Book Review: Chopping Spree by Angela Sylvaine

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“Wealth makes the world go round . . .”

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Seventeen-year-old Penny Schultz’s Eden Hills, Minnesota, hometown is renowned for two disparate things: its thriving, ’80s-inspired fashion mall and an unsolved, years-long epidemic of missing youths. Still recovering from a recent break-up, dealing with the loss of her mother, and struggling with distressing familial relationships, Penny is deeply skeptical of her town’s inability to solve the disappearances. She hasn’t shared her feelings with anyone, though, as she’s just scored a job at the mall with her best friend and the cool crowd from school, including a popular guy who she hopes will heal her broken heart. But when after-hours fun turns lethal, Penny has to dig deep and trust her gut in order to uncover dark truths — and survive the night.

Chopping Spree opens in classic slasher style, chronicling a mysterious and brutal disappearance before shifting gears into Penny’s first workday, laying the groundwork for the bloody whirlwind to follow. The mall is anything but a bygone relic, serving as a much-needed source of employment, commerce, and financial stability. The teen group power dynamic is immediately established: Penny, the youngest, longs to fit in, find acceptance, and possibly even romance, but after lies and oddities begin piling up, the evening swiftly takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

This novella is a no-holds-barred ride into a savage world of chaos, monsters, greed, entitlement, and twisted secrets. Stacked with an interesting cast of characters flush with personal struggles, strengths, weaknesses, and tragedies, the narrative is tense, bleak, fast-paced, and filled with gore, building to an explosive conclusion and a wonderfully disturbing final scene. Layers of corruption are gradually revealed, exposing a bizarre, desolate, and deception-loaded reality. These elements combine to produce a demented, full-throttle journey that readers will binge in a single sitting — a cinematic account of needs and wants, conscience and capitalism, right and wrong, profit and value, wealth and class, lives and dollars — all underscored by the pointed, perfectly curated music playlist threaded throughout.

Thank you to BookSirens and Dark Matter INK for providing an eARC of this forthcoming title for review consideration. Chopping Spree is a re-release of Angela Sylvaine’s first novella — with the inclusion of additional scenes and chapters — and is currently scheduled for publication on September 24, 2024. It’s a wonderfully twisted and sinister read sure to delight slasher fans of all ages!

🖤Amanda

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