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Night of the Mallrats
Five friends travel back to the 1990s to solve the brutal murder and disappearance of two of their high school peers in this thrilling debut novel from a promising new voice in horror—a murderous, nightmarish romp that is nostalgic, terrifying, and impossible to put down.
Shop ’til you drop . . . dead
Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank. Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared.
Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
Haunting, wistful, pulse-pounding fun, Night of the Mallrats is a time-travel thriller that asks a question with an unforgettable What really happened to Beth Packard?
Shop ’til you drop . . . dead
Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank. Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared.
Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
Haunting, wistful, pulse-pounding fun, Night of the Mallrats is a time-travel thriller that asks a question with an unforgettable What really happened to Beth Packard?
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2026
About the author
Nicolina Torres
1 book35 followersPrior to her work as a writer, Nicolina Torres was a manager for Barnes & Noble for 15 years, in seven stores, and represented B&N on Channel 2’s Living Dayton Show for two years. She wrote horror movies reviews under the pseudonym Miss Wilkes. Nikki’s thriller This Red Fire was a 2017 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition Top 10 pick, and her dystopian novel, Young Nation, received an honorable mention in the same contest. Her short story “Aunt Dorothy in the Canoe” was published in the Deception Anthology. In 2025, Night of the Mallrats was sold at auction to HarperCollins imprint Harper Perennial.
Nikki has had multiple books and short stories optioned for film by companies such as Vuelta Group, Stampede Ventures, Exile Content Studio, Sony, and EMJAG Productions.
Nicolina Torres has never used and will never use A.I. to write or help write her stories or reviews.
Nikki has had multiple books and short stories optioned for film by companies such as Vuelta Group, Stampede Ventures, Exile Content Studio, Sony, and EMJAG Productions.
Nicolina Torres has never used and will never use A.I. to write or help write her stories or reviews.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Five grown adults break into their condemned childhood mall for one nostalgic little reunion, and the mall responds by sending them back to Christmas 1994 so they can finally address the murder, disappearance, and approximately nine thousand lies they apparently forgot to mention to each other. Beechnut Mall has had thirty years to think about what these people did and apparently chose violence.
Colleen, Tim, Kevin, Andy, and Melissa used to be mallrats in the purest possible sense. This place was their ecosystem. Food court. Stores. Christmas crowds. Teen drama conducted entirely within walking distance of a Sam Goody. Thirty years later the mall is abandoned, their friendships are carrying some mileage, and they decide breaking into the condemned building for old times’ sake sounds fun. Because nothing says healthy middle-aged nostalgia like trespassing inside the corpse of your adolescence.
Then the mall dumps them back into 1994.
Not some random Saturday either. They land on the exact night Beth Packard disappeared and her boyfriend Ezra was murdered. So now these people are standing inside their own memories watching their teenage selves wander around while knowing that before this night ends, one girl will vanish and one boy will be dead. I would personally need several minutes near the fountain. They immediately start investigating.
And this friend group, my God. Every twenty pages somebody reveals another secret and I started wondering whether any of these people had ever actually spoken to each other in high school. You were together constantly. At the same mall. Every day. Yet somehow everybody had their own confidential Beth Packard file? These were not best friends. This was five competing intelligence agencies sharing a booth at the food court.
The best part is watching adulthood absolutely destroy their nostalgia. They have spent thirty years remembering themselves as kids who were confused, innocent, maybe a little messy. Then they get to actually WATCH those kids again and discover that teenage them were making choices. Bad ones. Selfish ones. Secretive ones. Nothing humbles you like physically standing near your seventeen-year-old self and realizing, oh no, I really was like that.
And Beechnut Mall being fully alive again makes the whole thing weirder because there is something genuinely sad about getting back a place you thought was gone forever. The lights are on. The stores are open. Christmas decorations are everywhere. People they have not seen in decades are walking past them. For half a second it is everything they miss. Then you remember someone is getting murdered before closing.
That combination worked on me. The ’90s stuff is fun, but underneath the Lisa Frank and Glamour Shots is the fact that everybody associates this place with Beth and Ezra. Your happiest teenage memories and the worst night of your life happened under the same fluorescent lighting. You cannot separate them anymore. That one hurt more than I expected.
Mystery-wise, I was accusing everybody. Then clearing everybody. Then putting people back under investigation because they said something weird near a pretzel stand. The different perspectives and jumps between then and now occasionally had me mentally checking where and when I was, but mostly I was too busy discovering that every member of this friend group apparently entered 1994 with their own private subplot.
And the ending left me sitting there with my mouth doing that little thriller thing where you are not entirely sure whether you want to say “ohhhh” or “excuse me?” I did not call every piece of it, but by that point I was less concerned with being right than I was with finding out just how much these people had managed to bury beneath thirty years of selective memory.
Night of the Mallrats gets 3.5 stars from me. I wanted a little more bite from some of the reveals, but give me a condemned mall, Christmas 1994, time travel, a dead boyfriend, a missing girl, and five former friends discovering they may have collectively remembered their adolescence like absolute liars, and yes, I am staying until the mall closes.
Merry Mayhem Prize: For Turning Christmas at the Mall Into the Worst High School Reunion Since Everyone Finally Learned What You Did in 1994
Huge thanks to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and NetGalley for the ARC. You offered me Christmas shopping, mall nostalgia, time travel, murder, missing-person trauma, and the opportunity to watch five adults realize their teenage friend group had more secrets than a Claire’s had earrings. I came for the food court. I left needing everyone’s yearbook subpoenaed.
Colleen, Tim, Kevin, Andy, and Melissa used to be mallrats in the purest possible sense. This place was their ecosystem. Food court. Stores. Christmas crowds. Teen drama conducted entirely within walking distance of a Sam Goody. Thirty years later the mall is abandoned, their friendships are carrying some mileage, and they decide breaking into the condemned building for old times’ sake sounds fun. Because nothing says healthy middle-aged nostalgia like trespassing inside the corpse of your adolescence.
Then the mall dumps them back into 1994.
Not some random Saturday either. They land on the exact night Beth Packard disappeared and her boyfriend Ezra was murdered. So now these people are standing inside their own memories watching their teenage selves wander around while knowing that before this night ends, one girl will vanish and one boy will be dead. I would personally need several minutes near the fountain. They immediately start investigating.
And this friend group, my God. Every twenty pages somebody reveals another secret and I started wondering whether any of these people had ever actually spoken to each other in high school. You were together constantly. At the same mall. Every day. Yet somehow everybody had their own confidential Beth Packard file? These were not best friends. This was five competing intelligence agencies sharing a booth at the food court.
The best part is watching adulthood absolutely destroy their nostalgia. They have spent thirty years remembering themselves as kids who were confused, innocent, maybe a little messy. Then they get to actually WATCH those kids again and discover that teenage them were making choices. Bad ones. Selfish ones. Secretive ones. Nothing humbles you like physically standing near your seventeen-year-old self and realizing, oh no, I really was like that.
And Beechnut Mall being fully alive again makes the whole thing weirder because there is something genuinely sad about getting back a place you thought was gone forever. The lights are on. The stores are open. Christmas decorations are everywhere. People they have not seen in decades are walking past them. For half a second it is everything they miss. Then you remember someone is getting murdered before closing.
