Tastes Like Candy

What The Vibes Are

Masked Killer — Carnival/Amusement Park — Crazed Motive —
Whodunit — Revenge Plot

What It’s About

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Progress Thoughts & Rants

(11%) This chick’s morning routine and the origin story of her love for the violin better be a pivotal element in the climax. Otherwise, why are there 2 chapters dedicated to this?

(25%) Jumping back into this. This book has been DRAGGING, though. I remain hopeful, though I fear it may be futile. Wish me luck. 

(32%) Chapter 8, and they’re only JUST getting to the carnival.

(41%) And the first one bites the dust…
Now we’re getting somewhere!

(100%) Went deep and just binge-read the rest. The kills were good and gruesome. I just can’t stand the motive of the killer. It’s so fucking shallow and venomous for no reason.

Plot Breakdown & Rant

***MASSIVE Spoilers below

In August, before the school year, eight senior girls were chosen to participate in the annual “Senior Scavenger Hunt.” This year, it was at the Poisoned Apple, a closed-down haunted Halloween carnival in town. Each girl was given a riddle as to where to find their item. This year, the chosen eight were Violet Warren, the Violinist; Claire Smithson, the Athlete; Blythe Lennon, the Influencer; James Parker, the Coder; Mila Kelley, the Cheerleader; Gracie Scott, the Artist; River Ellis, the Stoner; and Lolly Bishop, the Valedictorian.

After eight long chapters that describe Violet’s love for playing the violin as well as her anxiousness and disappointment from not having heard back from her dream college yet, the group FINALLY made it to the carnival. After they arrived, the girls all decided to take an edible to spice up the night. 

Claire had five, Mila and James had one, Blythe had three, Gracie had one and a half, while Violet had two-thirds of one and gave the rest to Lolly.

The group followed up that phenomenal plan with the decision to split up into pairs – Lolly with James, River with Gracie, Mila with Claire, and Violet with Blythe.

Drugs AND Splitting Up???

Blythe and Violet headed to the bathroom quickly before heading to their assigned destination. In the restroom, Violet relieved herself, but when she opened her stall, Blythe was gone, and she was locked in. She was able to find a way out as the edible started to kick in, and she went searching for Blythe. Violet ran into Lolly right before a figure in a mask she recognized came up behind Lolly and choked her out. Violet charged the masked figure that she deemed “The Licker” and attempted the tackle him as he dragged Lolly to the Test Your Strength game. Unsuccessful, the Licker knocked her down and kicked the wind out of her before subduing a newly conscious Lolly. Once Lolly was back under his control, he placed her head on the plate and swung the mallet.

Violet witnessed it all and was paralyzed in fear as The Licker approached her and molested her face with the weird rubber tongue of his mask. Through an electronic voice changer, The Licker asked if she remembered him. A year prior, Violet and Blythe had encountered The Licker as he harassed Blythe and came onto her.

The Licker spared her and ran away in search of more victims as Violet tried to process that TF was going on. When she caught her breath, Violet ran for the entrance and found Claire standing by the photo printing shop. High as a kite and hyper-focused on a display picture.

Violet alerted Claire of what was going on, and the latter refused to leave her friends behind. Knowing she couldn’t leave a stoned Claire to fend for herself, Violet joined her as they tried to find the other girls and get the hell out of dodge.

The story panned over to Mila, who was hiding in the Ring Toss booth as the Licker crept by. When she let out a gasp that blew her cover, The Licker dragged her out and nailed her to the wall before drowning her with a rigged water gun.

Violet and Claire hid as they watched The Licker run toward the Mirror Maze, where River and Gracie were directed to go. They followed him and were able to find Gracie before The Licker did. Gracie had already encountered The Licker and was not only very terrified, but she was also very stoned, which did nothing for her. Violet broke the news about Lolly to Gracie, who was in denial at first until she saw Lolly’s remnants all over Violet’s clothes. Gracie was able to explain that she and River got split up when the lights came on.

Now, in River’s POV, we get to watch this moron eat the rest of the bag of peanuts. I just… I don’t understand this level of stupidity. I don’t know why I’m shocked anymore.

