Kill Your Darlings by Yuvashri Harish (2026)
Like a 'Goosebumps' book on steroids, 'Kill Your Darlings' dials up its YA Halloween night of horrors to way-off-the-dial proportions. It pits its plucky band of teens and their two babysitting charges against a risen-from-the-pages, long dead, yet still infinitely loathsome horror author.. And this prolific harpy comes fully armed with all her creations come to life. We're talkin' zombies, vampires, demonic children and all manner of slithering monstrosities who proceed to lay bloody waste to the small town that was home to the woman who spawned them from inside her books.
In structure, this all plays out along the lines of those 'kids-vs-monsters' movies from the 1980's ("Goonies", "Gremlins", Monster Squad", "Fright Night", etc, etc.) . But be forewarned that the gory collateral damage splattered across the pages here goes a little above PG-13. Author Yuvashri Harish is serious as a heart attack in detailing the agonies of slaughtered innocents and the priceless value of the lives they've lost so horribly.
The terror begins when good-girl-to-the-max Thulasi inadvertently unleashes 19th century horror scribe Addison Greer from within the pages of a first edition Greer book. Addison and her monstrous menagerie of fictional abominations are on a vengeance fueled quest to punish the living relatives of those responsible for the death of Addison's beloved daughter. Now it's up to Thulasi, her quarterback crush Sam, her best friend Celeste and 7 year olds Arjun and Miri to find a way to put a stop to Addison's reign of carnage before she wipes out the entire town......including Thulasi and Sam''s families.
I was on board with the crazy funhouse ride this book takes you on until its overbearing overwriting began to bog down the pace and just plain wear me out. It's ironic the author chose 'Kill Your Darlings' as a title, because she certainly didn't take that phrase to heart in its use as standard advise to writers when revising their drafts. The dragged out, laborious showdown finale almost sinks under its endless repetition, with the same points and observations hammered away at over and over.
But I did greatly appreciate and admire how the diversity and family backgrounds of Thulasi and Sam are well integrated into the storyline, along with the issues of racism, misogyny, and even the 19th century patriarchal oppression of women. No one could accuse 'Kill Your Darlings' of not having a lot on its mind other than its many scares.
For those who demand nothing less than full immersion into a packed-the-the-rafters rampage of horror tropes........ with some misgivings, I'd still recommend this one. I doubt there's a single nightmarish creature or moment it forgot to throw into the mix.
In structure, this all plays out along the lines of those 'kids-vs-monsters' movies from the 1980's ("Goonies", "Gremlins", Monster Squad", "Fright Night", etc, etc.) . But be forewarned that the gory collateral damage splattered across the pages here goes a little above PG-13. Author Yuvashri Harish is serious as a heart attack in detailing the agonies of slaughtered innocents and the priceless value of the lives they've lost so horribly.
The terror begins when good-girl-to-the-max Thulasi inadvertently unleashes 19th century horror scribe Addison Greer from within the pages of a first edition Greer book. Addison and her monstrous menagerie of fictional abominations are on a vengeance fueled quest to punish the living relatives of those responsible for the death of Addison's beloved daughter. Now it's up to Thulasi, her quarterback crush Sam, her best friend Celeste and 7 year olds Arjun and Miri to find a way to put a stop to Addison's reign of carnage before she wipes out the entire town......including Thulasi and Sam''s families.
I was on board with the crazy funhouse ride this book takes you on until its overbearing overwriting began to bog down the pace and just plain wear me out. It's ironic the author chose 'Kill Your Darlings' as a title, because she certainly didn't take that phrase to heart in its use as standard advise to writers when revising their drafts. The dragged out, laborious showdown finale almost sinks under its endless repetition, with the same points and observations hammered away at over and over.
But I did greatly appreciate and admire how the diversity and family backgrounds of Thulasi and Sam are well integrated into the storyline, along with the issues of racism, misogyny, and even the 19th century patriarchal oppression of women. No one could accuse 'Kill Your Darlings' of not having a lot on its mind other than its many scares.
For those who demand nothing less than full immersion into a packed-the-the-rafters rampage of horror tropes........ with some misgivings, I'd still recommend this one. I doubt there's a single nightmarish creature or moment it forgot to throw into the mix.
3 stars (***).
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