You’re Dead to Me by Amy Christine Parker

e-Audio, 09:31:01
Narrated by: Ashley Morton
Release Date: December 10, 2024
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: December 3-4, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this e-ALC from the publisher and their app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Animal Death, Bullying, Child Death, Animal Cruelty
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Family Diversity, Horror, Sparkly Cover, Stand-alone, YA

      Gossip Girl meets Happy Death Day in this YA horror novel following high school outcast and anonymous social media gossip Ruby, who comes face-to-face with her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress. With less than a week until the dance, Ruby must unmask her killer—or die trying.
     Ruby is a scholarship senior at elite Oleander High School with a chip on her shoulder and an attitude to match—which she puts to good use as the infamous local anonymous gossip blogger ReputationKiller. When she’s outed as the voice behind the account, the entire town turns against her.
     But after she’s scared witless by a vision of her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress, she is faced with an awful truth. Someone out there doesn’t just hate her—they want her dead.
     With less than a week until the prom, Ruby starts investigating. Turns out Oleander Bay isn’t the picture-perfect resort town it purports to be. With so many secrets, scandals, and people hell-bent on covering them up at all costs, the murderer could be anyone. Can Ruby beat the clock counting down to prom—and her death—and survive the night?

*MY THOUGHTS*

There is no time ever that I will turn down a freaking horror book. Idk what its about. If I see that it says horror, you can bet I’m going to at least try it. And sure enough, that’s what happened here. I didn’t know anything about this, but I thought the cover was banging. So of course, I had to give it a shot.

Starting with the scare factor since this IS a horror book….. It definitely creeped me out. There weren’t any real jump scares, but the description of the thing that was following her was pretty gross. I can’t really explain the way I kept thinking what I would do if I saw myself the way she kept seeing herself. And the way it was like changing specific details from things even she hadn’t seen yet. It was all very weird. And of course, because of that, I loved it.

Now the main character? I didn’t actually care for her at all. She was really out there blasting people on social media and confused when those same people basically said she was terrible. She did the same thing in some instances, so it really annoyed me that after all this, she STILL didn’t realize what she had done. I get that she was trying to be like Robin Hood, but Lordt she didn’t realize that even with her outing them, she was still hurting innocent people who had no place in this beef. And the sad part was, she knew she was hurting them. She just didn’t care. She was also stubborn af and that was annoying. She didn’t listen to anything and gave no one a chance.

The mystery was good and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I didn’t catch one of the culprits. There is more than one and I didn’t see that coming. It really was a cluster. So basically if you think you know, you don’t. I can tell you it’s a weird ass ending lol I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before. It was so weird. And what happened to that one person?! Omgggg I clapped my hand over my mouth. That was intense lol I think what I liked most about it tho was the fact that there was really like 3 different ones happening at once. I don’t think it was designed for you to come up with the answer.

I enjoyed this, but I was so annoyed with the main character. Enough to where I started rolling my eyes because she was told the same thing multiple times and she was basically ignoring it. She went to the beat of her own drum and usually that caused her to ignore everyone else. It was a mess. But unfortunately I enjoyed it lol

Overall, I give this