat brothers is murdered.  Soon it becomes clear that a new masked murder, inspired by the original Lake Priest killer, is on the loose, this time targeting Sam's frat brothers.  And Sam is forced to do what he hoped to avoid -- once again racing to determine who the new killer is before Sam or his new frat brothers are the latest victims.

This is a terrific book.  It has all the suspense of a great horror story, and I was completely drawn in by the mystery of who the new killer was -- and why they seemed to be targeting Sam and his frat brothers.  Wtihin this story, the book also was a compelling queer romance between Sam and Oren, as they both explore their obvious attraction while also dealing with the aftermaths of their previous relationships.  And the book offered interesting explorations of the lingering effects of trauma and of family relationships.  

Highly recommended!

The Pledge by Cale Dietrich hooked me from the first page, and I finished it in one sitting (albeit I stayed up until 3am... which wasn't the smartest decision based on the content of this thriller...)! As someone who reads almost exclusively fantasy, I love falling headfirst into a mystery or thriller. The niche horror elements of this story combined with an engaging, lovable narrator named Sam. Sam survived the infamous Lake Priest slayings two years prior, when two of his friends were brutally murdered, his boyfriend was wounded, and Sam himself was attacked and then took out the masked killer. He locked himself indoors ever since. We jump into Sam's life as he is leaving for college- his first solo trip- and he navigates falling in love in addition to a copycat killer who is attacking members of his fraternity and leaving cryptic messages for him. But when it seems that Sam's ex is behind this and we learn of his mom stealing his trauma for her gain, the games get even more twisted...

Cale Dietrich's the Pledge is a slasher, but there's no Final Girl, which I filound refreshing. Instead, Munroe University's newest freshman has an infamous past- Sam is the only survivor of the Lake Priest slayings which killed two of his best friends and wounded his now-ex boyfriend. Sam isolated himself at home for two years after killing the masked slasher in self-defense but he's now off to college.

His RA, Oren, invites him to rush his fraternity and life is looking back on track, until a masked slayer starts hunting down his fellow brothers and starts texting Sam.

Gripping, tense slasher thriller with M/M romance and Final Boy

Will recommend for acquisition for high school library

The Pledge will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time! You will empathize with Sam and find yourself wishing you could hang out with him and the brothers of AΦN, the characters are that intriguing. The plot is fast paced; I could not put this down. I just needed to know how it all ended before I could possible put my attention on something else.

I was not a fan of this book. The character was not relatable and the everyone around him did not do anything logical. Everyone's actions were just a little too far fetched for myn tastes.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan, & Cale Dietrich for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
.
This isn't a typical book I would gravitate towards but being marketed as a queer slasher and as a Scream lover, I had to check it out! I also have read one of Cale’s previous books, If This Gets Out so I knew I would at least enjoy the writing style. I loved this book and read it in a day. It gave me total Scream 2 vibes as our MC, Sam, enters college after having survived something horrific in high school. There were a lot of twists and turns in this one and I really enjoyed it! I liked how we would get multiple POV shifts as a different character encounters The Freak, as it felt like those moments in horror movies when someone would get separated from the group and you just know something terrible is going to happen. I also love how being gay or queer isn't a big deal at all in this book! This is definitely one I would suggest y’all check out when it is released and is the perfect thriller to read in a day!
.
The Pledge by Cale Dietrich publishes on February 14th!

Not great. It started off good, if a little bit of a cliche premise. But the random thrown in chapters that felt like stilted movie script descriptions. Strange narration at points. Not my cup of tea

What a fun, wild ride! I loved Cale's book the Love Interest so having another one to add to my collection really made my day. This was terrifying and awful but so well written. i never joined a sorority for a lot of reasons, but this really made me glad I didn't! I could definitely see all of this happening with all of the hazing horror stories out there. a must read for thriller and dark academia fans!

This will be a great option for my students' independent reading because it goes by really quickly (I read it in about 3.5 hours). But like the horror movies it's emulating, it's relatively slight and ultimately doesn't make a ton of motivational sense. I had a great time, but it's not very memorable.

Cale Dietrich’s The Pledge is a fun, gay-themed diversion from the typical slasher story.

