I was really hoping for more in this YA Horror, but it fell a bit flat for me. Maybe I'm too far removed from the age, or maybe these characters were so unlike anyone I knew growing up that I just couldn't connect. Whatever it was, I DNF around 20%, after struggling to enjoy the characters at all. Perhaps this will be more enjoyable for today's teens and pre-teens so I'll give it 2/5 Stars for now.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Underlined for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read Frightmares when I first received it and it started out strong. But after the first murder scene, I found myself no longer invested in the story. The way Dave reacted after finding the dead body really annoyed me (which I feel really bad about because I'm sure some people would have reacted that way) and the subsequent result of that discovery just had the story go downhill for me. The way he ran around without a coherent thought really jarred me out of the story. I know people aren't necessarily clear-headed at a murder scene but I don't know, it seemed too exaggerated for me.

The appearance of his dead friend's voice in his head along with the two Daves was just weird for me and seemed to come out of nowhere. It made me think perhaps he has some kind of medical condition but it was never addressed.

Overall, I think it's an entertaining murder mystery for a younger crowd, which is good because it's a YA book.

This was a fun horror for young adults. I thought the thrills could have been a bit better but it was mostly an enjoyable read. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's.

Frightmares takes place in a haunted house where one of the cast members has been murdered, and let me say - I think I have a new favorite setting for horror books. I mean, think about it. If you saw a dead body in a haunted house, you wouldn’t even know if it was real! This book wasn’t anything amazing, but I always love a good, fun YA horror read. I think the biggest selling point for this book is the setting, but other than that there’s not much that stands out. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Frightmares provided me with exactly what I wanted, which was a good time. Lastly, I will say that while this book has some older characters (i.e. characters in their early 20s), it definitely reads like a YA. What I love about YA horror is that it gives me just enough spook and gore to keep me entertained, but without getting too intense. This would be a great book for people who don’t love graphic horror, but like a campy teenage slasher movie.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love horror...this wasn't a horror. Thriller, maybe (but not really). YA... definitely. A real killer in a haunted attraction is always enticing, but I had to admit I really didn't care for this one. I didn't like the cast of characters, the attraction fell flat for me, and the author's voice just wasn't for me. It was slow, boring, and not what it was presented to be in the description.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's, Underlined for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

𝕱𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖘
𝕭𝖄 𝕰𝖛𝖆 𝕮. 𝕲𝖎𝖇𝖘𝖔𝖓

𝕻𝖚𝖇 𝕯𝖆𝖞 July 5, 2022

𝕽𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖜This book gave me Goosebumps vibes and I was totally here for it! They were my absolute favorite books as a kid!  This book was a mix of Goosebumps + murder mystery. I liked it!

This is a YA book so keep that in mind. It's sort of creepy and/or scary at times but I didn't have any nightmares because it was so scary. 

The Main Character had the angel on one shoulder and devil on the other and the author wrote the conversations in the story. I thought that was kind of neat. Some of those conversations made me giggle out loud which was entertaining for my co-workers 😂

Of course, there was young adult romance which I feel is in all YA books. Not a bad thing, just wanted to make potential readers aware it isn't all scary.

This was my first book by this author but won't be my last!

𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉 𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖁𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕴𝖋
⚰️ you liked Goosebumps books as a kid
⚰️ you want to try a creepy book but get scared easily or aren't sure what your scare tolerance is yet  (is that a thing ?🤷🏻‍♀️)
⚰️ you like YA romance but not as the main genre

I'd recommend this book and mark it is as a 🅑︎🅐︎🅡︎🅖︎🅐︎🅘︎🅝︎ 🅞︎🅡︎ 🅑︎🅞︎🅡︎🅡︎🅞︎🅦︎ on the scale of Buy, Bargain, Borrow, Bud (audio) or Bust.  (I came up with the scale. I'm oddly proud of it!)

Thank you @netgalley, the author @etheom & the publisher @getunderlined for e-ARC of this book for my honest review.

Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
Dave is spending his final summer before college working at Frightmares House of Horrors, a struggling haunted house attraction held together by malfunctioning killer clown mannequins, a cheap replica Annabelle doll, and a lot of improvising. After a particularly disastrous shift ends in an employee walkout, Dave reluctantly takes over a role for his friend, however, he makes a horrifying discovery—a real dead body, hidden on set. But when Dave returns with help, the body is gone. Though the killer covered their tracks, Dave realizes they must know what he saw. Could he be their next target?

Thoughts : If you like a common / typical slasher movie, you'll eat this book up. I personally not really into slasher movie so this book is not for me. If you're still searching for something horror-y and fun, you might pick this book up.

