Review: Frightmares by Eva V. Gibson

Title: Frightmares

Author: Eva V. Gibson

Genre: YA, horror, mystery

Publication date: July 2022

Published by: Underlined

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis: In a Florida tourist trap, a summer acting job turns into a real-life horror show when a cast member turns up dead—then disappears.

Dave is spending his final summer before college working at Frightmares House of Horrors, a struggling haunted house attraction held together by malfunctioning killer clown mannequins, a cheap replica Annabelle doll, and a lot of improvising.

After a particularly disastrous shift ends in an employee walkout, Dave reluctantly takes over a role for his friend, however, he makes a horrifying discovery—a real dead body, hidden on set. But when Dave returns with help, the body is gone.

Though the killer covered their tracks, Dave realizes they must know what he saw. Could he be their next target?

My rating: ★★★★☆

I really enjoyed this book for the most part! I liked the premise and I thought the place is was set in was fun! The haunted house attraction they worked at sounded like absolute chaos and it was just falling apart and it was great!

There were times when the decisions made by the main character were absolutely absurd, but for the most part, I didn’t hate it. I also really liked all the different friendships between the characters, Dave and Josie in particular, especially because this was such a weird job. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance, but luckily there wasn’t much of it.

The mystery itself was very intriguing. So we have Dave who works at a haunted house attraction, as previously mentioned, when one day he stumbles upon the dead body of one of his coworkers. He panics, runs, gets his wits about him, and comes back, only to find the body gone. The poor guy is traumatized, understandably, so now he doesn’t even know if what he saw was real or not. But I enjoyed trying to figure out what the hell happened to Bethany and who was behind her disappearance and possible murder.

Overall, I liked this! I liked the mystery, the book was funny, and the characters did tend to make really dumb decisions, but I found the read to be enjoyable nonetheless. Lol. Plus, the setting in the jenky horror house attraction was great!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