I have read a couple things by Clay McLeod Chapman and I really enjoyed them. When I saw he was writing a Young Adult Horror/SciFi book I immediately thought of my 12 year old daughter. I thought; this could be a great book for us to read together and have our own little book club. Anything to desperately hold on to a connection with my kiddo before she thinks I’m completely ”cringe”.
I know this is a foreign concept, but as a responsible parent I read this first to see if it would even be anything she would be interested in. As excitement grew that we might read the same book, I told her about it and she responded with, “meh”. She is big on the cute high school romance books at the moment.
Let’s knock this out right away, the one complaint I have about this book is the fact this is a young adult book. I have no problem with the content at all, my issue is with the references for a younger audience.
This books felt like it was a young adult story published when I was 13 and not for the current youth who would be the target audience. For example, one of the characters, Logan, talks about mix CDs. He also had a bunch of classic metal CDs in his car. At least with my kids it’s all about playlists and downloads. My oldest has already started planing upgrading a head unit on a car he hasn’t even bought yet so he has Bluetooth and Apple Car Play.
There were other minor references that I feel my daughter’s age isn’t even going to get because it was my era. That being said, Mr. Chapman is one of the kindest people I have met on Social Media. There was a fountain of a cherub peeing that reminded me of the one in the Tom Hanks movie, “The Money Pit”. I immediately went to BlueSky and sent my question to him. He responded almost right away. It made my day.
Ok, back to the serious stuff. This novel is about Kyra who has started to notice a major change in her brother and friends. They are not acting like themselves and have done a 180 on personalities. They are always happy and positive which is a major red flag for Kyra. What actual teenager is happy and positive all the time? If they’re like my kids, happy and positive never actually collide it is either one or the other. Kyra has noticed a new party drug has hit her community hard. Referred to as Spore it is spreading like poison ivy thanks to social media and teens creating challenges as dangerous as the Tide Challenge.
This really was a fun read. I enjoyed this and think I will have to purchase a physical copy for my shelves once this is released on November 11, 2025. This is a solid 🥃🥃🥃🥃 book and I will be letting my daughter know it is available on her Kindle anytime she is looking for a good thriller to keep her up at night. Go preorder this now.
Brunner's Bar 
Leave a comment