Jo and her coworker friends are working the very last shift at the movie theater before it’s closed along with the mall it’s attached to forever. The group is looking forward to going out for a celebration dinner after their shift, but when the power goes out while their closing up, they realize something’s really, really wrong. And when they find one of their own murdered and they realize their manager is the killer, the evening becomes a true-life game of cat and mouse. This book is an easy read and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Lots of tension and just enough background information to keep me wanting to turn the pages. All in all, a solid YA thriller.

Special Note: Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was reading this to see if it would be a good fit for my library. I got so into it while reading during study hall that it now has a holds list on it because I couldn't help but talk about it to the students.

This book opens with the end of a movie theater's last showing and the employees getting ready to commemorate their last shift. The mood quickly shifts when the power goes out and they are left with no phones and no way out.

The first one dead is revealed pretty quickly to establish that yes, people will die. I liked that the action picked up pretty quickly and moved at a pretty good pace. The story is a bit basic, with the killer revealed almost immediately and the surprises pretty generic. If it was a movie, I feel like this would be a good slasher flick, but alas, we get bogged down by Jo's flashbacks to a traumatic moment in her past. It had no larger role in the story other than to make her freeze up, but there's a murderer on the loose. You don't need backstory trauma to be scared. If you're looking for a basic slasher read that you can breeze through, this is perfect.

A YA thriller set in a defunct shopping mall.
4️⃣
Tempest Theaters is closing for good tonight, along with the rest of the mall and Jo could not be happier about it. She’s ready to move on bigger things, but when there’s an altercation with her boss and his wife, it puts everyone on edge. Jo is especially nervous after seeing her boss with a gun. When the power goes out, Jo and her six coworkers are trapped inside with their phones in the work safe and a newly discovered dead body. In a rush for their lives the teens try and find a way out without getting caught by the murderer.
4️⃣
Eh. Richards can be hit or miss for me and this was a miss. I figured out the twist very early on and just never really connected with any of the characters. I’m sure many teens will find this one thrilling, though!

CW: death, murder, blood, gun use, PTSD, statutory rape, adultery

I love YA but sometimes it’s too Ya. One of the things that really bugged me was the very beginning. If I had seen someone with a gun, someone acting erratically, I would be out of there immediately. ESP with everything that goes on in the world, it’s not like kids aren’t exposed. It was really hard for me to get over that.

Marking as spoiler for TW’s provided.

This was a heart-pounding YA thriller/horror. I say horror because the topics covered were DARK and could be particularly haunting or triggering for teens. TW’s include: active shooter, child predator, murder, death, seizure disorder and being held hostage.

I find this story enthralling as I was pulled in and needed to know more as the story continued and the layers pulled back. It was dark and shocking but as a story it came together to put all the pieces together at the end and I ultimately enjoyed my read. I just think younger readers should be aware of what to expect going into this book.

4 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks Fire for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
The summary of this book had my really interested. The actual book just was not what I expected and was not that great.
This one would be a pass for me.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. It sounds very intriguing but it fell flat for me. I do hope to give this author another try in the future

The premise of this book sounded really phenomenal and I think it had a lot of promise, but it just didn’t fully deliver for me. I didn’t mind that we were generally given the plot right off the bat (it’s literally in the title), but I would have liked to have seen more done with it. It was such a short jump from the movie theatre to them running, and then it just felt like 80% of the book was a group of teenagers running from room to room. There were some plot points surrounding them running thrown it at the end, but by then it was almost too little too late. I didn’t personally connect with any of the characters, but it was easy to root for them. I just wish there had been more of a story.

Trigger warnings: shooting, violence, gun violence, death of a parent

This book grabbed my attention. I thought that it had some good dramatic moments to it. Nine people trapped in a movie theater with no way out? I can see someone going off their rocker a little bit. The story was engaging for, but I felt the book was directed towards the young adult readers. The characters are interesting. Naomi is my girl. Don’t wait for no one. Leave now. Don’t worry about if someone is not there. Get out while you can and call for help. The story is an easy read. I liked the story. Until next my fellow readers. Read on! I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this read. It felt very fresh even though it's essentially a trapped room mystery. Richards does a great job of concealing secrets, of teasing you just enough to make you need to keep reading. I was happy with the twists and turns and enjoyed it!

This was a fun and fast-paced thriller. It's not my favorite and not very realistic, but I think teens who like this genre will really enjoy it.

The mall has closed and now is the last night for Tempest Theaters. Several local teens prepare for their last shift and start to close up, when their volatile jerk of a boss starts heading off the rails. With all of their keys and cell phones locked up in a safe they all have to try to fight to survive the night, when their gun-wielding boss is hunting them down in the boarded-up mall!

Four Found Dead
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Natalie D. Richards

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Sourcebooks and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Tonight, Tempest Theaters is closing forever, the last remaining business in a defunct shopping mall. The moviegoers have left, and Jo and her six coworkers have the final shift, cleaning up popcorn and mopping floors for the last time.

But after an unexpected altercation puts everyone on edge, the power goes out. Their manager disappears, along with the keys to the lobby doors and the theater safe, where the crew's phones are locked each shift. Then, the crew's tension turns to terror when Jo discovers the dead body of one of her co-workers.

