Brimming with dark humor, violence, and mystery, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is a blood-soaked slasher sure to keep readers cringing, laughing, and guessing until the very last page.

Rose DuBois is not your average final girl.

Rose is in her late 70s, living out her golden years at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home.

When one of her friends dies alone in her apartment, Rose isn’t too concerned. Accidents happen, especially at this age!

Then another resident drops dead. And another. With bodies stacking up, Rose can’t help but wonder: are these accidents? Old age? Or something far more sinister?

Together with her best friend Miller, Rose begins to investigate. The further she digs, the more convinced she becomes: there’s a killer on the loose at Autumn Springs, and if she isn’t careful, Rose may be their next victim.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

This book has been on my radar for several months. When the ARC approval came through, I wanted to drop everything and dive in right away. But I forced myself to clear the rest of my stack first. Worth it? Absolutely. This was the perfect fall read.

I know I’ve said this a bajillion times, but I’m a slasher fan through and through. It’s the horror subgenre I return to again and again and Fracassi knows what makes a slasher tick. What I especially loved is that with this book, he delivers it with a sharp twist: the final girl isn’t a plucky teenage camp counselor, babysitter, or college student. She’s Rose, a woman in her seventies, living out her days in a retirement home where the body count starts piling up.

That premise alone is brilliant. Slashers often lean on youth and recklessness, but here we get a cast of seniors who bring a lifetime of grit, humor, and hard-earned perspective into the mix. Rose and her friends don’t just stumble into the mystery; they carry it with them, proving that resilience doesn’t fade with age. I rooted Rose harder than I have for most teenage scream queens.

And let’s be clear: just because the cast is older doesn’t mean the horror is watered down. Far from it. The kills are vicious and creative. The pacing moves fast, with the mystery always bubbling underneath the gore. Per usual, I kept trying to play detective, running through suspects in my head, but I never saw the reveal coming. That alone earns the book extra credit.

Tone-wise, Fracassi balances things beautifully. There’s dark humor threaded through the horror, which helps offset the violence without softening it. This isn’t cozy horror. It’s sharp, bloody, and unflinching. But it’s also a story about friendship, loyalty, and what it means to keep fighting long after the world expects you to sit down quietly.

Since I did a tandem read with the audiobook, I have to mention January Lavoy’s narration. She’s one of my favorites, and once again she nails it. Her delivery is crisp, expressive, and perfectly in sync with the tone of the book. She makes Rose and her friends come alive, adding warmth and grit to their voices while ratcheting up the tension in the scarier moments. If you’re on the fence about format, the audiobook is a stellar option.

By the end, I was grinning like a horror fan who just got everything they wanted: a fresh take on a beloved genre, characters who stick with you, and kills that would make any slasher villain proud.

If slashers are your thing, you need this on your fall TBR. I highly recommend it to horror fans looking to shake up their autumn reading list with something bloody, clever, and surprisingly heartfelt. If you’ve ever wanted to see what happens when the “final girl” trope is handed to someone who’s lived a whole life already, you need this. And if you’re just curious whether a book with “retirement home massacre” in the title can actually pull it off, trust me, it does.