Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Your Lonely Nights Are Over

As you may know, I have taken it upon myself to create THE SLASHER LIST, a comprehensive list and review of slasher-inspired novels. I’ve been away from the project for a bit (work, life, personal demons, you know how it is), so I haven’t been able to dedicate much time to pursuing the project.

So when I started reading Your Lonely Nights Are Over, I wanted so much, despite knowing it would make the fall worse if I was disappointed.

I am so happy to say that Your Lonely Nights Are Over was everything I wanted and more. I devoured this book in two sittings.

We’ve got twists, we’ve got turns, we’ve got messy queer characters, and, of course, the most important element of every slasher: buckets of blood.

The death scenes and the tension is brutal. These kids die, man, and Sass doesn’t hold back. There’s a Saw-trap-esque strangulation by barbed wire in the first few chapters.

I will say that if you’re like me and you read and watch a lot of slashers and are familiar with the tropes, the twists might be a bit easy to predict. I knew who the killer was pretty quickly (and the twist about the killer, because I’m familiar with Saw and Scream).

That all said, while I caught the foreshadowing and know the genre a bit too well for my own good, it wasn’t frustrating to wait for the characters to catch up with my realizations. Twists don’t have to be unpredictable to be fun.

This is a YA book. I typically don't like YA (I'm just not the target demographic), but I think that this is one of those YA books that, while definitely for teens, is fun to read as an adult, too. (Especially if you were in a queer club in high school. Because, woof, this book captured that feeling of young queer drama well.)

This book has an important message about queer community that is vital for young queer folk to learn, especially in an era of the internet full of toxic queer spaces. Ultimately, Your Lonely Nights Are Over is a story about friendship, community, and recognizing the danger and toxicity of queer abusers, all wrapped up in a witty, barbed-wire slasher with a breakneck pace.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Your Lonely Nights Are Over is definitely going to be one of the crowning jewels of THE SLASHER LIST, sitting in pride of place beside My Heart is a Chainsaw.

If you loved the Scream movies and want a book with that same smart, meta horror vibe, then you’ll have one hell of a time with Your Lonely Nights are Over.

Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley! If you are interested in Your Lonely Nights Are Over, it is out now!

If possible, support indie bookshops by purchasing the novel from your local brick and mortar or from Bookshop.org.

User-defined content warnings are available via Storygraph.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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literarycavy's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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danscoada's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC.

I've never seen Clueless, but I am a huge fan of the Scream franchise. When I saw the comparisons, I knew that I had to get my hands on Your Lonely Nights are Over. It mostly didn't disappoint, and it definitely gives off Scream vibes without being a rip-off.

Following Cole and Dearie through this YA slasher novel was a fun ride with a few twists and turns. I don't read mysteries or thrillers with an intent on trying to solve anything before the book does. With that being said, my enjoyment of a book usually plummets when the solution is obvious enough for me to guess early on. Sadly, I saw the outcome from a mile away (it was rather obvious, in my opinion). Thankfully there were some other mysteries going on that weren't so straightforward, so I still found quite a lot of enjoyment during my time in Stoney Grove.

Our two POV characters were campy and provided ample laughs through their internal and external dialogues. Neither is by any means perfect (who is), but both readers and the book's denizens warm up to them. In the first third of the book I had difficulty remembering which POV we were following (both characters use first-person); the characters are very similar in a lot of ways. As the chapters progressed I felt each character come into themselves a little more, and it helped that they were more often in different locations. Cole's obsession with the word "flop", however, was grating.

The other characters were largely forgettable, but they were a good time while we had them. In many ways we don't get to know most of the other characters apart from their physical description. Both Cole and Dearie constantly use hair, clothing, and body size as major descriptors for the other Queer Club members, including themselves, and there are very few non-Sandman related conversations with the other members.

I think this would be a great read for the upcoming fall/Halloween season, despite being set in the spring. I found it easy to root for Cole and Dearie and was touched by their arcs. Your Lonely Nights are Over touches on societal issues - such as racism, queerphobia, and police brutality - that I feel incredibly under qualified to discuss. Adam Sass handled these issues in a way that makes me feel they have firsthand experience with many of the same things the characters undergo. I recommend reading the introduction before diving in.

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jessicastephenson's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Queer, campy slasher with a good dose of social commentary. I loved the suspense of figuring out who the killer was and was surprised at the reveal. There is a great group of characters (the Queer Club kids) that is diverse and fun. I love the exploration of queer friendship and queer community.

Some important topics are covered in this book that make it so much better than just a thriller. From racism to emotional abuse/manipulation to slut shaming, this book was brimming with important conversations and reflections.

My few issues with the book are that sometimes the "flop" comments were a little too much and also that it took me about a third of the book to really feel the tension and suspense. Otherwise I loved this book, it's going up towards the top of my favourites list this year.

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nerp's review

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I’m not a big slasher watcher, but I loved this book. I’d read 50 pages in a flash and want to keep going. What I particularly love is its irreverence—this is not a story catering to the masses. It’s bloody, it’s sexy, it’s unapologetic, it’s real. The queers are messy AF, not angels. But at its core, it’s a story of two friends who give a new meaning to ride-or-die.

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