We learned that River got too stoned and overstimulated at the Mirror Maze, so she ditched her partner and hid in the arcade. River waited out The Licker a few times, but her stoned brain kept getting distracted, and he found her and chased her into the Mirror Maze. After putting up one hell of a fight, River was stabbed twelve times with a broken bottle.

Violet, Claire, and Gracie continued trying to find a way out and found themselves in the House of Horror, where they came across something chilling. Four gravestones with new names carved into the back. The names listed off the deceased girls, as well as the name Theodore Gordon, the night guard of the carnival. His severed head was nearby as well. Running out of there, they ran into Blythe, who seemed to be tripping on edibles. In an effort to keep everyone safe, the girls hid a sleepy Blythe in a cart in the back of a ride where she could sleep off the w33d and horrors of the evening.

Unsuccessfully hiding, the girls chose to fight when they were confronted by the Licker next. This ended with Violet and Gracie pinning him down while Claire took his drill and positioned it over his chest. Her aim was off, and she grazed Violet’s arm. This caused Violet to loosen her grip on the Licker and for him to escape.

Claire chased after him while Violet and Gracie followed in pursuit toward the Midway. Once there, Claire and the Licker were nowhere in sight, so Violet and Gracie tried to come up with a plan while praying that Claire was okay.

Claire wasn’t okay. The Licker cornered her as her wounds began to set in and drove a drill through the side of her cheek. He then put his finger through the hole and ripped her cheek open before shoving the flesh into her bra. The Licker then wrapped a belt around her neck and dragged her to one of the booths where he played a short film. When she got smart, he punched her and broke her nose before he dipped her head into the cotton candy machine. Fucking brutal as hell.

Violet and Gracie heard Claire’s screams of pain and decided to make a run for it. The pair headed towards the security tower in hopes of escaping through the way they came in. As they approached the entryway, Violet noticed something tied to the fence. It was Ted’s, the night guard, decapitated body. Yum.

They picked the lock and were able to get into the office, only to find that the phone lines had been cut. Ruh-Roh. When the lights were cut again, the girls hid underneath the desk and away from the windows as the Licker perused the exterior of the building before running off. Once he was gone, the girls discovered a CB radio and pleaded for help on all channels before realizing they wouldn’t get a response. Suddenly, the carnival lights began to come back on, section by section, until it was completely lit.

Gracie decided she didn’t want to die in a gross and smelly room and headed for the door. Violet begged her to stay, but when fear of being alone outweighed her fear of being out in the open, she rushed past Gracie, stepped in a hole, and twisted her ankle. Gracie checked on her as Violet noticed the Licker standing off behind them. Panicked, they tried to run, but Gracie misstepped and fell on Violet and her bad ankle. After Gracie got up and was helping Violet to her feet, an axe whizzed past her and landed in the center of Gracie’s chest. The poor girl asked for her mom as she died. Broke my heart.

Violet took off running as the Licker taunted her verbally, using a voice changer. Finding solace in the Photo Store, Violet also found a bunch of printed-out photos of her and her friends, along with a still very stoned Blythe. The two exchanged talk when a scream ripped out, and Violet left Blythe in search of James.

Violet found James sitting on the board above a ten-foot Dunk Tank with her hands bound behind her back. James was terrified of water and couldn’t swim. Violet tried desperately to find a way to get James down as the stairs were missing. Right as she was about to go find something else, the Licker appeared, armed with a screwdriver and an axe. The killer bolted toward them and stopped a few feet away before dropping his weapons and removing his mask.

Have you figured out who the killer is yet?

Well…

If you had guessed…

James…

You’re…

Wrong!

When the Licker removed his mask, the face that looked back at the survivors was none other than Blythe Lennon.

Blythe went on to explain that her motive was that everyone got into schools and had their future set, while she would have to stay here and work a minimum wage job because of a video she posted that received such backlash that her fame began to plummet. Yeah, know since she bought most of her followers. So all of this was because of jealousy and self-loathing. What a fucking pitiful mess.

Blythe ended up hitting the target and dunking James in. The thing was… the tank wasn’t filled with water… it was filled with acid… So James literally melted and disintegrated right before Violet’s eyes, before Blythe chloroformed her and carried her up to the Ferris Wheel. Jesus fucking Christ!

