How to Survive Your Murder

Like most of the characters in Valentine’s gruesome horror debut, academically gifted Omaha East High School junior Alice Lawrence is a true-crime and slasher-film enthusiast. Alice and her older sister, Claire, 18, are invited to Chloe Bree’s Halloween party at a corn maze, and they’re excited to immerse themselves in the holiday’s eerie ambiance, until things turn deadly. Chloe appears in the middle of the maze with her arm cut off, and Alice stumbles upon a wounded Owen Maddox, who subsequently murders Claire in front of her. A year later, Alice no longer talks to her surviving friends, and her parents have split up. While attending Owen’s murder trial, she’s accidentally knocked unconscious and catapulted a year into the past. Suddenly, Claire is alive again, and this time around, Alice is determined to keep last Halloween from repeating itself. An intriguingly meta plot shift makes for an ambiguous resolution. Nevertheless, Valentine successfully imbues this slasher-flick-worthy novel, grounded by a propulsive mystery and fierce heroine, with ample amounts of ghastly gore, foreboding atmosphere, and plenty of scares. Alice and Claire read as white, and there is racial diversity throughout. Ages 12–up. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, ICM Partners. (Aug.)