Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin RandomHouse, and Penguin Books for this free copy of "DeadStream."

Teresa is depressed about her friend's death and panics at the thought of leaving her house, so her only connection to the world is watching streaming channels online.

Her favorite channeler is called Brick. But while watching, Teresa sees a shadow figure come through a door behind him and then Brick becomes unresponsive.

But what happens when a shadow figure and mysterious door also appear in Teresa's feed?

This book was creepy on so many levels. Of course, the shadow figure and what happened afterward. But also the isolation that people feel and their reliance on technology to help them connect. And how that can be manipulated. And wondering how many people are like Teresa and feel so alone.

Open the Door...

This book was a lot of fun and a little weird. Unfriended meets twitch streaming. How do you escape an entity that's infesting the internet when the internet is EVERYWHERE?

A new twist on hauntings and viruses that kept my attention from start to finish. There were a few weird POV shifts that left me confused at times, but I think it was a really unique experience. This book has a little bit of everything from the paranormal to body horror and I was impressed.

This was a really creepy read! I enjoyed the setting and how the ‘evil’ really was able to creep into our everyday life. The characters were very relatable and the development of them was done very well.

The formatting of the book might be difficult in the e-version but playing around with formatting really fixed it. A lot of the book is told through chats/texts so it can be a pretty quick read as well.

This was a fast read that is said to be The Ring and Rear Window adjacent. It was interesting, and I was curious enough once I started to keeping reading. Teresa is a character has experienced her own trauma and is struggling to work through it as she also investigates these creepy incidents. How the social media aspects were formatted was interesting and made it realistic which further draws you into the story. The plot was suspenseful but no major shocks. A decent YA horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Here we have a horror story that revolves around social media or, to be more specific, the streaming world. Social media horror is one of my favorite subgenres I love to read the different ways it can go horribly wrong. This was told in a mixed media format there were parts with group texts and even some video streams this might have been my favorite part of the book it made me feel I was watching the streams with them. Although this was described as 'The Ring' meets 'Rear Window', I don't think that's very accurate. The horror in this is lacking a little. I wish there were more spooky moments thrown in here. There was also a romance subplot that felt a little forced. On the plus side, this was filled with lgbtq+ rep ! If you're an older person who likes to read Ya from time to time you might want to leave this one with the younger generation unless you're well versed in the streaming community or know of the latest internet lingo. I think the audience this book is meant for will really resonate with it.

This was creepy and I had a great time reading this! I really liked the use of all the different kinds of texts, chats and screenshots throughout the story because it made it really immersive. I would highly recommend this! Special Thank You to Mar Romasco - Moore, Penguin Group and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Deadstream follows Teresa, a chronically online and agoraphobic teenager, who after surviving a car accident that killed her best friend, is too scared to even leave her bedroom. Finding solace in her online friends and streaming, things go wrong one day after her favourite streamer goes AWOL, seemingly haunted by a ghost.

This is a good example of great idea, very poor execution. The plot and twists are very predictable and repetitive. The author fails to make me care about the characters and the brief romance subplot felt shoehorned in to tick a LGBT box for the sake of it rather than any attempts at true representation which I really dislike.

The narrative style was all over the place. The horror elements were not particularly scary or even creepy. It also lacked suspense and atmosphere.

Maybe I'm just too old for YA horror now.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Because I recently read a book with a similar premise that I enjoyed, I was excited to read this one, While it was interesting enough to keep me reading, I did find myself skimming though some parts. YA is always hit or miss with me, and I couldn't fully connect with these characters. I was hoping for more horror rep and less gaming references, but I knew that was a huge part of the plot going in, so that's on me. I did appreciate the elements of mixed media in between the chapters, and I thoroughly enjoyed the nod to one of my favorite horror movies, The Ring. I do thanks Viking Books for the early copy that is out now.

It's been months since Teresa left her room—not since her best friend died in the car accident she survived. Since then, her only form of social connection has been the viewers on her livestreaming account. One night, her favorite live streamer's feed shows a mysterious door behind him, but the door only appears on screen. In real life, he never sees the shadowy creature emerging behind him until it's too late. Days later, he dies during a live stream after hours of catatonic staring into the webcam. Now Teresa must figure out what's causing a string of similar deaths to occur before it comes for her, too.

If I was a teen, I would be terrified by this book. (Let's be honest, as an adult, I was terrified by this book.) I didn't finish the only R.L. Stine I picked up and I couldn't even look at the covers of Animorphs on my way to the YA Fantasy shelf.

Youth has never been a protection from life's misfortunes. Inevitably, Young Adult books distill the grim reality of the world teenagers have inherited—tackling topics like climate change, income inequality, and social isolation. Stories help young people understand and process life's greatest challenges in the safety of a fictional world. They give them the language to understand them and the resolve to overcome them. Importantly, stories teach them the morals (adults would like them to learn) from the struggle.

Deadstream doesn't shy away from difficult topics like anxiety, PTSD, gender identity, and grief. Teresa struggles with agoraphobia and is too anxious to leave her room; many teens today feel socially isolated by the shift away from in-person to online community and their mental health suffers because of it. Teresa experiences grief, loss, and PTSD from a severe car accident that killed her best friend. Many teens today struggle with feelings of grief for losses outside their control. Horror has a unique way of helping us contextualize these experiences, providing a reflection of the emotional depth we experience in real life.

