Let’s Split Up is a killer of a YA horror-thriller. It is such an impressive debut novel, with excellent characterisation, twists, and writing that sends chills down your spine.
I have never heard a book that is so perfectly pitched as this one—I heard it’s Scream meets Scooby Doo and I was sold hook, line and sinker. Bill Wood more than lives up to that powerhouse of a premise with a stellar narrative. It has a distinct sense of nostalgia to proceedings, often feeling like a love letter to the classic slasher narratives. Wood plays with and subverts the expected tropes, meaning you get those timeless hair-raising moments but also some unexpected surprises to boot. For me, the plotting was impeccable. It was such a deftly woven mystery with plenty of red herrings and rabbit holes to get lost running after.
Wood also nails that balance of horror and humour. There is plenty of bloodshed, including an opening scene that just sends shivers through your body. It is so foreboding and filled with tension from the off. There’s a nice meta touch around the fascination with cold crimes and urban legends that can be tapped into for fame hunters, as well as truth seekers. It is a horrifying scene that sets the tone for a book that will not pull its punches. So the stakes are clearly set and the danger is paramount, especially as the pages turn and increase the lengths to which our killer will go to keep the truth hidden. Wood keeps you guessing and taps into those stories we grew up with, the local legends surrounded in fear and shadow. Unravelling the origins of them often means confronting an ugly history that a community would rather not face. That essence of a small town, its claustrophobic and its uniquely particular way of doing things, is captured so well. There is also a hint of the supernatural and the echoes of the past continuing to reverberate through our lives. It can be our own ghosts that scare us the most.
However, Wood also infuses the book with plenty of humour, often through dialogue and these characters that leap off the page and into your heart. As you would hope with any book that draws parallels to the Mystery Gang, this book thrives in its characterisation. There is such a strong theme of found family and the power of friendship, with a celebration of both platonic and romantic relationships. The core three of Cam, Jonesy and Amber have such a great bond, only mildly jeopardised by the arrival of new girl Buffy. Their loyalty runs deep and they have that easy camaraderie that’s built over years of friendship. Buffy adds a new dimension to this and is driving much of the sleuthing initially. She is inquisitive, pushing against the narrative much of the town has already adopted. It flips the script on their expected dynamic as they start to unpick a buried history of secrets and murder. Their dynamics feel so natural and I always love when an author captures an authentically teenage voice. It’s just the right balance of tone. Without giving too much away, I also really enjoyed the romantic tensions that evolve (or have maybe always been present) within the group. That chemistry was evident and the dialogue sparkles, especially when the situation around them escalates. Overall it just delivers every aspect you would expect from a great horror-thriller and then some.
Let’s Split Up is a magnificent YA horror-thriller, delivering plenty of heart along with the blood and the screams. It exceeded every expectation I have to deliver one of my favourite reads of the year so far.
Let’s Split Up is available from Amazon, Waterstones, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A nail-biting and perfectly formed Thriller for the YA BookTok generation. This is Scooby Doo meets Win Lose Kill Die. When hot “it-couple” Brad and Shelley are brutally murdered in a Victorian mansion, a group of teen friends investigate.
Set in a small town where rumour spreads as fast as the fire on the day of the killings, the theory is the old ghoul who haunts the house after his own murder hundreds of years ago has finally taken revenge. As Cam, Jonesy, Amber and new-girl Buffy investigate, the rumour feels closer to the truth than they ever dared think possible, and as they enter the mansion themselves, the idea of splitting up to find evidence will prove to be either the best … or worst decision of all.
