Day’s YA: THEY WANT US DEAD

THEY WANT US DEAD by CL Montblanc
9781250340535
4/28/2026
Wednesday Books
Ages 13-18

E-galley available on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Sam Tombs is a seventeen-year-old true crime content creator who is hoping to gain more views on the videos they make to raise awareness of violent crimes against LGBTQ+ teens. When they get invited to a teen true crime content creator event, it seems like the perfect opportunity to do just that—to network, learn more ways to market their channel, and hopefully also make a few friends along the way. But when they arrive at the eerie Victorian mansion they’ll be staying in (certainly not the sleek, modern Hollywood mansion they were expecting), things quickly take a turn for the worse. For one, Sam finds out that their internet nemesis, Dylan, was a last minute addition to the event—and that they are stuck sharing a room together. Then they lose service and Wi-Fi, and can’t find any of the event staff for help. Oh, and also, one of the attendees gets murdered on the first night there. Stranded in the remote mansion and with no way off the property, Sam and Dylan must put aside their online rivalry and put their investigative skills to use in real life to figure out who the killer is… before they become the next trending victims.

Last year, I read and absolutely loved CL Montblanc’s debut novel, PRIDE OR DIE, which was a delightfully dark mystery-comedy. So when I heard about THEY WANT US DEAD, a hilarious murder-ish mystery, I knew I had to read it right away. And let me tell you, it absolutely did not disappoint. One of my favorite mystery tropes is a locked room mystery, and I will do just about anything for an eerie estate setting, so this was bound to be a new favorite of mine. With perfectly paced twists and turns, and heart-racing revelations, this was absolutely a bingeable read. Did I mention it was also hilarious? The banter, the dialogue, Sam’s inner monologues—it was all perfect, and brought the characters truly to life, each with their own distinct quirks and personalities. As a queer, nonbinary author, Montblanc also made the characters unabashedly queer, lesbian, and nonbinary, and it will be a perfect book for readers to see their own identities represented. And, of course, I can’t not mention the slow burn romance between Sam and Dylan—I always love a good enemies-to-lovers romance, but this one was something special. Watching them go from bickering rivals to slowly starting to trust and lean on one another when they needed it most was one of my favorite parts of the entire book. I loved them both for different reasons, and I most definitely loved them together.

I’m admittedly not the best at guessing the killer in murder mysteries, but I definitely could not figure it out here. I think I changed my hypothesis on who the killer was just about every other paragraph—I might as well have just been in the mansion with them. This will be a perfect read for fans of genre-blending horror comedies like YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT, classic stories like AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, and movies like Bottoms and Do Revenge!

Happy reading!
<3 Margo

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