Kiss Slay Replay is a time loop horror novel about a woman who goes to her friend’s wedding, only to find herself replaying the day over and over, with a new nightmare each time. Willa is struggling, having recently broken up with her ex-fiancé, but when her best friends are getting married, she needs to put that behind her for the day, even though said ex will be at the wedding. When she gets there, she finds out he brought a date, but then Willa meets a charming friend of the groom, and maybe she’ll have a good time after all. That is, until a masked slasher appears and starts killing the wedding guests. Despite Willa’s best efforts, things don’t go well, but then she wakes up in her bed on the morning of the wedding, and it becomes apparent things aren’t going as expected.
Having read quite a few of Rachel Harrison’s other books, I was expecting light high concept horror, and that’s very much what this is. The concept is a great crossover between a time-loop story and a range of classic horror tropes, bringing something a bit different to a story that might initially seem like a time-loop romcom. I liked how each loop had a different ‘bad guy’, so it wasn’t about learning how to be good at the loop and had a lot more space for ridiculous scary things. There could have maybe been a few more loops just to play around with the potential for dark comedy, but I did like how the narrative wasn’t focused on her having to keep making the same mistakes to learn from. Nevertheless, due to the concept, there is some nice character development for Willa amongst all the silliness.
This is very much a book that does what it says on the tin, offering a fun time that still centres around a character with some depth as she attempts to imagine herself having a future after a break up. It isn’t full of explanations for why things are happening, but instead you just have to go along for the (repeating) ride.
Fiendfully Reading 
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