The Class Reunion Review

The Class Reunion by Sean McDonough

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’ve got two confessions to make. First, is that of all the horror sub genres, Slashers are my favorite. The second, is that despite the fact that I’ve been strictly reading horror for a while now, I haven’t read many Slashers. Naturally when I was given the opportunity to get my hands on a pre-release copy of The Class Reunion By Sean McDonough I jumped all over it.

The Class Reunion follows Vickie Fields as she tags along with her old friend Bridget to a party being thrown at the abandoned St. Regina Academy. She wants no part of the shenanigans. Vickie hated St. Regina Academy, and the people throwing the party were some of the students who were most cruel to her. Sensing Bridget wanted to go for a specific reason, Vickie ends up making the biggest mistake of her life, accompanying her friend to the party.
What McDonough does with his latest, is none other than the written equivalent of a modern B movie slasher. I don’t mean that in a bad way, the book was quite fun. Like any good slasher, you’re given just enough information and characterization to keep you hooked between each brutal murder. Many of the characters are genre tropes, but they are well done. They feel like real people and the dialogue between them feels natural. Part of the problem with many slashers in the modern era, is finding a way to work around the fact that help is a few button presses away thanks to technology. McDonough uses the setting to bypass that problem and create an arena perfect for the slaughter of 20 something year olds. Class reunion is a breeze to read and McDonough writes a story interesting enough to get you to keep turning the pages. The conclusion of the book was nicely done, something you don’t see often in slashers. I have one real complaint about the book. The Class Reunion has quite a few spelling and grammatical errors. I’m not usually one to really pay much mind to that, but there were enough of them that I took note.

I read Sean McDonough’s latest, The Class Reunion, in one sitting. It was the exact type of book I expected, a B movie slasher set in modern times. The setting worked, the characters were given enough life on the page to feel real and I had a good time reading it. I was left with a feeling similar to discovering a hidden gem on Netflix that you had no real knowledge of. If you’re into slashers, as long as you can get past the editing mistakes I think you’ll enjoy this one.



View all my reviews