
Member Reviews

"Rear Window meets The Ring in this sinister YA thriller, in which a teen girl witnesses the livestreamed murder of a popular online streamer by a paranormal entity . . . and could be its next victim." I love social media horror, and this book was no exception! This was a fast-paced novel that was fun and creepy. I may have yelled at the FMC a few times. I loved the mystery surrounding what or who the entity was that kept appearing in streams. Also, if you are not a fan of bugs, you may want to skip some parts. Definitely a great horror book!

This is a really fascinating book! This book's formatting was a novel decision. Anyone in their late teens to early twenties should read this book, in my opinion, as it offers a moving glimpse into the life of an anxious streamer and teaches us that sometimes we must log off and simply live life.

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review: Deadstream started out really well. You really get immersed into the story. It leans heavily into screaming culture and if you don't know anything about that you might be lost by some of the lingo and I do think it could impact your ability to understand the story. Things like "raids," on stream are used a lot and if you don't know about that, you're going to be confused or lose context (this is not a dig at the book, its delivering what it promises).
I struggled with this one. I will own, I am not the target audience. However, I feel like this book moved too fast for the story to really sink in. I wish we would have spent more meaningful time with the main character and built her character more before things started moving. However, the age range this is for may not like that. I think this being a.YA thriller, it will do well with it's audience. This, feels closer to a middle grade horror though it is genuinely scary at times so maybe not suited for that audience for that reason. However, the writing and story structure was close to middle grade.
Because I am not the wheelhouse for this, I am not going to rate it on Goodreads. I think this is a good book for it's age range, it does not cross over though like some YA do and that's okay. This will be a good book for younger audiences to connect to and that's important. Rating 3 star on netgalley as rating is required and that's my rating with age range considered.

Teresa (aka Replay) is a teenager consumed by grief and guilt after the death of her best friend. Unable to leave her room, she retreats into the solace of streaming and online communities, where the glow of a screen feels safer than the outside world. But when a popular streamer begins acting strangely, Teresa is pulled into a dark mystery. Her search for answers pulls her deeper into the dark corners of the internet, where reality and digital nightmares begin to blur.
This book begins with a fairly fast-paced narrative and creative format, weaving chat logs, forum posts, and livestream transcripts into an unnerving story. The author does well capturing an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia and dread, amplified through Teresa’s battle with PTSD, anxiety, and agoraphobia. Her emotional state and physical reactions felt raw and authentic, capturing the crushing isolation and helplessness that often accompany such conditions.
However, the book’s ending faltered for me. The final act loses focus, overwhelmed by too many moving parts. Teresa’s journey into the villain’s mind became convoluted and difficult to follow. It felt more like a series of disconnected set pieces than a cohesive conclusion.
That said, the book excels in exploring the eerie, all-consuming nature of the online world. It delves into the bittersweet paradox of the way the internet can foster connection, but also feed isolation.
In the end, Deadstream didn’t fully work for me, but I can see it resonating with other readers, especially those who appreciate YA horror with a streamer-centric twist. If you’re someone who enjoys eerie atmospheres, relatable mental health struggles, and a touch of digital chaos, this book might just be your next binge-read.
Thank you Netgalley for this advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

There are some genuinely creepy moments in this book and the premise is interesting. It's a dangers of streaming and what it can do to a person book, and while it's certainly based on things that can and do happen as a result of social media, I do think it inches a bit close to being preachy on the subject matter.
That being said, I enjoyed the read and love a non-traditional narrative. Though, some of the texting was difficult to read on Kindle.
The incentive nature of the haunting was my favorite element of the book.
There was a bit at the end where the pronoun "they" was used in a way that felt misleading and sort of misrepresentative of how "they" is used by non-binary folks.

Not sure what yo expect in thus book. I'm not sure i was the together audience. Not really for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Deadstream by Mar Romasco-Moore is a terrific horror novel. Teresa is a streamer who witnesses something strange online. She has severe PTSD and struggles to deal with the real world. When her virtual world comes under attack by an evil entity, Teresa feels the need to find a way to stop the evil from spreading before all her online friends are gone.
The story tackles PTSD in a very accurate and responsible way. It also addresses the danger of spending to much time online, and hiding from reality in a virtual world. It also addresses the mental health repercussions of social media addiction, all while creating a creepy, thrilling horror novel.
Deadstream is similar to the movies Pulse, The Ring, and DeVour. If you like those movies, you will love Deadstream.
Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Viking Books for Young Readers for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

okay, this is DEFINITELY NOT just a YA horror. it's deeply omi nous and actually made me at points shudder. in the middle of the afternoon, in a brightly lit room with multiple windows. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Oh, man, I loved this. Teresa’s trauma was more real than many books dealing with PTSD, the author did a stellar job showing us her* world, and I loved the community of people she had around her. I am an old person and know zilch about streaming but found the descriptions of Replay’s online world compelling and easy to visualize and understand. As the story amped up and the horror aspect became more real, I couldn’t read fast enough. This book felt very new and I was completely enthralled.

