Good aspects:
1- A killer cover
2- A killer concept
3- good writing

Challenging aspects:
1- This book had my most hated pet peeve of all time when it comes to modern writing: an excellent first chapter but a down spiraling plot from thereon.
2- I don't have to like the characters, but I have to feel them or at least understand their motivation; I couldn't do either in this case.
3- I'm not sure I got the "feminist " concept of the book. it was more like a feminist caricature rather than actual feminism.
4- The link between motive and action was lost on me.

I feel really bad for not finishing this book, but it just wasn't for me. Fans of the movies this book is compared to might think otherwise. But I just did not feel invested enough, or at least curious, to hang in there till the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to review this book.

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦; 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.

It's 1978, Mayhem and her mother are fleeing across the country, away from her abusive stepfather. They end up in Santa Maria, a costal beach town where her mother grew up. A place that has the answers to all of the questions about her estranged family, and why her mother left.

I went into this one with medium expectations, thinking it'd be another YA book with a pretty cover and not much else. Well I was wrong 💁🏻‍♀️ This book was everything I want from a young adult book, it had darkness and magic. It was full of heart and self discovery. It is a murder mystery, a fantasy, a generational story.

I can't believe I'm yet to see this book grace my feed. It definitely deserves more hype than it is getting. I loved Mayhem, the main protagonist, and the whole emotional journey she went on. The magical realism elements were done so so well, think in the vein of Rory Power or Anna-Marie McLemore.

If you're looking for a weird YA book, that is on the darker side and includes hunting down a serial killer then you need this book💃🏻

(TW rape, addiction death, drug use, emotional abuse, loss of a parent, mental illness, suicide, physical abuse)

This was a beautiful, lyrical, phenomenal novel. It dealt with so many important topics through a surrealist lens. I really enjoyed this book! Mayhem's character was really unique and I loved the magic system that was introduced. I did feel like certain things with Neve's character were wrapped up very quickly and some things could've been explained more clearly. It was so beautiful though and I did not mind that it was a little ambiguous at times! Excited to read more from this author.

DNF - Did not Finish. I decided not to keep reading this young adult title. Thank you, publisher and NetGalley for the early copy!

This was an atmospheric, creepy summer story centered on Mayhem, a girl coming of age and learning about her family history. I really enjoyed the pace of the story and definitely got The Craft vibes throughout. I liked the balance of family history in the form of journal entries, and Mayhem’s own thoughts and feelings as things unfolded. The mystery element was two fold, one for Mayhem and her family, and another for a local crime spree. I would have enjoyed a bit more of the killer on the loose storyline, but ultimately it was an enjoyable read that I’ll probably be thinking about for awhile.

California, 1987: Mayhem Brayburn and her mother have never been like everyone else. May can see it in her mother Roxy's constant pain, her pull to the water, the gaping hole of her father's absence in the wake of his suicide years ago.

When her step-father goes to far, Roxy and Mayhem make their way back to the beach town--and the family history--that Roxy left behind when May was a baby. Santa Maria is everything May always hoped it would be. She meets her aunt's foster kids, finds the family she always wanted and, amazingly, discovers her own connection to the Brayburn family's long line of magic.

But not everything is magical in Santa Maria. Girls are going missing. Soon, Mayham's own efforts to find the culprit draw her into a strange world of vigilante justice and revenge as she learns more about the town--and her family's--darker secrets in Mayhem (2020) by Estelle Laure.

If this standalone fantasy sounds a lot like the 1987 film The Lost Boys, that's because it is. While Laure imbues Mayhem with its own magic and world building, the story stays close to the original plot of the classic vampire film complete with brief appearances by the iconic Frog brothers. Laure also brings more diversity to the cast in her update--the Brayburns are white but May's farther was Brazilian and Jason and Kidd are biracial (Black and white).

Questions of why this story had to be set in 1987 instead of modernized are also inevitable and not well answered by any authorial choices.

How you feel about this book might depend on your familiarity with the film and your feelings about it. Mayhem includes a lot of nods to the original film but shifts in surprising ways to make space for the Brayburn's family history as seen in a mysterious diary Mayhem finds upon exploring her new home. Unfortunately these two storylines don't always mesh well feeling more like two separate stories than one, cohesive plot.

Mayhem is ideal for readers who like their witches fierce and their vampire references vintage.

Possible Pairings: The Wicked Deep by Shea Earnshaw, Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis, The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman, Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, The Lost Boys

I wanted to love this book but I found it a bit hard for me to get into. I just didn’t really connect with it and sync into a rhythm when reading. But the premise and characters are excellent, and I know that it’ll resonate with many still!

I really wanted to love this book but I couldn’t. There were too many lines taken directly from Lost Boys. I didn’t feel like I was reading an original story. The author could’ve done so much more here. Making her characters unique and changing the story to her own rather than other peoples words.

For the most part I didn't really like this story. I didn't really like the main character and found the plot itself to be lacking. Nothing really happened for the most part and the main character acted like a brat a lot of the time. There were a couple of secondary characters that I liked but it was still a struggle to finish this book.

I received an eARC via Netgalley; all opinions are my own.

*Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the complimentary copy for my honest review*

I loved the premise of this book, a female version of The Lost Boys (one of my favorite movies ever) sign me up! I obviously had very high hopes for this book but unfortunately I wasn't huge fan. I see what the author was trying to do but this book just ended up being super strange and confusing for me. I really liked the beginning of this book but then towards the middle I didn't quite understand what was going on and I don't feel like the ending really alleviated my confusion.

Trigger Warning dealing with Abuse and Gaslighting.

This book wasn’t for me. It’s definitely a slower build type of book and while I enjoyed the characters I didn’t feel they drove the story enough to keep my interested. I DNF’d this book at 35%.

