HOLY CRAP!
Mind blown!
Absolutely 11/10 stars!
I enjoy all books I have ready by Natalie Richards, so I knew I had to read this one too. That being said, this one packs a punch! A run down mall, a closing movie theater, and a psycho manager- what could go wrong!? The plot thickens so fast, it leaves you on the edge of your seat. The suspense build up is a page turner and I could not put this one down!

A fast-paced YA thriller I easily managed in one sitting. The format--revealing key details early on and making further twists more unpredictable--was really refreshing.

A quick read thriller that will keep you engaged throughout the entire story. Our plot follows several movie theater workers on their last night. The mall the theater is located in is closing for renovation. But when one of them is found dead, they must survive the killer and the mall itself. Four will not make it through the night.
I suggest this book to someone looking for a fun thriller that you won't be able to put down.

it was ok. not bad but not the best ya thriller book i’ve read. it was a quick read for sure. wasn’t much of a mystery of what really happened that night cause it was obvious what was going on. i wish there was more twists and turns to the story since it was kinda flat on that. i think having the teens different point of views would’ve made this story better as well. i’m sure they were thinking of so many different things while they were stuck in the mall running from a killer. i also didn’t make a connection to any of the characters cause we really didn’t get to know much about them.we’ll we got very little backstory on everyone except for jo. we got to see a little bit more from her. i liked this book much better than her book seven dirty secrets though!

This is a very easy, quick read. I finished it in one sitting. Overall it’s a good read if you like “slasher movie” type stories (that’s what it reminded me of). You know who the killer is early on so there isn’t any suspense there. You don’t know why but it’s pretty easy to guess. The only negative is the amount of language but otherwise a fast, fun read.

Summary
Jo and her coworkers are closing down the movie theater for the last time. The theater was connected to a previously thriving shopping mall; however, since the mall has been deserted and condemned, the movie theater has followed in its wake.

Jo’s temperamental boss, Clayton, has their phones and keys locked in the managers safe, per procedure, until the team has completed their job for the night.

Just as things are wrapping up and Jo is going to ask Clayton for their keys and phones, the power goes out. Amidst the chaos and darkness, everyone is feeling on edge and searching for a way out. But, rather than an escape, the result of the search yields the dead body of another coworker. The group is trapped with a killer and with all the exits blocked off, they have no way out.

Review
Unfortunately, half stars can’t be added, and I can’t justify giving this book three stars. It’s a 2.5 in my book.

The beginning is particularly rough just because there is a large number of characters introduced in short succession. This alone is problematic but each character is also only vaguely described making them nearly impossible to tell apart when the story gets going. Once people start dying off and we get some more discerning information on each character, and they become a little more recognizable. However, ultimately, we only ever scratch the surface level with each character and the lacking development makes it impossible to care what happens to them. And for a story without any mystery to it, there really needed to be some connection to the characters to generate interest.

The killer is revealed very early on with no real twists or turns to make you second guess. Definitely not a mystery, both motive and killer are revealed in the first 3% of the book. It’s just a straight forward game of hide and seek with a killer. It felt overly repetitious, basically “let’s hide here”, “oh no, he found us”, repeat, repeat.

The articles scattered throughout the story were intriguing but didn’t seem to flow as seamlessly as I prefer for this trope. They were just thrown in and almost feel like an afterthought as opposed to having the story consciously written with the intention of incorporating them.

It’s an easy read but definitely not a twisty, on the edge of your seat, mystery / thriller.

(Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Natalie Richards, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be published May 2, 2023.)

I really enjoyed the entirety of this book. The plot was enticing and scary, and you really couldn’t figure out what was going on which I really enjoy in a horror book. One aspect that I really loved was the announcements / news articles that were spread throughout the book. That really stood out and really added to the story as I continued read! I haven’t seen that done much at all before in a horror novel and I loved it!

Free e-ARC provided by NetGalley!

This was my second book by this author- I previously read Five Total Strangers and I thought it was okay. I was more excited to read this one because I liked the premise more- a group of teenagers trapped in a mall with a murderer.

This book definitely gives more slasher film than thriller/mystery. The murderer is revealed pretty early and most of the rest of the book is everyone just trying to survive the night, with secrets among them revealed along the way. I had trouble suspending my disbelief with a lot of the things that were set up so that they were all trapped in the mall with no escape. It felt pretty contrived and I felt like there could’ve been better explanations for some things. I won’t get too deep into it, but I also had a hard time believing some of the characters’ choices and actions. That’s how slasher movies kind of are, I guess, I just wanted a little more plausibility.

It was a quick read, and I imagine it won’t stick with me for very long, but an okay enough way to spend a couple hours.

I found this book to be a pleasant mixture of It’s Behind You (Kathryn Foxfield) and the FNAF novels.
I thought the thoughts we get at the end of each chapter were clever and something unique I hadn’t seen before.

Whilst I thought the pacing was a bit weird, and the environment felt a bit topsy-turvy, I actually liked the characters and how they were written. This was fun to read.

3 stars

14 - 18 years

A good yarn for young people.

The last business to close in an otherwise abandoned mall is the Riverview Theater. Seven teenagers and their curmudgeonly manager are alone following the last show. All the kids have to do now is clean up and go out to have pancakes and celebrate their freedom.

However, following an unexpected visit from an angry woman, things seem to go sour. The young people’s keys and cell phones are locked in the safe and they can’t leave without them. Then things begin to go wrong. People start dying.

