Deadstream by Mar Romasco-Moore

e-Audio, 06:54:35
Narrated by: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
Release Date: April 1, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: March 31-April 1, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received a free e-ALC from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death, Mental Illness, Suicide, Bullying, Car Accident, Murder, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Horror, Most Anticipated

      Rear Window meets The Ring in this sinister YA thriller, in which a teen girl witnesses the livestreamed murder of a popular online streamer by a paranormal entity . . . and could be its next victim.
     After surviving a car accident that claimed the life of her best friend, Teresa is now terrified to leave the safety of her bedroom. Since then, her only solace and window to the outside world has been the online community she found through streaming.
     But one night, the safe world Teresa created starts to break down. A shadowy figure appears in the background of her favorite’s streamer’s video, and his behavior mysteriously changes over the next few days before he dies in front of thousands of viewers. Teresa finds herself at the center of a life-and-death investigation as the world tries to figure out what or who this figure could be . . . especially as it begins appearing in the other people’s streams, compelling them to “open the door” and let it in—including Teresa’s own. In order to save herself and the rest of the internet from this relentless entity, Teresa must venture outside of the mental and physical walls she’s created. But will she be able to conquer her fears before anyone else loses their life?

*MY THOUGHTS*

This was wild. It was nothing like I expected either. It was all over the place and I really can’t decide if I really liked it or not lol I will say this is a weird book tho. And if you’re not a teen or someone who works close with them, this may not be your jam.

Ok so I liked that this was different than the other ghost technology books that are out there. It’s different because it had like the ghost but there was no rhyme or reason to how they got there and there was no way to tell who was next. And no one really believed that it was a thing either. I think that was the weirdest part. Some of these things were the kid sitting in front of their computer for hours and just rocking and muttering. Like be for real lol

But the ghost itself was ok. It wasn’t exactly creepy tho. The author doesn’t give an explanation of what it looks like besides a figure. And the door was crazy. It was so creepy to think that it just appeared and people were just like eh ok let me walk through it? Absolutely not. And then there was the addition of the cloud. That was the weirdest part. Just thinking of how connected we are now a days and the type of things that could float into the ether because of us. Lordt I can’t even imagine.

The characters were all over the place. I didn’t like any of them. And they were all ridiculous. And then how one person got it and no one else did? And I got pretty pissed off that there were some instances that they were trying to dox a teenager. Please, don’t be that person. Get mad yes, but doxing (no matter their age) is never ok. And I don’t actually understand the way. But every single one of them was annoying.

The ending was terrible. To be honest I couldn’t even understand it. But it wasn’t enough for me to get mad at or be pissed about. Even still, I’m still a little on the fence about this one. I might try another of her books later, but for right now I’m ok with just this one.

Overall, I give this