Mini Reviews: I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell, Kill Your Darlings, The Wild Zone

I Hope This Email Finds You In Hell by Mackenzie Reed

I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell by Mackenzie Reed
Published by Berkley on September 1, 2026
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Library

When staying late at the office leads to witnessing an exorcism, Brie Benson's mundane life takes a hellish turn…literally.

After her parents' death, twenty-seven-year-old Brie has mastered the art of compartmentalization to survive her mind-numbing routine as a receptionist at a life insurance company. But when she accidentally catches her hot, uptight boss, Luke, performing an exorcism on Debra from accounting, her carefully ordered world implodes.

Swearing Brie to secrecy, Luke reveals he's from a line of demon hunters and that demonic activity is spiking. But when her emotional support coworker vanishes, Brie is determined to find her. With nothing left to lose, she convinces Luke to let her join his rescue mission.

The problem? Their destination is hell. And the entrance is in Times Square.

Now Brie and Luke must navigate a corporate underworld of monsters and bureaucratic nightmares while racing to save their colleague and repair a tearing veil between worlds. All before their growing feelings become irrelevant and hell claims them forever.

I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell sounds like such a fun premise – protagonist (Brie) stays late at the office working one day, witnesses an exorcism from her boss, coworker vanishes, trip down to Hell (with boss) to get said coworker back.

There were a lot of things working for it, like Brie’s humor, the analogy of corporate being a hellscape and building an entire bureaucracy around it. The middle, however, honestly dragged a lot and it felt like it was lacking with everything else that ultimately made Reed’s latest novel unmemorable.

Kill Your Darlings by Yuvashri Harish

Kill Your Darlings by Yuvashri Harish
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on October 6, 2026
Age Group & Genres: Horror, Young Adult
Representation: South Asian protagonist
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher

A teen girl faces the horrors of misogyny and racism—plus an evil witch and her horde of monsters—in this fun, fast-paced thriller.

Thulasi is the perfect she’s responsible, she never breaks the rules, and she’s always willing to babysit her seven-year-old cousin. Even on Halloween night.

But the night takes a horrifying turn when a simple playdate leads to accidentally summoning a horde of monsters out of a book of horror tales, along with her small town’s most famous author, Addison Greer—Thulasi’s literary hero. Except Addison has a more sinister scheme planned for her miraculous revenge on the family that wronged her.

Drawn into a bloodthirsty bargain with Addison, Thulasi will have to team up with Sam, the super cute quarterback in her class, and the only other teen stuck with babysitting duty on Halloween. They only have until midnight to foil Addison’s plans—while keeping their seven-year-old charges safe—or her monsters will destroy their town and everyone they love.

Kill Your Darlings sounded like the perfect Halloween read, and Harish definitely delivered on the horror and gory elements – it’s the best part of the book.

I related so much to Thulasi as an eldest daughter; while I’m not an eldest daughter, I very much understood her fawning response and putting her needs second to everyone else (I’m also guilty of it as someone who’s been parentified) and normalizing it even when those around her express their concerns.

However, I still felt pulled out of the story a lot. There’s a lot going on and it’s fast-paced, but I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. It felt like the discussions of misogyny and racism that Thulasi experiences in a small, predominantly white town weren’t executed very well, especially with Addison Greer, who’s originally from the 1800s. While it definitely doesn’t make Addison’s actions okay and it’s important to discuss it, it felt like they were treating her as if she grew up alongside them and not 200 years ago.

Harish also explores putting your idols (or in this case, favorite authors) on a pedestal and what happens when they turn out to be someone that doesn’t match the image you have of them, which I think was executed well.

Kill Your Darlings was a solid debut, though, and despite being pulled out of the story a lot, it was still fun following along with Thulassi, Sam and their seven-year-old charges through Halloween evening figuring out how to send Addison and the horrors she’s written back into her book.

The Wild Zone by Rick Riordan and Annabelle Oh

The Wild Zone by Rick Riordan, Annabelle Oh
Camp Half-Blood #1
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on September 29, 2026
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Mythology
Representation: Korean-American protagonist
Format: eBook
Source: Library

Ever wonder what goes on at Camp Half-Blood in between Percy Jackson’s legendary quests? Find out in the start of a new series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rick Riordan and an all-star team of coauthors!

In book one, five newbie demigods dare to enter Camp Half-Blood’s forbidden Wild Zone, unleashing ancient curses, bloodthirsty monsters—and a fight to survive.

Katie Kim may be a newcomer to Camp Half-Blood, but even she knows they weren’t supposed to be running through the Wild Zone—the forest is off-limits to campers and staff. Why, then, did Clarisse, head counselor of the Ares cabin, take her and four other newbies there in the dark of night and tell them to race back to camp by morning?

Clarisse’s threat was scary enough, but when Katie’s half-brother Grant goes missing, his disappearance sparks the arrival of vicious monsters and a mysterious curse. It’s up to Katie and the three remaining newbies—the Wild Omada—to brave the Wild Zone again and uncover its dark and deadly secrets.

It was so good to get back into the world of Camp Half-Blood – this kind of makes me want to reread the series again. The Wild Zone is the first book in the series that explores what happens at Camp Half-Blood between the books – each book in the series (co-written with Riordan by different authors) features a different camper. This one follows Katie Kim, a Korean-American daughter of Ares, who arrives at the camp and is one of five newbies who experiences Clarisse’s initiations: running through the Wild Zone, an area campers are strictly forbidden from entering, and making it back by morning. Only everything goes wrong, and one of the campers, Grant, goes missing.

Since Percy is a summer camper, we get to see a lot of the familiar faces like Clarisse, Silena, the Stoll Brothers, etc. getting the spotlight, which I really loved. I also loved all the nods and mentions of Percy’s adventures from The Lightning Thief. The voice and writing style of the original series is captured perfectly while also adding to the world Riordan has built, and I also loved how Katie’s Korean identity and struggles is explored.

The pacing is relatively slow; since this is the first book in a series, it’s definitely a setup for the next books. While Riordan states in his interview when the series was first announced that you don’t have to read the original series and the story stands by itself (which is true, plot wise), I feel like it’s definitely written for fans who have read the original series and want to go back and read more from the world rather than new fans. That being said, it’ll still potentially introduce them to the OG series if they haven’t before.

The Wild Zone was overall fun and quick to read, and I’m excited to read the rest of the series from the other campers when they come out.