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[katara]

Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen

Genre:
Horror, Slasher, Netgalley, Mystery, Thriller, Dark Academia, Academia, Dark, Summerween, Summer Reads, Halloween Vibe, Fiction

Publication Date:
October 19, 2020

Page Numbers:
242

Read/Finished Date:
September 2nd, 2025 - September 3rd, 2025

Rating:
2/5

Premise:

Everyone at Pritchett High wants an invitation to the Senior Scavenge. In 2020, Violet Warren and her friends are the lucky ones. Eight girls will break into the Poison Apple Carnival after hours for a scavenger hunt, then at sunrise they’ll gather for a celebration in honor of their upcoming senior year.

But someone else has another game planned. Minutes after the girls sneak into the carnival, a madman in a rubber mask begins slashing his way through the group and Violet quickly realizes his motives are personal. As she watches her friends die in a series of increasingly bizarre attacks, she must fight to survive while trying to answer the question: What could she have done to earn a fast-pass for a roller coaster ride straight to hell?

Review:

Okay, I love Slasher stories. I grew up on Freddy Krueger, Jason, and Michael Myers. I always had Christopher Pike books tucked in my purse during my middle school years. So, I was happy to see a rather interesting take on the slasher genre. Unfortunately, this one fell short of what a slasher book should be. There was no fast pace. No edge of your seat. There was no lead-up to the big reveal of who was behind it.

On the other hand, it seemed predictable. There was really no character development and there was nothing likeable about any of them. And the storyline seemed to slow itself at a snail's pace. There were considered moments where I wanted to stop reading the book altogether, but I wanted to see if I was missing someething...if the book was just messing with me and it was bound to sieze my interest if I continued.

It did not.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC.