A must-read author in my home, Rachel Harrison has become one of the premier writers of feminist horror novels working today. Her latest, KISS SLAY REPLAY, features a gimmick that is beyond clever and keeps the pages turning to the very end.

Willa Sullivan is about to have a really bad day. Throughout the novel, she will continue to have the same bad day over and over again, each one featuring a different nightmare in which she perishes. In lesser hands, this version of Groundhog Day could become tedious very quickly. However, with Harrison at the helm, things move along in bizarre fashion and present a conundrum for Willa to decipher along the way or risk getting caught in an infernal time loop.

"KISS SLAY REPLAY will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish in both shock and awe as Rachel Harrison works her cunning magic on you."

Willa wakes up the morning of her friends Steph and Jace’s wedding, which is being held at a location in the woodlands north of her New York City apartment. All of her close pals will be there, along with her ex, Ravi, who has brought a date with him. However, she is about to encounter something far more horrific than having to meet Ravi’s new girlfriend, Tanya. She spies a strange figure in the woods whose mask is comprised of duct tape, a zipper and various eyeballs. Even a quick tryst with Jace’s friend, Danny, cannot erase the eventual horror to come as this man begins murdering everyone in sight and doing some nasty things to their eyes.

Right at the moment when he catches Willa and is stabbing her in the forehead with his hunter’s knife, she suddenly wakes up back in her bed. It does not take long to realize that she did not have an incredibly vivid nightmare but instead is constantly reliving the same day. She goes to the wedding again and experiences more than a little déjà vu. The moments when she reconnects with Danny, who is still a stranger to her, make for some comical scenes. She is on the lookout for the killer she previously encountered and is shocked to discover that death will look very different this time around.

Before being slayed yet again, Willa comes into direct contact with Ravi. With each new day, she will find that her purpose is not to mend fences with him but to get to know his girlfriend. Willa learns that Tanya once went to a summer camp at the very location where the wedding is being held and experienced the same sensation that Willa is currently going through. Tanya has some theories on physics and time loops that would make the normal person’s head spin. Together they must figure out how to end the cycle or be forever doomed to reliving --- and dying in --- the same day over and over again.

Death comes in many ingenious forms here, my favorite being a giant kaiju that dwarfs Godzilla. It is a thing of beauty to watch Willa’s nightmarish day spin out endlessly until she is able to muster up enough clues to hopefully figure things out and make the world right again. KISS SLAY REPLAY will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish in both shock and awe as Rachel Harrison works her cunning magic on you.