There's a lot of love for the genre here. Care is given to building tension and not being predictable. The characters were a tad unlikable in a lingering way that slowed things down for me. If your a reader who loves the drama of reality television and slasher movies this is winning combo.

What an awesome read!!! i love camper / slasher genre!

When Willow sends a thoughtless and tweet that isn't what she expects, her life as a television star begins to deteriorate she checks herself into Camp Castaway. This is a camp to just get away and get away from the outside world all for adults.

The Character build is great, ghost story and humor along with a little gory details. This is not fast paced but not slow paced either.

Will recommend and read more from this author. Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Summer camp slasher. But without the teenage angst. This was so good! I love slashers so much and is definitely one of my new favorites!

I really enjoyed the summer vibes and horror.vibes with this one. I do wish there was a bit more.to it but overall it was a great summer horror book!

Thanks to Netgalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for letting me read an eARC of Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning. Heads Will Roll is a solid slasher that is a very brisk and fun read, in large part due to great character development. Willow is a great final girl with an interesting backstory. The backstory makes it so that as Willow goes through trying to survive, you root for her because she is also striving to become a better person. The other campers are also great and add to the intrigue as Willows tries to uncover who or what is exactly killing the campers. I highly recommend Heads Will Roll for people who love slashers but also for people who love a really cool thriller.

Move over Camp Sleepaway, and hello, Camp Castaway! What a fun, campy thriller this was! It could have easily been a five-star read for me, but there were moments when the writing leaned a bit too much into YA territory. Still, I had an absolute blast reading it!

Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning offers a thrilling story of suspense. The story follows Willow, a disgraced sitcom star sent to Camp Castaway, a remote retreat meant for those escaping their past. But the camp soon turns sinister with vanishing campers and eerie threats. While the pacing can lag, the suspense and intriguing twists make it a gripping read. If you enjoy psychological thrillers with a dark edge, this book is worth a look.

Willow is a celebrity who finds herself in need of a getaway after a tweet she posts goes viral and gets her cancelled. Her agent suggests the perfect place, Camp Castaway in upper New York. The camp has a strict no electronics policy—no phones, no internet. Campers are not even allowed to use their real names. This seems like the perfect place for Willow to take a step back, and decide what she wants to do next. Unfortunately Willow finds herself in danger as one by one the campers are disappearing and losing their heads, literally.

This was a great summer camp slasher story. Everyone is a suspect and there are lots of crazy characters with back stories which provide perfect motives. It had some really good moments and some good action but it tended to drag in the middle. The ending felt a little forced but overall it was a fun ride that will satisfy the slasher fan.

3 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

After being canceled for a misconstrued tweet, a sitcom actor- Willow- flees to a summer camp where no phones are allowed and everyone goes by a chosen alias. Hoping that being off the grid will help her mental health, the summer takes a dark turn when a camper disappears and an urban legend seemingly comes to life. This is my second venture into Josh Winning’s catalog, and I liked this one so much better than my first foray. This is a really fun summer camp slasher, with real heart at the center and a fun, distinct full cast of characters. A collection of canceled misfits try to reckon with what brought them to camp, heal, and ultimately fight to survive. It’s bloody, it’s fast paced, and the central mystery of just who is doing all this slashing is really great. Great atmosphere throughout and a solid, compelling protagonist you root for to be the final girl make this a really great entry into the summer slasher canon!

This review will post on my instagram @boozehoundbookclub

Give me a summer camp slasher and I’m a happy gal. I loved that this camp was for adults who basically needed to hid away from society for doing something bad. I really enjoyed willow, our FMC, and her idol juniper. The middle got a bit too slow burn for my taste, but the ending more than made up for it

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started Heads Will Roll. This was an excellent Summer Camp Slasher. If you want a Friday the 13th vibe minus the Teenage campers, look no further—you found it. Instead of Teenagers, we get people who have been canceled or are trying to stay off the grid for a while. Also, let's HEAR it for LGBTQ Representation. While the subplot romance is fast, it sets up a nice distraction from the mayhem.

Seriously, this would make a great movie or series on Netflix. I would love to see these characters come to life.

As the Creepy season approaches, it's the perfect time to turn off the lights, grab a blanket, light a fire, and immerse yourself in the chilling world of Heads Will Roll. Get ready for a spine-tingling experience that will keep you locked in till the end.

Thank you to NetGalley, Josh Winning, and Penguin Group Putnam Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC Copy of this in return for an honest review.

I can’t say I loved this read but I didn’t hate it! It was decent! I have a few friends that I would totally reccomendnthisbtoo!

Thank you Net Galley and Publishers for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

Overall this was an enjoyable 90's slasher style book. Cancel culture meets summer camp. It was just ok, nothing amazing. I did read it in 2 days so it's really fast paced and easy to read, but nothing stood out to me. I didn't really connect with Willow or any of the characters and I felt like it rushed a bit too much. I love a good summer camp goes wrong story though so all-in-all it was fun.