Dave is spending his final summer before college working at Frightmares House of Horrors, a struggling haunted house attraction held together by malfunctioning killer clown mannequins, a cheap replica Annabelle doll, and a lot of improvising. After a particularly disastrous shift ends in an employee walkout, Dave reluctantly takes over a role for his friend, however, he makes a horrifying discovery—a real dead body. But when Dave returns with help, the body is gone.
This book gave realistic characters. The main character cussed which I love in horror and thriller books because it makes the characters relatable. He didn’t think to get the cops involved, which I at first thought was a little weird but then remembered that this is a teen and that fits perfectly. I loved the setting of a haunted house which felt like the perfect place for a young adult horror story. I liked the way the romance was more of a subplot instead of making it into a big part of the story which fits with this genre. My only issue with this book is it just wasn’t scary for a horror novel, but it did give more of a thriller feeling.
I received an advance copy for free from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Frightmares was a fun Young Adult mystery - I wouldn't classify it as horror or thriller so much.
I thought the characters were decently written and relatable, the twist at the end was pretty good; the last quarter of the book being particularly enjoyable. However, I also found that it got a bit repetitive at times and the middle of the book simply dragged.

Dave finds a body hidden in his haunted house job, and is determined to find out who did it.

It's called Frightmares, but honestly, there's very little frights to be had in this book. It starts about a third of the way in, when Dave discovers the body, then finds it had disappeared. He then spends the rest of the book trying to find out who did it. Mind you, authorities are never involved. No one else knows that the victim has died. Not even their own family. But he keeps trucking along, wiping off his own fingerprints from evidence and gasping at lights going off. I can usually suspend disbelief for YA novels, but this one was asking a lot. Nothing really happens in this book until the last 10%, then it amps up for an unsatisfying ending. The blurb and the cover made me think I was getting a teen slasher much like Clown in a Cornfield, but that's not what I got. If you're looking for a quick teen murder mystery, then this might be for you but it didn't really work out for me.

Frightmares had a fun premise that made me wanna read it ASAP. And I'm glad to say the book gave me early 2000's teen slasher movie vibes and I'm all for that! I turned the pages fast as I really wanted to know the who and why of the murder. However, I was frustrated with almost everything that Dave did and his paranoia. His actions in the beginning just didn't make sense to me and made me go "WHY would you do that?" and I don't feel like he was as active as a character as Maya. I would have also liked for the story to have taken place more in the Frightmares facility as it does have a lot of parts that are outside and it takes away from the horror. All in all, though, it was a fast enjoyable read that I can see playing out well as a movie!

Frightmares was your run of the mill YA thriller. I am not going to call it horror because I got no horror from this book. The book being grouped within the horror genre and the cover unfortunately gave me false hope. Now, I will say, it’s a decent YA thriller. Was is something new? Not really. Did I enjoy my time reading it? Mostly. I thought the characters were decently written and the twist at the end was pretty good. The last quarter of the book was very enjoyable. I do believe the book suffers from being too long and long winded. I feel a lot of the middle part of this book could have been cut down, just to provide some momentum. I also found that is got a bit repetitive at times as well. I enjoyed the setting within the Haunted House and enjoyed that it took place in Florida as I live in the South. I did at least enjoy reading this book, however, go into it with the expectations of a thriller/mystery, not horror. I would highly recommend reading this during October as it does set the perfect spooky season atmosphere!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this title to preview.

As a high school librarian, I'm always on the lookout for high interest quick reads for my patrons. The GetUnderlined imprint often delivers. Frightmares by Eva. V. Gibson is no exception.

Many students have been requesting horror books and I am happy whenever I see a new one on the horizon from GetUnderlined. Frightmares features a male teen main character who works at a haunted house of sorts. He isn't the most reliable of narrators. Bad things happen in the haunted house. Our main character's parents are out of town. All of this sort of works together to make the reader worry for this particular character.

Teens who like murder mysteries will like trying to puzzle this one out. Horror fans will appreciate the pizzazz with which the horror is dished out. And there may be a wee bit of love/romance snuck in for good measure.

A nice recommendation for teens in the mood for a fun horror book.

Thoughts

My reaction to this book: meh. It's a sort of typical horror book. It's not terrible. It's not great. Fans of the genre will likely enjoy it, but this one won't be winning over new horror fans anytime soon.

Pros
Dysfunctional Workplace: Dave works at a near-defunct haunted house. It groans and creaks. The equipment (and the lights) are prone to breaking down. This makes for a great and unsettling setting for a murder. Dave has to be there--he gets paid to be there--and the scene is secondhand to him now. But a house of spooks and specters (with its fair amount of F/X blood spattered on the ground) sets a certain precedent: who can tell the real dead body from the myriad fakes?

Obvious Suspect: There is one rather obvious suspect in this grisly murder from the beginning. Dave, of course, doesn't believe this person could have done it, and so he never questions the assumption (Dave, for anyone unaware, is an idiot). And sure, the obvious suspect ultimately had a hand in the murder but wasn't the end-all-be-all. That is, this obvious (to me) suspect didn't do the deed itself. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that my suspicions were both confirmed and, ultimately, denied.

Male Protag: It's nice to get a male protagonist. There are so few in recent YA books. It's especially nice to have Dave, who isn't a shy, wallflower type protagonist like his contemporaries tend to be. Dave is unusual in the current market, and that's nice.


Cons
Aged-Down: Something about this book felt tonally... off. It felt like perhaps this book was written originally for an older audience and then aged down for whatever reason, be that market viability or something else. It just didn't feel YA in its execution, though it did in protagonist age. Any book that uses the phrase "sun-baked scrotum" doesn't feel quite right for this particular intended market.