That combination worked on me. The ’90s stuff is fun, but underneath the Lisa Frank and Glamour Shots is the fact that everybody associates this place with Beth and Ezra. Your happiest teenage memories and the worst night of your life happened under the same fluorescent lighting. You cannot separate them anymore. That one hurt more than I expected.
Mystery-wise, I was accusing everybody. Then clearing everybody. Then putting people back under investigation because they said something weird near a pretzel stand. The different perspectives and jumps between then and now occasionally had me mentally checking where and when I was, but mostly I was too busy discovering that every member of this friend group apparently entered 1994 with their own private subplot.
And the ending left me sitting there with my mouth doing that little thriller thing where you are not entirely sure whether you want to say “ohhhh” or “excuse me?” I did not call every piece of it, but by that point I was less concerned with being right than I was with finding out just how much these people had managed to bury beneath thirty years of selective memory.
Night of the Mallrats gets 3.5 stars from me. I wanted a little more bite from some of the reveals, but give me a condemned mall, Christmas 1994, time travel, a dead boyfriend, a missing girl, and five former friends discovering they may have collectively remembered their adolescence like absolute liars, and yes, I am staying until the mall closes.
Merry Mayhem Prize: For Turning Christmas at the Mall Into the Worst High School Reunion Since Everyone Finally Learned What You Did in 1994
Huge thanks to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and NetGalley for the ARC. You offered me Christmas shopping, mall nostalgia, time travel, murder, missing-person trauma, and the opportunity to watch five adults realize their teenage friend group had more secrets than a Claire’s had earrings. I came for the food court. I left needing everyone’s yearbook subpoenaed.
September 27, 2026
Night Of The Mallrats by Nicolelena Torres, when Colleen agreed to go to red lobster with her high school friends she thought it would be just a quick catch up a free night with the babysitter and back home to jump in her comfy PJs but no although she hadn’t seen her friends since the 80s they had much bigger plans for Colleen. first however they had to go to the abandoned Beechnut mall the last place they saw their friend Beth the night she went missing. Unknown to Colleen, her high school friend Kevin found a way to time travel back to that night and that’s exactly what he wants them to do. The only thing is, while you’re in the past if you touch anyone from that time you will be automatically sent back to the future. While visiting that night Colleen continuously see someone in a gray hoodie staring at them and if there’s the only ones who time travel to 1994 then who is this and why do they want to send the group back to the future. Their best friend Beth went missing but did she run away, did someone cause her to go missing and is someone still keeping secrets decades later. they also found the foreign exchange student that lived with Beth’s family dead in the wishing well with his in trails pulled out. The time travel was only a little bit of the beginning of the book and I seriously enjoyed that portion but also enjoyed the rest of it from the summer of 94 until the conclusion this is such a great book! it has so much happening it would be hard to put in a summary I thought that would be more imagining with the first sheriff but the ones they had were quite wicked I was so shocked by the ending and couldn’t recommend this book more. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,
Want to Read
April 17, 2026Am I insane or does the second person from the left on the cover kind of look like Foggy Nelson
October 18, 2026
The nitty-gritty: A fun mash-up of murder mystery, time travel and 1990s culture, Night of the Mallrats is an entertaining blast from the past.
I thought this was going to be a time travel story, and it is, sort of. But the time travel element is much smaller than I expected, so I think my expectations were a little skewed going in. But Night of the Mallrats turned out to be a lot of fun! I had a few small issues, but overall Nicolina Torres is a solid writer, and she’s crafted a multilayered, character focused murder mystery with some big 1990s vibes.
Back in high school, Colleen, Andy, Tim, Missy, Kevin and Beth were close friends and did everything together, until December of 1994 when Beth disappeared and her boyfriend Ezra was found murdered in the mall fountain. Beth’s body was never found, and her case turned cold.
Thirty years later, Colleen has returned to her hometown to reunite with her old friends. The local mall, where they spent so many happy hours during their teens, is about to be torn down, and the others want to visit it one last time. Colleen isn’t too keen on breaking in at night, but Kevin assures her no one will find out. What Colleen doesn’t know is that there’s an odd temporal portal in the middle of the fountain—the very location where Ezra’s body was found—that transports you back to 1994 if you stand in the fountain at exactly midnight.
Kevin and the others have been using the portal to go back in time to December 1994, the day that Beth went missing. They are determined to uncover what really happened to her, something local law enforcement was never able to do. And this is their last shot, since the mall tear down begins the next day.
As the night wears on and Colleen, Kevin, Tim, Missy and Andy (who are invisible to those around them) start to follow Beth and Ezra on their last day, secrets among the friends come to light, secrets that have been buried for thirty years.
In addition to the “time travel” POV, most of the story is flashbacks to 1994 that take place in the six months leading up to Beth’s disappearance. This is the meat of the story, as the author digs deep into the characters and their relationships with each other, setting the stage for the big reveal at the end. We also get a big dose of 1990s nostalgia, which was a ton of fun (references to mall stores that are no longer in business, popular bands and songs, 1990s movies and more), and I absolutely loved reliving that decade. Torres captures that wonderful feeling of carefree innocence before “real life” and adulthood intrude. The six friends are a tight group, but of course there are petty jealousies, secrets and typical friend group fractures to show that not everything is perfect.
Of course, with the 1994 setting you also get a lot of cringey dialog with men sexually objectifying women and young girls, including Beth’s sleazy boss (she works at the Gap) who is highly inappropriate towards his teen employees. The romantic entanglements of all the characters are important to the story, though, so these sections felt true to the time period.
An additional POV follows a police officer named Corey Haskell who just happens to be Missy’s older brother. In the present timeline (2024), Chief Haskell is made aware of some new evidence from Beth’s old case and he decides to reopen it. His storyline gave some heft to the story with actually police work, and I enjoyed Corey's chapters a lot. We also learn that Corey is hiding his own secrets, some of which come out in the flashback chapters.
And while I did enjoy the mystery, there are a lot of characters and POVs to keep track of, not to mention time periods. The story gets bogged down at times by too much going on, and the reader also has to keep track of each character’s teen personality versus what their life is like as an adult—careers, marriages, kids etc. It’s much harder to write a story that jumps around a lot, and sometimes Night of the Mallrats works in that respect and sometimes it doesn’t. I also think it was a bit long and could have been trimmed in spots.
But the reveal of what happened to Beth was really well done, and I didn’t guess who the killer was. Anyone who's ever spent their teen years at the mall—and those who were teens in the 90s in particular—will find a lot to relate to.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I thought this was going to be a time travel story, and it is, sort of. But the time travel element is much smaller than I expected, so I think my expectations were a little skewed going in. But Night of the Mallrats turned out to be a lot of fun! I had a few small issues, but overall Nicolina Torres is a solid writer, and she’s crafted a multilayered, character focused murder mystery with some big 1990s vibes.
Back in high school, Colleen, Andy, Tim, Missy, Kevin and Beth were close friends and did everything together, until December of 1994 when Beth disappeared and her boyfriend Ezra was found murdered in the mall fountain. Beth’s body was never found, and her case turned cold.
Thirty years later, Colleen has returned to her hometown to reunite with her old friends. The local mall, where they spent so many happy hours during their teens, is about to be torn down, and the others want to visit it one last time. Colleen isn’t too keen on breaking in at night, but Kevin assures her no one will find out. What Colleen doesn’t know is that there’s an odd temporal portal in the middle of the fountain—the very location where Ezra’s body was found—that transports you back to 1994 if you stand in the fountain at exactly midnight.