This was a really great story! I loved all of the characters and felt like the author did a really great job of making the plot interesting and the characters relatable. It definitely works and the story just came alive for me. It was spooky yet solvable, complicated yet simple. Read this book, you won’t regret that choice!

I thought this was brilliant. Not only is the plot incredibly fast paced and entertaining but underneath it all we have some incredible mental health representation. I do not suffer from PSTD or Agoraphobia but I have two degrees in psychology. To me this was a far better representation of both than other books I have read (*cough* The Woman in the Window). This might seem like a book about hauntings with a large helping of body horror but really this is book about grief.
This is why I love horror. This right here.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the horror aspect around social media. It reminds me of the movie Pulse which I absolutely loved. I am happy that I was introduced to this author. I loved the creativity in the story and appreciate the opportunity to receive this arc.

This book is spooky. Teresa is a Streamer who has gone through a traumatic car accident and lost her best friend. She is also struggling with identity but to keep it simple I will use She/her. Teresa, along with thousands of others, watches as a fellow streamer is haunted by a shadow figure. Teresa becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened. More and more streamers are attacked and fall into catatonic states. When Teresa's younger brother and her crush fall victim to the shadow figure, she is the only one who can save them.
This is a slow build, but thrilling book. It's going to have me checking screens for a while. Teresa is an unlikely hero who is forced to overcome psychological and physical obstacles to save those she loves. Recommend this to readers who like thrillers.

Internet supernatural horror, with strong found footage vibes throughout! This genre is very difficult to write without hopelessly overdoing it, but "Deadstream" absolutely nails it. The story is essentially about a sinister haunting, though instead of houses it's livestreams getting haunted! The idea is original (though slightly reminiscent of the movie Host), the execution flawless, the creepy scenes plentiful and the action never stops. This last is a bit of a mystery (I mean how the author manages to keep the tension high and the action non-stop), since the main character is a traumatized livestreamer with several mental issues, on account of which she can't even leave her room. Yet the employment of different formats (descriptions and transciptions of livestreams, live chats, messages, videos), and the realistic portrayal of gender fluidity, teenage dilemmas, and heightened emotion (from grief and guilt to hope and love), kept me turning the pages all night, and ended up finishing it in one sitting. The ending was marvelous, and the last lines quite hair-raising! Very highly recommend, certainly not only for young adult readers but for all horror fans!

Good YA thriller but not for me. I may have to try this on audio when it comes out due to the formatting though.

This is a very interesting read! I wanted to start it back around Halloween but I didn’t have the time!
Definitely a more gloomy spooky vibe perfect for the Halloween season but enjoyable outside of the season as well!
Detailed and descriptive! A tad rushed but all of the points are made quite well throughout!
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1🌶️

Teresa AKA Replay experienced a horrific accident that left her crippled with fear and anxiety. Her main way to cope is through streaming and the online community that she builds. However, the safety of her online words crashes down as strange and creepy things start happening to all her favourite streamers. And her.
From the very beginning, this was creepy. And the author did not let up on the creepy factor. This set the scene for a book that, once I started, I couldn’t keep my eyes away from. The world was very claustrophobic, and made me feel anxious any time Teresa stepped out of her room. The book held true to what I expect in a YA novel, if not raised the stakes even more. I have not read any YA horrors that creeped me out the way this one did.
The age range and choice of streaming sits very well with YA as most teenagers are watching YouTube or Twitch and interacting. The language of the chats was also very appropriate for the age range.
The formatting style of this book was a unique choice, having most of the pages in either stream, chat, or other forum layouts. This added to the immersion of the book and was where it was mainly creepy.
For 95 percent of the book, the execution was flawless. However, the ending did not make sense for the story that was told. It was confusing, and took me out of the story.
I would recommend this book to anyone in their late teens to early twenties, as this is a poignant look into the life of a streamer with anxiety, and teaches an important lesson that sometimes we need to log off.
Overall this book gets 4 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The premise was good for a YA horror novel. I thought the chat was a little distracting. I think the author should have cut some of that out and spent more time with character development. The chat felt like a big part of the book. I did like the cover though. Reminded me of horror book covers from the 80s and 90s.

First of all,
I really love the cover. Its so cute!
Second of all,
This book was really good. I went in expecting not the worst and I got story that was pretty darn good.
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin random house.

I had such an amazing time with this book. Mar Romasco-Moore had me hooked from beginning to end. Genuinely tence and creepy in the best way. I will definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to stream/watch games on Twitch, or just go down old reddit rabbit holes online. I'm excited to check out more of Mar Romasco-Moore books.
Content Warnings⚠️
Body Horror
Suicide
Mental illness
Thank you Netgalley for providing me an Arc for my honest review.