Now their only chance to escape the murderer in their midst is through the dark, shuttered mall. With its boarded-up exits and disabled fire alarms, the complex is filled with hiding places for both pursuer and pursued. In order to survive this night, Jo and her friends must trust one another, navigate the sprawling ruins of the mall, and outwit a killer before he kills again.

My Thoughts: As a Young Adult thriller, this was not a bad read, I was just expecting more from the blurb. The premise gave a slasher type thriller vibe but with too much divulged early on, it kind of lost its slasher luster. The writing tended to be repetitive with the flashbacks limited. The story was a bit predictable, which is not a bad thing, I love both predicable and unpredictable thrillers. Jo is our narrator for the story. We follow a group of teens/young adults closing the mall’s movie theater for the last time. The killer was revealed early on, while the motive was not. I think if the killer was revealed towards the end, the story would have followed much better. While the characters were developed, the backstory and history of the characters is lacking. It was really hard to connect to the characters. The audiobook may be easier to follow. I do recommend picking up the audiobook as it is not relatively long.

In Natalie D. Richards new novel Four Found Dead, the mall isn't the only thing dying. This horror/thriller hybrid follows the employees of the Tempest Theater, the final anchor of a now defunct shopping mall as they literally fight for their lives. With the killer hot on their heels, these teens flee through a boarded up mall, unable to escape. Four will be found dead ... but who will make it out alive?

Four Found Dead should have been a book that I loved. With there being so much mall nostalgia these days, a book set in a mall going under is not only relevant to today's society, but it also pulls on the heartstrings of all of us who grew up in the 80's & 90's heyday of mall culture. Unfortunately, this book, which could have been great, is not without major problems.

For such a simple setting and plot (killer loose in a nearly abandoned mall) Richards sure had a way of overcomplicating things. To start, we are introduced to way too many characters with nearly zero distinguishing characteristics in a very short period of time. This does not allow the reader to get a grasp on their personalities or even form an opinion about them before they are hurled into the mall alongside them trying to remember who is who.

Furthermore, for a book where people are actually getting murdered, there is zero tension involved. When reading a slasher-style book where people are being killed, I should feel my heart beating out of my chest; I should be on the edge of my seat; I should actually care who lives or dies ... I felt none of that with this novel. For that reason, I have to downvote this book because when a thriller is not thrilling, you know it has missed the mark. So disappointing because this plot had so much potential.

"Four Found Dead" by Natalie D. Richards follows Jo and her six co-workers on their last shift at the closing of a theater find a body and must escape with a killer after them. I love books with a locked room concept, and this taking place at a mall was right up my alley.

I loved the concept, and I felt the tension. There were a few surprises, which I appreciated.

However, this would have been more enjoyable if I had felt more invested in the characters - more character development. There was a LOT of running, hiding and chasing. This was a 3.5 start book (abover average) rounded up to 4.

I would like to thank #netgalley for the ARC of this book. This did not impact my review.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

"Four Found Dead" by Natalie D. Richards follows Jo and her six co-workers on their last shift at the closing Riverview Theaters when they find a body and must escape with a killer after them.

I would give "Four Found Dead" by Natalie D. Richards a 4 star review because, I enjoy the concept, I really felt the tension and kept me at the edge of my seat where I finished this in one sitting, the plot and location were interesting and I liked the characters but I felt they could have been more in terms of characters.

𝐹𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝐹𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝒟𝑒𝒶𝒹 by Natalie D. Richards is a book that I was looking forward to reading. I enjoyed the concept of a locked room mystery and suspense story that is set in a mall. I was anticipating the fear and shock of the opening scene from the Fear Street miniseries shows of 2022. Unfortunately, this story was mostly running...like a lot of running. Instead of experiencing the suspense that the story was intending to convey, I was reading it and being told that it should feel like suspense. I'm sure some people would enjoy that, but that's not my type of story. Also, the characters lacked depth and needed more development. I found myself not caring about any of them. Another disappointing feature was that the killer was obvious very early on which made reading the rest of the story pretty lackluster. Overall, it was a decent book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! The setting being in a shut down mall made it really creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat basically the entire book! I would actually love to see this one as a movie because there was so much that I could picture and I think it could have a fear street vibe (without the witchy aspect)! There were parts where I got a little confused trying to keep up with which character was which and I think the story would’ve been better if we didn’t know who the killer was from the beginning 🤷🏻‍♀️ but overall, I had a good time with this one!

2.5, rounding up because it’s YA. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

There were a few things I liked about this: the writing was good, I enjoyed the way the author wove in Jo’s backstory, and the ending was nice and tidy.

That said, I think it did a lot of things that I just don’t like in books, namely the constant running. The “chase” before a climax in most thrillers is typically my least favorite part of a book because I find it boring; Four Found Dead was 95% chase. It didn’t have much of an exposition an led almost immediately got into the action, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but then the rest of the book was just teens running around a mall trying not to be found by their maniacal manager.

I’d recommend it for people who like both YA thrillers and action, for sure.

Overall it was good and the writing was enjoyable. The aspect of who actually committed it was revealed early on, which took away the excitement from a thriller, and it was quite disappointing.