e-Audio, 09:42:51
Narrated by: Krystal Hammond
Release Date: May 5, 2026
Published by: Recorded Books, Inc
Read from: April 23-24, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Death, Drug Use, Blood, Injury, Injury/Injury Detail, Gore, Sexual Content (With use of the word C!it), Animal Death, Domestic Abuse, Vomit, Stalking
For Readers of: Audio, Horror, Sparkly Cover, New Adult, OwnIn this sapphic slasher novel, Sundae Valentine made a deal with a monster in Wildwood, N.J., when she was a child, and barely escaped with her life. Six years later, Sundae’s braving Wildwood again for a killer beach party to celebrate prom with the cheerleaders and the football team. But the monster is back, too, and this time he’ll stop at nothing to make sure she pays her debts.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I read and love Codie’s first book and I LOVED the concept of this one, plus there’s the pretty pink cover! I was all set to read and love this one. But it just wasn’t what the first one was. This one started strong, stalled, had one good scene and then it was over.
First off I don’t think this one should be categorized as YA. There’s smex and yes we all know about teens, but it’s the words the author used in my opinion. The explicitness should be saved only for those adult books. Like damn, tell me again how we don’t need new adult? This seems like a pretty good example. But even then, they were in that town for prom. It was weird. And like I get it. The title is called Body Count. I knew this was going to be feminist horror, but this seemed like a bit much.
The horror aspect was what made me keep going. I was intrigued by the man under the water. I needed to know what his deal was. But after that it was just the teens smexing and treating each other like shit. I was bored for a good bit of this story. I think she tried too hard to make them into assholes and them into girls who would want to win “the slut cup.” I would much rather have read more scenes like the one in the candy store. That’s the one that made me decide to not DNF. I almost did but then there was this scene and I said oh well lol
And that’s really all this was about. Nothing special. I was hella disappointed. I wanted so much more from this book. It just did not meet my expectations. Which is heartbreaking because I really wanted to love this as much as the other. This one just didn’t work for me.
Overall, I give this
