THE BLONDE DIES FIRST By Joelle Wellington

Dani Young 

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.

THE BLONDE DIES FIRST By Joelle WellingtonThe Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on 7/30/24
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 333
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Devon is always being left behind by her genius twin sister, Drew. At this point, it’s a fact of life. But Devon has one last plan before Drew leaves for college a whole year early—The Best Summer Ever. After committing to the bit a little too much, the twins and their chaotic circle of friends learn why you don’t ever mess with a Ouija board if you want to actually survive the Best Summer Ever, and soon find themselves being hunted down by…a demon?

But while there’s no mistaking the creeping, venomous figure is not from around here, their method doesn’t feel very demonic at all. In fact, it’s downright human—going after them in typical slasher movie kill order. And that means Devon, the blonde, is up first and her decade-long crush, Yaya, is the Final Girl who must kill or be killed to end the cycle.

Devon has never liked playing by anyone else’s rules though, not even a demon’s, and the longer this goes on, the more she feels Drew and Yaya slipping away from her even as she tries to help them all survive. Can they use their horror movie knowledge to flip the script and become the hunters instead of the hunted? Or will their best summer ever be their last?

Short and Sweet Review

Devon is determined to have the best summer ever, she even has a list of requirements. Devon’s twin sister Drew is graduating a year early, so this summer is the time they have to spend together. When The twins and their group of friends go to a party at one of Drews friends house things go downhill. At the party an Ouija board is brought out and then Devon and her friend are chased by a demon and this demon kills in the kind of order you would see in a horror movie. If the group is correct the last one the demon is coming after is the final girl and they either have to kill the demon or be killed.

The Blonde Dies First, not only deals with a group of friends trying to avoid a demon but it’s also a story about sisterhood. Devon and Drew don’t always get along, Devon usually feels like she’s inadequate when compared to Drew but Drew doesn’t like the pedestal people put her on and we see this relationship evolve during the book. Okay back to the action, after Drew’s goofy friend plays with an Ouija board Devon is attacked by the demon but ends up surviving. Devon and Drew have a group of four other friends, and their friend Gael realizes that the demon is following a kill order from a horror movie. They also realize that Devons crush Yaya is the final girl. Now that they know what to expect from the demon they form a plan. I enjoyed reading this book, it did feel like a horror movie and you can just picture everything playing out. I loved this group of friends and they understood the assignment, they had each others backs and they knew not to split up! When we get to the end of the book we learn who summoned the demon and when we hear their reasoning it’s a bit ridiculous. I usually don’t like when culprits have bad reasonings but I feel like the author knew what she was doing here because the characters even said, “this is so unserious.” The ending was good and I loved the different relationships that are portrayed in this book from the family, friend, or even romantic.

This was a fun action packed thriller/horror novel. The book may seem predictable, but it doesn’t take away from the story. If you enjoy horror movies you’ll definitely have a good time reading this book!

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