Disclaimer - you will stay up late reading this. I did.

It was the perfect YA thriller but also had such a vivid voice which made me want to read on.

Highlights:

The tension and the creepiness built up throughout and it was easy to get swept up in the mystery of what was happening.

The relationships between the classmates was fun to read and it's perfect for fans of Sue Wallman.

The chapters are pacy and it's easy to follow and try to figure out the mystery alongside the characters.

Why four stars?

A LOT is revealed in the last quarter. There are many twists to the murders and mysteries. I like this but also would've liked some mysteries to be revealed earlier and then further twists such as hidden identities and backstories.

Overall, it was a pacy, gripping thriller with really fun language and likeable characters.

in theory, this book should've been for me, which is why i requested it. i was intrigued by the remote welsh setting and the promise of a spine-chilling mystery. i did find some parts enjoyable and the writing was simplistic enough for me to read the bulk of this book in a few hours, but ultimately i found a majority of the characters underdeveloped and interchangeable for the size of the cast, the backstory and current story too disconnected, and an ending that felt nonsensical. an interesting premise, but an execution that didn't work for me in the end.

I really enjoyed James-Mackey's sophomore novel about a group of teenagers stranded in the woods!

The atmosphere was haunting and the one by one murders was chine-spilling. The angle of Keely's background was really interesting and one that I think is important to highlight. I do wish we saw more of it but the bits we did see were great.

I think I stayed around more for the characters than the plot (as I enjoy character driven stories) and this one did not disappoint.

I really liked the concept of this book, but I just found the characters to not be interesting enough or relatable. I thought that the atmosphere was great just wish it was more fast paced and engaging.

You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead is a haunting book with so many twists and turns and it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. This is a great YA that still keeps a creepily scary atmosphere, which is enhanced knowing this is a real location/area. I highly recommend reading this to any horror fans or anybody trying to get into the genre.

Given the competitiveness for college spots these days, many young people have to find ways to make themselves more attractive to educational institutions. As a result, they often engage in activities in which they actually have very little real interest.

Keely is no exception. After her family moves to a new place for reasons that we discover to be somewhat problematic, and wracked with guilt over what happened to her friend Amy, Keely's primary aim is to keep a low profile at this new school and find a way of getting into college. Since most of her peers have similar plans, she reluctantly finds herself on a wilderness trip in Wales with five very ambitious young people.

The problems begin when their teacher dies, leaving the six teens cut off from civilization and reliant on each other and their joint survival skills to keep themselves alive. Why is this happening? Could it all perhaps be related to the secrets that Keely's family are hiding?

This is a gripping story with well-drawn characters, especially Keely and Barry. The suspense level is maintained throughout, and character development is handled skillfully. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone who likes reading YA thrillers.

The setting of this book was just hauntingly scary! I really enjoyed this book and it was fast paced with many twists and turns. I have looked up the area it is based on and have to visit now so thank you for that!

A group of school children go on a camping expedition to the remote Black Mountains in Wales.

Keeley is the key character and she’s a misfit within the group, wanting to be separate and struggling with a guilty past.

I found this to be an excellent YA read, with flashbacks to Keeley’s history that paints a picture of her reason for isolation as well as drama, tension and mystery. Bryan is another main character and the growth of his friendship with Keeley is perfectly written.


Thanks so much to NetGalley and Hatchette children’s books for the opportunity to preview and I wish the author every success.

The story follows Keely as she embarks on an outward bound weekend in the welsh mountains with her new classmates. Keely is trying to deal with a trauma in her life which has effected her so badly.
In the awful weather the trip gets off the a rocky start but then turn for the absolute worse when the teacher ends up dead.....
What a great read, the blossoming friendship between Bryan and Keely is special - he is a great character, trying to keep the rest of the group safe as they try to get off the mountain with their lives.
Such a cracking read

