This felt VERY young, even for YA. I think kids would enjoy it, but I was definitely not the target audience for this one so I had to DNF.

📚 In 2001, the town of Sanera, California,is on high alert after a couple is found brutally murdered in an abandon mansion. All signs point to the ghost of a murdered landowner has finally taken his revenge. A Group of teens decide to discover what really happened on the night of murder. The question remains : will they decided to stick together or split up to find the truth?

💭 I think I wasn’t the audience for this book. I don’t know if this was the final version or not, or maybe I didn’t like writing style, but it does have its moments. The romance feels flat.My favorite character is Buffy. I would like to talk more about it, but I don’t want to spoiler it. I would definitely reread and read the second book.

Thanks for NetGalley and Bill’s team for ARC of let’s split up.

3.50 ⭐️

Was this a believable storyline? No. Was it an enjoyable fun ride? Absolutely. I loved the call backs to Scooby Doo, the 90s, and all things kitchy horror movie.

My all time favorite horror trope is abandoned haunted mansions and this novel delivered! Spooky tunnels and creepy murder rooms added to the ambiance and storyline. I liked how the characters were portrayed and how their relationships developed even though they differed from their Scooby Doo inspired counterparts.

Now that the sequel is announced I can't wait to continue in this world!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me an e-arc for review.

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

The Scooby Doo comparisons on this book are definitely earned, and not in the way you think. Like an episode of the show, it's incredibly predictable. It's also written like it's meant to be read by a Goosebumps-aged audience despite being labeled young adult. The characters, including the adults, are Goosebumps-kid-levels of stupid. And first person present tense POV? One of the stars being taken off was entirely because of that.

The pacing is good, at least, so it was a pretty quick read!

Two stars out of five for Let's Split Up!

Hello cute popcorn thriller mystery. I loved the plot and while yes it was kind of predictable it didn't make it any less fun. In fact I couldn't put the book down it was a fun romp and not too scary which Ive noticed folks are starting to not want as graphic details anymore so this is perfect for those folks.

After two popular high schoolers are burned alive in the haunted Carrington Manor, friends Cam, Amber, and Jonesy decide to investigate, along with new girl Buffy. They will find danger and a little romance along the way as a very real killer starts to hunt them down.

This was a fun slasher-type horror novel that really lives up to the comparisons to Scooby-Doo! All the tropes are here, with research in the library and unmasking villains and plenty of twists to keep you guessing. There's also a little gay romance, great banter, and the nostalgia factor. I struggled a bit with the formatting of the ARC (the print was SO tiny!) and I also had to put this down for few days because I was reading another book that was too similar and I kept getting them confused, but overall this was a fun read for horror and Scooby-Doo buffs.

Let me preface this by saying I am a huge scooby doo and scream fan. I can see the similarities however I just don’t feel it lived up to the hype. Overall a good read, my first by this author.

Loved it, I was in a big reading slump and this pull me out! Love the trill and the excitement, would definitely buy a hard copy. I just love how it All played out

Scooby Doo meets Scream in this YA mystery by Bill Wood. Amber, Cam, and Jonesy are having a normal school day when new girl, Buffy, gets invited to hang out with their group for the day. At lunch the school makes an announcement that two Sanera High School students were found dead. Their deaths are ruled an accident from a fire but- what if it isn't?

Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for the ARC!

I was so excited for this read, especially seeing it advertised as similar to Scooby-Doo and Scream. It is, but the similarities to these popular franchises aren’t enough to lean on. The idea was great, but the execution was poorly done, especially when it came to pacing, dialogue, and believability. The characters were also so surface level that I could never remember who the POV of the chapter was because it didn’t really seem to matter. I will say that I didn’t guess who the culprit was, but I’m not sure whether that’s a plus or negative to the writing. I did finish the story so that I could give a fully honest review, but this book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Scholastic and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ✍🏻

It only took me a few days to finish it because it was just that good! I loved the horror movie references! It had me at the edge of my seat numerous times! The story was really good and I loved everything about it!

I had my own theories but I did not see the plot twist coming! The characters were amazing and I felt like I was really apart of their friend group! There were times my heart was racing and times I was BAWLING! I was scared for the characters and was rooting for them the entire time!

I DEFINITELY recommend this one so PLEASE check it out!!!!

A really fun read, that definitely brought me back to the early 2000s. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this story and the love plot points. It was an easy read that made me feel good reading the story. The book kept mem guessing and I wasn't completely able to guess the ending, which is always good in a mystery novel. Overall, I felt this book was a fun, quick, expressive and nostalgic read. Would recommend to anyone who grew up in the late 90s early 2000s who want to remanence and have a good time with a book. Would also recommend to today's teens that want a mystery novel that it just exciting and heartwarming all around. Excited for the sequel.

Oh this was such a fun who done it!!! I’ve been wanting to read this for sooo long and I’m so happy I finally did!!

2 stars. My rating isn’t a knock on the author’s work as much as it reflects my personal enjoyment. The story had a campy, cheesy vibe—think Scooby-Doo meets Scream—which just isn’t my thing (full disclosure: I’ve never been a Scooby fan). I did appreciate the fast-paced plot, and most loose ends were tied up—though a few story details felt irrelevant in the grand scheme.

It seems more suited for a middle school audience, but the presence of profanity makes it harder to confidently recommend for that age group.

