Most Likely to Die by P.J. Stanley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Scare Factor: 💀💀💀| Plot: 📕📕📕📕| Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Length: 📱325 pages | Genre: YA Slasher | POV: Third
Dates Read: 04.20.24 – 04.21.24



✴✴✴ TW: Gore, Murder, Graphic Depictions of Mutilation, Death, Bullying ✴✴✴


🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

🔪🩸Slasher 🩸🔪
💅🏻 Revenge Plot 💅🏻
🚫Trust No One 🚫
🩸Gruesome 🩸
👩🏻 Final Girl Vibes 👩🏻
👻No One’s Safe 👻
👤👺Hooded / Masked Killer 👺👤
👹😵‍💫Crazed Motive😵‍💫👹
🕵🏻Whodunit🕵🏻



🕊️ ➞ Synopsis:

Voted ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ by her peers, popular cheerleader Brynn Baldwin has it all. However, when her yearbook photo is defaced, now branded the girl ‘Most Likely to Die’, her world is shaken. As a psychotic killer dressed as the school mascot begins to slash through the ones closest to Brynn, she discovers that no one can be trusted… and high school can be murder.

Most Likely to Die is a throwback homage to the classic ’90s whodunnit slasher films. It’s a bloody, twisted tale filled with suspense, carnage, and laughs that will have you screaming for more until the final chapter.



🕊️ ➞ Progress Notes & Initial Thoughts:

(As posted to my Threads account).

2% // We love a m*rder right off the bat 🖤😍😍

4% // That was a pretty sweet kill scene. 👏🏻



11% // So far everyone hates our MC. Rightfully so; she’s awful. Which makes me root for her demise. Although, an interesting twist would be if our MC was the killer. All the victims despised her. Maybe she’s cleaning up the haters. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️



18% // Oh WTF



31% // Oh, you don’t know why someone would be after you? Did you ever think it had to do with you being a bully or awful? Jesus, these characters are so self-involved and out of touch that it’s making me root for the killer.

Kill scenes are pretty top tier though.

Side note // Very strange that Gabe just happened to be driving nearby 👀 SUS



37% // Ain’t nothing worse than a pick me b!tch, Lily. Rein it in.



42% // Okay my first guess is it’s Lily. Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one. There’s a possibility it’s a team effort. But I stg if the motive is over a guy, I’m gonna lose it.



46% // This k!ller is P!SSED. They’re mowing down these bullies left and right. Not even halfway and 5 people are d3ad. Got damn.



47% // The more Brynn speaks, the more I hope she’s next. I hate that she’s most likely our final girl since she is the MC. But, my god, she is so WHINY. Good lord. This wishy-washy trait of being heartless and cruel to feeling guilt and remorse about the deaths of classmates is distasteful and feels fake. Just seems out of character for her arc. Anyway, I hope she’s next.



75% // So it’s not Lily cause she d3ad d3ad. Dougie seems like a red herring but he has a lot of rage. And it could also be Principal Roth, the p3do. It could also 100% be Gabe. This twist better be worth all this cringe.



100% // Okay, loving the double reveal. It was an okay read. The characters weren’t it for me, some of the dialog and writing were sort of juvenile but the kill scenes were beautifully written and the reveals were pretty dramatic. Just the way we love them.



🕊️ ➞ Character & Their Glorious Demises:


🐦‍⬛ ↳ Haley Hitchcock:

Our opening kill. Haley Hitchcock was forced to stay after practice by Brynn, the captain, and was showering in the locker room when the lights went out. She was chased through the locker room till she found a window to climb out of. Once free, she ran for the football field where the killer practiced his archery skills and shot out 3 arrows. One to her stomach, one to her chest, and the killing arrow straight through her forehead. She was then strung up and left for school officials to find.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Stacey Miller:

Stacey Miller was the hostess of a kegger that was taking place the same night Haley was killed. While down in her basement grabbing mote drinks, Stacey was confronted by the killer and stabbed repeatedly. She was left on her basement floor while her classmates partied upstairs.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Carter Romero:

Carter Romero was your average meathead jock whose only concern was degrading girls into having sex with him and bullying his classmates. That was his character arc… how unfortunate. Carter met his well-deserved death while trying to pressure Brynn into having car s3x. Billy stood in the path of their car and then gutted Carter before bashing his head in.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Glenn Craven:

Glenn Craven was meathead 2.0 and met his meatheaded demise in the school weightlifting gym. He was impaled by a javelin and then his head was smashed in with a weight. He was given enough time to fully develop as a character but based on what we were given, that’s a blessing. What a douchebag.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Harley Cunningham:

Harley Cunningham was murdered in her bed. She was pinned down by the killer as he stabbed her in the chest and stomach a few times before stuffing one of her cheerleading trophies down her throat. Brutal.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Zack Heffner & Lily Carpenter:

Zack and Lily were doing the nasty when Billy the Bull crept up on them with a fire poker. He stabbed them bloody with it and then pinned their bodies to the bed with it. Very Jason Vorhees of him, and I am HERE FOR IT. Glorious kill, bravo.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Officer Myers:

Officer Myers was responding to a distress call from the group when he was stabbed in the back on the doorstep. How very Friday the 13th – 2009 edition of you, PJ. I see you. Love it!



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Andy Ellis:

Andy Ellis’s body was found by Cassie. He was stabbed through the forehead and then stuffed into the trunk of a car. How unfortunate.




🐦‍⬛ ↳ Cassie Mullins:

After finding Andy’s body and promptly vomiting, the back of Cassie’s ankles were slashed by the killer hiding underneath the car. As she fell and pleaded, Billy the Bull dragged her underneath the car where he slit her throat to the bone.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Theo West:

Theo was one of Brynn’s minions and was one of the few who almost made it to the end. Unfortunately, she was killed off in the last act. She was murdered on the steps of their high school by an ax to the side of her skull.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Coach Claire Marshall:

Coach Claire Marshall was killed in the school after finding Cassie’s body in Andy’s car. The killer grabbed her, dragged her to a table in the library, and decapitated her with a guillotine paper cutter. The brutality and creativity of these kills are impressive.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Principal Marvin Roth:

Principal Roth was kidnapped, tied up, and gagged in the school library. He was alive when Brynn found him before the killer swung an ax into the side of his head. Marvin Roth was a p*dophile and cowardly scum of a creature. I didn’t mourn his death.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Brynn Baldwin:

Brynn was awful and her inner monologue was so unfitting and contradicting that it was annoying. She spewed hate and cruelty but somehow felt guilt for the death of the girl she was literally ✨just ✨talking sh!t about. Cry me a f*cking river. When she reconnected with Gabe, she profusely apologized, claimed she didn’t know why she behaved like that, and how it was just easier to shred her soft girl exterior. Surface-level apologies and excuses for hazing and bullying other kids. Absolute bullsh!t.

https://media1.giphy.com/media/yuQi4S… 200 246



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Dougie Hooper:

Dougie Hooper… our first unmasked killer. The rageful moron who doubled as the muscle. His motive was due to the constant and brutal bullying he endured at his victims’ hands. His motive was revenge. I couldn’t blame him, those kids were truly awful.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Gabe Craven:

Gabe Craven… our mastermind. His motive was more complex. Yes, he hated all those people and the way they bullied him, but his main target was Brynn. He never forgave her for the way she dropped him like a hot potato, he was in love with her after all. So he orchestrated this whole scheme to push the people who hurt but also to punish Brynn. Picking off her friends and loved ones as a way to make her feel his pain. It was a crime of passion if you ask me.



🕊️ ➞ My Favorite Quotes:

“Hey, I’m a father, my entire life is bad timing.”

– Brynn’s Father, Chapter

🕊️ ➞ My Thoughts:

Out of all the slashers I’ve read, Most Likely To Die was one of the ones with the highest body count. This killer slashed his way through THIRTEEN people. Absolutely savage. Most Likely To Die was a gory, thrilling, and glorious ride. I loved the surprise ending and honestly, I just loved the fact that the bullies were introduced to karma. Albeit a supreme version, but karma all the same.

If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned slasher with minimum character development and a relatable killer? Look no further cause you found it! Give Most Likely To Die a read and come back to comment your thoughts! I can’t wait to read what you have to say!

xo,

L.B.

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