I'm sure this love letter to the 1980's would've landed better for me if I, you know, had any memories of that decade. But I don't, so this felt a lot like your uncle regaling you with crazy stories from his high school days, complete with a soundtrack of song names doubling as chapter titles.

I don't know, this one just kinda washed over me and nothing stuck. Possession stories never really captivate me and they aren't my favorite subgenre of horror, but I've definitely read worse than this. While this didn't really read as YA to me in terms of tone and content, I'm just generally not interested in teenager protagonists. And I definitely don't enjoy media that reminds me what being in high school was like, which is horrific in a whole other way.

Still, it felt earnest and clearly was a labor of love on the author's part in a way I can respect. There are some eerie scenes and if you're not bothered by animal death or discussions of rape/casual bigotry, maybe you'll get more out of it than I did. At the very least hopefully we can agree that the paperback version has excellent cover art.