Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

This young adult horror is reminiscent of the classic slasher film franchises like Scream and Halloween. It does have its alterations to the subgenre mold, however. There is an excellently diverse cast of characters, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters. While I loved that, I found it very difficult to get past the extreme affluence of these teenagers. Moreover, their focus on brands, followers, and making the right business connections was really off-putting for me because I couldn't relate or understand their world. A teenager asking a fortune teller if starting a podcast is the "right career move right now" is just one example of that. I also found myself lacking any form of investment in a single character, even our protagonist, Noelle. Yes, characters can be gray or even downright bad, but I need a reason to root for them to survive the night against an unhinged killer clown. For instance, Noelle reflects on her drive to save herself even if that means sacrificing her friends, but she then pauses to think "but I need someone to vouge for me that I wasn't in on this killing spree," and I was very confused by her priorities and how much time the author is giving her to think in long monologue thoughts as a killer approaches her.

The last straw for me was when the clown defecated in front of two characters as they cowered inside a closet...I just didn't understand why that had to happen. For full transparency, I elected not to finish this book, DNFing at 35% as soon as the defecation occurred.

This was a good YA Horror, I will give you that, but probably not for all the reasons that most people would think. I thought the story was great and the horror was fun. Fun? What a strange way to talk about a book where a serial killer dressed like Pennywise from Wish picked off teenagers one by one.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had such high expectations for this book..."There's No Way I'd Die First" advertises itself as a YA slasher in which the main character, Noelle is an influencer obsessed with horror, so she throws an ultimate horror party with other entitled rich kids.

At first, the storyline was cute and perfect for Halloween! But it quickly fell flat and literally made me want to chuck the book across the room at how annoying the characters were. Although I think one of the points was for the characters to purposely be stereotypical and hence, annoying and entitled, they felt too underdeveloped to even be considered that. I honestly have nothing positive to say about this book.

I love YA novels that center around these kinds of "deadly games" but this wasn't straight up "horror"...it was like "dark-comedy/horror-comedy/satire"...not quite sure how to describe....but it poked fun at its own genre and also subverted it, but still *kinda* "played by the rules" while also *not*. SO GREAT.

A horror obsessed teen decides to throw a themed party in which she hires a clown to play hide and seek with her friends. What could go wrong? The answer is, of course, everything.

The premise for this was fun. I liked the idea that a horror junkie would have a club and invite their friends over for a horror themed party. I loved all of the horror references. The movie quotes at the beginning of each chapter were also a nice touch.

As with most slashers, the characters seemed one dimensional or not fully fleshed out. The clown could have been so much scarier, in my opinion. I found it hard to care about the characters. They were all rich kids, some of which were either famous on social media or were into cryptocurrency.

If you just wanted a fun slasher then this might be perfect. I don't think the gore was too over top. I expected the third act to happen differently. The big reveal was a bit disappointing.

Overall, it was a fun read. It was silly in some parts (the Birkin bag thing) and the teen romance in this wasn't my thing. If you liked the movie Bodies Bodies Bodies, then you might enjoy this book.

Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the ARC.

This wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't bad. I had high hopes for this and it kind of didn't meet the expectations. I went in expecting a slasher, but was left wanting more from it. I think some people will like it but just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

The setup of this story was so much fun. Getting to look in on a character who loves Slasher films enough to run an entire social media account based around her love for them and who plans to expand on that brand was awesome for me as a Slasher movie lover, and the focus Noelle gets to use her platform to put on POC projects was a really amazing layer to add to the storytelling. I adored the setup of the group of friends who all have their own 'thing' that makes them popular coming to this secret party to celebrate Noelle's channel's newest milestone, and there was so much about this story that was so creative and gory and downright twisted--making it a perfect ode to slasher films as intended.

I did. however, have to remind myself more than once that the book was supposed to be a slasher/horror comedy. Some of the antics the BBEG gets up to while stalking the characters through the house and tormenting them either separately or as a group were pretty wild. But with a little suspension of disbelief and a those reminders about the comedy aspect of the story, I got past that pretty easily. The pacing was great, the layers of the characters' backstories as they were peeled back were interesting and really shed light both on their hunter's reasoning for the attack and on the insanity that pushed him to that point. If you love slasher movies or a good psychological thriller, I would definitely recommend sitting up late one night with this one and letting it take you for a ride.

Just, you know, be prepared for any triggers along the way: clowns, death, blood, gore, vomiting, defecation, murder.

DNF this super early on but I just couldn’t get into this at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good horror book. This was so much fun. It was smart, and I loved the inspiration of the Black horror films throughout. Having a Black girl as our main character and final girl was also so great to see and I know many teens will appreciate this.

Oddly enough, I read this on the back end of And Then There Were None, and this book definitely had some of the same elements, but modernizing it for a new generation. Several influential teenagers are invited to a home in a remote location for a Halloween party hosted by Noelle, an aspiring horror podcaster. She, and her friends, have enormous wealth, and join Noelle at her family's mansion for Halloween. She has all kinds of things planned--including a clown she's hired to give them a scare. She doesn't know that the clown actually has dastardly plans to kill them all by the end of the night.

