Female Rage! What a tale, what a story. No Rich man is ever safe when the feeble have been prayed upon too long. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but when the blood flowed nothing slowed down. The craziness of the rich, and the pain and suffering they inflicted were on the same level as they received in the end. Love love the author and her style. Can't wait for more.

Quite the gorefest!

This is a fun, satisfying horror read, a mix of "wow this family is creepy" and "that's some creative revenge."

'Bad things happening to bad people' is my favourite trope.

Dawson's Bloom was one of my favourite books of 2023, so I was naturally thrilled to hear she was releasing another blood-soaked horror novella. And what a novella it was! Dez is a fantastic character with Final Girl flair and I absolutely loved the way she interacted with her horrifying situation, the horrid Ruskin family, and the servants taking their revenge. This is a deeply satisfying read, especially given the state of the world in 2024, and I would HIGHLY recommend to any horror fans. It will definitely find a place on my 'best books of 2024' list.

Heed the content warnings that Delilah has kindly included at the beginning of the book so you know what you're in for.

Loved, loved, loved this thrilling and surprising novel psychological horror of betrayal, murder, revenge and justice! The ending is superb and perfectly fit Dez's character.

Dez joins her date, Patrick, at his family's estate, located on an island. Patrick's family are MEGA wealthy, eccentric, paranoid, extremely entitled and well-known. With a house full of servants, servants that look intriguingly similar to the Ruskin family, they decide to exact their revenge, holding the Ruskins hostage and hunting them down one-by-one.

4.5. THIS WAS CRAZY! Probably the most violent book I have EVER read. It seems like the author said “what are the craziest ways I can kill someone?” and put ALL of the ideas in this book back to back. It’s WILD. The creepy little details of the island and family in the first half were extremely well executed and added to the tension, and the payoff at the end was extremely satisfying! This just shows how crazy rich white people are. I LOVED this!

Ready or Not but with more female rage and creepy family vibes. Fashion major Dez starts dating a super wealthy guy just because she wants to meet his major fashion magazine mother (think Anna Wintour). He takes her home for Easter weekend and it's hella weird.
Things are really fucked up!
I loved this book so much and some of the kills shocked me! TW: very violent but oh so cathartic!!

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

4.5⭐️

What a fun ride! I was not expecting that turn of events. It was fast faced and brutal. I loved Dez as a character. She's tough, smart and sarcastic. I loved the dark humor. The themes of the book really reflect on events happening in media in recent years. Highly recommended.

I wasn't sure if I was going to love it as it was not love at first pages and was a bit perplexed. Then BANG, I was hooked and read it as fast as I could.
A gripping and well plotted novel, a good horror that kept me on the edge as it's got the right suspense/creepiness level and storytelling.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was such a fun ride! Perfect for anyone who loves a quick, fast paced slasher kinda vibe! It definitely had a little bit of a slow start but the second half of this book was just all fun and games and I was here for it!
Excited to read more by this author as their writing is very easy to follow and has a perfect amount of gory detail 💗

The writing style didn’t work for me with this one, so I ended up dnfing at 25%. I do think if the premise sounds interesting then give it a go, as writing style preferences are obviously very subjective, you may enjoy it more than I did!!

Marketed as 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘶 meets 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘖𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘵, I had high expectations for this novella.
And I was 𝙣𝙤𝙩 disappointed.
In fact, I would also add 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘢 to the list of movie vibes. (And that makes it so much better!)
Dez, desperate for an internship with fashion icon Marie Caulfield-Ruskin, decides to date her (asshole) son to get close to her, and joins them on their annual Easter trip to their luxurious, and very, very secret island ancestral home. And it is not what she is expecting. At. All.
It’s gory, it’s fun, it’s extremely feminist, and it’ll make you want to #EatTheRich. Highly recommended!

Fashionista Dez doesn’t want to date Patrick, she just wants to meet his powerful editor mother. When she scores an invite to a family holiday reunion, she’s sure she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to get an internship. Despite the initial excitement at seeing how the 1% live, once all the family members are on the island, things take a very dark turn. In this blood splattered dissection of the uber rich, fury flows as freely as champagne. And on the menu? The families just desserts. A stylish and macabre novella that bluntly shows the disparity between those who serve and those who are served. Who comes out on top in this grotesque battle? I’m not telling.

The comparison to Ready or Not meets The Menu drew me in. I always love a revenge type story and mixed with an eat the rich trope, I was sold. This was brutal but so justified in each instance. The main character was relatable and I looked forward to seeing how she would handle the situation she fell into. Looking forward to checking out the authors other works!

I crushed through this book in one sitting and highly recommend that you do the same. Guillotine is goooey and the description of “Saw for rich people” is too accurate to not recycle from the MC in this one.

