You’re Dead to Me by Amy Christine Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️
Ruby Toller, a high school Senior, lives in Florida with her single-Mom and her Mom’s annoying boyfriend, Hunter. They reside at and run at a small Nature Park, that was passed down to Ruby’s Mom from her parents.
Ruby loves working at the Park, taking care of the animals. It’s her home and she plans to always be there. Unfortunately, demand for these types of attractions isn’t what it once was, and they struggle to stay afloat.
Thanks to a generous scholarship, Ruby is able to attend the very prestigious Oleander High School, a private school full of richy-rich teens.
Just because she attends though, doesn’t mean she fits in, or is accepted and Ruby has grown a bit of a chip on her shoulder. One thing she has been successful at though is her thriving anonymous-local gossip blog, ReputationKiller.
Ruby digs up dirt on the most elite families and community members and blasts them on her blog. Thus, aptly doing just as the blog title states, killing reputations.
When Ruby is outed as the force behind ReputationKiller, the whole town turns against her, except for her best friends, Anton and Xavier, and shockingly, an attractive rich boy named Alexander.
More of an outcast now than ever, Ruby feels isolated and like her life is out of control, but at least she has a life. Even that comes into question however, when Ruby starts being haunted by her own ghost.
That’s right, she’s being visited by her dead self, in a horrible state of decay, clad in a tattered prom dress.
It’s clear from the ghost’s appearance, she didn’t get that way due to natural causes. With the prom just days away, Ruby and her friends must figure out who is going to murder Ruby, and stop them, before it’s too late.
You’re Dead to Me was a super fun reading experience for me. I haven’t read a YA Horror-Thriller with such successful Supernatural aspects in a long time.
I found the story to be fast-paced and engaging, with some great Horror imagery. It kept me wanting more and guessing. There were some truly intense moments.
I also loved the way the Florida setting was used and the stark contrast between the Haves and Have-Nots within this community. It felt realistic.
It is super-dramatic, as you would expect from a Teen Scream, but all that drama was really well-executed in my opinion. It had me reaching for my popcorn, versus rolling my eyes, which is always a good sign.
I appreciated the way the author steadily built the intensity throughout. The stakes keep getting higher and higher as the days tick down until the prom.
I also liked the relationships between Ruby and her best friends, as well as her budding relationship with cute boy, Alexander. The friends supported each other very well, even through all the crazy things they go through in this book.
Ruby’s relationship with her Mom was rather complicated and I did like the exploration of that as well. Families are messy, you know?
Overall, I thought this was a super solid YA Horror-Thriller. If you love a Teen Scream, full of drama and danger, you should absolutely check this one out.
Thank you to the publisher, Delacorte Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author in the future!
Content Warning: Animal death on page.