[Review, Horror] You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury YA, 2023)

Genre: Horror, Camp Setting

Demographic: Young Adult

Length: 242 pages, 6 hours 14 minutes

Content Advisory: This work contains moderate horror themes, gun violence, death and murder, and animal cruelty.

Representation: Black MC written by Black Author, Sapphic MC

Links: Goodreads, Storygraph

For fans of B-grade horror films You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is a fast-paced thrilling ride.

You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight feels like a distillation of eighties and nineties horror movies in the novel format. Beat for beat it recreates the charm of these movies; setup the spooky setting, have one or two spooky events happen but don’t immediately set up the red flag for our cast, heighten the danger at the conclusion of act one, investigate while ratcheting up the tension and danger, leading into the conclusion of the mystery and the final confrontation, that is halted by a twist ending, epilogue/denouement. On a beat-by-beat level Bayron hits all our favourites and for the most part, makes it work with a main character fit for the role. However, because both our wider setting and antagonists lack depth the story ends up feeling like certain events only happen because that is what is supposed to happen next in accordance with the “horror rules.”

Our main character, Charity the Final Girl, has worked at Camp Mirror Lake for several summers. Camp Mirror Lake is the ominous setting of a fictional horror movie, The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake, now a horror simulation owned by the absentee Mr Lamount and run by teenage staff. They spend their summers scaring guests by reenacting all of the audience’s favourite horror tropes and scenes from the movie with the Final Girl leading the charge. Recently promoted Charity thrives in this role despite its difficulties. The camp is understaffed, with many teens just ditching halfway through the season, and old and run down with dated facilities and lack of cellphone reception. Despite excelling at playing a fictional final girl Charity finds herself out of her depth when real horror comes knocking on the teens’ doorstep.

Rounding out the cast is Charity’s best friend Tasha, their mutual friend Paige an amateur reporter and confessed horror fanatic who knows all the rules, her kind-hearted girlfriend Bezi, seasoned operator Kyle, and tag-a-longs Porter and Javier. Of the group Paige is the most memorable being the audience’s insight into horror tropes, she is also the most energetic and enthusiastic to be there. While the other members of the cast feel like extras meant to be gruesomely picked off one by one.

I would have liked to see more depth out of Bezi and Kyle. Bezi acts as charity’s main emotional support and Kyle as the seasoned operator brings knowledge that other characters don’t have of the camp. But their portrayal was very surface level which didn’t help the feeling that while Bayron can hit the beats of horror she is not able to nail the execution or bring it to a greater depth.

This lack of depth carries onto our antagonists. Our two primary antagonists, Miss Keane and the Owl Society, are less memorable. Miss Keane is your stereotypical crazy gun-wielding cat lady in the woods with deeper knowledge about the mysterious camp. But, she doesn’t have much depth, she is there as our first warning of danger and a gatekeeper of knowledge that our characters foolishly pursue knowing that she is likely to harm them. She feels like the caricature of many other old-wise and sometimes dangerous ladies in horror films, even when we learn her greater connection to the wider threat she never really grows beyond that one note.

The Owl Society is the larger threat - revealed about halfway through as the primary antagonists they are a dangerous and old cult from the area. And unfortunately, they too feel like caricatures. Cheesy lines straight out of bad horror films and all. And if you read this work as something similar to those bad and sometimes good horror B-grade films of the eighties and nineties they fit perfectly. Unfortunately for me, they had little depth and the lack of any characters’ knowledge of them or even their previous activities in the area felt like a bygone relic of the movies this novel is imitating and not a product of the modern hyper-connected world that both the reader and the protagonists live in.

This is one of the big criticisms I have about the logic in You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight. Because it is heralding back to classic B-grade horror movies it uses tropes and idiosyncracies that worked much better in the time those films were made. Complete isolation without cellphone reception; a lack of knowledge due to it being lost or becoming forbidden over time; all powerful cults that can operate for decades unnoticed. These worked well in these films because the lack of technology and the 24/7 news and entertainment cycle in those eras meant that the audience could suspend their disbelief about the characters’ situational awareness. Because the work is set in the modern period things like the lack of cellphone reception don’t work because most phones can still call 911 without reception - due to connecting to closer towers that may not be from your provider for emergencies. And because the camp is close enough to town for Bezi and Paige to drive in on short notice and reception is spotty at best it isn’t far enough from a cellphone tower that 911 reception would be a problem. And then there is just the lack of any information about the Camp’s original history until our teens go looking when several disappearances and murders have happened on the campground - in this post, Serial age there would have been podcasts, YouTube crack theories and 60-minute exposes on that. The fact that fifty years after the disappearance of several children no one in town knew or spoke of it just doesn’t seem realistic. I think if You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight had been set in the time period of the eighties and nineties I wouldn’t feel as though the logic didn’t work because it could have played with the limitations of the technology of the period.

However, what it lacks in depth it makes up for in its spooky setting. Camp Mirror Lake is the perfect horror setting. A “picturesque” lakeside summer camp in the middle of the woods gives our characters many sets to hide and fight in. Being the former set of a movie and current horror simulation also means that the camp has some unusual additions like cameras, speakers, and tunnels that our characters use to their advantage and Bayronn uses to drive home the fear and danger. Like many old horror films, the setting here is as much a character as our leads. With so much history - that I wished was explored in greater depth - and danger that it comes to life. Bayronn paints a wonderful picture of what Camp Mirror Lake is like that I could close my eyes and almost see it myself.

While I had some logical problems with You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight I overall enjoyed reading it. Each page I could see as a horror movie in my head Bayronn immerses you in the feel of those old movies through her work. It was pulpy fun with the right amount of horrifying that I wouldn’t mind reading again. As I was reading I kept thinking that it would be perfect as a movie or a limited-run TV series that expands on the lore. And Charity as a protagonist is a wonderful leader taking control of the situation despite her fear. You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight would be perfect to add to your horror TBR later in the year for spooky season.

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