Good girl Jessa is the “rules police, teacher’s pet, parent whisperer” type of people-pleasing perfectionist. When her parents plan a night away, she doesn’t want to be left home alone in her isolated, creepy, old, and possibly haunted house, especially when girls have been going missing in a nearby town. She begs for an exception to her parents’ rules and receives permission to invite some friends over: best friends Kellan and Alexis and the recently estranged member of their quartet, Tiny. It’s a classic horror movie setup, right down to the unexpected arrivals at the slumber party. Interlude “Before” chapters follow another girl who caught the wrong person’s eye, but Banghart is careful not to reveal too much before Jessa and her friends make their own discoveries the hard way. While Jessa’s behaviors and choices are sometimes frustrating, the novel directly addresses this element: She must consciously make war with her social conditioning and toxic gender norms if they are to survive the night. The fast pace and short timeframe (the bulk of the story unfolds over the course of one night) add to the horror movie feel and will help readers move along instead of dwelling on the plausibility of certain plot elements. Most characters read white. Alexis is bisexual and coded Vietnamese American; Jessa’s love interest, Ryan, is Black. The ending conclusively wraps up the story.
English (US) ·