The quick read opens on gay high school student Sam, who survives an unimaginable horror by becoming something unimaginable: a killer. Two years later, he takes a step toward healing by going to college and joining a fraternity with the encouragement of his gay father. There Sam meets Oren, a gay RA, and potential love interest. Unfortunately, trouble follows Sam in the form of another murderer, who begins killing off students at Sam’s school. As the body count goes up, Sam and Oren work to find the identity of the masked killer.

Varied pacing keeps the story from becoming a full-fledged thriller, which is light on gore for a slasher. But some variety in the many murder scenes kept them from becoming dull. Dietrich breathed new life into the setting’s focus on college and, especially, greek life with the inclusion of openly gay characters. But the expansive cast was sometimes hard to recall or distinguish from one another. Sam and Oren have some sweet moments, making their gayness integral to the narrative. But the book lacks the diverse representation to truly call it queer.

This book contains mentions of anxiety and PTSD and moderately graphic descriptions of murder, injury, and death.

This was an intriguing LGBTQ+ college murder mystery which kept me guessing until the end! I really liked the main character and I will admit that the mystery stumped me!
Thank you for my review copy!

This review is a bit hard to write because I had such high hopes for THE PLEDGE. With a comp like SCREAM, I had high expectations for this book, and I was a little disappointed.

The good:
The beginning of this book is so good. Very creepy and tense. It absolutely set the tone for the novel. The LGBTQIA+ representation is great. Mixing that with fraternity culture (notoriously know for being toxic and gross in many ways), is a brilliant premise. The slasher aspect of this book with characters getting bumped off was great because it kept the plot moving forward and kept the tension.

The bad:
With any book you have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief, and you need to double that amount when it comes to horror. I love this aspect of horror. The problem with this book is that there were too many things that were unbelievable. From the red herrings to choices made by the characters, it was hard to believe all of it. It felt like there was too much happening, too many twists, too many false leads, etc., and it took away from the believability of the book.

This is a quick read. I actually read it in one sitting.

The book starts with Sam and his boyfriend (and two others) staying at a cabin in the woods. They are attacked and not everyone survives. Sam does what he has to and makes it out alive. But it's changed his life. He homeschools and has multiple locks on his door. He checks each room for places that someone could be hiding. It doesn't help that his mom wrote a "fiction" book that is basically based off is life. She has a masked killer though.

Two years later, Sam is starting college. He's terrified, but determined to have a fresh start. He meets a cute guy right away that invites him to a party at his fraternity. Sam decides to go and actually has fun for the first time in years. He thinks about his ex, but he also wants to move on. Sam actually makes friends and decides to do rush week. He gets close to a few, but he really likes Oren. Maybe as more than a friend or possible hook up. But then frat boys start getting killed. There is video and the killer is wearing the mask from Sam's mom's book. It can't be random. Sam knows he's being targeted, but he can't figure out who would do this to him. He has to face his fears and try to keep more boys from dying.

I enjoyed this one. It was fast paced. I did find it a bit repetitive with Sam always thinking about his ex. I liked the college setting and the chapters where the killer is attacking. I had an idea of who it was, but I was only partly right.

I gave this book 4 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my earc.

Not really for me. I just felt like it was missing something. Obviously all slasher books are unrealistic, but this one just sort of felt too far fetched. The villain didn’t really make sense on the offset and then didn’t make sense in the end. I mean, I get it. But why? It’s cool to see queer rep and Cale stepping into another genre, but overall not my favorite read of 2022.

Thanks to McMillan Children’s Publishing Group for the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Pledge is a young adult, slasher thriller with some LGBT themes through it. It focuses on Sam, who is a survivor of the Lake Priest slayings. As he tries to move on with his life by attending college, and joining a well known fraternity, he soon realizes that his past is coming back for him.

This is a tough one. The premise definitely had me intrigued which is why I requested an ARC of it. This is marketed with catchphrases like “Scream meets Corn in a Cornfield.” I will say, as an avid horror fan, the horror in this is EXTREMELY tame. Nothing truly scared me. This is really more like a thriller but with the bad guy in a funny mask. I do get the Scream vibes though when it comes to Sam and other male characters that fill stereotypical horror character tropes.

