Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Your Lonely Nights Are Over

➽ Your Lonely Nights Are Over is a YA Slasher about a serial killer who target's the school's queer club! A famous serial killer called Mr. Sandman emerges from retirement and starts to go on a killing spree again. He targets anyone who might be feeling lonely and I found his MO very interesting! It's inspired by the Mr. Sandman song! I liked that we get excerpts from a documentary on the topic in between chapters, as it added another layer to the story. Best friends Dearie and Cole are both in the sights of the killer, who's coming closer and closer to them. Even worse, someone is trying to frame them for the murders and the police is all too eager to blame Cole, a young black man. I liked seeing Cole and Dearie's friendship and how it changed with everything that was going on. The story was dark and suspenseful, touching upon homophobic hate crimes, police brutality and the danger of getting into relationships just so you're paired-up and no longer 'lonely'.

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readthesparrow's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny tense fast-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? No

5.0

This review is based on a digital ARC provided by the publisher.

REVIEW

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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legalplanner's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

4.5

First and foremost, thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the chance to give my honest opinion in exchange for a earc of this book.

I was drawn in from the moment we met Dearie and Cole. I was wrapped up in who they were and what was going on. I found that the queer friendships, toxic friendships, and fear all played really well in this novel.

I will say that there were moments where watching Dearie and Cole's dynamic was hard because it felt a bit toxic to me, but I may have felt that way because they were just friends but often acted as more. The side characters were very lackluster and not likable to me, which made it hard to want them to stay alive.

Overall this was a great read, and I'm so glad that I got a chance to read this thriller headed into spooky season.

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense 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? No

4.5

In this queer dramedy thriller, you'll find queer friendship, found family, and an abusive/controlling romantic relationship. Plus quite a bit of murder!
I enjoyed this book! I laughed, I almost cried, and I was on the edge of my seat. I liked the levity that kept the book from just being too dark.

I was pretty sure I knew who one of the killers was, and I was right about the younger one. But the older one I had guesses Keven RIP.

I honestly wish I could have Cole and Dearie for my gay beasties! They are just the right amount of bitchy for me! But sweet on the inside. Which shows more as the story progresses. A lot of the other characters weren't particularly likable though, like AA, and Theo.
Overall a really enjoyable and not too predictable thriller. With excellent narration!

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hobbithopeful's review

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dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5 stars Thank you Penguin for this ARC
A fun and witty queer slasher, dead bodies run as high as the cutting jokes in Your Lonely Nights Are Over.
We follow besties Dearie and Cole, friends who are unabashedly themselves, and not afraid to call out anyone and everyone that annoys them. When members of the Queer Club start dropping like flies, fingers are quick to point to the two of them. But is it the retired never-been-caught serial killer Mr. Sandman? A copycat? Either way Dearie and Cole have to discover the killer, before they are killed, or arrested!
This is such a hilarious book, I don't think I've had such fun reading a horror book before. Their friendship is so nice to see, as well as reading them "read" others when they try to come for them gave me life. I alternated between laughing and then being scared at was about to happen. This really feels like an old school slasher movie in the best possible way.
Adam Sass shows it is not impossible to write books with great POC characters, even if you are a white author. I really love how Cole's characters is written, and how different the students treat him as a murder suspect vs Dearie. There is so much great racial microaggressions in this book, so innocuous to many, I love it so much. (See guys it's not impossible!)
Without spoiling anything, I also love how relationships are depicted. Be they healthy or not, sometimes you don't realize what's going on until much later, when your brain finally feels ready to process it. There is a lot of symbolism in YLNAO and it is very well done.
This book is also very sex positive, and the discussions and situations surrounding "acting gay" reminds me of Camp. There is no reason to police how you act, or change how you talk just to be more palatable to straights. Sass hit the nail on the head with every issue he tackled.
For me the only issues I really have are at the beginning with the pacing, and some of the structuring. We are introduced to the characters, then there is a time jump of two months. A lot of what happens in that time jump is referenced later, or we get a few flashbacks. I almost wish we got to see more of Dearie's relationship and really how isolated he became from Cole. It would have had a larger impact on later events in the book if we got see more from Dearie's relationship. After the two months, the characters quickly reunite again, but we haven't seen enough of them to really understand the importance and feel that emotional weight for this event.
All in all, I had an enjoyable time reading this, and it got my mind of life. (Which is always a plus!)
This is a must read book for horror fans, lovers of queer books, or anyone looking for a fun read! This is my first book of Adam Sass, and I am going to go look at what other books he's written, because I am now a fan!
This cover!?! Obsessed. Perfection. Wouldn't change a thing. From the colors to the composition, to even the illustration, this is a perfectly done cover. 10/10 wouldn't change a thing.

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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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