The Daves: There was an abrupt change in the protagonist that also didn't fit quite right. After Dave gets trapped under his coworker's body, he isn't the same. Now, I'd buy that--who would be the same after something like that? He comes out talking about little shoulder Daves who give him advice and hearing his dead coworker's voice. This, however, is apparently normal for Dave--or the shoulder Daves are normal, at least. But that doesn't feel normal--that feels a little odd, to say the least. Dave felt perfectly normal at the start of this book, and if he isn't (if he listens to the advice of himself personified on his own shoulders), then maybe this should be set out form the beginning. The shift seemed abrupt, and it seemed even more so when I knew it wasn't actually supposed to be a shift in character at all.

Massive Morons: I mean, I know it's horror. I know these characters can't be the brightest. That would defeat the point. That's just not what horror MCs do. But even for horror, Dave and Maya felt exceptionally stupid. Call 911. Go home. Quit your job. Do something that makes some sort of sense. Dave and Maya do nothing sensible or even sensible-adjacent. Nothing they did made even the remotest sense, and therefore, absolutely nothing they did felt relatable. They were just too stupid.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10

Fans of Tori Bovalino's The Devil Makes Three will appreciate this new horror-flick-style book. Those who appreciate R.L. Stein's Fear Street will like this aged-up new Goosebumps style.

I enjoyed this even though it was a little predictable at times. Dave was super relatable to me and the conclusion to this book is what made me give it 4 stars. I need more haunted house stories in my life, gave me so much nostalgia! Pick this up if you’re in the mood for a spooky mystery!

This was a pretty good book. If you like a lot of cussing, (which I don't really mind, but it was excessive at times), teen awkwardness, a little bit of scary and a lot of snark, this book might be for you.

It was, I must say, totally unpredictable in its predictableness. To clarify, I had the killer pegged fairly early, but there were enough twists to make me doubt myself. Until the end when I literally said"I friggin knew it!"

Overall it was an OK read. Not something I'd own, but then, it was a YA book, and I'm an older adult.

Trigger warnings: Teen sexual innuendo, gruesome depictions of death, overly descriptive vomiting

Thanks to Random House Children's Publishing, Eva V. Gibson, and of course, Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Frightmares by Eva V. Gibson is a young adult horror mystery novel with the vibes of a 90’s scary movie set in a decrepit haunted house of horrors of today. The main character is recently graduated, swimmer Dave, who tries to navigate his very interesting summer job as one of the actors at said haunted house. It offers a varied cast of characters at his work, which in turn offers an assortment of suspects once Dave thinks he discovered an actual murder. Was it real? Was it a stunt? Is Dave stuck in a nightmare or is the horror his real life?! Read Frightmares to find out!
I absolutely love the concept of this horror novel mostly taking place in the struggling haunted house of horrors. I love haunted houses, so I thought that was very clever & different, which makes an enjoyable read.
The decision making of the main character at times did not make sense to me but as I am no longer a teenager perhaps that does make sense. If you can just go along for the ride, I think it’s a fun read.
I thought the middle dragged a bit with not as much action as I would have liked. But I thoroughly enjoyed the side story slowburn adorable teenage romance. Also thanks to the interesting cast I wasn’t able to completely solve the mystery, which I always appreciate it! I gave this 3.5 stars!
Frightmares by Eva V. Gibson comes out July 5, 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Underlined for giving me the opportunity to read an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains gore, violence, murder & drugs.

I will post on my Bookstgram as it gets closer & add links once I do!

I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love haunted houses, scary attractions, dark theme parks, etc. All of it. Fall is my favorite season because we get more of the creepy things I love. So, this book's premise was immediately interesting to me. I had to read it.

I thought the haunt was great. It sounds like some of the haunts nearby, everyone flying by the seat of their pants. I wanted more of that particular setting though. Much of the story takes place outside of it.

Dave was a likeable anxious character and Maya is great opposite him. I enjoyed their dynamic. Were stupid choices made? Yes. Often. But, that's kind of the point, right? I enjoyed the story. I'd have liked some of the supporting cast flushed out just a bit more, but this was a win for me.

There was one small thing that struck me as a detail readers may not get. The VCR reference. I get college students who don't even know what it VCR is. Some refer to it with the wrong acronym when trying to come up with the name. I teach a pop culture course. So, we are heavy into media. Small detail, I know.

I think this book will be a hit with the younger crowd. It’s a creepy mystery with a few jump scares. I enjoyed the characters and really liked the theme park setting.

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

3.5/5 Stars

This review is spoiler free.

In Frightmares, Dave's summer job at a year round haunted house attraction in Florida gets a little bit too real when he finds the dead body of his coworker hidden in a scare room. Frightmares takes the classic trope of "that's not a mannequin" and makes it extra fun and spooky.

I loved the setting of this one. The idea of a thriller/mystery scenario taking place at a Haunt was super fun. While Frightmares definitely requires the reader to suspend some disbelief, it's definitely a fun popcorn thriller read!

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.