Three exes. One dead boyfriend. One very bad plan for revenge.
Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold is a locked-room mystery that crashed into a slasher movie, and I am so here for it. Cham, Nora, and Ruby all find out they’re dating the same man, and that he’s swindled each of them too. So they do what any reasonable person would do: plot some harmless revenge at a secluded mountain cabin Ruby just inherited. A cabin that happens to sit on the old grounds of a cult that may or may not still have members wandering the woods. What could go wrong?
Everything. Everything goes wrong, and it's gory and ridiculous and so much fun. This is not a subtle book and it doesn’t want to be.
The multiple POV structure works because these three women are nothing alike, so I never lost track of who was who, even with the timeline jumping around a little. There’s real humor mixed in with the frights, which kept it from ever feeling too heavy.
The full cast narration seals the deal. Victoria Connolly, Stacy Gonzalez, Alexandra Hunter, and Gary Tiedemann all lean into the campy energy of this thing, and it makes the audio experience even better than reading it on the page would be.
Toss this in your beach bag or pool bag and binge it in a day or two. It’s popcorn thriller-slasher, and it knows exactly what it is. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to Sourcebooks Audio for the gifted listen. Out now.
Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.
If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of another campy thriller-horror mashup How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates.
About the Author
Mallory Arnold is the USA Today bestselling author of How to Survive a Horror Story. She writes creepy, mysterious fiction and lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and three cats. Follow Mallory on Instagram for more news and information about Mallory and her books.
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