For all the carnage that transpires in this clever time loop horror novel, nothing is as difficult as getting through as the first chapter, in which our heroine, Willa, mopes through a horrible breakup. Forced to attend a wedding at which her ex is not only present but has brought a date, Willa endures horror on a personal and a cosmic scale.

Willa wakes up, mopes, calls her friend to complain, mopes, drives to the venue, watches the wedding, and flirts with another guest. It’s a beautiful wedding and reception right up until a masked killer appears and starts stabbing everyone in sight. After a struggle for survival, Willa wakes up and realizes that the day is repeating…and repeating…and repeating. The only differences lie in her own actions and in the nature of the threat, which is different every time.

Part of what makes this work, I think, is that every real-life wedding is different but also sort of the same (see the movie Palm Springs for a different, and very good, time-loop wedding story). Also, depression and grief, the emotional states that Willa is experiencing at the start of the story, can feel like their own eternal loop – we describe being “stuck” in depression, and Willa’s friends are frustrated that she can’t move on emotionally from her breakup. Before the wedding even starts, it’s clear that Willa has been feeling the same way for a long time, and is coping in the same way every day.

At the same time, the story never goes stale because in addition to the character development, the nature of the daily threat is different every time. I won’t say what the threats are, but I got a kick out of discovering each new one, each a homage to a different horror subgenre. Willa is, obviously, not as amused, especially since not only does she have to fight for her life every time, but she also has to face her ex over and over again. The scary scenes are truly terrifying. They are also quite gory, so be warned.

I won’t spoil any of the twists of this tale other than to say that we do find out what happens if she just stays home. I found every new thing to be clever and delightful, especially as it pertains to relationships between women and the assumptions that we make about people. I was sure I knew the direction everything was going and I was wrong, in a good way. This was sometimes a harrowing read, but ultimately it was hopeful.

– Carrie S

Every wedding guest’s worst nightmare is on repeat in this wild and twisty new horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of So Thirsty and Play Nice.

It’s the picture-perfect wedding The venue is dreamy, the weather is beautiful, love is in the air—and Willa Sullivan is having a bad time. She’s excited to celebrate her best friends’ finally having the big wedding they’ve always wanted, but this is the first time she’s seen her ex-fiancé in months, and he brought a date. Everything feels off, like she stumbled into an alternate universe. But things start to look up when Willa meets Danny, the groom’s charming and single childhood best friend. When they sneak off together, their rendezvous is interrupted by a masked killer terrorizing the reception. Willa and Danny fight to save the ones they love and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. A final girl Willa is not.

Or is she? She wakes up and it’s the morning of the wedding. She just had the most intense nightmare of her life. Only as the day unfolds, there are some uncanny coincidences that make her question whether it was really a dream, déjà vu, or something more sinister. After a horrifying turn of events, Willa comes to understand that she’s stuck in a loop of carnage and terror that she must learn how to escape or else suffer a fate worse than death—being an eternal wedding guest.