How to Survive Your Murder

YA ultra chiller 

     Alice and Claire were sisters, chums, and opposites.  Alice, protagonest of Danielle Valentine's How to Survive Your Murder, is anxious and introverted.  She watches slasher movies to learn how to be the final girl, the survivor, in real life.  She aspires to become a forensic pathologist.  And she hates parties.

     Claire courted the limelight as much as Alice avoided it.  She was a star in their high school's plays, carrying out imaginative strategies to snag plum roles.  She was flamboyant, confident, and popular.  And, as you've probably guessed by now, she loved parties.

     It was a party that brought the sisters to a parting of the ways.  It was Halloween.  A schoolmate, Chloe had thrown a party featuring "scary chainsaw guys chasing people through the corn maze" which she'd rented for the night.  Claire had insisted that Alice come with her.  When Alice had refused to enter the maze.  Claire had tried to persuade her with "If you don't come with me I might die"...

     ...words that proved shockingly prophetic.

     The narrative begins a year after the murder.  Claire's alleged killer is about to go on trial.  He's pleading not guilty.  The case has played out big time on social media with many people taking his side, claiming that if he's convicted the state will be imprisoning an innocent man.

     Alice meets up with one of them in a courthouse ladies rooms before the trial starts.  They exchange words.  Right before the bathroom door hits her in the head, knocking her out Alice hears the other girl make a cryptic statement: it'll be helpful if you remember that you asked for this.

     When Alice wakes up she isn't on the bathroom floor or in a hospital.  She's with a very much alive Claire.  It's the night of the Halloween party.  The would be killer is out there ready to strike.

     Plus Alice meets up with the girl she met up with in the bathroom and learns about her supernatural powers.  Alice has been sent into the past to learn the truth about what happened.  If she succeeds she gets to change the narrative.  If she doesn't she returns to return to a present in which Claire is dead.

     If she herself dies...

     ...game over.  And, like Cinderella, she has a midnight deadline.

     Here is where I have a confession to make.  This book is the literary equivalent of the movie Hocus Pocus.  The narrative unfolds in a series of perils and short reprieves with the terror never letting up.  When I was about halfway through the book I became uncomfortably aware of the darkness surrounding the house, the nocturnal outside noises, and the fact that, with Eugene at camp, Tobago and I were HOME ALONE!!!  I wanted to be able to sleep.  So I sensibly set the book aside for broad daylight.

     The YA demographics are very wide, encompassing everyone from kids just starting middle school to high schoolers on the verge of graduation.  How to Survive Your Murder is a superbly crafted roller coaster ride of a chiller, perfect for teens (and the many adult adults who have discovered the superiority of YA literature to anything offered in the adult section) who enjoy the unremitting suspense, but not for the the younger and/or more sensitive set..

     ...especially on moonless nights with normally innocuous outside noises taking on sinister undertones.

On a purrrsonal note, heading up to this blog's 12th anniversary I realized that I've written and posted nearly 2,400 reviews which works out to about 200 a year.  In my mind that's something to be proud of.  As long as we can we intend to give you fresh content on a regular basis.  Right, Tobaggo?  (Jules)

You betcha!!!  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to you, our readers.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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