There is truly nothing better than a good camp slasher! Having adults be the campers and the ones to experience the terror was a nice change since most camp slashers are about high schoolers. I was sucked in right away and was kept guessing for the whole story. This is a great read for someone who wants to read more horror but doesn't want graphic details.

Neat idea of a camp for adults needing to escape the world. Definitely does a good job of providing an "I'm all alone out here" angle! This would be a cool movie.

I love a good slasher and this is a very good one. A classic summer camp in the woods with modern twist. A group of flawed but interesting characters. A slasher with a fascinating back story. And a lead character who I truly lived following. Some great scares, a lot of loose heads and plenty of blood. What more can you ask for!?

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam as well as Josh Winning for this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
#NetGalley #PenguinGroupPutnam #JoshWinning #HeadsWillRoll

Title: Heads Will Roll
Author: Josh Winning
Format: eBook
Publisher: Penguin Group Putnam
Publication Date: July 30, 2024

Themes: Summer Camp, friendship, urban legend, supernatural, slasher, human monster, celebrity lifestyle, social media, cancel culture, LGBTQ+, religious beliefs, cult

Trigger Warnings: some blood, urban legend/scary ghost story, paranormal, mental illness, anxiety/panic attacks, depression, religion, suicide attempt, cancer, parental death

I loved Josh Winning’s first novel, “Burn the Negative” so much and thus was very excited to receive this one as an ARC from the publisher. This new story is about a young celebrity who has recently been canceled as a result of an ill-received tweet. She has just lost her job, her home, and her fiance’ and has sunk the last of her money into a summer camp that promises to revitalize her life through digital detox and nature therapy. Camp seems to be working out well until campers suddenly start disappearing. Could there be something to the story of “Knock Knock Nancy” that our protagonist is told about her first night? It couldn’t be real. Could it?

There’s something very approachable and relatable about Josh’s writing style. It’s easy to read and easy to understand. I enjoyed being introduced to each character and learning their various stories. We actually learn surprisingly little at a time of each character, but especially our main protagonist. We know that she has recently been fired from a T.V. show called “We Love Willow” in which she plays the titular character, as a result of a poorly received tweet. She chooses her camp name as Willow, so we don’t even learn her real name until the very end. This goes a long way in keeping my interest high. The author handed out little tidbits about each character and their story in order to build mystery. It kept things interesting and difficult to guess where the story went. Super clever! I could feel the author’s connection to the story through the characters’ and their experiences. It helped me connect as well.

The creepy summer camp thing is a fantastic trope. Weave in a ghost story that appears to come true and it’s all I need. I enjoyed the ride a lot but I didn’t love the ending. I can’t exactly communicate why. It just felt off. The reveal was a little bit of a disappointment. I liked how it all unfolded but I didn’t love the whole result. I guess this book was about the journey rather than the destination.

All in all, I’m a Josh Winning fan. I still love “Burn the Negative” most, but I enjoyed this book too. Josh is very good at establishing his characters and their emotions. This book is a treat for the summer camp slasher fans out there.

The nitty-gritty: Josh Winning mixes slasher horror and cancel culture in his latest, an entertaining blend of elements with layered characters and plenty of blood.

Heads Will Roll was lots of fun, even if there were a few story elements that didn’t make sense. This is yet another entry into the “camp slasher horror” sub genre that seems to be everywhere these days, and frankly, it’s one of the better ones. The characters are a ton of fun, and I loved Winning’s commentary on cancel culture, which is a hot button topic with plenty to discuss (I myself have some strong opinions on it!). And yes, a lot of heads are chopped off, just like the title suggests, and the author did some interesting things with perspective during these scenes. Fans of slashers should definitely pick this up, especially if you’re a fan of Josh Winning.

Willow was a famous TV sitcom star, but after a foolish tweet, she’s been fired from her job, has lost her house, money and fiancé, and worst of all, Willow has been canceled. With nothing left to lose, she’s decided to join an “electronics free” camp for a couple of weeks, where no cell phones, iPads or other electronics are allowed. It’s the perfect plan, since she wants to avoid social media and her sudden status as a pariah at all costs.

Willow has cut and dyed her hair so no one will recognize her, and at first it seems to  work. She arrives at Camp Castaway (or "Camp Cancel" as the residents call it) and meets her fellow campers, including camp mom Bebe, a rather stern woman who insists on group therapy sessions and yoga classes. It all feels like typical camp stuff, and even going without her cell phone isn’t so bad. But then one of the campers goes missing and a body turns up—without a head. Suddenly the local legend of Knock Knock Nancy, a girl who was brutally killed by decapitation and whose spirit seeks revenge, doesn’t sound so crazy. As the bodies start to pile up, all with missing heads, Willow and her camp friend Dani must uncover the truth before they lose their heads.