This book was full of self-aware horror tropes, gore, and twists and turns. It's probably one of the best slasher books I've ever read. There were a lot of characters to keep straight and not all of them were well-rounded, hence the four stars. I really did enjoy the social commentary in the book and the scares were great. I thought it was an awesome addition to teen horror lit.

Had fun with this one as a Scream/high school slasher girl. Minus a star cause, I thought the killer’s reasoning for killing felt a little heavy-handed.

I should have known that I was going to be let down the moment I read that this was a slasher.

Slashers as a movie genre - *chefs kiss* - as a book, strike out.

The book was filled with social media influencers and rich kids that bring nothing to the table. Each character lacked any real personality and were just the stereotypical person in a slasher.

Oof, this was not my favorite. I really love this premise, but it fails to mention that all the teens in this book are extremely rich and privileged. To back this up let me explain that this is about a horror enthusiast who throws a party for all her friends in her horror movie club. She hires a clown to come and play this super scary game of hide and seek with them, but it quickly goes south when he begins killing people. This party is at a giant mansion, and the guests are all teens who pretend to be cool, woke, activists but who we quickly learn do things like lie about volunteering in Puerto Rico and be complicit in online harassment campaigns. They don't deserve to be brutally murdered, but they also do partake in behaviors that should be called out, and they never are, except by a maniac killer clown. Our main character never acknowledges her own flaws or her friends.

When we learn who the killer is, it gets even worse. It's not a great reveal, or especially satisfying. It also villifies a real-life group of people in a super weird way. Like, these people are not out here targeting teen influencers irl.

Ultimately, I don't want to give this to teens because I do think it's harmful. I love what is said about representation in horror, and I wish that avenue was continued on more, instead of the pivot this takes. I was on the edge of my seat, and teens would have fun, but the wrong reader could genuinely get some negative takes from this.

Have The Lambs Stopped Screaming Babe?⁣
Name that scary movie lol. Anyways y’all this book was good and funny af which is always a win in my eyes. I can’t say much bc I’m keeping this review #SpoilerFree so let’s just get straight into my random thoughts ⬇️⁣
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• The audio is PERFECTION 🎧⁣
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• The clown was lowkey creepy af 😂🤡⁣
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• Noelle is so me. They asked her “𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵” she said “𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴” 😂 me af bc I’m not coming back for you. ⁣
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• Not the Birkin lmfao. Everytime she spoke of the Birkin I was weak af 😂👜⁣
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• Quick question 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲? Mines is Barbarian which is the chapter title or quote of Chapter 12 which I loved. ⁣
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• Which brings me to my next point. I loved all the nods to real Horror films 😳😱⁣
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• They talk about Scream one of my all time fav horror movies and how it has no black characters and wow never thought about that… Not cool.⁣
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Okay that’s all lol, overall I highly recommend this one. It’s PERFECT for spooky season & thank you @delacortepress for sending me this finished copy 💖

Horror movie fan club Halloween party turns deadly. This was supposed to be the party that changes everything for her and it does just not in the way that she had hoped. Who is stalking them and taking them out and why? I thought I knew who it was and I was totally wrong. I honestly didn’t see that twist coming. Very good, fast, entertaining read. Looking forward to more from this author.

I can appreciate the message this book was trying to send. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. Slashers in book form are hard and this one did not do a great job of building the suspense in my opinion. Also, all of the characters were a little too pretentious and annoying from the beginning, so it was hard to really root for any of them. I did really enjoy the nods to horror movies and the inclusion of the quotes from famous horror movies in the beginning.

You want a bad ass final girl? Well, you’re in for a treat.

Noelle is determined to have a killer party, but she’s going to get more than she bargained for. She’s hoping this party will launch her true crime / horror podcast even further and impress some of the other popular people in her class along the way. This Halloween party has to be epic so Noelle obviously has to hire a ‘murderous clown’… but is he acting a little too well??

This was a fantastic debut novel! If you’re looking for a ya slasher with humor, nostalgia, and of course, slashings- you’ll enjoy There’s No Way I’d Die First!

Enjoy the thrills and chills of a good horror movie? Want to be in a real-life thrasher film? Noelle Layne is an expert in horror and wants to up her podcast to superstar heights by throwing a frightening Halloween party. But will this party get her fame or death? There's No Way I'd Die First brings back the one-by-one deaths of Scream and I know what you did last summer. This body horror and blood-splattering novel will bring back horrid memories of murderous clowns. While the frights are enjoyable, the characters are not so enjoyable. They are spoiled, entitled, and not very relatable.

This was so fun and had everything I love about a book wrapped into one book. I really cannot wait to read more from this author.

There's No Way I'd Die First masterfully pays homage to the beloved slasher films of the 80s and 90s while injecting a fresh, modern twist into the genre. With impeccable writing that seamlessly blends nostalgia and contemporary elements, the film is a love letter to the iconic tropes of classic horror. The story unfolds with a perfect balance of suspense and humor, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats while also delivering clever nods to the genre's roots. The characters, reminiscent of those we've come to love and fear, are brought to life with depth and charisma. As the plot unfolds, the film skillfully subverts expectations, offering a thrilling ride for both seasoned horror enthusiasts and a new generation of viewers. There's No Way I'd Die First is a delightful and engaging addition to the slasher genre, proving that a well-crafted blend of old and new can yield a truly memorable cinematic experience.