What I did like was the strong female lead and the magic system specifically how not everyone can handle it. The magic comes with a heavy weight that some people become addicted and some just can’t handle... I know this is an amazing book for a lot of people so please if your reading this and trying to decide if you’d like to read it, understand this book is well outside my normal genre and I don’t enjoy books that have such realistically traumatic topics.

I seriously loved Mayhem! It’s a wonderful blend of a coming of age story, a little bit of a mystery, and magic! I was getting serious Practical Magic vibes the whole time I was reading it.

The way Estelle wrote Mayhem was brilliant. I was rooting for Mayhem from page one. She’s such a spunky, passionate, and curious character. I absolutely fell in love with her.

If you love magic and coming of age stories you will love Mayhem!

This book was difficult to get through. It's a retelling of Lost Boys mixed with the Craft, but I feel like this book shorts them both. Mayhem and her mother move back to her mom's hometown, which Mayhem soon finds is filled with magic. But that's where it lost me. There was honestly too much happening in this book but not enough payoff. Very little attention was paid to Mayhem and her mother's journey from abuse, which was more compelling than what was going on with her cousins. Laure's writing style is not well displayed with this story and I hope she finds a better fit with another story.

This book was SOOO GOOD! I love books like these that make me feel like I'm traveling back in time as a teen. This book is a great coming of age story for any teen.

I inhaled this book. The characters are diverse and the story is hard-hitting, although the pace seemed to crawl. I found myself wanting to take Mayhem under my wing as she and her mother come out of an abusive situation, she learns of her magic, falls in love and fights for her mother and her newfound friendships.

I think this could have benefitted being longer, or broken into a duology. Overall really intriguing, and I'd be interested in reading the authors other works.

I really enjoyed this book. Mayhem and her mother are fleeing an abusive relationship and wind up back at Roxy's (Mayhem's mom) old home where she grew up. Mayhem finds that her family name holds a lot of power and she start to unearth some of it's magical details. I saw in other reviews that this was compared to Lost Boys and The Craft...I didn't find it all that similar except that there are some supernatural elements to the story. I would recommend if you are looking for a quick YA read and are interested in the supernatural and family bonds/legacies.

This book was just kind of meh and underwhelming. It has been compared/described as a feminist mix of The Lost Boys and The Craft and I haven't seen either of those but a lot of people have said it's very similar and almost too close for comfort. I can't comment on this because I haven't seen them, but something to consider

I don't know how to describe this other than just meh. I didn't really find anything super great about the book. The main conflict ended fairly quickly and then the rest of the book was fairly slow and I knew what was coming.

It was honestly a really interesting an idea and I did enjoy the writing, I just wish it was done a little bit better. I just found it to be pretty slow and it wasn't anything that wowed me. Some other POVs and flashbacks were included and felt like they could have been left out or used more to actually make them seem important to the story. There was a little bit of gay rep mentioned very briefly but I would have loved to see more diversity.

Like I said before, overall just meh. Would be interested in reading more of Estelle Laure's work though.

As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

Even after sleeping on this book, I’m still not entirely sure what to think of <i>Mayhem</i>. This is a book that I feel like had plenty of potential and I kept waiting for it to live up to it, but I don’t feel like it ever did.

Mayhem and her mother, Roxy, are running away from her abusive step-father, Lyle. Despite Roxy wanting to avoid her old home of Santa Maria, that is where they end up. Mayhem now gets to meet her estranged family and learn about the magic in her family lineage. As they begin to settle in, rumors start that there is a serial killer out and about and with Lyle calling, what they hoped might be a peaceful restart seems anything but.

This book started off with a hard-hitting topic and didn’t really let up from there. <b>There is domestic violence, suicide (off page, but mentioned a couple of times), rape, drug use, and probably others that I’m currently forgetting</b>. This is an emotional heavy book that doesn’t really let up as it goes along. While I admire the author for trying to handle all of these topics, with how short this book is, some of the points don’t have the emotional impact they could or are explored like they should have been.

<i>Mayhem</i> is a book that I feel could have benefitted from being longer. There it would have had proper time to explore all the heavy topics that the author was touching on as long as exploring the story and the characters. I’ve wondered this before, but reading this story has made me question again if magical realism is for me. I don’t feel like the magic was really developed enough or if it’s because it’s more magical realism. I’m not sure, but I didn’t vibe with it.

I feel like overall this book needs more development. From the magic to fleshing out the characters. I do feel like this is a book that is something that could be a number of individuals thing, but it simply wasn’t mine.

This book is set in Santa Maria, California, a beach town, in 1987. This is the year I was married (the first time) and actually lived in San Diego, so I could picture a beach town in the 80's very easily. It reminded me of the warm nights spent at the beach and the sense of safety that was around back in the '80s.

In the town of Santa Maria, however, this sense of safety is a ruse. There is someone stealing girls off the beach at night, yet the police don't seem too concerned about it. This is the spot that Mayhem Brayburn and her mother Roxy run to when the abuse from her stepfather finally deflects from Roxy onto Mayhem. It is Roxy's hometown and the first place where Mayhem feels like she might belong.

See - Mayhem (what a cool - yet psycho name!) comes from a line of women who have a history of magic tied to a secret cave off the beach. Water from the cave gives the Brayburn's a unique ability to be able to see through people's facade to what they are really like - either good or evil. If you are not a Brayburn and you drink the water, you will receive this ability - but it will destroy you in the long run. It isn't long before Mayhem is introduced to this water and begins to learn the history of her family through diaries and letters from her great grandmother, grandmother, aunt, and Roxy.

This was a quick read for me as I was immediately drawn into the story. I enjoyed the back and forth between the letters from the past and what was happening to Mayhem in the present. I could see this possibly becoming a series, though it did have a satisfactory ending as-is.