I loved Willow’s character, and the author gave her just enough layers to make her relatable. “Willow” is actually the name of the character she played on her TV show, We Love Willow, but the campers are encouraged not to use their real names. Winning keeps the famous tweet that started the whole thing under wraps until much later in the story, which I thought was a good idea, since it kept me flipping pages to see what could possibly be so bad that everyone would turn against her. When we finally learn what the cringey tweet was, it all makes sense. Willow has been fighting with her happy-go-lucky TV persona, the person everyone expects her to be, but she’s finally ready to admit who she really is and hopefully put this whole mess behind her.

I liked the other characters as well. It’s typical for mysteries of this type to cast suspicion on all of the characters, just to throw off the reader, and Winning does a solid job of it. Sure, some of them feel like stereotypes, but it was all good fun. Like Chef Jeff, for example, the creepy camp’s chef who keeps to himself. Or Sadie, Bebe’s mentally disturbed sister who breaks into cabins and has a collection of dolls’ heads. Or even Bebe, who finds an illicit iPod and smashes it with an axe. The pacing is excellent, with the murders spaced out so there’s never a dull moment. And of course, the more you get to know and like the characters, the more suspenseful the story becomes. I was on pins and needles each time the point of view shifted to someone other than Willow, because I knew what was coming!

And I have to admit I was intrigued by the whole We Love Willow idea. On the show, one of the characters is Willow’s imaginary friend Eliza who only she can see (although on Halloween, everyone can see imaginary friends!), and I would actually love to read a story about Willow and Eliza.

I did have a few issues with the story, though. There are quite a few plot holes, and like most slashers, you have to suspend your disbelief. Now I’m not an expert, but can someone who’s had their head chopped off still see and hear and form cohesive thoughts in those moments right after? I mean, I guess it’s possible, but there was one scene in particular that made me go “hmmm…” There were also some weird connections between the characters that were sort of ridiculous, and while I understand they were needed for the plot, I did roll my eyes a few times.

The whole Twitter thing was a little strange as well. I know that people still refer to “X” as Twitter and the word “tweeting” is still used a lot, but it did feel a little dated here. Willow makes a comment about it at one point, saying something like “X, or whatever it’s called now,” so clearly the story takes place in the present. But the term “cancel culture” has been around for a while, so technically Winning could have set his story in 2022 or 2023 before Twitter became X and I wouldn’t have had any complaints. 

But aside from my silly nit-picking, I really did have fun with Heads Will Roll. Josh Winning has a talent for bringing his characters to life, and the fact that he took a well worn trope and made it fresh and interesting gets bonus points from me. 

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

TW/CW: Drinking, language, death of parents, anxiety, homophobia, depression, panic attack, toxic relationships, death by suicide (attempt), bullying, family drama, gory scenes, blood, cancer

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
After sitcom star Willow tweeted herself into infamy and had to be dragged blind-drunk out of a swimming pool, her agent shipped her off to the woodsy and wonderfully anonymous confines of Camp Castaway. Tucked away in the trees of upstate New York, Castaway is a summer camp for adults in desperate need of leaving behind their mistakes, their social media accounts, their lives. No real names, no phones…no way to call for help.Willow is relieved to find that her fellow campers seem okay. To her shock, her own favorite actress is here, sitting by the campfire and roasting a s’more. And did that jaded writer, Dani, just wink at her? But the peaceful vibe is shattered when a terrifying woman pops shrieking from the wardrobe in Willow’s room. Soon after, one of the campers vanishes
Release Date: July 30th, 2024
Genre: Horror
Pages: 320
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Loving that cover 🙌🏻
2. Pansexual rep
3. Love that the chapters change names when it is the victim that dies
4. Kept me guessing
5. Loved the creepy vibes
6. Very atmospheric

What I Didn't Like:
1. Canceled mentioned so much
2. Insta-romance popping up after a day
3. Ending felt weird

Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}

We don't even know who our main woman is because she is never introduced to anybody instead she introduces herself at camp to Tye as Willow, the character she's been playing for so long. I wonder if this is going to come back that maybe this was her whole personality and she's disconnecting from reality because she's constantly being this fictional character.

I found it weird that the camp groundskeeper was able to recognize the people that got there. I've never heard of a camp prelooking at people before they show up, but perhaps he knows her from her show that is aimed at kids. I'm still sus of his actions.

It's crazy that a person that is staying at the camp is missing but the lead counselor doesn't even really care where he's at. He's been missing for a full day and she's pretty much like no Buck's fine. Bebe is like the camp mom and she pretty much holds the whole camp together. Her nonchalant attitude about a person missing though is 100% completely insane.