Although it is blatantly obvious who the killer is from 2% of the book, it is still a good read. They kids try to stay together and manage to escape to the outer mall area (outside the theater), but it is no good. They are relentlessly pursued. They are being picked off one by one. Why? What is going on?

The plotting is a little disjointed and some events don’t follow logically. But I can see the attraction for a young person.

I want to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire/Sourcebooks Fire for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

This was a really good end of the year read. I am so thankful I got to read this ARC. I sat down and started this book and finished it within days. A YA horror hasn't put me on this wild of a ride since Clown in a cornfield 1&2. I loved the articles strewn through the book that made it almost feel more errie.

3.75 stars

This was an ok thriller novel. I predicted the big plot twist around 100 pages in, and I never did connect to any of the characters. I did like the news articles sprinkled in throughout the book, that added a bit more to the mystery aspect. This book wasn’t bad, it just isn’t something I would read again.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book!

Four Found Dead is an intense YA thriller about a group of teens who are stuck in the mall with a killer. I found it super tense and the feeling of dread you get really amps up all the way through the book. The plot is great and the characters are strong, each brings something to the story. Excellent read. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This is a thrill-a-minute book about teens "trapped" in a theater the night it will be closing for good. Jo and her co-workers are cleaning up after the last showing when she sees a gun under manager Clayton's t-shirt. Realizing that can't be a good sign, she isn't sure what to do so she remains quiet even as the bodies begin to pile up. Alternating in time between the present and the past where Jo and her sister watched her father die in a robbery, the novel reveals some unseen connection between what happened then and what's happening now. Lots of action, lots of questions and clues, but we're never sure exactly what is going on until the bitter end! Creepy fun!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! The way this was written was well done. This was the first time I’ve read a thriller/mystery where we find out who the killer is early on. Typically I find the suspense build up of trying to figure out who the killer is to be one of the best parts of this type of book, but I have to say knowing who the killer was throughout the story worked so well to build the suspense in this novel.
The beginning definitely pulls you in and hooks you for the rest of the story. There were some parts I felt to be a bit drawn out and even some I felt needed more explanation, but overall it was a book that you’ll want to see through to the end.
For me this was a solid 3.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

brilliant books definitely glad I read this kept me hooked from the start and finished it quickly absolutely fantastic author

I’m glad I requested this one on Netgalley because I really enjoyed it! I raced through this in just a few hours. It was incredibly intense and stressed me out, definitely felt my own adrenaline pumping right alongside some of the characters.

I did think there would be more of a mystery around who the killer was — I didn’t expect it to be so obvious. I did keep waiting to get halfway through the book and for there to be a twist like “they’re not the killer!” but it never came. This didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the book at all, I think I just got my expectations twisted up.

I enjoyed the elements of seeing “newspaper articles” sprinkled in. It added another depth to the story that made it feel more real, if that makes sense? I also liked the interruptions from the mystery narrator, which all came together in the end in a very clever and unexpected way.

Overall, I did just really enjoy this. It was fast paced, scary, thrilling, and kept me engaged the whole time. The only reason it’s not a 5 star is because I sometimes felt there was a lack of depth to some of the characters. This wasn’t a massive issue, but it was there. Then again, I guess it’s hard to get to know a lot of character backstory when the characters main focus is not getting murdered…

All in all, I really liked this and recommend it to anyone who likes a fast paced thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Four Found Dead, by Natalie D. Richards
3-3.5/5⭐️⭐️⭐️

TRIGGER WARNINGS-
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Murder, death, gun violence,

It's the last night that the theatre is opened before it closes for good, along with the mall. The crew of eight is cleaning up for the very last time then going out for breakfast. Only suddenly the power goes out and their manager goes missing. Now they're locked in the theatre with no phones or keys. The whole mall is boarded up and nailed shut and they can't escape. Then something else terrifying happens. They find one of her coworkers murdered now they're not only trying to escape the building they're also trying to avoid a murderer.

The beginning is captivating and draws you in but the middle is a tad drawn out. I found the end to be a little rushed and more of a "tied up lose ends" ending.
At some points it's slightly confusing-ish because things are mentioned that happened before that you have to wait till you get further for them to resolve, as well as one of the characters thoughts and newspaper articles are intertwined within the story, but they're written in past tense where the story is taking place in current time.
There are some spelling errors, missing words and letters and mixed up character names which I think adds a tad to the confusion.
Overall I did enjoy it and it kept me reading.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me an E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.25-3.5

This book is a fast enough read with engaging writing, but it felt like there was something missing. The entire story fell a little flat for me - character motivation seemed simple enough, but the characters felt very two dimensional and I wasn’t really invested in their survival or their stories. I don’t know, it has a fun premise but I think I could have easily been genuinely invested; instead I felt like I was just reading random facts about blank slates for the entire book.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for the e-Arc in exchange for an honest review!

Four Found Dead is a fast-paced thrilling YA Mystery that took place in a closed down mall which is connected to the theater. After cleaning up for their last shift in the movie theater, things gone wrong when the power got cut off, and a dead body was soon discovered.
They know the killer, and they fear for his next move. Stuck in an abandoned mall with a killer among them, who will escape & make it out alive?

With the intense plot and hidden dark secrets, Four Found Dead is a young adult thriller/mystery that will catch the attention of readers.