Livi is looking forward to getting the most out of her last summer at Camp Chance, her plan being to use it to persuade her parents that acting is a viable career choice.

But Livi is about to discover that the latter be the least of her challenges this summer. Because after the discovery of a dead body and mysterious note, she finds herself in the company of a disparate group of theatre geeks who may just be able to help her figure out what is actually going on. Hopefully, they won't all die trying!

A fun read about a summer camp experience with a difference, this is likely to be a hit with the target audience. It gets 3.5 stars.

Exit Stage Death was such an enjoyable read, a murder mystery set in a theatre camp? SIGN ME UP! I loved all the references and even the addition of scripts being added in too, it added a nice mixed media aspect to the book which I love in my books. The characters and mystery alike were all well planned out and the plot twist was amazing. Definitely one I will be recommending to readers.

I loved Ava Eldred's debut novel, The Boyband Murder Mystery, so I was really excited to read Exit Stage Death. With a voice that jumps off the page, this book is a real love story to musical theatre and finding your own way. I loved the mixture of prose and playscript and was gripped the whole way through. Will be recommending this to everyone I know who loves theatre and murder mysteries!

omfg i LOVED this! as a massive theatre fan this book was literally perfect for me, all of the musical references were absolutely everything to me and i was giggling every time. loooved the murder mystery of it all, as well as the slight romantic storyline going on. absolutely loved livi as a character!! would fully read a sequel just about her life afterwards lol
loved the structure with having the random bits of script every now and then and how those progressed as the book went on and figuring out who’s voice/pov that actually was
need every theatre fan to read this tbh it was just so good
now i desperately want to read ava eldred’s other book!

thank you to netgalley and uclan publishing for this ARC!!!

This book is such a beautiful homage to theatre, the magic of being on stage and behind it.

In summer camps and in theatre everything is amped up to 100. You are stuck in one place working intense days with people 24/7, you bond quickly, becoming best friends in a matter of days.

As a teen I spent many summers doing intense theatre programmes and this book felt like it was written especially for 16 year old me. All the summers spent rehearsing from 8am - 11pm every day, feeling like the people I just met yesterday are my closest friends - maybe even my family.

Exit Stage Death really captures the feeling of what it's like to be a teenager, a theatre enjoyer, and to love something with your whole heart and chest.

2.5⭐

At first, I was genuinely confused—are we reading the actual play🎭 or is this just the author’s writing style? Turns out, it is the style. It’s written like a stage script (or whatever it’s actually called), and honestly, it does add a bit of flair 🤌🏽.

Also… why is there an Aaron AND a Juliet(te)? Like, are we collecting Shakespearian names now? Just waiting on ^°•Kenji•°^ to show up. Oh, and there’s a Sinclair too🕸️.

Now Livi... why are you being so dramatic about your with Sam? Yeah, it’s risky, I get that. But unless I missed something, she’s being a bit OTT. Maybe she just lives for the drama? Loves a secret or two 🤫.

Sophia is being way too harsh. Like, someone DIED??🪦 Can we take a moment? Let the teens breathe! And why is no one acting like that’s a big deal? Even worse—why is Aaron kind of hyped by all this? At first, I thought it was just the name, but he’s giving off the same vibes as Aaron Warner… unhinged tendencies and all.

Also, WHERE are the character descriptions?🧟‍♂️ I didn’t even realise Aaron was Black until page 205?? That’s nearly the end of the book! It’s really hard to picture the characters when there’s basically no visual guidance, and their personalities? All over the place. Vibes are inconsistent. The plot’s decent, but I wish everything was a bit clearer.

And the twist? I saw it coming. The emotional reactions were just off, so it wasn’t hard to piece it together.

Oh, and when the truth finally came out? Suddenly it’s ALL about Livi. Livi this, Livi that. I was so over it.

While I definitely enjoyed the story, there's alot of things that brought my rating down. It's sad because the story is amazing, but I can't get past the personalities, emotions and character descriptions. Thanks Netgalley and the author for the ARC!🪦💀🕸️

Once I picked this up I could not put it down! A really fun YA read that I flew through. Fast paced and easy to read

Really gripping mystery that will keep you guessing right until the very end.

Our main character Livi is heading off to theatre camp, the highlight of her year and she wants to convince her parents that she belongs on the stage, however she is dismayed to see there are 2 celebrities also attending that she will be competing against for the lead role.