Kevin and the others have been using the portal to go back in time to December 1994, the day that Beth went missing. They are determined to uncover what really happened to her, something local law enforcement was never able to do. And this is their last shot, since the mall tear down begins the next day.
As the night wears on and Colleen, Kevin, Tim, Missy and Andy (who are invisible to those around them) start to follow Beth and Ezra on their last day, secrets among the friends come to light, secrets that have been buried for thirty years.
In addition to the “time travel” POV, most of the story is flashbacks to 1994 that take place in the six months leading up to Beth’s disappearance. This is the meat of the story, as the author digs deep into the characters and their relationships with each other, setting the stage for the big reveal at the end. We also get a big dose of 1990s nostalgia, which was a ton of fun (references to mall stores that are no longer in business, popular bands and songs, 1990s movies and more), and I absolutely loved reliving that decade. Torres captures that wonderful feeling of carefree innocence before “real life” and adulthood intrude. The six friends are a tight group, but of course there are petty jealousies, secrets and typical friend group fractures to show that not everything is perfect.
Of course, with the 1994 setting you also get a lot of cringey dialog with men sexually objectifying women and young girls, including Beth’s sleazy boss (she works at the Gap) who is highly inappropriate towards his teen employees. The romantic entanglements of all the characters are important to the story, though, so these sections felt true to the time period.
An additional POV follows a police officer named Corey Haskell who just happens to be Missy’s older brother. In the present timeline (2024), Chief Haskell is made aware of some new evidence from Beth’s old case and he decides to reopen it. His storyline gave some heft to the story with actually police work, and I enjoyed Corey's chapters a lot. We also learn that Corey is hiding his own secrets, some of which come out in the flashback chapters.
And while I did enjoy the mystery, there are a lot of characters and POVs to keep track of, not to mention time periods. The story gets bogged down at times by too much going on, and the reader also has to keep track of each character’s teen personality versus what their life is like as an adult—careers, marriages, kids etc. It’s much harder to write a story that jumps around a lot, and sometimes Night of the Mallrats works in that respect and sometimes it doesn’t. I also think it was a bit long and could have been trimmed in spots.
But the reveal of what happened to Beth was really well done, and I didn’t guess who the killer was. Anyone who's ever spent their teen years at the mall—and those who were teens in the 90s in particular—will find a lot to relate to.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Like any good elder millennial, I have a great fondness for the 90s. And while the references to things like Party of Five and Tori Amos made me smile in the beginning, I thought this book relied too much on nostalgia. After a very short while, the references just felt like overkill and entirely lost their effectiveness. At some point they just started making me roll my eyes because they were never ending and a lot of the time, they just felt shoehorned in. At that point, I actually started getting annoyed with the book, and if it wasn't an ALC, I don't know if I would have kept going.
Because I didn't really care about any of the characters. They're all thrown at you at once and you really don't get to know much about some of them until a lot further in the book, if ever. We know the most about Colleen, who the book is primarily about, but she was quite unlikable throughout the whole book.
I mostly kept going because I wanted to know if I was correct about the killer and their reason for doing it, which I had a guess about very early on. Unfortunately, I was right on both accounts because of course this book went with that tired trope, which made me dislike the book even more.
I also feel like this just didn't live up to its premise. The summary makes it seem like it's going to be about them going back to 1994, but really, it's mostly about them in their teenage years. We don't actually get much of them as adults going back in time. Like maybe ten percent of it is the time travel.
The only real highlight were the narrators for the audiobook. With the exception of some odd pronunciations, I thought they all did a good job with what they were given. It's just a shame that what they were given wasn't that great and it seemed to get worse as the book went on.
Two stars for the audiobook, solely for the narrators (1.5 stars for the book itself). Unfortunately, this was quite the letdown for me. It wasn’t scary, the mystery was entirely predictable, and the description felt misleading.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for the ALC. All opinions are my own.
Because I didn't really care about any of the characters. They're all thrown at you at once and you really don't get to know much about some of them until a lot further in the book, if ever. We know the most about Colleen, who the book is primarily about, but she was quite unlikable throughout the whole book.
I mostly kept going because I wanted to know if I was correct about the killer and their reason for doing it, which I had a guess about very early on. Unfortunately, I was right on both accounts because of course this book went with that tired trope, which made me dislike the book even more.
I also feel like this just didn't live up to its premise. The summary makes it seem like it's going to be about them going back to 1994, but really, it's mostly about them in their teenage years. We don't actually get much of them as adults going back in time. Like maybe ten percent of it is the time travel.
The only real highlight were the narrators for the audiobook. With the exception of some odd pronunciations, I thought they all did a good job with what they were given. It's just a shame that what they were given wasn't that great and it seemed to get worse as the book went on.
Two stars for the audiobook, solely for the narrators (1.5 stars for the book itself). Unfortunately, this was quite the letdown for me. It wasn’t scary, the mystery was entirely predictable, and the description felt misleading.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for the ALC. All opinions are my own.
October 9, 2026
I did not see that ending coming.
Wow.
Wow.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
As a product of the 1980s, I am always a sucker for a story with a ton of 1990s nostalgia. Nicolina Torres blends mystery, thriller, time travel, and horror into a story chock-full of references from my childhood with
Night of the Mallrats
. A tale that is haunting, but also has an emotional core, and how life might not turn out the way you had hoped.
Colleen's life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it's not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank.
Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth's disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
I live in the greater Bangor, Maine area, where our mall, the Bangor Mall, has been slowly falling by the wayside in depressing fashion. This, along with my childhood mall, The Fox Run Mall in Newington, New Hampshire, recently being demolished and being a teen in the 1990s had me even more interested in this mystery-thriller. The chance to travel back to 1994 and solve the mystery of their missing friend, what an experience that would be.
What I expected entering Night of the Mallrats was a straight-forward tale where these friends travel back in time somehow to walk around in 1994, solving the disappearance, but what Torres delivers is something a bit different. The book dives back-and-forth between the past and present a little as the mystery is set to be solved from both timelines. Despite what I had expected, a lot of time spent in 1994, the story really unfolds mostly in the present. This confused me a bit, but still had moments where I was on the edge of my seat. I understand the decision made by the author, and it may work extremely well for some, but for me made hard to follow on occasion. The plus-side is that it didn't take away from the wonderful reveal towards the end, and was enjoyable throughout.
When the group of teens sneak into the abandoned Beechnut Mall I got the vibe of The Losers' Club from Stephen King's IT , an accomplishment for this author on its own. Not the moments in IT when the club is younger, but when they return to Derry as adults and discuss how life has been since the terrifying events of their past. This feeling was the ultimate reason I wanted to fiercely turn the pages of Night of the Mallrats and find out more. The mystery, nostalgia, and looking back at life, maybe not having lived it to the fullest or where you had expect to be in this moment.
Torres does dive into how you can't really be who you want to be as a teenager and how it can really affect how life progresses from there in Night of the Mallrats. Parents tell you who and when you can date, who you can really be is set by society and those around you, and even those you know as friends might not always have your back. The author crafts characters that really made me care for them and understand where they are coming from, even if their teen years differed from mine. One thing we did have, the mall is not what it used to be.
