In this campy love letter to the slasher films of the 1980s, seven friends reunite for a weekend of fun—only to be hunted down by a cold-blooded killer. But the real horror is not being able to escape who you were in high school…

The sleepy town of Cedar Lake Falls is best known as the shooting location of the campy ’80s horror flick Slasher. In high school, preppy Patrick, jock Jason, cheerleader Tiffany, stoner Freddy, goth Jennifer, and nerdy Michael had played the cast of Slasher during midnight showings, with virginal Carrie as the Final Girl, of course.

Years later, the friends reunite at the remote cabin where Slasher was filmed. They’ve changed since high school—Patrick came out, Mikey bulked up, and, well, Freddy’s still stoned—and they’re looking forward to a weekend to catch up. But when night falls, and the eponymous masked killer is spotted, the reunion takes a deadly turn. The friends discover their tires deflated and the phone line disconnected, and soon they’re being stalked by a mysterious assailant. Is someone trying to make their Slasher experience as authentic as possible?

One thing is for sure. Before the night is over, they each will have to take on the role they thought they’d left behind.

I received a complimentary copy of the audiobook of this title courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This one is a tough review for me, mostly because I’m 100% a slasher movie lover and I really wanted to love it. I grew up in the ’80s, basically raised on cheesy, gory slasher flicks, and I went into this book hoping for exactly that kind of fun. What I got instead felt like an amateur version of Scream.

The setup follows a group of friends who, in high school, used to reenact scenes from an ’80s horror movie called Slasher during midnight showings back in the day. Years later, they all reunite at the actual cabin where the movie was filmed, ready to catch up and relive some nostalgia. But once night falls and someone spots a masked figure that looks exactly like the killer from the movie, things go sideways fast. Their tires get slashed, the phone line goes dead, and bodies begin to pile up.

My biggest problem with this book is how much time it spends explaining slasher tropes and referencing classic horror movies. For people who genuinely love this genre (and I’d count myself firmly in that camp), none of that explanation is necessary. We already know the rules. Having them spelled out made the book feel like it was written for an audience that’s never seen a slasher movie before, rather than trusting genre fans to already be in on it. I also grew tired of the constant horror movie references, and found it a little eye roll worthy that three of the male characters were named Freddy, Jason, and Michael. It all felt a little too on the nose.

On the positive side, the kills themselves are fun and appropriately gory, which is non-negotiable for a good slasher. But the first half of the book drags more than it should, spending a lot of time on setup and explanation before the real tension kicks in. Pacing wise, this book really needed to trust its audience more and move faster through the setup. The reveal at the end works fine and does its job, but even then I was never able to shake the feeling that I was just reading Scream fan fiction.

I did an immersive read on this one, and the audiobook was just okay. A lot of the voice actors sounded like they were phoning it in, and the performances never felt especially cohesive as a group. It was pretty clear that most of them were just reading the script rather than actually acting it, so eventually I gave up on the audio and switched to just reading the physical book instead.

If you’re a horror fan who’s newer to the slasher genre specifically, this could genuinely work well for you. For someone like me who’s been steeped in this stuff since childhood, it landed as a whole lot of been there, done that.