BLURB
'Freddie Gellar didn't mean to get half the rival high school arrested. She'd simply heard shrieks coming from the woods, so she'd called the cops like any good human would do. How was she supposed to know it was just kids partying?
Except the next day, a body is found. And while the local sheriff might call it suicide, Freddie's instincts tell her otherwise. So, like the aspiring sleuth (and true X-Files aficionado) she is, Freddie sets out to prove there's a murderer at large.
But her investigation is quickly disrupted by the rivalry between her school and the school of the partying teens she got arrested. For over twenty years now, the two student bodies have had an ongoing prank war, and Freddie's failed attempt at Good Samaritanism has upped the ante. Big time. Worse, the clever―and gorgeous―leader of the rival prank squad has set his sights on Freddie.
As more pranks unfurl, more bodies also start piling up in the forest. But it's the supernatural warning signs around town―each plucked straight from an old forgotten poem called "The Executioners Three"―that worry Freddie the most. She knows the poem and its blood curse can't be real, but she's quickly running out of time to prove it.
Because the murderer―or executioners?―knows she's onto them now, and their next target might just be Freddie.'
MY THOUGHTS
Set in 1990s small town America, Freddie Gellar (yeah, I see what you did there Susan Dennard and I heartily approve 👏 🤣) hears a scream in the night from the woods, makes a concerned call to law enforcement and gets half the neighbouring school arrested. Overnight she goes from nobody to Prank Queen and school hero with all the prestige that comes with.
Now part of her schools Prank Squad Freddie had to up her game but what has started as rivalry between two schools gets much darker when dead bodies start turning up. Add in mysterious poetry and the town's dark past and the pace really picks up.
There is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet vibe going on too (ok, maybe more than 'a bit of', it's gone full on R&J but that's stated by the characters in the book anyway).
There is a definite sense of peril that runs through the book from page 1 but the mystery and the romance angle balanced it out to make a very fulfilling read.
The feel of the book was very 90s - think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I Know What You Did Last Summer, X-Files with a bit of Scooby Doo in there too. It's a nailed on 5/5 stars for me.
Thank you to Black Crow PR for inviting me onto this review tour (check out below for the other reviewers) and to Daphne Press for supplying the review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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