About the Book:
Title: SCREAM ALL NIGHT
Author: Derek Milman
Pub. Date: July 24, 2018
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Pages: 400
A darkly hilarious contemporary realistic young adult novel about growing up and finding your place in the world, perfect for fans of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Running With Scissors.
Dario Heyward knows one thing: He’s never going back to Moldavia Studios, the iconic castle that served as the set, studio, and home to the cast and crew of dozens of cult classic B-horror movies. It’s been three years since Dario’s even seen the place, after getting legally emancipated from his father, the infamous director of Moldavia’s creature features.
But then Dario’s brother invites him home to a mysterious ceremony involving his father and a tribute to his first film—The Curse of the Mummy’s Tongue. Dario swears his homecoming will be a one-time visit. A way for him to get closure on his past—and reunite with Hayley, his first love and costar of Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun, a production fraught with real-life tragedy—and say good-bye for good. But the unthinkable happens—Dario gets sucked back into the twisted world of Moldavia and the horrors, both real and imagined, he’s left there.
With only months to rescue the sinking studio and everyone who has built their lives there, Dario must confront the demons of his past—and the uncertainties of his future. But can he escape the place that’s haunted him his whole life?
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD
About the Author
Derek Milman was born in New York City, but grew up in Westchester, NY, where he wrote and published a successful underground humor magazine that caught the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a profile on him at the age of 14.
Derek studied English, Creative Writing, and Theater at Northwestern University. He began his career as a playwright (his first play was staged in New York City when he was just out of college), and earned an MFA in acting at the Yale School of Drama.
Derek has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award winning film directors.
Scream All Night is Derek’s debut YA novel. He currently lives in Brooklyn where he is hard at work on his next book.
Review of Scream All Night
Review (4.5 Stars): When I was first given the opportunity to read, Scream All Night, I was beyond excited because I thought it was a mystery based on its beautiful cover. I was pleasantly surprised that this book was so much more than that. It was a story about coming home and dealing with the demons of our past, which Dario had to do after the death of his horror movie director father.
Dario Heyward left home at the age of twelve after suffering years of abuse at the hands of his father who was used to manipulating and tormenting the people around him (including his own children) to get his perfect shot. After the reading of the will, he learns that his father has put Dario in charge of the entire Moldavia Studios and it is up to him to turn things around financially or the studio would be sold to their horror studio competitor. Dario has to now face his past to save the studio and decide what he really wants for his future.
I enjoyed this book because I grew up as a child of the 80’s and remember watching horror movies with my older brother. To me, that represented a good time in my life but for Dario, the studio represented everything he despised. Being back with old friends and family brought back the painful past but it also brought back the good times that he barely remembered. As a reader, we watched him struggle with this and having to make those tough decisions about the future of the studio and ultimately his own life.
Scream All Night was a beautifully written coming of age story with a fun horror movie studio setting. Beneath the glitz and the glamour was pain, sadness and regret due to Dario’s childhood at the hands of his father. This made Dario the strong young man that he was and with the last page you knew that no matter what he did, he found peace with it all. Such a great story.
