I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thulasi is the perfect daughter: she’s responsible, she never breaks the rules, and she’s always willing to babysit her seven-year-old cousin. Even on Halloween night.

But the night takes a horrifying turn when a simple playdate leads to accidentally summoning a horde of monsters out of a book of horror tales, along with her small town’s most famous author, Addison Greer—Thulasi’s literary hero. Except Addison has a more sinister scheme planned for her miraculous return: revenge on the family that wronged her.

Drawn into a bloodthirsty bargain with Addison, Thulasi will have to team up with Sam, the super cute quarterback in her class, and the only other teen stuck with babysitting duty on Halloween. They only have until midnight to foil Addison’s plans—while keeping their seven-year-old charges safe—or her monsters will destroy their town and everyone they love.

Short and Sweet Review

Thulasi is used to being the responsible one. She follows the rules, takes care of her family, and spends Halloween night babysitting her seven year old cousin instead of doing anything fun. But when she accidentally brings the long dead horror author Addison Greer back to life along with all of the monsters from her books, her quiet Halloween turns into a fight to save her town. Thulasi has spent years idolizing Addison, so realizing that her literary hero isn’t exactly the person she thought she was makes everything even more complicated. Now she has to team up with Sam, her crush and the other teen stuck babysitting, to stop Addison before midnight and keep their younger cousins safe.

I really liked the overall Halloween feel of this book. It reminded me of movies like Hocus Pocus and Halloween Town mixed with Goosebumps, especially with the small town that has basically turned Addison Greer into a local celebrity. There are bookstores, coffee shops, schools, and even statues dedicated to her, so I thought it was really interesting to see Thulasi go from being one of her biggest fans to realizing that the person behind the stories was much more complicated. The book also tackles racism, misogyny, and the way older stories can contain harmful ideas that people sometimes overlook because they’re considered classics. I thought that added a lot more depth than I was expecting from what initially seemed like a fun monster-filled Halloween story. Thulasi was probably my favorite part of the book. She’s a perfectionist and a huge people pleaser who is constantly putting everyone else’s needs before her own, especially when it comes to her family. I really understood her struggle with feeling like she has to be the responsible one all the time, and I liked watching her slowly realize that she doesn’t have to carry everything by herself. Her relationship with Sam was also cute, and I appreciated that the romance stayed pretty light instead of taking over the story. I also really liked the younger kids because they added another layer of chaos to an already ridiculous situation. Trying to save your town from a bunch of murderous monsters is bad enough without also having to keep two seven year olds alive. The monster aspect was fun, although I did expect the horror to be a little scarier. There is definitely blood and some pretty brutal deaths, but I wouldn’t call this a particularly frightening book. It felt more like a fun supernatural adventure than something that was actually going to keep me up at night. I especially liked when Thulasi and Sam were able to use what they knew about Addison’s stories and the monsters’ weaknesses against them. That was such a cool idea, and I honestly wish we had gotten even more of it. The pacing was pretty quick, but I did think some of the explanations about the magic and monsters felt a little info-dumpy, and I wanted more time to learn about the stories and creatures before everything went completely crazy. My biggest issue was that some of the bigger moments didn’t have quite as much impact as I expected. There is a lot of death and destruction, but sometimes it felt like the story moved on so quickly that the consequences didn’t really sink in. I also thought Addison’s motivation for everything she was doing was a little shaky, and the big twist was fairly easy to figure out because of how heavily it was foreshadowed. Still, I liked where the story ultimately took Thulasi and the message about revenge, justice, and realizing that your heroes aren’t always who you think they are.

Overall, Kill Your Darlings was a fun and surprisingly thoughtful spooky-season read. I loved the Halloween atmosphere, the monsters, Thulasi’s character growth, and the conversations about racism, misogyny, and idolizing people without knowing the whole story behind them. It wasn’t as scary or twisty as I expected, and some of the bigger moments could have had more impact, but I still had a good time with it. If you enjoy Goosebumps-style horror, Halloween movies, creepy books coming to life, small-town secrets, and a little bit of romance mixed into your supernatural chaos, this is a fun one to pick up around Halloween.