I’ve been seeing Stranger Things EVERYWHERE and as someone who was told I would be too scared, I feel like I’m missing out. So when I saw that Dead Flip was compared to Stranger Things, I felt like this was my chance! And I loved this supernatural horror tinged 80s and 90s nostalgia fantasy. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Growing up, Cori, Maz, and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games, and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?
These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody, and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubblegum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen—Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all . . .
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: racism, homophobia
Dead Flip is multiple perspective and plays around with timelines. Those are two elements guaranteed to intrigue me. Multiple POV novels are so good at telling different angles of a situation of a world. And Dead Flip is no exception especially as it forces readers to question the reliability and biases of our narrators. Additionally, flipping to the past 80s vibes gives readers first hand insight into what happened with Sam. Why the town seemingly has given up on him – except Maz.
Dead Flip is unraveling what is happening now by juxtaposing it with the past. With the ways in which our memories and regrets catch up to us. I loved the 80s and 90s nostalgia which I guess makes this a historical fiction fantasy?? But even more so, the tension and suspense in Dead Flip is fantastic. Something happened which has not let go of them yet. Fractured moments in the past and a friendship that seems like it disintegrated and is full of awkward silences.
Additionally I was able to switch between my copy and the audio which was superb. I love when multiple narrators are brought in and Wali Habib, Reena Dutt & Michael Crouch did a fantastic job at bringing each of their personalities to life. I was never confused about which character was speaking. Plus it was fun to listen to their takes on each other’s voice when we were in a different POV.
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At the same time, Dead Flip manages to deliver these suspense vibes and mystery, it also comments on the changes we go through growing up. All the things we leave behind and the things we think we have left behind. The growing that we have to do to realize that jealously, ‘ownership’, and friendship all change before our own eyes. It also explores what we will do, or sacrifice, for things to never change. And how universal that fear is. Find Dead Flip on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org ,The Book Depository, Libro.fm & Google Play.