After reading, and enjoying, almost all of Kalynn's books, this one really fell flat for me.
I was expecting a lot more from this book and was sorely let down.
The plot, the premise, and the themes were good, but it lacked the depth and the lead up to what was going to happen.

After reading This Poison Heart by Kaylnn Bayron a few years ago I instantly knew I wanted to read You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight.

What I expected was sadly not what I got.

While the premise is there I found it lacked something I can’t exactly put my finger on however I think being an adult and a huge fan of horror I might have expected a bit more spooky and a lot less teenage drama.

I think this book would be perfect for young adults to older teens- which was the intent audience.

I did however love the LGBT rep in this book between the female main character Charity and her girlfriend Bezi. I thought their relationship was sweet and realistic.


Thank you Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the digital copy of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kaylnn Bayron for reviewing purposes.

Thank you Bloomsbury AU and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hahaha wow holy shit, I just read this in one sitting. I could not put it down. I was supposed to go to bed an hour ago but here I am, writing this review, reeling from this book.

Being a YA horror, I didn’t expect it to be so good. Shame on me. Just cos it’s aimed at teens doesn’t mean it can’t be genuinely spooky. Plus, it tells a good story which is the most important part of a horror story for me.

This book’s a relatively slow build with a growing sense of unease until shit gets real about halfway through. It’s a short book, so you’re not left waiting too long. The pacing is absolutely perfect and all the spooky elements—mysterious hidden history, lake mishaps, secret societies—came together brilliantly.

The characters are all a lot of fun and instantly loveable which is kinda hard to do in a short, high-stakes story like this while still leaving room to scare the pants off the reader, but Bayron crafts every piece to perfection. I genuinely wanted everyone to get out alive which was never gonna end well for me.

I will say the general disregard for these kids that every single non-murderous adult in this book had was a little bit far-fetched but did I care? Not one bit.

If you’re looking for your next horror read, I can’t recommend this one enough.

Super quick and easy read that was filled with so much spooky that I couldn’t put it down! I did find some twists pretty predictable, but I was still thoroughly engaged. If you want to read a spooky summer camp that was both a fake and in real life haunted space, this one is for you!

Actual rating of 4.5

At Camp Mirror Lake, guests can pay to stay and enjoy the tranquil serenity of the lake and the forest, they can spend some quality time with their friends and loved ones, and they can be murdered by the killer roaming the woods after dark. You see, Camp Mirror Lake isn't a normal summer camp, it's a camp where people can pay to experience a horror movie, and they're the victims. Charity has the dream job this summer of being the Final Girl. That one girl who somehow eludes the killer and survives the night, if not unscathed, at least breathing. As her and the team are gearing up for their biggest night yet, the finale, they're left short by staff members who have seemingly up and disappeared. When they stumble across a real dead body, Charity realises that her role as Final Girl might becoming a reality. If Charity, her girlfriend Bezi, and the rest of the crew hope to survive the night, they'll have to use all the knowledge they have in order to stay one step ahead of the killer and find out what their deal is. Why are they here? What do they want? And is there more to Camp Mirror Lake and it's history than Charity thought possible?

When I saw this book advertised as available for request in the Bloomsbury catalogue email, I could not click the link to the Netgalley page fast enough. I have been dying (no pun intended) for a really solid slasher horror story for SO long. Last year I was super excited for The Night Shift because I had convinced myself that it was going to be throwing up major slasher flick vibes, however, I had put expectations on the book that made me enjoy it less than I wanted to. This, this one right here, really brought those slasher vibes that I've been craving and I enjoyed every second of it.

This story is told from the perspective of Charity, she's hard working and takes her role as victim very seriously at the Camp, and even moreso this year as she's finally been promoted to Final Girl. As the summer begins to wrap up, the crew are gearing up for their big finale on the final night, but are left short when three of the staff members just don't show up. Calling in reinforcements, Charity gets her girlfriend and their other friend to come and join the fun for the final night. Gearing up for what is promising to be the best performance yet, everyone's excited, until they stumble upon a dead body and there's a crazy lady with a gun in the woods ranting and raving about the woods, the camp, and what happened there. First off, I absolutely LOVE the idea of an experience where you are thrown into a horror movie, and get to experience everything besides dying (at least you hope). I would never do it, I love the idea of it, but I would never do it. My anxiety couldn't take the stress and I think I'd end up absolutely destroyed, but I freaking LOVE the idea of such an immersive horror experience!! I'd love to be a part of the crew though, just saying, in case anyone decides to bank roll this idea...

The cast of characters was fantastic and I loved all of them. You kinda had a couple of stereotypes, but then you kinda didn't. I loved the POC rep in this book as well as the LGBTQ+ rep as well. I loved that Charity and Bezi's relationship felt so organic from the moment you realised that they were in a romantic relationship. There was no using their relationship just to tick a box, and it wasn't used as a shock factor thing either, it was just so natural and organic and I really loved their dynamic. I love that all of the characters were so individual and had such distinct personalities that really shone through, even though there were a couple that I really wanted to throttle a few times. I can't pick one character that I wish wasn't written into this story.

The story itself, to me, was such a unique idea. Yes there were some cliche things that happened and you could guess a couple of things, but to be honest, the story took a turn probably about 60ish% through that I was not expecting at all and I felt like this was a stroke of genius. I'll admit, it threw me for a moment but once I wrapped my head around what was going on and the implications being made, I caught back up and was able to roll with it. I did take off the tiniest bit of a star because of the ending. It wasn't terrible, it was unique, not entirely what I expected, but there was just something about it that kinda left me with not the closure I'd have liked. It's hard to sort of describe what I mean without giving anything away. The pacing was fantastic, and it kept me glued to the page the entire time. I enjoyed this way more than I anticipated I would, and that's saying something because I put HIGH expectations on this, and it delivered.

I really loved the flow of the story, the character relationship and dynamics and the path that the story ended up taking. I really gave me those nostalgic slasher horror vibes, while simultaneously bringing something unique to the table. The characters were all, I think, around the age of 17, but honestly, their ages didn't really even come into it. This could have been a cast of characters of any age range and it would have worked. I'm still so stuck on and keen for the idea of such an immersive interactive horror experience and I'm left wondering whether one does actually exist somewhere and whether Bayron has gone, or whether Bayron has just come up with the most amazing idea of this century and is planning to make this thing a reality. If so, I'd love to say SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, and let's be real, I'd probably get to a point where I'd say "To hell with it" pay to be hunted by a masked killer through the dark, go against every horror movie rule out there and be murdered in the first 5 minutes, or my anxiety levels would get that high that I'd just die for real. Again, if you're planning on making this a thing, I would LOVE to be part of the crew!

All in all, there's not much more I really want to say because I feel like going into this story with the information that the blurb gives you is the best way to experience it. I don't want to give too much away, all I'll say is, I wanted a slasher horror read that really delivered on it's promise, and this book did that. It's unique, engaging and has a wonderful cast of characters that I was really rooting for. I kinda want this to be made into a movie...but then I remember that movie adaptations tend to disappoint me so I'll stick with maybe giving this a re-read at some point. Give it a crack if you want those 90s slasher nostalgic feels!