Review: Heads Will Roll

Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heads Will Roll follows an actress we know only as her sitcom character, Willow, on the wake of being cancelled for an ill thought tweet. Plagued by abuse and personal threats as a result, she runs off to Camp Castaway, joining a group of fellow campers, each with secrets that brought them there. As campers vanish and heads literally roll, Willow races to save them and herself from permanent cancellation.

Willow is a deeply relatable character for me, with a clear history of mental illness, a mouth that "has never been [her] friend", and an expert love for horror. This book is littered with pop culture and horror movie references, and it was a fun game to spot them all, though I did lose count in the end. The tension was built well, and I was immediately suspicious of everyone, particularly the camp itself - a place you "won't want to leave" or can't? We're introduced to our cast fairly quickly, though many of them continued to have their archetype description referenced in the same way whenever they're mentioned, which did get a little stale - I get it, Kat's a flannel wearing stoner and Dani has a rockstar smile. Whilst some could be overwhelmed with meeting so many people in quick succession, as Willow herself notes, very few of them really added anything to the plot, serving at most as red herrings, love interests, or victims. Side note: every time Bebe was mentioned, I heard Moira Rose saying it. Those that had greater impact were decent, though stereotypical in parts or victim to common book tropes. I would've liked to see more initial bonding to make me care about those on the chopping board.

Another thing the book is littered with is similes and metaphors, which would make a great drinking game. So many of these were poetic, but when you’re treated to multiple even on the same page, they lose their charm. Some eloquently describe how mental illness feels, and were so evocative that I had to highlight them to read again later. Others just felt like one too many, not really adding anything but tainting the ones that do. I noticed that some of the prose felt like they fell out of a wattpad fan fiction, with unnecessary descriptions like "shoulder length auburn hair" or repeating metaphors, whilst other prose was so beautifully written, with tension crafted expertly, laden with foreshadowing and mystery. Though not all of these seeds sprout.

I have to mention again how incredibly relatable Willow was for me. Half of my highlights are because of this, and her thoughts reminded me of my own. She hides behind her character, armoured in humour. I would love to follow Willow in another story. I appreciated all of the queer characters, though some do die, it doesn’t cater to the bury your gays trope.

Unfortunately, there were a few negative things to note. There are a few people of colour included, however, they are the only characters to have the colour of their skin mentioned, as though white is the default and only those that differ will have that described. There were some inconsistencies (like forgetting how many people were there, or still alive) or incorrect terms used (a hire car is not the same as a taxi), that were overall minor but happened frequently enough to be annoying. I also had to wonder if there was some product placement or sponsorship of some kind (no idea if that's a thing within books ngl) with the specific brands mentioned. Things were repeated without need or adding emphasis, conversations reoccurring a page later with slightly different info, and constant references to tweetagedon without telling us WHAT she said. When we finally find out, it fell flat and was not nearly bad enough to warrant multiple death threats and doxing. *Spoilers: I thought Knock Knock Nancy was a joke at first, and the song was reminiscent of "one, two, Freddie's coming for you" but not as good, so the one campfire ghost story they tell being the entire plot was disappointing.* There was some predictability but overall, it was a good story that I enjoyed 'watching' play out. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Read all of my reviews: on my blog, on Goodreads, or on StoryGraph.