Night of the Mallrats is a journey back to the 1990s where the mall was the place to be, but for some maybe should've been avoided. Nicolina Torres captures that strange feeling of looking back at who you were as a teenager and wondering how much of that person is still with you decades later. The book may not have been exactly the trip back to 1994 that I expected, but it was haunting and nostalgic mystery that shows growing older can sometimes be as terrifying as something lurking inside an abandoned mall.
Night of the Mallrats hits bookstores everywhere on October 6, 2026 from Harper Perennial. The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, is available via Libro.fm!
NOTE: We received an advance copy of Night of the Mallrats from the publisher. Opinions are our own.
Colleen's life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it's not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank.
Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth's disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
I live in the greater Bangor, Maine area, where our mall, the Bangor Mall, has been slowly falling by the wayside in depressing fashion. This, along with my childhood mall, The Fox Run Mall in Newington, New Hampshire, recently being demolished and being a teen in the 1990s had me even more interested in this mystery-thriller. The chance to travel back to 1994 and solve the mystery of their missing friend, what an experience that would be.
What I expected entering Night of the Mallrats was a straight-forward tale where these friends travel back in time somehow to walk around in 1994, solving the disappearance, but what Torres delivers is something a bit different. The book dives back-and-forth between the past and present a little as the mystery is set to be solved from both timelines. Despite what I had expected, a lot of time spent in 1994, the story really unfolds mostly in the present. This confused me a bit, but still had moments where I was on the edge of my seat. I understand the decision made by the author, and it may work extremely well for some, but for me made hard to follow on occasion. The plus-side is that it didn't take away from the wonderful reveal towards the end, and was enjoyable throughout.
When the group of teens sneak into the abandoned Beechnut Mall I got the vibe of The Losers' Club from Stephen King's IT , an accomplishment for this author on its own. Not the moments in IT when the club is younger, but when they return to Derry as adults and discuss how life has been since the terrifying events of their past. This feeling was the ultimate reason I wanted to fiercely turn the pages of Night of the Mallrats and find out more. The mystery, nostalgia, and looking back at life, maybe not having lived it to the fullest or where you had expect to be in this moment.
Torres does dive into how you can't really be who you want to be as a teenager and how it can really affect how life progresses from there in Night of the Mallrats. Parents tell you who and when you can date, who you can really be is set by society and those around you, and even those you know as friends might not always have your back. The author crafts characters that really made me care for them and understand where they are coming from, even if their teen years differed from mine. One thing we did have, the mall is not what it used to be.
Night of the Mallrats is a journey back to the 1990s where the mall was the place to be, but for some maybe should've been avoided. Nicolina Torres captures that strange feeling of looking back at who you were as a teenager and wondering how much of that person is still with you decades later. The book may not have been exactly the trip back to 1994 that I expected, but it was haunting and nostalgic mystery that shows growing older can sometimes be as terrifying as something lurking inside an abandoned mall.
Night of the Mallrats hits bookstores everywhere on October 6, 2026 from Harper Perennial. The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, is available via Libro.fm!
NOTE: We received an advance copy of Night of the Mallrats from the publisher. Opinions are our own.
October 25, 2026
One of my favorite reads of 2026.
This is both an excellent mystery and a terrific nostalgia trip, and it’s rare to see the books that attempt this style of mystery get both right.
There is a lot of interesting character work happening here, and the story structure is excellent. I’m generally not big on time travel novels, but this is an unusual spin on the concept where the characters returning to the past serves as a reckoning for their own memories and a way to solve the mystery. There is no going back to alter what has already happened here, only closure for a group of people wondering what became of their friend many years ago.
As for the nostalgia content? It’s excellent. The characters are a little bit older than me, so our experiences of this era would be a bit different, but I was certainly old enough to appreciate a trip to the mall, which is where this book’s nostalgia really excels.
Torres also does a wonderful job of not limiting the references to the same pop cultural touch points that always show up in stories like this. We’re not just getting Nirvana, Nancy and Tonya, and the Delia’s catalog. Here we get both a lot more cultural nostalgia, and a lot of examples of more frequently forgotten or at least less discussed examples. Sleepover Friends instead of just Babysitters Club! Jamie Walters instead of Luke Perry! All of the models in the Freedom 90 video instead of just generic MTV references!
In all, a delight to read for a trip down memory lane, but also a truly excellent mystery.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
This is both an excellent mystery and a terrific nostalgia trip, and it’s rare to see the books that attempt this style of mystery get both right.
There is a lot of interesting character work happening here, and the story structure is excellent. I’m generally not big on time travel novels, but this is an unusual spin on the concept where the characters returning to the past serves as a reckoning for their own memories and a way to solve the mystery. There is no going back to alter what has already happened here, only closure for a group of people wondering what became of their friend many years ago.
As for the nostalgia content? It’s excellent. The characters are a little bit older than me, so our experiences of this era would be a bit different, but I was certainly old enough to appreciate a trip to the mall, which is where this book’s nostalgia really excels.
Torres also does a wonderful job of not limiting the references to the same pop cultural touch points that always show up in stories like this. We’re not just getting Nirvana, Nancy and Tonya, and the Delia’s catalog. Here we get both a lot more cultural nostalgia, and a lot of examples of more frequently forgotten or at least less discussed examples. Sleepover Friends instead of just Babysitters Club! Jamie Walters instead of Luke Perry! All of the models in the Freedom 90 video instead of just generic MTV references!
In all, a delight to read for a trip down memory lane, but also a truly excellent mystery.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Review of advance copy
It might seem to have no relevance on this story. But I kept thinking of Meddling Kids, both the novel and the catchphrase uttered by captured villains on the Scooby Doo show, with a bit of slasher horror thrown in for good measure.
These kids, now turned grownups, are determined to find out what happened the night an English foreign-exchange student was hacked to death and his girlfriend mysteriously vanished from the same mall where his brutalized body was discovered. It combines time travelling, a creepy stalker, an escaped murder convict, an abandoned mall set for demolition and the usual gang of idiots. There are hints of humor, tons of 90s nostalgia and the odd sense that all is not what it seems.
The revelation is both a letdown and a strange catharsis. The killer is caught but the horror and crime elements turn out to be clever misdirections on the part of the author.
What we get is the gradual exposure of characters whose lives didn’t turn out the way they’d planned, adults who both envy and despise their younger selves and the classic revelation that reliving the past isn’t the unalloyed joy we hope it will be.
Do I like this novel? No. Am I unsettled, unnerved and shaken up by it? You bet. If that’s what you seek in a novel, then by all means sink into this one.
These kids, now turned grownups, are determined to find out what happened the night an English foreign-exchange student was hacked to death and his girlfriend mysteriously vanished from the same mall where his brutalized body was discovered. It combines time travelling, a creepy stalker, an escaped murder convict, an abandoned mall set for demolition and the usual gang of idiots. There are hints of humor, tons of 90s nostalgia and the odd sense that all is not what it seems.
The revelation is both a letdown and a strange catharsis. The killer is caught but the horror and crime elements turn out to be clever misdirections on the part of the author.
What we get is the gradual exposure of characters whose lives didn’t turn out the way they’d planned, adults who both envy and despise their younger selves and the classic revelation that reliving the past isn’t the unalloyed joy we hope it will be.