Blythe hauled all the bodies of her friends into the Ferris Wheel carts; when Violet came to at the top of the ride, where she was seated next to the mutilated bodies of her friends and a maniacally chipper Blythe. Violet tried reasoning with Blythe, but there’s no reasoning with a psychopath. After a scuffle that left Violet with the upper hand, Blythe took a swan dive out of the cart to her death. Violet was found, and the novel ended with her getting her acceptance email to college.

characters & their untimely demise

↳ Lolly Bishop:

Lolly Bishop was the goody-two-shoes mom friend of the group. She was described as studious and timid, who indulged in an edible as a last hurrah of teenage rebellion. Her delayed reactions were what allowed The Licker the element of surprise to choke her out. After dragging her body towards the Test Your Strength game, The Licker placed Lolly’s head on the plate and used the mallet to bash her skull in. She was the first to die. Her death was witnessed by Violet after she’d escaped from the bathroom.

 ↳ Mila Kelley:

Mila Kelley was the cheerleader of the group as well as the Licker’s second victim. While hiding in the ring toss booth, Mila blew her spot up when she gasped. After a failed attempt to hide, the Licker found her and nailed her hands and feet to the booth so she was suspended in the air. The Licker then forced the barrel of a water gun into her mouth and attached a hose before turning it on and essentially drowning Mila. Gnarly.

 ↳ River Ellis:

River Ellis was the closet st*ner of the group and the girlfriend of Gracie Scott. After polishing off the rest of the edibles, River met her despise in Mirror Maze as The Licker stabbed her to death with a broken glass bottom. River was stabbed twelve times: Three times in the skull, twice in the face, four times in the upper back, once in the lower back, once in the thigh, and the killing blow was a stab wound to the stomach.

 ↳ Claire Smithson:

Claire Smithson was the athlete of the group with a promising future and a sports scholarship. Her demise consisted of a drill through the side of her cheek, being dragged by the throat with a belt, a broken nose, and a head dipped into the cotton candy machine. Such a brutal way to go.

 ↳ Gracie Scott:

Gracie was the artist of the group and the timid one. She was killed by a flying axe to the chest while attempting to run away with Violet.

 ↳ James Parker:

James was tied up and forcibly sat on the dunk tank by the killer, who had filled the tank with acid. James’ body dissolved into fluid and bones after the Licker threw the ball, hit the target, and dunked an unsuspecting James. All right in front of Violet, her best friend.

 ↳ Blythe Lennon:

Blythe was the influencer of the group and the antagonist of the story. She made her fame by posting pictures with sarcastic captions as well as other kinds of content. The rest of the group was beginning to grow annoyed with her antics and were slowly pulling away. Blythe’s fame began to plummet, apparently, due to backlash after accidentally killing her goldfish. So fucking weird. After revealing that she was the deranged killer all along, she took a swan dive off the top of the Ferris Wheel. Blythe’s motive was based on pure jealousy and anger. She was mad that her friends were talented and going places, while her fame continued to dwindle and her family began to struggle.

 ↳ Violet Warren:

Violet, our protagonist, and final girl! I enjoyed Violet’s survival instincts. I wasn’t rooting for her to die, and she made some pretty smart choices through the night. Her inner monologue did grow tiresome after a while because of all the droning on about her worry about college acceptance letters and the never-ending sonata about her love for the violin. That was my only dislike about her. She never shut up about the violin and flashbacks to memorable moments with said instrument.

In the end, my heart ached for Violet. She not only lost all her friends, but she also watched them be brutally murdered and mutilated. Then she found out she got into her dream school! I can’t imagine the numbness that followed that. Must’ve been so surreal.

Conclusion

I enjoyed Tastes Like Candy immensely. The plot takes a little to start off, but whew, once it does??! Unmatched.

I loved the atmosphere, the brutality of the killings, and even the crazed motive. However, that did frustrate me on a sanity level. The girl was too self-absorbed and psychotic. I digress. Naming this one of my new favorites in the genre! Must get my hands on a physical copy to add to my trophy case!

If you read Tastes Like Candy, leave a comment! I’d love to hear what your thoughts were!

♡ G&P