Well this was probably the best time travel horror novel I have read in some time. Yes, that includes 11/22/63 which still makes me mad. I also thought this was the best Harrison book I have read in some time too. She’s been a little miss for me lately, but I keep reading her because I absolutely adored Black Sheep. Kiss Slay Replay has so many great things about it, but honestly I think it’s that Harrison fully develops the main character, Willa, and her friends too. That has been one of my complaints about some of her other works. Characters felt paper thin. Harrison also does a great job of showing you why Willa who is just a bit over 30 is lost and scared after ending her engagement with her ex, Ravi. And you even get why she’s fully ready to throw herself at the next hot body she finds because she’s not sure if she did the right thing to go it alone after seeing all of her friends in happy coupledom. Toss in a wedding in upstate New York and you mix in some great horror and a time loop and you get Kiss Slay Replay.
Willa wakes up dreading the day. It’s the day one of her best friends are going to get married. She hasn’t seen her friends in a while and she knows that some of her friend are getting a bit tired of hearing her going on about the end of her engagement from her ex Ravi. Willa drives to the wedding, sees her friends and the blushing bride to be and her groom. She also sees her ex Ravi there with a hot date. Willa though also thinks she sees something out in the woods watching. And when she sneaks off with a wedding date to forget her troubles, she realizes that whoever is watching is hell bent on killing everyone present. And then eventually he catches and kills Willa. And then Willa wakes up, and it’s the day of the wedding.
I have to honestly say for a slasher horror book this was really good. The story didn’t feel repetitive and I did enjoy that at the end of each day when Willa dies again, the next page is black and you know it’s going to replay again. I also thought that it was great how Harrison linked this with the end of a relationship, how lost you feel, how you wish for things to go back the way they were, and you worry if you chose the wrong thing. You get to see Willa trying different things in each day to see how she can change/affect things. And you see her focusing more on her friends each time because she keeps watching them die over and over again in horrific ways.
The setting of the book changes each time you get a replay day. You get a slasher and some other horror movie/book villains that I really appreciated. Everything felt fresh and I started to wonder what I would have chosen to do each time Willa has to go through another day.
The ending was great I thought. No spoilers.