A group of six teenagers are in a remote part of the Black Mountains in Wales on a camping trip which goes wrong almost immediately resulting in the death of the teacher leading the trip. Cut-off from the outside world with no transport, no phone service and no neighbours, the story follows an increasingly chilling series of events as they try to keep themselves safe until help comes. There are flashbacks to something in Keeley’s recent past which hint at might what be happening in the present.
The story gets off to a great start which really hooks you into reading the rest of the book. Unlike the others, Keeley has done no training for this trip and even worse, she is weighed down with grief and guilt over something that happened the previous year to her friend Amy. The other five have some camping and survival skills but it is Barry who is the hero of the hour, remaining calm and steadfast, and I loved the friendship which blossomed between him and Keeley. The book has a really spooky vibe with hints of the supernatural and together with the gothic setting of the abbey, the darkness, the fog and the endless rain, it reminds me of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.
Keeley begins to wonder if everything that is happening is somehow linked to her but the eventual reveal is still shocking and the final chapters are tense and breathlessly fast paced. I loved that the group still looked out for each other even when things looked really bad, that Keeley got some resolution to her feelings of guilt and that she gained some fantastic new friends in the process.
The book contains some violence and the theme of abusive relationships.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette for the ARC.

Ideal for fans of slow-burn YA psychological thrillers. Keeley, still mourning the death of her best friend, reluctantly takes part in an outward bound week with the overachievers from her new school. The camping trip goes disastrously wrong very quickly, and one of Keeley's fellow students blames the ghost of a monk who came to a sticky end...
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead follows 16 year old Keely as she goes on a weekend wilderness trip with a few of her new classmates to the Welsh mountains. In the bleak weather things start taking a turn for the worst when people, starting with her teacher, end up dead. As it turns out Keely is running from a dark tragedy and it seems to have followed her.

This is the perfect read to kick start spooky season! It had me hooked from the very beginning so I managed to finish it in one day! Keely is such a good main character and watching how she dealt with grief and guilt was very accurate. I loved Bryan's character and the way he took charge and tried his best to keep everyone safe. I love how Keely and Bryan's friendship developed.

Great book, great characters and loved the backstory running throught in flashbacks. So many twists and turns that keep you reading and wanting to know more, the ending was insane and I never saw it coming.
Will definitely be reading more from this author in the future!

Tess James MacKey follows her 2023 debut Someone Is Watching You, which we reviewed last year, with another highly entertaining thriller, with this effort having even more of a survival element than its predecessor. Tess’s first book was set in an abandoned prison with a trapped teenager being seemingly stalked by someone or something. In following a vaguely similar blueprint, in Someone is Watching You a group of teenagers, lost of the remote Welsh hills, are stalked by someone of something. Beyond that the similarities end and I much preferred Tess’s sophomore effort to her debut, mainly because it included a much stronger set of characters and the traumatic backstory was gripping and beautifully balanced with the dangerous predicament the teenagers find themselves in. I loved the fact that there was no mobile phone service when tragedy stuck and so the novel is devoid of all text-lingo and is all the better for it. Like with Someone is Watching You the story nicely balances thriller and potentially supernatural shenanigans with the reveal coming around 75% of the story. When it arrived it was pretty obvious, but this did not detract from what was an incredibly exciting finish where the characters are truly put through the ringer. I thought all the characters were nicely pitched and very believable teens, main characters Keely was great, but Barry totally stole the show. As the book hurtled in its final 10% my heart was in my mouth that something really horrible was going to happen to this lovely chap!

The story opens with sixteen-year-old Keely roped into joining a Duke of Edinburgh Scheme style outdoor programme in the Welsh mountains for three nights. She is new to the area and has no friends, even though others in the group try to connect with her, she pushes them away. Keely has a serious traumatic experience in her recent past, which is connected to her former best friend Amy, which is revealed in delicious flashbacks. Before they have even camped one night, in thick fog, disaster strikes and one of the teachers falls off a ridge and dies. With no mobile phone coverage, a second teacher nearing nervous breakdown territory, the group find themselves lost in the shadows of a ruined abbey when weird stuff begins to happen. As they try to wait it out, small piles of rocks appear outside their tents and they realise they are not alone. This was a terrific thriller and as page turners go you are not going to read many better, balanced nicely with the huge reveals of Kelly’s recent past. I loved the manner in which the teens bounced off each other with the tension ratcheting up forcing poor Kelly way out of her comfort zone. Highly recommended. AGE RANGE 12+