My Five Word TL:DR Review: What a Thrillingly Unique Blast

Rachel Harrison is a definite ‘must read’ author for me. I’m loving her books, her imagination, her style of writing and the fact that I never know what to expect. I had an absolute blast with Kiss Slay Replay, I genuinely didn’t know what this one was about and although the title actually gives away more than I at first realised, I went into the read fairly cold – just knowing that I like Harrison’s books, and what can I say – it was such a good, blood soaked, gory, astonishing, perplexing, compelling and sometimes humorous read.

Now, to be clear, the inevitable comparisons to Ground Hog Day are bound to be thrown around with this one and with good reason because, and I know that I’m not giving away spoilers by telling you this, this is a time loop story. However, Harrison totally makes it her own and although I started out thinking I had a good idea of the direction things would take I couldn’t have been more delightfully wrong.

Willa Sullivan is our MC. She’s in something of a funk. A few months ago she broke up with her boyfriend just weeks before they were due to get married. A decision that feels right to her but has at the same time left her with niggling doubts, a kind of thirty year old crisis in terms of where her life is going, not to mention her life has changed in terms of having had to move out, find her own place and discover a small studio is all she can afford – plus she has very few possessions to speak of other than a very unfriendly cat. So, she’s a bit anxious anyway without the wedding of two of her best friends looming and the knowledge that her ex will be there. Don’t get me wrong, Willa is very happy for her friends, she’s just turning into a nervous wreck about the whole event.

So, the day of the wedding things continue to escalate. Thrown together with firm friends – who, on reflection all seem to be in different places, and then discovering that her ex has brought a date! Willa definitely needs a moment alone to gather herself and escaping into the surrounding woodland she thinks she sees something very creepy. Then she meets Danny, a handsome, single guy who makes her feel a spark of something and she forgets her worries briefly. Right up until the blood starts to flow.

I’m not going to elaborate any further on the story as this is something that you truly have to discover for yourself. You need to experience that wth moment with no spoiler alerts.

What did I like about this.

It kept me absorbed. I think I read this in one sitting whilst ignoring all sorts of things around me that I should have been doing. I couldn’t help it I really needed to see what was going on, well, even to see what would happen next because I clearly had no idea. I can’t impress upon you just how much this story kept my attention.

I liked Willa. Yes, she’s having a little crisis but these things happen. Living in this strange, dangerous and creepy loop certainly starts to uncover things, about her friends and herself, even her ex but eventually I think the terrible events that she becomes a part of eventually help to clarify the things that really matter.

The writing and the pace are spot on. It’s a contemporary setting, a wedding with a view to die for (couldn’t help myself), everything is easy to imagine and for me I had the whole wedding scene fully developed in my head no problem. And this just makes the focus stay on the central character and the events which is a real bonus. In terms of other characters, well Willa is the main focus, and quite rightly so because the other versions, well, they’re not always the same. Willa herself can affect the narrative and so something somebody says in one version may not be said in the next. It’s kind of similar to having an unreliable narrator.

The shock. Yes, I think that’s the best way I can describe it. This book shocked me. It’s like Harrison just thought I’m coming in all guns blazing, no holds barred, no rules and it just feels like she enjoyed herself writing this, it’s so crazy.. And this is bloody, a bit gruesome at points, but all somehow made manageable because of the time loop. And, instead of feeling the repetitiveness of events I found myself massively intrigued to see what the heck was going to hit this poor woman next. Honestly, this can be a little bit jaw dropping and bloody but for some reason it didn’t make me cringe. Perhaps that is a combination of the relentless pacing and the novelty of events. I don’t know.

What I can say, with absolute confidence is that this was a banger of a book. I’m going to leave this review now before I become a gushing maniac. Highly recommended

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. the above is my own opinion.

My rating 5 of 5 stars