This is the perfect autumn/winter thriller and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a summer camp / horror / thriller with a riveting social media storyline and great characters. Willow was the lead in a popular sitcom, she’s then cancelled and we don’t know why. To escape life she books into a summer camp that’s marketed as an escape from life and a chance to reset. When Willow meets her fellow camp mates she finds them in turn; interesting, unusual, intriguing and strange and what follows is a great horror story. One to curl up with, but, keep the lights on and should you hear ‘knock….knock…knock’ don’t answer!

Slashers are my bread and butter. I grew up watching Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th and so on. And with every slasher I read, I crave a specific vibe that I can't quite define. Books this year have certainly came close, and some have fell rediculously flat (looking at you, You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight). But Heads Will Roll Is the closest I feel I may get to my perfect slasher book. I'm going to start with all of the positives - of which there are many. And then I'll touch on the few things I'd have liked to see altered. We'll start with setting, phenomenal. A summer camp away from any signs of human life. The layout I couldn't quite grasp, a map would have been ideal but each individual location was so well described that I had a mental image so strong, it were as if I were there. Then Winning drops this setting into the shadows of night and covers it in rain. All of this combines to produce a setting that works to compliment the plot. The second thing I'd like to praise Winning for is abundant references that showcase a horror knowledge that I've only seen rivalled in Grady Hendrix novels. Name drops of characters, cast members and franchises that any horror fan will know and appreciate. And they aren't done in a lackluster way either, every reference adds to the description or visual being given. Having adult characters is fantastic. I'm typically used to YA slashers and they tend to have their own hurdles, including having to suspend an element of disbelief but with an adult cast, everything is that fraction more believable. All of our characters are in some way flawed but there were some character choices I questioned. Can't venture into them too much without huge spoilers though! Now for a few things I'd have liked altered, this will include mild spoilers. The reveal of the killers identities was done slightly too late for my liking. If they, or at least one of them had been revealed earlier, the kills that occur would have felt much more personal. It gave me Friday 1 vibes of kills being done by an mysterious unknown entity. Which works for the first few kills but not for 90% of the book. And I'd have liked Dani and Willows relationship to have moved at a more natural pace. It seemed potentially too rushed. A solid 5 star. With some nitpicks from me! Sidenote - "The Preacher" is an absolutely fantastic slasher villain moniker.

It's called Heads Will Roll. Heads do roll. I enjoyed all the heads rolling  You will want the axe to fall sooner because the characters are mostly unlikeable but it's worth the wait! Juniper is my favourite. What a legend! Would love a book about her. This is a fun slasher. Josh Winning had me cheering for the bad guy, while also being terrified out of my wits! Brilliant.

Heads Will Roll is an entertaining slasher novel about Camp Castaway, a summer camp that offers isolation for people who need to escape their normal lives, like main character Willow who goes to camp after being cancelled online. I had a lot of fun reading this! It felt like a classic slasher horror film set at camp and I thought the pacing was perfect at building the suspense as frequently whilst reading I thought about what a fantastic film it would make! However, even with the menacing urban legend of Knock-Knock Nancy and the eerie, isolating setting of the camp, I thought the real horror of this book was social media. In the book, Josh Winning writes about cancel culture and the power of the internet and through his characters he shows the damaging effect this can have on our mental health. I thought all the characters and their various different traumas were written really well, and I loved how the book kept me guessing till the very end. Also that cover art is truly fantastic and captures the tone of the book perfectly!

Heads Will Roll was the kind of horror that keeps you glued to the page in fear and suspense. It was delightfully creepy and dark, full of slasher goriness and excellent characters. This is an appropriately twisted love letter to the slasher genre, full of blood and guts in more ways than one. The kill scenes themselves are graphic and nightmare fuel, taken to outlandish points at times that are not quite Final Destination but aren’t far off. Winning gives each victim one final moment of agency, something that speaks to the core of their character. I had my personal favourite, but I will let you discover these dark scenes yourselves. The pacing and atmosphere are (forgive me) killer, with enough room for excellent character work that doesn’t slow down the breakneck pace of the novel and the constant sense of tension. The stakes are clear and they are sky high. It is precisely because Winning does not hold back with the death and destruction that you have a very real sense of just what could happen next. We are taken to some extremely dark places and wallow in the mire. Winning also incorporates some interesting conversation starters that leave you ruminating while you shiver in fear. The book is incredibly meta, as good slashers have a tendency to be. It is very self-aware of the horror genre and the conventions within. A lot of the book revolves around the acting industry across TV and film, particularly in terms of fandom and how people can start to blur the line between character and actor. They become somewhat obsessed with their one role, until this is all that they are defined by. Stepping outside of this box can lead to vitriol and hatred beyond your wildest dreams. Willow embodies this as our protagonist, fleeing the implosion of her life, but still somewhat controlled by her public facade. She needs to work out who she is and this is one hell of a training ground for that. Heads Will Roll is a blood-curdingly good time. This was one of the slashers of this summer – it sits perfectly for your horror binge alongside Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle and I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. All of this are up to their elbows in blood and gore, paying homage to classic horror narratives with a meta wink at the audience. TW: death, murder, gore, violence, child abuse, physical abuse, decapitation, cancer, injury, addiction, homophobia, bullying