Do I like this novel? No. Am I unsettled, unnerved and shaken up by it? You bet. If that’s what you seek in a novel, then by all means sink into this one.
October 14, 2026
What’s it about?
A group of high school friends now in their 40s reconnect and decide to break into a dilapidated mall scheduled for demolition the following day. But when they get there, some of them have a surprise: they found a way to time travel back to the 1990s, to the night their friend Beth disappeared.
Told between what happened in the 90s and what’s happening now, the book is a mix of perspectives, interviews, great mystery and alllllll the 90s mall nostalgia.
My thoughts:
This book was just plain fun. I geeked over 40 year olds revisiting Sam Goode’s, Express, and Suncoast. Lots of fantastic music mentions and things popular at the time (like Beanie Babies). The mystery itself is drawn out, but I loved all the scenes that happened in the 90s. And I never saw the ending coming, which is the ultimate compliments for a mystery!
Overall, a fun spooky season read and great for Millennials and Gen X who want to do a little time traveling through a book.
A group of high school friends now in their 40s reconnect and decide to break into a dilapidated mall scheduled for demolition the following day. But when they get there, some of them have a surprise: they found a way to time travel back to the 1990s, to the night their friend Beth disappeared.
Told between what happened in the 90s and what’s happening now, the book is a mix of perspectives, interviews, great mystery and alllllll the 90s mall nostalgia.
My thoughts:
This book was just plain fun. I geeked over 40 year olds revisiting Sam Goode’s, Express, and Suncoast. Lots of fantastic music mentions and things popular at the time (like Beanie Babies). The mystery itself is drawn out, but I loved all the scenes that happened in the 90s. And I never saw the ending coming, which is the ultimate compliments for a mystery!
Overall, a fun spooky season read and great for Millennials and Gen X who want to do a little time traveling through a book.
Did Not Finish
September 16, 2026I feel like I’m exactly the target audience for this book and yet!!! I cannot get into it. I’m so disappointed. I’d consider picking it back up in the future, but it’s just not right for me right now and it’s starting to put me into a reading slump, so unfortunately, I’m making the decision to DNF it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Colleen gets together with a few of her old high school friends for a night of dinner and catching up with each other. She’s back in town after having moved away after the brutal murder of a boy and disappearance of the missing person in their friend group, Beth, on a December night in 1994. After dinner the group find themselves gathered at the spot where Beth and her boyfriend were last seen alive - the local mall. Somehow, they end up transported to the past, the night of the murder, to be exact. Tonight they are going to finally find out what happened to their friend and who the killer really is.
This book is packed full of nostalgia both for the 90s and for being a teen in general - those deep friendships, knowing everything about each other - contrasted against the mundane adult lives they live now. It was fun to remember the sights and sounds of the 1990’s mall culture and catch all the references.
The mystery is a tangle of secrets, betrayals and red herrings, which I won't get into (spoilers!). There was so much drama! There were some things that left me scratching my head, either in confusion or exasperation and I wasn’t a big fan of any of our characters, including our MFC Colleen, who really wants to be quirky and cool, but is really just a brat.
To be honest, the story turned out to be a much different story than the one I was expecting and it threw me off a bit.
I had a fine time. 3/5
Advanced copy from Netgalley.
This book is packed full of nostalgia both for the 90s and for being a teen in general - those deep friendships, knowing everything about each other - contrasted against the mundane adult lives they live now. It was fun to remember the sights and sounds of the 1990’s mall culture and catch all the references.
The mystery is a tangle of secrets, betrayals and red herrings, which I won't get into (spoilers!). There was so much drama! There were some things that left me scratching my head, either in confusion or exasperation and I wasn’t a big fan of any of our characters, including our MFC Colleen, who really wants to be quirky and cool, but is really just a brat.
To be honest, the story turned out to be a much different story than the one I was expecting and it threw me off a bit.
I had a fine time. 3/5
Advanced copy from Netgalley.
October 9, 2026
Title: Night of the Mallrats
Author: Nicolina Torres
Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, William DeMeritt, Emma Lysy, Charles Constant, Chris Patton, Craig Jessen, Jade Wheeler, Roman Howell, Rosemary Cline, Aaron Landon
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Length: Approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes
Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the physical book review copy. Audiobook purchased from Audible.
Did you visit malls as a teen? Do you still have a mall you shop at? My mom worked at an eye doctor at our local mall, and I would spend the day there as a teen while Mom worked in the 1990s. I loved it. That mall is in sad shape today, but my local mall in Northeast Wisconsin is doing great.
Beechnut Mall is about to be torn down in 2024. A group of five friends reunite and break into the mall to have one last adventure to remember their youth in the 1990s at the malls peak. They also hope to find clues to the disappearance in 1994 of their friend Beth at the mall and the murder of her boyfriend Ezra on that exact night. They suddenly find themselves in the past, witnessing the events of the day Beth disappeared in 1994. Will they finally find out what happened to Beth?
My thoughts on this book:
• I LOVED the on-point references to the stores of the malls in the 1990s, movies, music, and books. I loved and read R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike teen horror novels. I enjoy hearing them referenced and titles that I read and enjoyed. Reading this book brought me back to that place in time. I was the exact age of the characters in 1994 so it made this an especially fun read.
• Jane Austen was also referenced several times.
• The audiobook had great multicast narration to tell the story including interviews. I liked that it also showed on the audiobook who the narrator was of each section.
• The genres were mystery, thriller, time travel, horror, 90’s nostalgia, and LGBTQIA+.
• It had a dual timeline between 1994 and 2024.
• There was a sad statement how 1994 was a more innocent time for the characters’ lives as it was before Columbine, 9/11, endless wars, etc. It made me sad realizing it was a true statement.
• I liked how the characters are looking back as adults at their teenage choices and realizing they didn’t always make good ones. Life also did not turn out for them the way they thought it would when they were in high school.
• All the characters had secrets.
• The ending surprised me as I kept thinking everything did it. I’m still thinking about it.
Overall, Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres was a fun time travel mystery with some elements of horror. This book was made for you if you grew up in the 1990s or are a fan of the era.
This review was first posted on my blog at: https://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2026...
Author: Nicolina Torres
Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, William DeMeritt, Emma Lysy, Charles Constant, Chris Patton, Craig Jessen, Jade Wheeler, Roman Howell, Rosemary Cline, Aaron Landon
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Length: Approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes
Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the physical book review copy. Audiobook purchased from Audible.
Did you visit malls as a teen? Do you still have a mall you shop at? My mom worked at an eye doctor at our local mall, and I would spend the day there as a teen while Mom worked in the 1990s. I loved it. That mall is in sad shape today, but my local mall in Northeast Wisconsin is doing great.
Beechnut Mall is about to be torn down in 2024. A group of five friends reunite and break into the mall to have one last adventure to remember their youth in the 1990s at the malls peak. They also hope to find clues to the disappearance in 1994 of their friend Beth at the mall and the murder of her boyfriend Ezra on that exact night. They suddenly find themselves in the past, witnessing the events of the day Beth disappeared in 1994. Will they finally find out what happened to Beth?
My thoughts on this book:
• I LOVED the on-point references to the stores of the malls in the 1990s, movies, music, and books. I loved and read R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike teen horror novels. I enjoy hearing them referenced and titles that I read and enjoyed. Reading this book brought me back to that place in time. I was the exact age of the characters in 1994 so it made this an especially fun read.
