“Horror never lied. It never assured you it would all work out. It never shied away from reality. “
Josh Winning’s Heads Will Roll is a horror novel that wears its love of golden age of slasher flicks firmly on its sleeve. Set in a remote summer camp, the story pulls together a cast of strangers, each with their own secrets and reasons for being there, before things inevitably take a far more sinister turn. With creepy cabins, old folktales, grizzly murders, and plenty of winks to the heyday of horror, the premise had me hooked. So, I was all geared up for a good bit of summertime slasher fun. In this Heads Will Roll book review, I’ll be looking at what worked for me, from the unsettling imagery to Winning’s obvious affection for the genre, as well as what ultimately stopped the book from delivering the suspenseful, gory whodunnit I was hoping for.
Date Published: 2024
Author: Josh Winning
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Pages: 314
Goodreads Rating: 3.51/5
Heads Will Roll Summary
After sitcom star Willow tweeted herself into infamy, her agent shipped her off to the woodsy and wonderfully anonymous confines of Camp Castaway. Tucked away in the trees of upstate New York, Castaway is a summer camp for adults in desperate need of leaving behind their mistakes. Willow is relieved to find that her fellow campers seem okay. To her shock, her own favourite actor is here, sitting by the campfire and roasting a s’more. And did jaded writer Dani just wink at her?
But the peaceful vibe is shattered when a terrifying woman pops shrieking from the wardrobe in Willow’s room. Soon after, one of the campers vanishes. Is Willow about to be cancelled all over again, this time for good? Soon, terror grips the group, campers begin to lose their heads – literally – and Willow and her new friends are on the run. As paranoia grows and disturbing past deeds come to light, this escape from their shallow lifestyles might just lead to a set of shallow graves.
What Worked
One of the biggest strengths of Heads Will Roll is that Josh Winning totally gets how to set up a fun slasher. A remote summer camp, campfires, creepy cabins, old local myths and legends, and a group of characters with hidden identities and ulterior motives make for an instantly appealing horror premise. There’s something so satisfyingly familiar about the entire setup, while the secrets surrounding the characters lend the story an extra layer of intrigue, at least in theory.
Winning’s love of horror also shines through throughout the novel. There are plenty of nods to classics like Friday the 13th, alongside familiar tropes and conventions from horror movies and television shows. For me, horror is always way more enjoyable when you can feel that the author genuinely adores the genre they’re working in, and the enthusiasm really does come through here.
There are also some genuinely creepy and disturbing images scattered throughout the story. The sight of the dolls’ heads showing up around the camp was probably the standout for me, while the abandoned treehouse and eventual reveal of Bebe’s sister as a wild woman of the woods also provided the most memorable horror imagery in Heads Will Roll.
What Didn’t
Unfortunately, Heads Will Roll had zero shock value. I got the impression that Winning wanted to evoke a Friday the 13th-esque mystery surrounding the killer and the secrets each character is hiding. The issue here is that I guessed the killer genuinely in their very first scene. The majority of the other revelations were equally predictable, or so wildly outside the box they had no impact. For a mystery built around secrets and twists, there simply wasn’t nearly enough suspense here.
Secondly, all of the characters felt painfully passive. They all spend so much of the book reacting to what’s just happened, expressing their shock before, somewhat inexplicably, breaking into a witty one-liner. This contributes to an overall tone that just never feels right.
Willow, our protagonist in Heads Will Roll, suffers from this inconsistency especially. At times, she’s a clueless narrator, voicing all the mysteries of the novel to us; at other times, she’s suddenly the smartest person in the room, the one everyone turns to. We’re also repeatedly told she’s gone through some dramatic character transformation, but never actually get to see this arc happen, all of which contributed to her feeling painfully wooden.
Perhaps most frustratingly, Willow’s backstory lives up to the mystery surrounding it. It’s bigged up right from the off that she’s been “cancelled” for something we’re led to believe is unforgivable, but when it is eventually revealed, I was genuinely so stunned I kept thinking there had to be something more to come.
Willow could have been such an interesting protagonist; there were so many avenues Josh Winning could have taken her down – but I just found her so, so boring. It felt as though Winning was too afraid to give her any flaws in case we as the audience forgot that we were meant to be rooting for her.
Ultimately, this was a book I really wanted to have fun with. I went into Heads Will Roll expecting a suspenseful, gory whodunnit packed with slasher tropes and affectionate nods to the genre’s heyday. I certainly wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece for the ages, but I was expecting to have a good time. Unfortunately, that was the one thing the book never really gave me.
Verdict
Heads Will Roll had almost everything I wanted from a fun slasher: a creepy summer camp, a cast of suspicious characters, gruesome imagery, and plenty of affection for the horror world. Winning clearly knows and loves the films that inspired the story, and there are some genuine moments where that passion truly shines through.
Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. The characters rarely ever feel like active participants in the story, and the inconsistent tone makes it tough to become invested in what’s happening. Willow in particular felt like a missed opportunity for a far more interesting MC.
Ultimately, I didn’t need Heads Will Roll to reinvent the slasher or offer anything exceptionally profound. I just wanted it to be a bloody, suspenseful, and fun horror novel that understood why these tales are so timelessly popular. Sadly, despite having all the right ingredients, it never quite managed to deliver the good time I was hoping for.
Our Rating: 2/5
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
