How to Survive a Slasher

By: Justine Pucella Winans

Narrated by: SJ Valiquette

Bloomsbury presents How to Survive a Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans, read by SJ Valiquette.

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight meets Scream in this YA slasher that turns classic horror tropes on their heads.

Few people can say they faced the infamous Satterville Wolf Man and lived. But CJ Smith can.

She doesn’t talk about that, though.

CJ has survived the horror movie that is her life by following one rule: blend in and stay out of it. But that’s hard to do when your trauma gets turned into a bestselling book series. The Slasherville books are a true crime phenomenon, documenting the Wolf Man massacres that changed CJ’s life forever. CJ hates everything about the books and their fans, but at this point she’s just grateful there aren’t any more murders to write about.

Until one day when an unpublished Slasherville book shows up on her doorstep predicting new Wolf Man killings. CJ is sure it’s a bad prank. But then the events in the book start coming true, and when CJ breaks her one rule, the Final Girl—the person who, according to the book, was supposed to stop the Wolf Man—ends up dead. Suddenly, blending in and staying out of it is not an option, and CJ will have to use everything she knows about the rules of horror to make it out alive.©2025 Justine Pucella Winans (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Perfect for YA readers

For a beginner thriller reader, this book is perfection. The author’s inclusion of the LGBTQIA community was perfectly done, and flowed perfectly with the storyline.

This was kind of deep

First it took me way too long to finish this but I'll blame that on the personal bad news . . . Okay! Scream meets You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight is definitely the way to describe this. There were masks, blood, knives and a final girl . . . repeat because this all happened before.
Good story, I was just VERY disappointed with the villain this time.

4 stars

💕

💕 I really really like the story I like the whole series I like I like I like I like I like it

slasher Tropes but falls flat

the slasher Tropes reign supreme in this book. the queer background of the main character comes to the forefront at key points without feeling too over the top aside from a few cheesy moments with the male interest and the mom. the most disappointing point was the last hour of the story which while making sense felt very underwhelming as a story trope. also I was not fond of the female friend at all with too many pop culture references and extremism. maybe there's a reason the person whining about not being able to find a girlfriend was single.

the audible delivery was excellent all around from teenagers, young children and latinx accents. the voice actor did their role very well maybe too well with the annoying secondary girl.

very good!

it's like scream movie and the fairly new movie totally killer on amazon. very woke. nice twists. likable characters. a few good laugh out loud jokes. very good read. or listen

decent plot but....

this plot was interesting so I grabbed it. I personally love slashers. but no offense to be had an entire chapter about the protagonist's pronouns in the middle of a killing spree bored me to no end! They are being hunted and trying to figure everything with the killer out but the added discussion nearly every chapter turned me off. the narrator was great loved the performance and the initial story but yeah can't say I'd re-read/ listen again

Fun Throwback YA Slasher

This was SO close to getting 5 stars, right up until the killer reveal- which flat out did not work for me. Even so, a dud of a finale goes to show how strong the rest of the book is because I still enjoyed it overall. The author has a very accessible writing style and she creates an excellent protagonist who I found easy to get invested in. I also loved the narrator, who gave the protagonist a distinct voice without ever becoming a distraction.

This was a blind buy for me that worked out well. If you're looking for a throwback to 90s YA horror books, I think you'll find a lot to like in this book. I was unfamiliar with this author, but I look forward to checking out more of her work.

High School Slasher Done Right

It was a quick easy read (aside from all the brutal murder obvi) and I loved it. It is, without a doubt, slasheriffic.

The story was good! But like Hollywood forced gender ideology.

The first few chapter are great. Th character mentions she is gender fluid and it’s natural enough. But by the second and third act it’s shoe horned in a forced and unnatural way. Basically just mentioned the main chapter is gender fluid and the other supporting character is gay. I don’t mind representation but if your creative enough to bring these characters in and have their sexuality become their main characteristics is lazy woke shit writing.