• Jane Austen was also referenced several times.
• The audiobook had great multicast narration to tell the story including interviews. I liked that it also showed on the audiobook who the narrator was of each section.
• The genres were mystery, thriller, time travel, horror, 90’s nostalgia, and LGBTQIA+.
• It had a dual timeline between 1994 and 2024.
• There was a sad statement how 1994 was a more innocent time for the characters’ lives as it was before Columbine, 9/11, endless wars, etc. It made me sad realizing it was a true statement.
• I liked how the characters are looking back as adults at their teenage choices and realizing they didn’t always make good ones. Life also did not turn out for them the way they thought it would when they were in high school.
• All the characters had secrets.
• The ending surprised me as I kept thinking everything did it. I’m still thinking about it.
Overall, Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres was a fun time travel mystery with some elements of horror. This book was made for you if you grew up in the 1990s or are a fan of the era.
This review was first posted on my blog at: https://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2026...
October 23, 2026
I kinda knew from the cover and blurb that this wasn't going to be the best book ever, but I thought it'd at least be fun. I was wrong. Not only was it boring for a solid 85% of the length of the book, but the ending was so cliche that it barely paid off the hours of reading to get to it.
Most of the page count was dedicated to flashbacks of random events in 1994. Some of it was plot-relevant, some of it was character building, but much of it was just plain boring and added nothing of value to the book. This book could've had it's page count cut in half and it would have made it SO MUCH BETTER.
There was hardly any lead up to the motive behind the murder. No tension building outside of the chapter the murder actually occurred in. Too much of the book was focused on trying to distract you and make you think any one of the characters could have committed the murder with cheap, throw-away lines or motives that didn't actually make a dent in any characters' life in the story. The character work here was shallow, even though so much of the book hinged on it.
Finally, the nostalgia bait may have worked on me if I had been alive in the 90's, but it was mostly cultural references to stores, music, and models that I didn't get as a 2000's baby. If it had been more about the zeitgeist and ethos of the time, I would've enjoyed it more.
I think this book needed some serious story edits. It felt more like a rough draft than a finished work.
Most of the page count was dedicated to flashbacks of random events in 1994. Some of it was plot-relevant, some of it was character building, but much of it was just plain boring and added nothing of value to the book. This book could've had it's page count cut in half and it would have made it SO MUCH BETTER.
There was hardly any lead up to the motive behind the murder. No tension building outside of the chapter the murder actually occurred in. Too much of the book was focused on trying to distract you and make you think any one of the characters could have committed the murder with cheap, throw-away lines or motives that didn't actually make a dent in any characters' life in the story. The character work here was shallow, even though so much of the book hinged on it.
Finally, the nostalgia bait may have worked on me if I had been alive in the 90's, but it was mostly cultural references to stores, music, and models that I didn't get as a 2000's baby. If it had been more about the zeitgeist and ethos of the time, I would've enjoyed it more.
I think this book needed some serious story edits. It felt more like a rough draft than a finished work.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3/5 Stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Night of the Mallrats is a page-turner of a thriller steeped in 90s nostalgia. Contrary to the blurb, very little of the book takes place in the time-travel portion. Instead, the mystery unfolds primarily in flashbacks to 1994 and by following the modern-day police chief as he re-opens Beth Packard’s cold case. This still results in a pretty compelling mystery but is a bit disappointing if you were looking for a book that leans more heavily into the time-travel plot.
There’s something that is pretty much always readable about a mystery/thriller where a small-town popular girl suddenly goes missing. This book does a good job adding layers of intrigue to the mystery as the book goes on. Beth’s life becomes more complicated and tragic and it seems like all of her friends had something to hide. But it doesn’t quite to enough to make it a standout read for me. I felt like half of this friend group were barely in the book to begin with. I also think more could have been done with the time-travel premise. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I was a part of the same generation as these characters and the nostalgia hit harder for me.
Still, despite all of that I enjoyed my time with this book. I enjoyed how the mystery unfolded and was mostly satisfied with how it ended. There were enough interesting secrets to keep me invested and I will still probably actively recommend it to people.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Night of the Mallrats is a page-turner of a thriller steeped in 90s nostalgia. Contrary to the blurb, very little of the book takes place in the time-travel portion. Instead, the mystery unfolds primarily in flashbacks to 1994 and by following the modern-day police chief as he re-opens Beth Packard’s cold case. This still results in a pretty compelling mystery but is a bit disappointing if you were looking for a book that leans more heavily into the time-travel plot.
There’s something that is pretty much always readable about a mystery/thriller where a small-town popular girl suddenly goes missing. This book does a good job adding layers of intrigue to the mystery as the book goes on. Beth’s life becomes more complicated and tragic and it seems like all of her friends had something to hide. But it doesn’t quite to enough to make it a standout read for me. I felt like half of this friend group were barely in the book to begin with. I also think more could have been done with the time-travel premise. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I was a part of the same generation as these characters and the nostalgia hit harder for me.
Still, despite all of that I enjoyed my time with this book. I enjoyed how the mystery unfolded and was mostly satisfied with how it ended. There were enough interesting secrets to keep me invested and I will still probably actively recommend it to people.
September 6, 2026
Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall-the 90’s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens, thirty years earlier. When her old high school clique reassembled for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends don’t know that insides its darkened halls, the past is waiting. Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard, their friend who vanished in 1994, and without warning, find themselves transported back to the mall on the day Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mall rats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about one another. I really liked that this novel was split up into different perspectives and two different timelines: the past and the present. I did feel like there’s were a few red herrings that never got fully fleshed out, leaving me with questions. I found Collie (Colleen) to be absolutely insufferable-she was the definition of a spoiled, rotten brat, while Beth was a little too saccharine and sweet to be real. I felt like some of the other characters didn’t get fully fleshed out either.
October 6, 2026
This book took me way back! All the 90s nostalgia of my teens in one book, with a little murder. I was having hard flashbacks of the music, fashion and friendships of that time. Unfortunately my local mall is an hour away, so I didn’t have the pleasure of food courts with friends or jobs in retail during my teens. I always went with my mom, so I was incredibly lame. This book made me envy those that could bike to the mall and hang with friends.
Besides all of the moments of missing my youth, skinny body and the best music ever, this book made me miss the friendships I had. This story bounces from a a group a tight woven teen friends to the estranged adults that come together years later. Those adults are the same people they were before, but minus a friend. Finding out what happened to Beth is the reason for their reunion.
There are a lot of characters to watch, with connections to everything. The book really highlights the intensity of teen relationships and how they feel like forever. It made me almost want to get back in touch with my former friends. But ill stick to cyber creeping lol
Loved this book! The ending with sneak up on you. But it all makes sense and works really well. As for gore factor, there’s some brain matter and blood. It’s a quick popcorn horror story that made me evil smile.
Besides all of the moments of missing my youth, skinny body and the best music ever, this book made me miss the friendships I had. This story bounces from a a group a tight woven teen friends to the estranged adults that come together years later. Those adults are the same people they were before, but minus a friend. Finding out what happened to Beth is the reason for their reunion.