Guillotine sees Dez, fashionista and inspiring designer, traveling to a private island with a man she hates to try and get closer to his mother - an icon in the fashion industry. Unfortunately for her, as soon as she signs the NDA to stay on the island things start going south.

Guillotine is EVERYTHING and I reveled in each gory drama that unfolded against the elitist family members. Oftentimes violence and such in books will have me feeling empathetic to the victims regardless of circumstance. It’s just how I’m wired. Dawson had me grinning like the Cheshire Cat though as all manners of horrible things befell these people.

While (obviously) a bit over the top from my experiences in the service industry - Dez was such an easy character to root for as she navigated this male-dominated family. I recently had a man at work angrily throw a receipt and pen at me and I just grinned maniacally at him and told him to have a nice day. I love watching people go nuclear when I don’t cower like they expect. This entire book felt like those sick little joys.

Check this one out if you like horror, the Saw franchise (the early movies when they were still good,) body horror, and awful people getting their comeuppance.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the eARC of this incredible title!!**

I enjoyed this. While it wasn't perfectly my cup of tea, I am always down for badass women and eating the rich. This was short, and fast paced, too. I flew through this. I was captivated by the story and compelled by the characters. Overall, I had a great time reading this and I thought that the narrative voice for the story was really well-done!

Dez, a thrifty fashionista, wants to meet Patrick Ruskin's mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine, rather than dating him. When he invites her to his family's large Easter reunion at their lake home, she's confident she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship that someone with her lineage would never get through the traditional submission process. Upon arriving at the estate on an island in a Georgia lake, Dez is taken aback by the extravagant lifestyle of the 1%. But once all of the family members are on the island and the ferry has left, things turn serious.

I literally devoured this book in less than a day because of its gory premise and "eat the rich" concept. The novel started off kind of slow, but once the servants take their plan into action, that's where the excitement starts. The well-deserved retribution against the family that made their life miserable is so cathartic.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Titan Books, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

This book is a fast, fun, and gory read that feels like an early 2000s horror flick. The writing is on point, and I zoomed through it— very entertaining! It’s perfect for horror fans who don’t mind movies like "Saw" or "Ready or Not."

I loved following Dez (she's super cool), the main character who comes from a humble background but totally owns it as she is put on a wealthy family's island during her Easter vacation. She's there to get to know the mother of her inconsequential date. Dying to secure a job in fashion, she needs to mingle with the rich and important socialites, and this seems like her one shot. But this family is crazy, and a lot of strange things have happened on their island.

I definitely recommend it if you want a short, grisly, and amusing horror read.

This book was such a captivating read, I couldn't put it down. I loved its short length as well. It's always easy to support eat the rich and feminine rage tropes.

Talk about a revenge book. While I may not have suffered half as much as some these characters and while it might be a brutal read, Guillotine is cathartic for anyone who has had to suffer at the hands and enjoyment of others. I devoured this book in one sitting because, to use perhaps a cliched analogy given the subject matter of the book it was like a trainwreck you can’t look away from.

I can’t remember the last time I was actively on the killers side so quickly and so much. I could not wait to see the whole Ruskin line, well the main ones, suffer. But before I go on and begin to question my morality. I will say that this I don’t think would be possible without two factors. One having suffered, as I said not nearly as badly, at the hands of others and two, with Dawson’s ability to capture the rage, trauma and make the characters so frighteningly human. Both the good and the bad.

The thing I think that struck me is that the Ruskin’s sins and actions were all to believable by those in power and with power over those who don’t have it. As much as I want to say and believe it couldn’t happen we live in an age with Me Too and so much more that we know just what we are capable of to each other. I don’t want to spoil the plot too much because it's so good but I will say that while Dawson was high on my favourite authors list they are now firmly an instant buy author. Dawson perfectly captures what humans are capable of and what happens when the victim is pushed too far for too long.

As always thank you to Titan Books for the copy to review. My review is always honest and truthful.

Thank you so much to Titan Books for the eARC of Guillotine!

Delilah S. Dawson has become an auto-read author & Guillotine has officially sealed that fact for me.

Guillotine was an incredibly quick read soaked with blood & gore; it’s been compared to the Saw franchise, and I’m here to say that that’s a very fair comparison; some of the kills were absolutely wild & I loved every minute of it.

& not only is this one fun in terms of the horror, but it also dives heavy into how the 1% can get away with just about anything. Very “eat the rich,” very revenge, very good. It’s beyond easy to root for those doing the killing, especially as you discover the reasoning for each murder.

I absolutely adored the ride Guillotine took me on.