Tonight is Brie’s chance to finally be accepted by the Ems—the most popular girls at school. If she can just keep one potentially reputation-ending secret under wraps, she’ll have the best night of her life, screaming on scary rides and running the Wildwoods amusement park with her new friends.
But when the Ems take a game of truth or dare too far, Brie ends up alone in a creepy abandoned section of the park. There, she meets a group of cool older teens that invite her to join them. They seem friendly enough.
Little does Brie know she’s about to come face to face with a reawakened evil that wants to take her on the ride of her life…make that her death.
Delilah S. Dawson will always be one of the most impressive authors to me. Her ability to jump between genres & age groups, to write everything from Minecraft to Star Wars tie-in books, to adult horror, to weird western, to fantasy…I just think she’s awesome & one of the hardest working authors. To say nothing of the fact that I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve read by her.
And with my recent obsession with middle grade horror, I couldn’t wait to start checking out some of her spooky middle grade stuff, and RIDE OR DIE was a complete blast!
Eighth grader Brie Turner is our main character. She’s recently moved to Georgia with her family & while she seems somewhat sure of herself & is a great athlete, she really wants to make an impression with a small group of popular girls: Emily, Emma, and Emerson. Better known as the Ems.
Brie’s standout performance at her school’s field day earns her a coveted invite to Emily’s birthday party, at a local amusement park called Wildwoods (the book even has a map of the park!)
The only catch is, the party is an after-hours lock-in. The park will be closed to the general public. Brie is anxious about the sleepover and she’s not really a “rides person,” but she can’t pass up the opportunity. Once at the party, however, it quickly becomes clear to Brie that Emily is…well, a nightmare. A bully. And an especially cruel game of truth or dare leaves Brie alone, in the closed-off/abandoned section of the park that’s rumored to be haunted by the victims of a terrible accident that occurred at the park many years before.
Yikes.
Fortunately for Brie, she stumbles across a group of older kids who help guide her through the wreckage of the abandoned section of the park & into the modern area. But as the night goes on, the rides become increasingly more terrifying. And that big goofy mascot, the old timey miner called Pickax Pete? Maybe, just maybe…that foam pickax he was carrying around in the daytime becomes something altogether more deadly at night.
This was so fun!
Someone once told me that I’m an “along for the ride reader,” which means I never guess the twist in a book. And that’s largely remained true. I don’t even try to guess, if I’m being honest. It’s just not how my brain works. So there are many times where I miss the clues & am GENUINELY SHOCKED at the big reveals. In the case of RIDE OR DIE, I actually saw the big reveal coming from a mile away which didn’t necessarily detract from my enjoyment of the book, but I do wish it had gone another way.
The book has a ton of heart & Brie makes for a really compelling protagonist. RIDE OR DIE is ultimately a book about being true to yourself, and trusting that you’ll find your people, no matter what.
Dawson captures the feel of this amusement park so expertly, too. While I’ve never been locked in a park like this overnight, RIDE OR DIE really transports the reader into this environment: you can feel the breeze on your face, smell the popcorn in the air, feel your stomach drop on that first roller coaster hill…an amusement park is a place that can feel dangerous & unpredictable, and Dawson really makes the most of the setting.
I loved RIDE OR DIE! Looking forward to catching up with Delilah S. Dawson’s earlier middle grade horror novels, as well as keeping up with anything new from her!
Grimdark Dad 