There are a lot of characters to watch, with connections to everything. The book really highlights the intensity of teen relationships and how they feel like forever. It made me almost want to get back in touch with my former friends. But ill stick to cyber creeping lol
Loved this book! The ending with sneak up on you. But it all makes sense and works really well. As for gore factor, there’s some brain matter and blood. It’s a quick popcorn horror story that made me evil smile.
September 26, 2026
A group of former best friends find that they are able to travel back in time to a night their friend went missing and her boyfriend got brutally murdered. Back in 1994, they are able to follow their friend's footsteps around the mall to finally find out what happened to her.
I really enjoyed this book at the beginning. It was unique in its premise and the 90s nostalgia was a nice touch.
As the novel went on, I found that I struggled with the timeline of the novel. I had to keep flipping back to previous chapters to check dates. Maybe dates at the beginning of each chapter would make the skipping-around-in-time more clear?
I did enjoy the 90s references, and also I'd like to comment: the 90s happened 30 years ago? What?! Gosh, we're old. 😩
The novel mostly lives in the present with the characters, mainly Colleen and the police officer, questioning how they got to where they are in life, how and when they let go of their hopes and dreams.
I think I would have liked to understand the time travel more and spent more time in 1994! Overall, those were my favorite chapters- where secrets were revealed and trusts tested. And what actually happened to Beth, the missing friend? 😱 That's a whole horror novel in itself!
I really enjoyed this book at the beginning. It was unique in its premise and the 90s nostalgia was a nice touch.
As the novel went on, I found that I struggled with the timeline of the novel. I had to keep flipping back to previous chapters to check dates. Maybe dates at the beginning of each chapter would make the skipping-around-in-time more clear?
I did enjoy the 90s references, and also I'd like to comment: the 90s happened 30 years ago? What?! Gosh, we're old. 😩
The novel mostly lives in the present with the characters, mainly Colleen and the police officer, questioning how they got to where they are in life, how and when they let go of their hopes and dreams.
I think I would have liked to understand the time travel more and spent more time in 1994! Overall, those were my favorite chapters- where secrets were revealed and trusts tested. And what actually happened to Beth, the missing friend? 😱 That's a whole horror novel in itself!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Its 1994 and Beth is missing and her boyfriend is found dead in a mall. Present day, Beth's friends are all grown up and still struggling with her disappearance. They have discovered a time portal back to the night it all went down at the now abandoned mall. They have one night to figure out what happened before the mall is demolished.
As a millennial, the moment I saw this cover and read the synopsis, I was sold! I was excited for a blast from the past and the height of the mall experience! But sadly it didn't live up to my expectations. I loved how we jumped right into the crime night. I was drawn in but then as soon as we met the present day cast I lost interest quickly. The majority of the book ended up being about the drama between the friend's both in the past and the present. I was hoping for a lot more 1990's feels and mallrat fun. I wanted more horror and mystery not drama. I wanted Chopping Mall but got My So-Called Life. I did enjoy the twist but everything leading up just wasn't worth it in my opinion.
Thank you to Harper Perennial for the gifted copy and Libro.fm for the audio.
As a millennial, the moment I saw this cover and read the synopsis, I was sold! I was excited for a blast from the past and the height of the mall experience! But sadly it didn't live up to my expectations. I loved how we jumped right into the crime night. I was drawn in but then as soon as we met the present day cast I lost interest quickly. The majority of the book ended up being about the drama between the friend's both in the past and the present. I was hoping for a lot more 1990's feels and mallrat fun. I wanted more horror and mystery not drama. I wanted Chopping Mall but got My So-Called Life. I did enjoy the twist but everything leading up just wasn't worth it in my opinion.
Thank you to Harper Perennial for the gifted copy and Libro.fm for the audio.
October 6, 2026
Thirty years after the heyday of Beechnut Mall and the disappearance of their friend, Colleen’s high school friends organize a reunion inside the now condemned building. Drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard, they find themselves transported back to the 90s inside the mall, before Beth disappeared. The closer they get to the event, the more secrets unravel, and they’ll have to face harsh truths about each other and themselves.
As a 90s kid, I lived in the mall growing up, had my first job there (RIP B. Dalton), so the summary and cover art drew me in. Overall, it’s okay for a popcorn read, but I wasn’t impressed with how the plot wrapped up. Don’t get me wrong, the LGBTQIAP+ tag is what sealed the deal for me choosing this book, but I just didn’t like the presentation. It reads more like a mystery thriller whodunnit novel that hops back and forth in time way more than a time-travel horror novel. Solid idea, but the execution wasn’t for me. The narrators did a great job, though, and kept me going with the plot longer than I probably would have stayed with it with less talented actors.
As a 90s kid, I lived in the mall growing up, had my first job there (RIP B. Dalton), so the summary and cover art drew me in. Overall, it’s okay for a popcorn read, but I wasn’t impressed with how the plot wrapped up. Don’t get me wrong, the LGBTQIAP+ tag is what sealed the deal for me choosing this book, but I just didn’t like the presentation. It reads more like a mystery thriller whodunnit novel that hops back and forth in time way more than a time-travel horror novel. Solid idea, but the execution wasn’t for me. The narrators did a great job, though, and kept me going with the plot longer than I probably would have stayed with it with less talented actors.
October 8, 2026
This book was such a letdown. First, it’s another thriller marketed as horror which I don’t get at all with this. Yes, there’s a murder, and there’s time travel, but that doesn’t equate to horror. I just don’t understand why books are marketed like this. I probably still would have picked this up if I had known it was a thriller, but my expectations were shattered because it wasn’t.
Not only was this not horror, but it had a whole-ass investigation going on with police interviewing suspects back when the incident occurred. The one thing I will say that I love is recent history like this (1994), and I also love time travel. Outside of that, I didn’t really enjoy this book overall.
A mediocre thriller/murder mystery, this wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t a great one either. The writing was just okay, and the audiobook narration was decent. Jeremy Carlisle Parker did a good job, as always. I would not recommend this to those looking for true horror, but those that enjoy murder mysteries might find this more entertaining.
Not only was this not horror, but it had a whole-ass investigation going on with police interviewing suspects back when the incident occurred. The one thing I will say that I love is recent history like this (1994), and I also love time travel. Outside of that, I didn’t really enjoy this book overall.
A mediocre thriller/murder mystery, this wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t a great one either. The writing was just okay, and the audiobook narration was decent. Jeremy Carlisle Parker did a good job, as always. I would not recommend this to those looking for true horror, but those that enjoy murder mysteries might find this more entertaining.
October 27, 2026
📼Goodreads Giveaway📼
📼Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres follows five adults who break into their childhood mall on the eve of its demolition, 30 yrs after 2 friends were killed or missing. Inside, a time rupture sends them back to that exact night, forcing them to solve the crime and confront long buried betrayals withing their group.
📼This was such a fun mystery read. As a millennial it was definitely nostalgic and I enjoyed that very much. At first, it was a bit slow for me since I really dislike a certain character. That character is definitely not a fun person to have around, bit of party pooper.
📼This book is a definite go to for a book club. So much to discuss. I had so many red flags and notes all over the book, it's crazy. The whole entire time I was so wrong. The revelation surprised me!!
📼Also, if you are someone who enjoys the 80s/90s era you will love this book. There're so many throwbacks, music, movies, books, etc.
