Scream, Queen

by Stephanie Sparks

From the author of Mandy and Kill the Babysitter comes a retro-style horror novel about small towns, conspiracies and supernatural forces you can't control...The sleepy town of Morganville is having its first Harvest Festival in 17 years, and beautiful, do-good student Becca St. James has been nominated for the coveted role as Harvest Queen.

Becca's a She’s dating Travis, the most popular guy in school, and his father is overseeing the competition. She also soon learns that her mother was a previous queen, but died shortly after Becca was born.

When Becca starts looking into the festival's history, she discovers that each of the past queens died under mysterious circumstances — and once you win the title, there is no backing out.

There is something insidiously rotten about the festival, and if Becca can't escape her queenly duties, she will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Retro horror author Stephanie Sparks writes stories reminiscent of classic '70s and '80s slasher and monster movies. She loves scream queens, final girls, and the masked maniacs who stalk them. Her books feature action, thrills, dark humor, and sarcasm. She prefers cats to people and when she's not lost in a paperback from hell or listening to 1980s movie soundtracks, she's daydreaming ideas for her next book or writing furiously. She's currently working on her next novel.

Reviews

[Horror Sickness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an underrated author in my opinion that is not talked about enough. After reading Kill the Babysitter I decided to pick up other works by the author and came across this great novella.

We have a small town hiding secrets behind traditions and a girl that will have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out alive.

Becca has been chosen to become Harvest Queen this year. However, that title comes with a very high price. Together with a new student she starts to investigate this festival and ends up uncovering something that the town wants to remain hidden.

[Elizabeth Sagewood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A twisty-turney good time. A Fear Street for adults.

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

SCREAM, QUEEN is the 2nd book I have read from Stephanie Sparks and it's a solid good time! It gives off Christopher Pike or Fear Street for us grown ups, but it does have a slightly YA vibe to it, too. Sparks has chops and does a great job at building a horror-centric mystery with small town secrets. I need to see more people reading this author as she checks off so many boxes of mine already with just 2 books read... and she has quite a few books to check out!

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a while and some going back and forth with myself before I decided to buy this book and give it a read, and ultimately, I'm glad I did. Once you reach a certain point in the story it does become pretty predictable if you're a horror aficionado, but that's not a bad thing. It really does read like a fast-paced 80s horror movie in book form, and the characters are entertaining. The story is very straightforward and fast-paced and I had fun reading it. I'm not sure it's one I'll ever re-read, but I'm glad I read it at least once! Highly recommended if you love fast-paced, fun 80s horror films!

[Nykita Brookshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a title like ‘Scream, Queen!’ I was expecting a slasher type book but that wasn’t the case. However I was surprised and had a lot of fun reading this book. It keeps you wanting to know more and to discover the truth.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun throwback-style horror story, but I wish it had leaned into its 1980s setting a little bit more.