How to Survive a Horror Movie

4⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am very new to this genre. I’m not a big fan of horror, and I’ve barely watched horror movies. So this was a fresh start, a jumpstart into the genre.

A horror-fan girl finds herself trapped in her very remote school where strange suicides start happening, so many that they were named as the Suicide Squad. Now, she has to race against time to find the actual killer, or she will be the next target.

❤️Lovely
• I loved the atmosphere which was chilling and entrapping. The book had a kind of oldish feel (with TVs and CDs and the references to horror movies), which added to the eerie atmosphere.
• The plot was strong, the twist amazing Everything worked out perfectly and the pacing never once felt off
• The writing show more flowed easily, and it was simple to understand.
• The FMC’s relationship with Olive was fun and lovely, and the way they always ended up discovering bodies was hilarious. There was gore, yes, but handled in a way that worked.
• I loved how the chapter titles were framed as rules on how not to die in a horror movie which felt original and intriguing
• I didn't guess a single thing until the end, that might be because I was suspecting every single person. I also thought that maybe it's a psychological thriller with multiple personality disorders or something like that. But anyhow, I didn’t guess the killer, and the ending absolutely shocked me. The twist was strong and the final reveal made me gasp.
• We saw Charlie’s mental strength wane as she slipped into paranoia- it made her character more real and believable.
• We also saw her resilience-first hiding her secret, then finally opening up. Her entire arc was amazing.

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Charlie is a new transfer student to a boarding school for girls on a remote island in the UK. She and her roommate Olive have bonded over their love of slasher flicks. When students of the boarding school start turning up dead, their life becomes one of their beloved films and they have to use their horror film savvy to stay alive.

This book would be a fun one to read for a horror themed book club with teenagers. I think they would have fun bouncing ideas off each other and guessing who they think the killer is as they read along.

The title of each chapter has a different rule with advice you should follow if you want to be the "final girl" and survive a horror movie.

When reading this book, I went back and forth between the audiobook show more and a hard copy. The audiobook is well paced and entertaining, but the narrator had an American accent when the book is clearly set in the UK, which I thought was odd.

The author Scarlett Dunmore has stated, "This book is a homage to all the great horror movie directors, to Romero and Craven and Carpenter, and to all the film fans too." This book would be a great recommendation for fans of scary movies, particularly slasher flicks.

How to Survive a Horror Movie won the Southern Schools Book Award, and was short-listed for the Nero Book Awards, and the Redbridge School Awards. show less

I thought the ghost aspect was interesting but overall I was not impressed. I deff predicted the ending and for a character who was supposed to be genre savvy the protag made soooo many bad choices.

Also, this was an issue with the audiobook not the text itself; why on earth did they not hire a British voice actress? They had an American narrating the book but its set in Ireland and using British terminology and slang. The whole thing was very odd.

also, SPOILERS for the end....
You cant just straight up murder someone in cold blood and face no consequences. The villain was down for the count and the protag murdered them. Double tap does not apply for normal humans.

Charlie transfers to an elite private girls boarding school on a remote island. Her only friend is her roommate. The two bond over their shared passion for horror movies. When deaths of sixth year students start piling up and Charlie starts seeing their ghosts, she starts investigating who is behind these murders (even though no one else really believes her).