Deadstream blends psychological horror with digital-age paranoia in an eerie, timely premise. Teresa, a reclusive teen scarred by trauma, becomes ensnared in a chilling mystery that unfolds through livestreams and viral terror. The novel taps into modern fears of isolation, online identity, and the blurred line between reality and the virtual world.

Romasco-Moore delivers an engaging setup, and the early tension builds well, particularly through the disturbing imagery of the shadowy figure infiltrating streams. Teresa’s internal struggle with agoraphobia adds depth, grounding the supernatural horror in real emotional stakes.

However, while the concept is strong, the execution sometimes stumbles. The plot can feel repetitive, with the "entity in the stream" motif losing impact as it recurs without significant variation. The pacing drags in the middle, and some supporting characters lack development, making certain emotional beats feel underwhelming. The climax, though tense, leans into familiar tropes without offering a truly surprising payoff.

Overall, Deadstream is a solid read with a compelling premise and some genuine chills, but it doesn’t quite push far enough to stand out in the crowded YA horror genre. Fans of tech-based thrillers will find enough to enjoy, but others may wish the book had explored its dark corners with more daring.

This book was very interesting. I loved the idea and think it was executed pretty well. I was curious how they were going to use streaming in a horror way but I believe it was done in a fun/face paced way that kept you a bit on the edge of your seat.

I loved the premise of this book and cross between the Ring and Rear Window except make it modern. It also reminded me of the movie, Host. I also enjoyed the diverse set of characters, I just wish they were developed a little more. Otherwise this was a quick fun creepy read!

What an incredible read this was! ‘Deadstream’ was a terrifying look at what supernatural beings could do with technology and send those who use it into an absolute spiral. There were multiple times this book creeped me out and made me get up to walk around to shake the feeling of being watched. For this being a debut novel and a Young Adult genre title, I cannot wait to see what Romasco-Moore does in the future, as this was an incredible way to burst onto the scene.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4! I love YA thrillers that have a social media element done well, and Deadstream definitely hit the mark for that! This was exactly the thriller I was looking for when I was in the mood for something fast paced and ghosty. I wasn't a huge fan of all of the streamer terms that I have no clue what any of them meant, but aside from that I really enjoyed my time and will look forward to this author's future releases. Thank you Netgalley and Viking Books for my early copy!

When I first picked up 'Deadstream,' I thought I knew what I was in for: a techno slasher, maybe with a little camp thrown in. I was wrong on many accounts. It's a reimaging of a ghost story. A place where people are so obsessed with viewer counts that they live on beyond the grave. It's also about friendship, both irl and online. Throughout the book, a chat stream was utilized to provide other opinions and to carry the story along. I think the author used it successfully. If you ever get an online prompt to "Open the door," please disconnect your system. There are some places you don't want to be. 4.5 stars.

In this book we're following a teen girl who is an online streamer by the name of Replay. She clips exciting things that happen during other popular streamers LIVE events and reposts them to her own channel, hence the name. During a popular streamer's live feed, something weird and spooky starts to happen and Replay is there to capture the moments. When the weird things start to happen more and more to other streamers and starts to seep into her personal life, she starts to wonder if she is going crazy.

For quite a while I wasn't sure how I felt about this book. I'm not a big live stream watcher so I'm not super familiar with some of the lingo used and had to ask my husband about some of the acronyms used. I did like that at the beginning of each "live stream" there a description about what was on camera at the moment and that there was the chat log. There were parts that were written from a different POV...but that doesn't sound right and I don't know how to say it without giving anything away and but when things clicked, it turned my rating from round my 4.5 down to a 4 to rounding up to a 5. Another reason for it not being up there as a 5 star from the beginning is because there are chat threads and text threads happening throughout the story but it isn't clear who is speaking each line and I would have to read those a few times and make a guess because I wasn't always sure.

There were some things that I wish I could have read about, like an after convo between Replay and Jolley...you'll understand when you read this. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I hope I can find a physical copy soon!

3/5⭐️ 🎧

» 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳/𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳, 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵/𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘴, 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢.

» This was a fun little fast paced, slow burn! Delving into the online world of streaming and sharing your online persona. I for-sure got The Ring vibes from this, but by no means was that disappointing!

» In this you’ll be on a mystery hunt with our teen protagonist Teresa, known online as Replay, whose bedroom bound searches through streams to figure out why users are falling victim to the “open the door” prompt.

I enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars. I really enjoyed the deep dive into how the internet can affect how we see each other in real life. It showed both the positives and the negatives being online has on our lives. Definitely had some twists I wasn’t expecting. I truly thought it was going to be a straightforward mystery and was pleasantly surprised that there was way more.

I think this one was just a little too out there for me. The concept was interesting at first but felt like it lost the plot a little in the middle. Ending was strong though!

Brick is a big streamer with thousands of subs and viewers. So it's no big deal when he gets in front of the camera again and hits to go live - for donations. But it doesn't take long - a random donation with the prompt "Open the Door" pops up. Once the streamer opens the door, he becomes catatonic. He stares off, for hours, not talking, drinking, eating, nothing. Teresa is just one of the many watching that day - but as a streamer as well, it's an opportunity to get a stream going to try to figure out what is going on.

This was such a fun, spooky read. I did this as an audiobook and the sound effects and reading of the chat logs was so fun and really added to the feel of the story. I watch a few gamers who stream and the chat, the trolls, and the reactions felt really realistic. I loved the twist - and that it wasn't just "go touch grass" but had actual meaning around what everyone had gone through. This is a good addition the horror genre, one that kept me entertaining, hooked to know what would happen next, and didn't preach.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.