I think this book is decent but not revolutionary when it comes to horror or young adult. I find the inclusion of LGBT characters and themes kind of strange. I’ve seen some reviews of this book and how they enjoy that being gay is normalized in this book. There’s happy relationships, blooming romances, and they all have a lot of support for their relationships. I almost find it unrealistic though, especially in the case of being focused on frat boys, which I found had the MOST homophobic men when I was in college. If the world normalized being gay as much as it did in this book, the world would have way less problems.

Overall, this is still a fun, very fast paced read. I do think it could have been fleshed out a little bit more. I found the killer reveal came out of nowhere and pretty much ended abruptly. And the epilogue made me roll my eyes a bit cause it definitely leaves it open for a sequel. It’s definitely less gory and more lighthearted than something like Clown in a Cornfield. However, if you like college themed slashers with some positive gay relationships in it, i’d recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for the digital ARC of this book.

two years ago, Sam Carville's normal life was entirely upended. he survived the so-called Lake Priest Massacre, a terrible event that killed two of his friends and grievously wounded his boyfriend. most importantly, it was the night that changed Sam forever -- in a last ditch attempt to save his boyfriend Eli, Sam grappled with the attacker and ended up killing him.

Sam has struggled with PTSD and generalized anxiety ever since, and largely withdrew from society in the aftermath. he has no friends and isolates himself even from his family; he's homeschooled because he can't handle returning to public high school. his estranged mom even wrote a fictional bestselling book out of his trauma, rewriting the man who killed Sam's two friends into a figure called The Freak, a killer that wears an eerie smiling mask.

in an effort to 'normalize' himself (and with his therapist's enthusiastic support), Sam decides to go to college. he moves into the dorms and quickly determines that attending rush week at a local frat might speed run him to this whole 'normal life' thing he's desperate to find. this is where he meets Oren as well, the cute boy who's a catalyst for Sam's decision to join the frat and his eventual love interest. unfortunately, things begin going sideways when one of the frat brothers is found brutally murdered.

overall this book was a fun story and a wild ride. I'm reluctant to admit it but I absolutely loathed Sam; he rubbed me the wrong way the entire book and it was difficult for me to ever feel genuinely worried for him because I simply didn't like him. there were multiple instances where things worked out in a way it never would in real life (the cop scooching back so Sam can unmask the killer ?? that was truly hilarious) but I did really enjoy the murder mystery, "who's the killer" aspect and eventual reveal.

I rounded up because I'm desperate to see more queer horror on the scene so I'm happy to support it wherever I can get it. also slashers are one of my favorite genres and this one taking place on a college campus with frat boys being the targeted victims? lovely tonal shift from the constant "hot blonde woman" that most fictional serial killers aim for.

(I will say that the very end scene, the weird third person epilogue, was phenomenal. loved the "good luck" throwaway line to someone threatening Sam's life. it was truly ten outta ten and elevated the rating of this book singlehandedly lol)

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC 🔪

**3.5 Stars**

I really enjoyed this book. It was basically an amalgamation of Scream and Scream 2. I've never seen Clown in a Cornfield, so I honestly can't say how it compares to that one. However, the Scream movies are my favorite so I figured I'd like this one.

The book was entertaining and predictable which is pretty much how most, if not all, slasher films are. While you may not figure out who the actual killer is, the motive is fairly easy to figure out. That being said, I was still completely into it and didn't have any issues reading the whole thing. I was definitely entertained and even found myself feeling a little paranoid at night.

The romance aspect of this book was just okay. I honestly didn't feel chemistry between Oren and Sam, which is probably because we have zero build up. It felt more like two people just finding each other physically attractive and not so much being romantically attracted to one another. There's one fade to black moment and that's it, so if you want spice this isn't going to be for you. So honestly, I could take or leave the romance part of this book.

My only other complaint is the switch back and forth from 1st person POV to 3rd person POV. It would have been somewhat okay if it would have been 3rd person just for the characters who weren't Sam, but the prologue and epilogue were 3rd person from Sam's POV, so it was just a bit confusing. There were also moments where you knew it was a dream, but it wasn't italicized like most dream sequences are and there were also some scene switches with no page breaks or mentions of how they got there. I'm hoping that that will all get flushed out in editing before it's released.

Overall, it was a good, entertaining read. Expect it to be exactly what you think a standard slasher film is like and you'll enjoy it!

<i>ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review </i>