I adored The Blonde Dies First. There’s found family, queer characters, and horror all mixed into one. It felt meta, entertaining, and scary all at once. If you love horror stories and contemporary settings, this is for you! Keep reading this book review of The Blonde Dies First for my full thoughts.
Summary
Devon is always being left behind by her genius twin sister, Drew. At this point, it’s a fact of life. But Devon has one last plan before Drew leaves for college a whole year early—The Best Summer Ever. After committing to the bit a little too much, the twins and their chaotic circle of friends learn why you don’t ever mess with a Ouija board if you want to actually survive the Best Summer Ever, and soon find themselves being hunted down by…a demon?
But while there’s no mistaking the creeping, venomous figure is not from around here, their method doesn’t feel very demonic at all. In fact, it’s downright human—going after them in typical slasher movie kill order. And that means Devon, the blonde, is up first and her decade-long crush, Yaya, is the Final Girl who must kill or be killed to end the cycle.
Devon has never liked playing by anyone else’s rules though, not even a demon’s, and the longer this goes on, the more she feels Drew and Yaya slipping away from her even as she tries to help them all survive. Can they use their horror movie knowledge to flip the script and become the hunters instead of the hunted? Or will their best summer ever be their last?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Blonde Dies First, to me, is like the equivalent of Stephen Graham Jones and the Indian Lake Trilogy. Both of these stories have these characters who are going through horrors and thrills with a meta lens on horror and thriller conventions, tropes, and patterns. It’s like they know the script of what is supposed to happen. Yet both of these books don’t feel formulaic and there’s plenty of surprises within the conventions. The Blonde Dies First is about who we are going to be and who will be there with us.
The plot centers around unraveling the mystery. About these characters, their friendships, and their relationships. For Devon and how she’s afraid of putting herself out there. Of fractures in their relationships, and of being vulnerable. There’s tension in the friendship group. And you can see the tensions simmering under the surface. I adored the friendship group in The Blonde Dies First and how each of them has so much personality. I particularly loved the relationship between Devon and Drew.
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The complexities of being siblings, but also twins. How Drew always seems too perfect to touch, but was she always that way? And how? It’s about the roles we end up playing without realizing it and the ones we choose to embody. Find The Blonde Dies First on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.