In Nightfall by Suzanne Young

Published: 3/28/23Publisher: Delacorte PressAuthor: WebsiteInfo: Goodreads

Theo and her brother, Marco, threw the biggest party of the year. And got caught. Their punishment? Leave Arizona to spend the summer with their grandmother in the rainy beachside town of Nightfall, Oregon--population 846 souls.The small town is cute, when it's not raining, but their grandmother is superstitious and strangely antisocial. Upon their arrival she lays out the one house rule: always be home before dark. But Theo and Marco are determined to make the most of their summer, and on their first day they meet the enigmatic Minnow and her friends. Beautiful and charismatic, the girls have a magnetic pull that Theo and her brother can't resist.But Minnow and her friends are far from what they appear.And that one rule? Theo quickly realizes she should have listened to her grandmother. Because after dark, something emerges in Nightfall. And it doesn't plan to let her leave. (goodreads.com)

I had to give myself a little time before reviewing IN NIGHTFALL. I was so far into my feels with it I needed a passport to get back. I am all for Lost Boys-inspired books. It's pretty much a guarantee that I will pick it up. It's how I found the Blood Coven series by Mari Mancusi (after a referral from a friend) and MAYHEM by Estelle Laure. GIVE. IT. TO. ME. So when I saw that IN NIGHTFALL was Lost Boys-inspired, I went YES.Until I read the blurb.Why did the blurb take be aback? Because it's basically the plot of The Lost Boys. Down to moving from Phoenix to a small beach town in California, I mean Oregon. Commence rage.No, Donna! Don't! Don't judge it until you can read it! That might not be the case!So I read the first chapter preview.There was more rage.Why? Because it's the opening credits scene of The Lost Boys. Nearly to a T.THINGS AREN'T LOOKING GOOD.I'd requested the book as soon as I heard about it back in July or August. I just got the approval for it in March and I immediately started reading because I had to know.I HAD TO.And????I'll start with what I liked about it:Divorced from its source material, it's exactly the sort of YA horror I've been looking for in the current market. Not too deep, kind of kitschy, fun, spooky, underlying creepy. An all around good time. Doesn't require too much thought and gives me exactly what I was looking for. In that aspect, it nailed The Lost Boys right on the head.Unfortunately, it nailed everything else about The Lost Boys right on the script.IN NIGHTFALL isn't an homage to The Lost Boys. It's not inspired by. It IS. Young did not deviate from the plot of the movie at all. So readers, if you're familiar with The Lost Boys, you will know the entire plot of this book before even picking it up. You will know which character is which, what happens to who, every twist and turn, and how it ends. You already know how this book pans out. There aren't Lost Boys easter eggs in here. It's the whole damn rabbit. Characters, actions, scenes, character motivations, the blood-sucking Brady Bunch. It's all there.What's different about it? It takes place in Oregon and the vampires are chicks. That's about it.It's The Lost Boys without the personality of The Lost Boys. Gone is Joel Schumacher's sexiness, the dark undercurrent of the story wrapped in a pseudo-happy-go-lucky veneer, and the flash genius in the frying pan of the 80s to do something wholly unique. IN NIGHTFALL ends up being a pale, bland knock off that's disappointingly straight. Where Schumacher's movie was throbbing with queer subtext, Young's book gives mid-teens YA vibes in its heteronormativity. Of course, I can't forget the Frog brothers, I mean the gay podcasters that are the token gay comedic relief that exist to serve the main character. I've literally read better, more inventive TLB fanfic (and I've read A LOT of TLB fanfic). This book screams self insert Emerson sister fic.I was so, so hopeful that Young was going to do something different with it. Killer mermaids or sirens or selkies or something. Do something to make it actually her own story. Those were the vibes I was getting for the first, like, third of the book. NOPE. It's The Lost Boys, slightly tweaked.Who is this book supposed to be for? Because when the blurb is using comps like The Lost Boys and Buffy, are today's teens going to know what any of that is? Probably not, unless they have parents with taste. Those comps are for people my age, because this YA book isn't really being sold to teens, now is it? Says the teen librarians themselves, books like this are being written for the adults who buy them, not the teens who read them. The thing is, IN NIGHTFALL is actually a great book to fit in that space. The MC doesn't even have her license yet. This is actually a fantastic YA book FOR TEENS. But the marketing is targeting the nostalgia of the people with the bank accounts. I'm sure teen readers, especially younger teen readers, would love this book, but it has nothing to do with The Lost Boys or Buffy.It's just getting old that publishers are getting so risk averse with what they put out that they just keep regurgitating the same thing because it's safe. Young, with her impressive backlist, is as safe and as sure of a bet as one can get in publishing, which is why we're here. Her writing is fine. It's nothing to write home about, but she can string a sentence together. It gets the job done and moved me from one end of the book to the other. But this safety also guarantees that instead of a unique take on The Lost Boys, something that is genuinely a hat tip to the movie but stands on its own and speaks to a newer author's imagination and verve, we get barely conceived fanfiction that doesn't do anything with the source material except follow the movie's plot. I'll just watch the movie, thanks.PS: Where the hell does Buffy come into this? The fancy dress and vampire-staking at the end? Bit of a stretch.1.5I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.