🎱Nostalgia 90s/80s
🎱Mystery/Thriller/Horror
🎱LGBTQ
🎱Humor
🎱Time Travel
⤷ 📢゛ ˎˊ˗ 🚨.ᐟ.ᐟCHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS!!⚠️
📼Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres follows five adults who break into their childhood mall on the eve of its demolition, 30 yrs after 2 friends were killed or missing. Inside, a time rupture sends them back to that exact night, forcing them to solve the crime and confront long buried betrayals withing their group.
📼This was such a fun mystery read. As a millennial it was definitely nostalgic and I enjoyed that very much. At first, it was a bit slow for me since I really dislike a certain character. That character is definitely not a fun person to have around, bit of party pooper.
📼This book is a definite go to for a book club. So much to discuss. I had so many red flags and notes all over the book, it's crazy. The whole entire time I was so wrong. The revelation surprised me!!
📼Also, if you are someone who enjoys the 80s/90s era you will love this book. There're so many throwbacks, music, movies, books, etc.
🎱Nostalgia 90s/80s
🎱Mystery/Thriller/Horror
🎱LGBTQ
🎱Humor
🎱Time Travel
⤷ 📢゛ ˎˊ˗ 🚨.ᐟ.ᐟCHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS!!⚠️
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
1.5 stars. False advertising. Not a horror book. Not a time travel book. But congratulations to the author for creating one of the most annoying characters in literature—Colleen/Collie. A truly despicable brat as a teen and a vile middle-aged woman. This mystery (not horror) is overflowing with 90s nostalgia and nothing-to-do-with-the-story political commentary. A group of former friends travel back in time to try and discover what happened to Beth who disappeared 30 years ago. I listened to the audio, full cast, and I don’t know if that made it better or worse since the narrator for Collie was awful and she was the main character. I kept listening because I wanted to know what happened to Beth. It’s tragic and horrific. Mostly I just wanted this reading/listening experience to be over. Thank you to NetGalley for an ALC
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A group of friends get together about 30 years after their friend goes missing and her boyfriend is murdered. They travel back in time to the night it happens at the town mall, trying to uncover what really happened.
So many secrets! I loved learning all the little secrets these besties were keeping as we went through this story. It rotates through multiple timelines and perspectives, kept me guessing about what really happened that night and who was responsible for the murder and disappearance.
I wasn’t a teenager in the early 90s but it was a lot of fun catching all the references, this added another fun layer to the story.
Thank you Netgalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
So many secrets! I loved learning all the little secrets these besties were keeping as we went through this story. It rotates through multiple timelines and perspectives, kept me guessing about what really happened that night and who was responsible for the murder and disappearance.
I wasn’t a teenager in the early 90s but it was a lot of fun catching all the references, this added another fun layer to the story.
Thank you Netgalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
*thank you netgalley for the ARC so i was able to read and give my honest review*
honestly night of the mallrats is fun book that hooks you in. colleen and her old high school crew meet up at their abandoned hometown mall 30 years later only for the building to glitch out and dump them right back into christmas 1994. suddenly they are trapped on the exact night their classmate vanished and her boyfriend was murdered torres absolutely nails the vibe mixing genuine pulse pounding slasher stakes with this massive wave of 90s nostalgia we are talking beanie babies lisa frank and food court angst the pacing is relentless the banter between the reunited friends feels completely real and the whole time travel mystery keeps you guessing and this makes it a perfect weekend binge.
honestly night of the mallrats is fun book that hooks you in. colleen and her old high school crew meet up at their abandoned hometown mall 30 years later only for the building to glitch out and dump them right back into christmas 1994. suddenly they are trapped on the exact night their classmate vanished and her boyfriend was murdered torres absolutely nails the vibe mixing genuine pulse pounding slasher stakes with this massive wave of 90s nostalgia we are talking beanie babies lisa frank and food court angst the pacing is relentless the banter between the reunited friends feels completely real and the whole time travel mystery keeps you guessing and this makes it a perfect weekend binge.
October 16, 2026
I did love the first half of the book. It got a little confusing when I realized that we went past the time travel bit. But then it just added to the backstory of the characters before the night which was nice.
But if I'm being honest this was more cold case tv show, instead of horror/mystery with time travel. Also I personally don't like how it ended. But thats me personally. It might also be due to the fact that I realized I was too young to get the nostalgia boost. Since I was 2 months at the 94 section. Maybe had I been like fully locked into the early 90s lifestyle it woulda been different. Like novels set in late 90s work because I either remember the small details or tv reruns I watched growing up told me how it was.
But if I'm being honest this was more cold case tv show, instead of horror/mystery with time travel. Also I personally don't like how it ended. But thats me personally. It might also be due to the fact that I realized I was too young to get the nostalgia boost. Since I was 2 months at the 94 section. Maybe had I been like fully locked into the early 90s lifestyle it woulda been different. Like novels set in late 90s work because I either remember the small details or tv reruns I watched growing up told me how it was.
October 24, 2026
Conflicting thoughts on this one. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. The mechanics of the time travel don’t make a lot of sense but it’s fun in a just go with it sort of way. This really lost me at the reveal for Beth’s disappearance. It felt very sudden and un-deserved and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. There’s hints to it scattered throughout and I think the Christopher Pike quote at the beginning of the book is telling since this felt like a Pike novel in a lot of ways especially in the conclusion. The fact that this case remained unsolved for so long is baffling and another thing you just have to go with in the narrative. I agree with the reviews saying this might have read better if it was shorter. Somewhat fun to read but could have been much better.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is certainly not a horror but def a good mystery. Beth has been missing since 1994 and the group of friends have realized they can go back to that day so when the mall is set to be demolished they get together for one more trip to the mall back in the day. They are determined to figure out what happened to Beth
From the cover I was expecting it to be a bit more goofy, but I enjoyed the different POV chapters and the overall mystery. There were some tangle of betrayals and SOOO many secrets.
The next day my playlist was full of music from my high school and college days.
From the cover I was expecting it to be a bit more goofy, but I enjoyed the different POV chapters and the overall mystery. There were some tangle of betrayals and SOOO many secrets.
The next day my playlist was full of music from my high school and college days.
October 13, 2026
I picked this up because of the 90s vibes and it was a pretty decent murder/mystery not necessarily horror. Colleen sucked all around as a person but she grew up in a time where you couldn't be out and proud without judgment from everyone. She loved Beth and wanted to be with her but Beth cared more about what others would think. Alot of hurt caused Colleen to kill Ezra and Beth because she was a hurt, neglected person that had to hide who she was. I will say that it took a while for things to unfold and the story was very choppy but it did come together in the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2026
First, thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my copy of this book!
Okay so I LOVED this book.
Between the era and vibes, the mystery at its center, and a well rounded cast of characters, I thought this book was great. While the twists and ultimate reveal may have felt a little obvious, the “why” behind it all was very well written. It’s a very fresh take on an age old mystery idea, and I very much enjoyed it.
If you’re looking for a time travel mystery that stands out and feels brand new, definitely add this book to your TBR!
Okay so I LOVED this book.
Between the era and vibes, the mystery at its center, and a well rounded cast of characters, I thought this book was great. While the twists and ultimate reveal may have felt a little obvious, the “why” behind it all was very well written. It’s a very fresh take on an age old mystery idea, and I very much enjoyed it.
If you’re looking for a time travel mystery that stands out and feels brand new, definitely add this book to your TBR!
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