Release date: September 5 2024
Publisher: Usborne Books
Pages: 352
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4.25/5 stars

Synopsis

Horror movie enthusiast Charley is determined to keep a low profile when she’s enrolled to a girls’ boarding school on a remote island. That is, until someone starts killing off her senior class! From elaborate scare tactics to severed heads in fridges, Charley has found herself at the centre of a teen horror movie. And that’s not the only alarming thing that’s happening – she’s now seeing the ghosts of her former classmates!? Haunted by her peers, and with everyone beginning to suspect her, Charley decides to do something about it. She and her only best friend Olive are going to solve the murders and find out who’s killing off the class before graduation. Charley just needs those pesky ghosts to shut up and give her a hand…

A fast-paced tongue-in-cheek YA novel about two friends trying to survive senior year – literally!

Review

How To Survive a Horror Movie is a brilliantly fun and gripping YA horror tale that follows Charley as she starts at a girl’s boarding school on a remote island. Soon someone begins murdering members of the senior class. When Charley starts to see the ghosts of her former classmates she knows only she will be able to find out who’s really behind the murders.

I absolutely loved this one! It was gripping, fast paced and full of horror references. The story was well executed and there were plenty of twists and turns. This story is very much a homage to slasher films and is absolutely perfect reading for spooky season. I liked our main protagonist Charley, she was a vivid main character and felt like a realistic teenage girl, making mistakes and being scared in such a terrifying situation.

I loved the remote island setting and Dunmore does a great job building tension with the dark and creepy scenes. There’s also some moments that are pretty funny too as Charley attempts to navigate solving the murders with several ghosts following her around. The story does a great job of keeping you guessing and there are a few scenes that are really creepy. This is quite a quick read at just over 300 pages so if you’re looking for something a bit shorter that you won’t want to put down, How To Survive a Horror Movie should definitely be your next read.