Be Right Back by Bill Wood

The sequel to the bestselling Let’s Split Up finds the Sanera Four assembled again in the town that catapulted them to macabre fame only one short year earlier.

Jokester jock Cam never actually left, choosing to take on a role as assistant at his former high school instead of going to college. Meanwhile, both his boyfriend Jonesy and one-time new girl Buffy got into Stanford, while Amber studies nursing at UCLA. The four have remained in as close contact as you can for 2002, and while they’re thrilled to finally be getting back together in person, the circumstances aren’t ideal.

In order to cash in on the town’s notoriety in the wake of the Carrington Ghoul killings, Sanera Mayor Gomez has decided to throw a festival coinciding with Halloween, ostensibly to honor the fallen. The Sanera Four — as the group of crime-fighting teenagers who actually figured out who the killer was and stopped him, risking their lives in the process, are known — think the whole thing is beyond tacky, and would have nothing to do with it if they could. Unfortunately, reporter Rick Field is launching his nationwide book tour in Sanera during the festival. His “tell-all” book claims a much more important role for him in the apprehension of the Carrington Ghoul than is actually truthful, to the chagrin of the Four. To set the record straight, they’ve agreed to an interview with a rival investigative reporter, Juliet Lopez, who’s coming to town for the festival.

Things get bad when Cam starts seeing the Carrington Ghoul in random places as the festival begins. Things get infinitely worse when the dead body of a Sanera High student shows up in the same alley from where one of the original Ghoul’s victims was abducted. The Ghoul is dead dead — Amber saw to that — so who could possibly be behind this fresh murder? Is it someone with a family connection to Carrington Manor, or to the obsessed killer who did so much harm here twelve months ago? Is it one of the obsessed weirdos who can’t stop talking about the killings in online forums? Or is it actually a ghost come back to haunt Sanera for real this time?

Be Right Back was not as surprising for me, mystery plot-wise, as its predecessor, tho I definitely felt even more invested in the characters than I had in LSU. Bill Wood’s writing has definitely improved, with some really great passages about love and identity, in addition to the cool urban legend and horror trope twists. The Britishisms that took me out of the narrative so frequently in the first book are definitely better curbed here, tho increase in the last quarter of the book. I also feel it’s a little weird for the sensibilities of 2026 to be superimposed on the turn of the century, but I imagine no one is actually reading this series for historical accuracy.

This is an entertaining YA slasher for readers who don’t expect a lot of cleverness in the plot (for real, when I heard what the plan was at the manor, I actually groaned out loud, it’s so bad.) It’s got a lot of heart tho, and in times like these, that’s what a lot of readers need. And while Bill Wood has set up nicely for a sequel here, I’d actually be a lot more interested in reading something set in contemporary England, where he’s from. America doesn’t have the monopoly on horrors, after all.

Tho also I love the cover and sprayed edges on this first edition. Genuinely so well done: I kept admiring it all as I read! Snatch yours up before they’re all gone!

Be Right Back by Bill Wood was published March 3 2026 by Scholastic Press and is available from all good booksellers, including