You would think this would be her biggest problem until a body is found and she begins receiving notes from the killer and her and her new friend group start investigating. I thoroughly enjoyed this despite my musical theatre knowledge starting and ending with Glee and the latest Wicked movie (Wicked does get name dropped a fair few times which was fun)

I also loved the authors previous boyband book so definitely becoming one to check out with each release.

Really enjoyed this, took a little while to get into it however once I did I really enjoyed it. It was quick paced and I enjoyed the multiple twists and turns throughout it meaning it never go boring. The ending was epic and totally unexpected!

Exit Stage Death is a young adult murder mystery set at a musical theatre camp so of course I was immediately intrigued. It’s a proper locked in mystery with a set of characters to suspect and an interesting camp setting that I felt I knew my way around by the end!

I just love when an author knows what they’re talking about. So many details were so accurate from the unpredictable nature of the councillors to so many of the thoughts from Livi, the main character, concerning the industry. I loved all the musicals references, something I was worried about being overdone but they absolutely weren’t and I am so grateful for so many diverse references (no Hamilton every few pages)

Something that can be so frustrating when it comes to young adult mysteries is how unimaginative the characters can be. That’s where I found this one so fun. Livi was very smart and she always knew what she was doing even when everything threatened to overwhelm her. Most books like this I find myself getting mad that they’re withholding everything from the police and trying to work it out for themselves but in Exit Stage Death I really felt the panic and risk. These kids were being threatened to the point where yeah I’d be too scared to do the sensible thing too.

I think this book is for everyone who’s ever been told ‘that’s the industry’ a million times

Exit Stage Death is a really solid murder mystery made even stronger by its setting and protagonist. Loving The Boyband Murder Mystery as I did, I was very excited to read Ava's next book.

The Murder mystery aspect of this book was really strong. I guessed the who quite early on, but even then there were a couple of other suspects I had my eye on as the events unfolded that made me waver, so I can't say that I wasn't fooled by the misdirects! I definitely was taken by surprise by the various twists and turns at the end, so overall I was more than satisfied with the plot aspect of this book. I flew through this. I don't read fast, because I get torn between all the different things on my to do list, but I had this finished in 3 sittings, which is VERY quick for me. I just couldn't put it down for long.

I really loved Livi as a character. What can I say, I really connect with main characters who hold the reigns on themselves super tight. Her character development throughout the story was brilliant, and I couldn't stop myself from wanting to know what happens to her after I finished the final pages.

The love for Theatre as an art form oozes out of the pages. If you are a musical theatre lover there are a bunch of references that you will love. Even though I am not an actor, as a writer, I resonated strongly with Livi's creative process and character work, and the passion for creating art out of nothing but a stage and the people around you really stuck with me.

Ava Eldred does it again!

Thank you to NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for the advanced copy!

The first thing that convinced me to pick this book up was the title, which clearly indicated that this was a thriller with a theatrical twist. I have never read a book with this sort of theme before as I am not a theatre person, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of this book.

The main thing I enjoyed about Exit Stage Death was the twists and turns. While I did guess the final reveal of the perpetrator, the lead-up to the reveal was still highly engaging. I appreciate that many readers may not guess the final twist or may not be bothered if they do guess it, so I don't believe this is something to mark the book down on. Furthermore, I also feel that the ending was a little rushed. After the final reveal, everything is resolved pretty quickly, which ruined the build-up for me.

However, I found the characters, particularly minor characters such as Louis, to be pretty flat. They all had a dedication to theatre, but there wasn't much development beyond that, other than Aaron and his true-crime obsession. Aaron's obsession with true crime sort of felt shoehorned in to me, since he was the only character who had an interest other than drama.

The flat characters did not ruin the story entirely though, especially for what is a fairly short book. I do think it would be stronger if the characters were more 3-dimensional, but its overall purpose of being a murder mystery is fulfilled. I would recommend this book to people who prefer books that are more plot-driven than character-driven.

Another great thing about this book was its unique format of having parts in the style of the script amongst the prose. This really creates the atmosphere of a theatre piece and the character's dedication to theatre. There are a few instances where text that is supposed to be in script style is not italicised, though I'm sure this will be fixed when the book is published.

Overall, while this book did not entirely work for me, it was still an enjoyable murder mystery. I would recommend this to readers who enjoyed books such as the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series and more plot-driven books, as mentioned earlier.