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Book: “Kiss Slay Replay” by Rachel Harrison
Publishing Info: Berkley, September 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC2026
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Every wedding guest’s worst nightmare is on repeat in this wild and twisty new horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of So Thirsty and Play Nice.
It’s the picture-perfect wedding The venue is dreamy, the weather is beautiful, love is in the air—and Willa Sullivan is having a bad time. She’s excited to celebrate her best friends finally having the big wedding they’ve always wanted, but this is the first time she’s seen her ex-fiancé in months, and he brought a date. Everything feels off, like she stumbled into an alternate universe. But things start to look up when Willa meets Danny, the groom’s charming and single childhood best friend. When they sneak off together, their rendezvous is interrupted by a masked killer terrorizing the reception. Willa and Danny fight to save the ones they love and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. A final girl, Willa is not.
Or is she? She wakes up and it’s the morning of the wedding. She just had the most intense nightmare of her life. Only as the day unfolds, there are some uncanny coincidences that make her question whether it was really a dream, déjà vu, or something more sinister. After a horrifying turn of events, Willa comes to understand that she’s stuck in a loop of carnage and terror that she must learn how to escape or else suffer a fate worse than death—being an eternal wedding guest.
Review: Thank you to Berkley for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC26!
I am usually not super anxious when I go to ALA every year and I am on the hunt for ARCs. For one, Serena and I have basically perfected the ARC hunt strategy, figuring out where the publisher’s booths are ahead of time, getting there early to get in line for the exhibits hall, and knowing that in all likelihood we will get the books that we want. I had Rachel Harrison’s newest horror novel “Kiss Slay Replay” on my ‘seek out’ list, and on one of the mornings at opening I determinedly but politely and NOT obnoxiously made my way towards the publisher tables in hopes I’d see it. And lo and behold it was there!…. And people were SWARMING for it. I was lucky enough to get a copy, because my inherent need to not be a dick about ARCs meant I was one of the last people to get one before they were gone. It’s admittedly great seeing horror get such an enthusiastic response. And I was very excited to see what Harrison was going to do with it.
And it definitely lived up to what I was expecting, and kind of went a few steps further. The premise is definitely one we’ve seen before, at the very least in films like “Happy Death Day” and “Groundhog Day”, but Harrison takes it a step further and makes it even more fun by altering the threats of the time loop wedding massacre for each time Willa has to go through it. It could be a masked murderer at one loop, but then it could be zombies at another loop, with each scenario being campy and out there but still being grotesque and very horror centric, even with the humor and outlandishness. And while I don’t really like the film “Cabin in the Woods”, I kept thinking about it as I read this and it was in a positive way. Harrison has her tongue planted firmly in cheek in this story and while it sometimes had me squirming, it was a true hoot and felt like a fun horror movie that kept me interested. So much so I read it in one afternoon!
But there is also an undercurrent of pathos and melancholy in this book as we follow Willa during a particularly hard moment in her life. She is still reeling from a recent breakup of a long term relationship/engagement, and is now going to the wedding of a friend in their circle, and having to face her friends for the first time in a group setting after years apart after this huge change. It fits for a time loop story, as Willa is not only literally trapped in a loop that won’t go forward on her friend’s wedding day, but even before this she feels stagnant and lost, unable to move forward after her monumental break up and wallowing a bit in the aftermath. Much like the aforementioned film “Happy Death Day”, Willa is stuck in grief which has altered her life and relationships, and perhaps to actually be able to move forward literally she will need to start to move forward emotionally. It’s well worn territory, but Harrison makes it feel fresh and it is effective and bittersweet seeing her have to process all of this. I really enjoyed that aspect, and it was very on brand for Harrison’s horror stories that have some pretty relatable womens experiences at their heart.
“Kiss Slay Replay” is another fun and lighter (not light, but lighter) horror story from Rachel Harrison! If you like time loop stories, check this one out!
Rating 8: A fun and heartfelt Sci-Fi horror tale that feels like “Happy Death Day”, “Groundhog Day”, and “Cabin in the Woods” all rolled into one, with some melancholy undercurrents. Quite enjoyable!
Reader’s Advisory:
“Kiss Slay Replay” is included on the Goodreads list “Time Loops”.
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