So Bebe has a sister, Sadie that has mental problems and then attacks Willow in her room.

Keeping count we currently have;
• A random sister character attacking people with vague words
• Buck is missing
• Texts being sent out about a "she"
• Seems like gay people are being sent to this camp to be killed

As you progress in the book we learn that "Willow" is never allowed to be herself. She always has to be on and be this image of the character on tv. Even when she's with her boyfriend she had to order the right food, or not want to watch a horror movie, or even talking about what she does in her free time. It gets to the point where she can't even tell people about her sexuality, that she is queer.

One of the two people that are sending text back and forth about the murders is definitely love bombing the other one to do all these killings.

Now Kat is the one that's been killed. Seems like she had a disagreement with another influencer named Roxanne and Roxanne tormented her to the brink of wanting to take her own life.

It's like day two and Willow is in this relationship with Dani already.

We finally figure out what Willow said that got her quote canceled. She said "better luck next time", which is a motto of the show she was on whenever she messed up as a defense towards the government going against gay marriages. Misty is mad at Willow for being different than the image she had portrayed on tv and on social media. This takes us back to the conversation that was brought up about parasocial relationships. I'm just happy that Willow admitted her faults and who she is.

Dani is apart of the gossip goblin that destroyed Willow's life. After Willow blows up at Dani of course Dani acts like she's the victim and actually gets mad at Willow telling her maybe she'll get her wish and it will be the end of the world. Can I just take a second and say how hilarious it was hearing that Willow was shocked that Dani wasn't the person that she's known for - brace yourself all of 3 days. Who knows someone... really knows someone after 3 days???

Willow runs into Juniper and Juniper tells her that she needs to get over what's happened to her because it's not the end of the days. She then tells her in a hundred years no one will remember any of this but it's weird because she uses an analogy of Bettie Davis' issues and drama as an excuse of how they overcame things, but it's been almost a hundred years since that happened so it seems like a moot point.

Just too odd that Buck is the only surviver but everyone else thst was taken has ended up dead.

Loved how Juniper went out. She fought the person and then even went out with a "cut" before being killed by the ax. Fantastic death. If this was Dead Meat she'd get the award for best death.Like a true badass she didn't die this way.

Dani had the photo Willow's brother and she happened to miss everything going on. She is apart of everything. She is planting doubt into Willow's mind by saying Misty had the photo and fame id's.

Misty was a catfisher and was on Catfish the show when someone tracked her down. {{{ First of all it doesn't work like that. I was actually contacted by my old pen pal that o stopped talking to when MTV casting got ahold of me because of him. The team from Catfish called and said I was being asked to do the show and they would pay me. I said no and that was the end of it.}}} They can't legally put you on tv without your consent. So this whole character development for a Misty is not even right.

You're telling me that it's the preacher. The preacher that is in his 60s/70s and is able to run, have super strength, and survive an accident. Also there were 4 women and none of them could take down one man??? He manages to kill Bebe (his daughter), Juniper, and Misty. Okay then. Dani is alive.

We still need to know who is working with Bebe's father (the texts).

The ending - sigh. Kurt is the one helping the preacher to kill everyone. Of course Courtney, Kurt's sister dies by suicide. Isn't she like the 4th person in this book that has either attempted or completed it? I wish the author would be more creative in those deaths.

Ahhh Willow is Rebecca. Now we have an actual name for her.

Final Thoughts:
I would say my main issue with this book is that there is a killer on the loose and people are disappearing, but it seems like "Willow" has a one track mind with just being with Dani. It's completely hit over your head constantly that Willow wants to be with her. Anytime they're alone or doing anything Dani can literally touch Willow and that's like the whole focus of the scene now. It really took me out of some creepy scenes that I think would have been great if this insta-romance wasn't there.

Book was fun! Kept me guessing the whole time. I loved how creepy some parts were and the characters trying to figure out what was going on.

I didn't like the ending. I thought the texts between Kurt and preacher were flirty more than two people working together. Plus I find it impossible to think a man in hus 60s or 70s could behind so many things thst wound take strength.

PS i seriously couldn't stop singing "Heads Will Roll" from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. If you get a chance watch the music video for it. So great!

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Thanks to Netgalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Heads Will Roll
Josh Winning

Ok, so ...

I grew up on R.L. Stein and Fear Street and then early King in my teens.
And I've continued my reading of horror throughout the years.
While I love literary horror and weird, speculative, horror-adjacent stories, it's really nice to read something that reminds you of all the feelings you first had when you grew to love horror, and the things that made it so cool to you as a kid... just in a more grown up context. That's what this felt like.

It felt like watching one of my favorite slashers in my room, at 14 years old, in the early 90's... super late at night. I loved it.

I will be recommending this to anyone who is looking to just have a blast with a super fun, gory horror novel.

4/5

Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Group, and Josh Winning for this ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.