While this book was considered a young adult read, it still seemed very basic. I do read quite a bit of the YA genre, and this was too simplistic, cheesy, and cringe worthy. There was no reveal as the killer was painfully obvious, and the characters were forgettable. While I get that the author was going for the campy "scooby gang" vibe, it fell short for me.

Thank you for the opportunity!

In small town Sanera, a teenaged couple is killed after filming inside infamous Carrington Manor. This mansion burned down in the 1920s, and the eccentric old man owner was inside at the time. As many rural areas do, this is the local ghost story/ lore than permeates the ears and minds of many a school aged child. We follow a group of 3 friends- Amber, Jonesy, and Cam- as they are introduced to a new fourth friend group member, a transplant from Connecticut. Described as Scream meets Scooby Doo, this one did feel lacking in that summation for me. I was riveted from the word go, and as someone a touch younger than our high school cast of characters then, I enjoyed the plethora of Y2K memories of nostalgia (this is set in 2001). The downside overall is this was written even younger than a high school age cast. The majority of the details were so very cut and dry, without much delving into it. Emotions within the relationships felt very shallow and not nuanced enough for me to consider myself enjoying them. I'd have liked a bit less "this isn't a horror movie" quips personally, and have higher hopes for the sequel. The cover and package overall is so excellent that with a few tweaks made, I think I could elevate my rating. Thanks so much to the author the publisher for the chance to review an eARC!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

LET'S SPLIT UP by Bill Wood

Thank you Netgalley and Scholastic for the earc (Out in US Sept 2, already out in UK)

When Brad and Shelley are murdered, friends Cam, Amber and Jonesy---as well as newcomer Buffy---team up to solve the m*rders.
I've wanted to read LET'S SPLIT UP since I first saw the cover back forever ago, so when it got a US release day, I was glad. I had such high expectations for this book because of the cover, description, and Scooby Doo comparison, and let's just say this did not disappoint.
I flew through LET'S SPLIT UP, and all its fast-paced, slasher glory. This book is thrilling, and it seemed like something new happened in each chapter as the threat grew more real and the bodies started piling up.
I want to say that I never would have saw the whodunit coming, but there was a time when [Redacted] was talking to one of the characters, and I was like "What if they did it?, so when it was revealed, I wasn't shocked. Nonetheless, this book hit the mark for me. It was everything I expected, and I love that it was. The characters were likeable, and I can't wait for them to solve another mystery.

“Let’s Split Up” was promoted as “Scooby Doo meets Scream,” and while some of that inspiration was present, it was mostly superficial. Whereas “Scream” was a clever, post-modern take on the horror genre, the closest this comes to Scream is simply mimicking an opening murder scene. The characters are paper thin with hackneyed references to horror tropes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As for the lore and mythology of the town, there is some attempt to make Carrington Ghoul a Scooby Doo type of villain, but mostly I found myself not really getting invested or being interested in either the plot development or characters. While this was listed as YA, it felt like the target audience is even younger than that, but with excessive and unoriginal middle school profanity.

If there's one thing that's clear while reading Let's Split Up, it's that the author, Bill Wood, loves horror movies, and sought out to write an homage to all of their classic tropes.

The novel focuses on a group of four teenagers in Sanera, a mostly quiet town whose most notable attribute is the creepy old Carrington Manor. Decades ago, the man who lived there lost his entire family to disease—and then died in a fire in the house. When to popular high school students wind up dead in the same way, people start to believe that his ghost—the Carrington Ghoul—is responsible.

There's definitely a lot of fun to be had in this book—as I said above, the passion that the author has for the genre is completely apparent, particularly the era of early 2000s horror movies like Scream, or series like Scooby-Doo. I do think this book was meant to take place in a similar time although it was never entirely clear beyond loose technological references. There was also some good layering of mystery when it came to character Buffy—the new girl at school who joins the pre-existing friend trio of Amber, Jonesy and Cam. The friend group themselves comes with really interesting backstories—parents who are more or less involved in their lives, suffering with addiction, over protectiveness—and there's some intriguing personal dynamics like a budding romance between best friends Cam and Jonesy.

However, I don't know that any of these things really had the chance to breathe. The book itself was very plot focused and very fast-paced, so a lot of the writing was show rather than tell. Often times characters came to conclusions extraordinarily quickly and conveniently in a way that was a little frustrating for a book that was meant to have a mystery. I figured out who the killer was on the first page that the character appeared, which was also a little frustrating; when the book attempted to lead me in other directions it was almost too obvious for me to actually be swayed.

Some of the interesting seeds of the characters were never completely delved into as well which as a character based reader was frustrating for me—Jonesy in particular was a character that I would have loved to have dealt with all of the interesting things Wood created for his backstory a little more.

Generally I think the thing this book suffers from is wanting to have adult content but frankly being tonally written more like a middle grade novel versus YA—because I do think there is something really great and charming here, but I don't know that it was ever as in depth or complex as I wanted it to be.

I do think there's something there with these characters and would be intrigued to potentially read more about them and hopefully delve a little bit more into their stories as they continue to solve mysteries.

Thank you so much for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Seeing as I grew up in the 90's, this book gave me everything I was hoping that it would! Bill Wood, although I know he's a good deal younger than myself, nailed it with this book! The Scooby Doo meets Scream description is absolutely dead on! The suspense, the thrills, and even the laughs I experienced were great! This was a banger! Can't wait to get my hands on the next one!

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is honest, unbiased, and completely my own.