#slasher books

[franticvampirereads]

I picked this audiobook up on a whim because I had a credit on Libro FM and the preview had me so hooked that I had to read it immediately. I’m not usually a horror reader, but this was so freaking good! I spent the whole book thinking one thing and then I was proven totally wrong, but I loved every blood drenched second of it. Charity and the rest of the crew were so much fun and they put up a good fight while they could!

This is definitely a book that I’ll be relistening to, to see if there are things I missed the first time around. If you’re looking for a slasher/horror book with queer characters, this is the one that you should read. And! The audio narration is fantastic, it almost felt like a podcast. You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight is getting five stars from me!

[mylifeinfiction]

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

Schting!

I really should have known better. For some ridiculous reason I went into this expecting a straight-forward, bloody slasher book told from the slasher's point-of-view. What I got was an inventively written examination of horror as a whole that gleefully dismantles the tropes of the genre to further understand—and therefore better execute—what they represent at their core.

Just because you learned it from VHS tapes doesn't mean it was bullshit, right?

Stephen Graham Jones's I Was a Teenage Slasher is so much more than just another horror thesis from one of the most resounding voices in literary horror, though. In addition to dissecting the genre, Jones also expertly utilizes each and every one of the tropes he's dissecting to deliver a deeply affecting coming-of-age story about the complex connection of friendship, the crushing weight of grief and trauma, and the forlorn feeling of being an outsider looking in.

The crowd I do run with are . . . well. We're the ones with black hearts and red hands. Masks and machetes.

This may not be the story I was expecting, but through Jones's brilliantly executed prose and astounding character work, he's able to tackle these themes in a wholly unpredictable manner that makes them simultaneously feel every bit as familiar and relatable as they do utterly groundbreaking.

The world's so much simpler when you've got a chainsaw in your hand, isn't it? A chainsaw or a machete or an axe, that's the elegant solution to every problem.

I Was a Teenage Slasher is horror lit in its highest, most unassuming form; a violently empathetic piece that delivers its maniacal slasher mayhem while never solely relying upon it.

It's liberating, not having to be yourself, isn't it?

9/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[secretlykoishi]

Nun Massacre ramblings

I was thinking about the Nun Massacre novelization by Regina Watts today, I had some thoughts on it. Specifically related to a character's role in the book that left me very disappointed, in spite of being an otherwise pretty damn good book.

Spoilers under the cut

The playable character of the game, of course, is Mrs. McDonnell, named Jane in the book—which does, admittedly, kind of make her daughter's name being Janie a little awkward—and Shannon McDonnell in the game's files. These are, however, meant to be the same character, given that they have the same backstory. Shannon/Jane McDonnell is my favorite character in any Puppet Combo work. It's pretty rare for any Puppet Combo character to get a full arc, but Mrs. McDonnell does, and it's a damn good one too.

Shannon/Jane sends her daughter Janie to a Catholic school before the events of the story, and while there, Janie is horribly abused by the game's antagonist Mother Apollonia. It's implied that the horrid mistreatment eventually drove Janie to suicide. Then, Shannon/Jane eventually gets a letter from Mrs. Apollonia noting that Janie was sick so she goes to pick her daughter up, or at least, that's what we're led to believe at first.

Notes found during one of the bad endings of the game show that her daughter's sickness and removal from the school happened long before. Janie's suicide happened subsequently when, at the behest of Mother Apollonia, Shannon/Jane continued the abuse. Following this suicide, Mrs. McDonnell's faith in Catholicism is shaken, making it clear her daughter meant more to her than her faith in the end. Internalizing her guilt and regret, she returns to the now-abandoned Catholic school—in 1978, if the books is followed, or somewhere in the late 70s-early 80s range in general for the game—to confront her daughter's death and the role she played in it.

During this, a far more supernatural Mother Apollonia sets her sights on Mrs. McDonnell, trying to kill her. Shannon/Jane decides to try to avenge her daughter's death and give peace to Janie's soul (which she accomplishes in the good ending of the game), growing to do it not for her own sake but for the sake of the daughter of whom she feels guilt for playing a role in the death. She learns to be a better person, even being forgiven by what is possibly implied to be her daughter's soul, or a manifestation of it.

Already, this makes Shannon/Jane McDonnell an incredibly interesting protagonist and heroine for a horror story, so how does the book stack up?

The book follows a different main character, Dawn, a teenage girl who is possibly implied to be a closeted lesbian based on her aversion to boys and idolization of her friend Barbara. Dawn and six friends—the aforementioned Barbara, Mary, Andrea, Scott, Chris, and Kevin—travel to the abandoned Catholic school for a party before the graduate and go their separate ways. Already, I'm slightly disappointed in this, since following a group of partying teens is very typical slasher stuff. I don't think Dawn is bad, especially given her possible sapphic identity, which makes for an interesting protagonist for a 1978-set slasher story. However, in spite of my own bias towards lesbian characters thanks to being one myself, I still think Mrs. McDonnell would have been a far more interesting protagonist given her above-mentioned character arc.

However, Mrs. McDonnell is still a notable character in the book, just in the opposite direction of her game-role. Towards the end of the book, it's revealed that Jane McDonnell has taken up the role of Mother Apollonia as a killer. She's the one that's been hunting down and killing Dawn's friends, making her the villainess of the story instead of the heroine. I can't help but be disappointed in this change given how great of an arc she goes through in the game, learning from her daughter's fate that she needs to be kinder, more understanding, and more accepting. This twist effectively spits in the face of the lesson she learns in the game.

This isn't to say Nun Massacre as written by Regina Watts is bad, far from it. In spite of the generic cast for the teens, they're all written incredibly well, getting more characterization than most any character in her adaptation of Babysitter Bloodbath outside of Sarah and Neokalus Burr. It's a very competently written story, the twist is built up and sold very well in spite of my personal distaste for it, and it manages to be a tense and enjoyable read. It actually had me wondering, at some points, if anyone would survive at all, in spite of how obviously Dawn fits the final girl role. There's also an excellent bait and switch—even if I would have preferred what was baited—which starts to imply Jane may play a role similar to Dr. Loomis in Halloween, not technically being the main character or protagonist, but still being the one to save the day in the end. Or, put in a term coined in Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, that Jane McDonnell would be the Ahab to Mother Apollonia.

On a more speculative side, if I were to be the one writing the story, this is similar to what I would have done, though not exactly the same. I personally would have portrayed Dawn as a decoy protagonist, though not one that would have died. She would have still survived and technically filled out the role of final girl, where Jane McDonnell would have played the Ahab role. However, focus would shift from Dawn to Mrs. McDonnell when the latter is introduced, focusing on her personal tie to the story, her guilt, her goal to avenge her daughter and be a more caring and accepting person, where in the end, she would have saved Dawn and the two would both have survived and left together. This would give an even more concrete resolution to the Mrs. McDonnell's arc from the game too, which starts because in trying to save her daughter, she ended up driving her daughter to death. Here, she would be able to save someone, not by feeding into her religious beliefs, but by accepting the differences of someone else and being kind to them regardless of who they are or what they believe.

Of course, I am not the one who wrote the book, Regina Watts is, and in spite of my complaint about Mrs. McDonnell, she did it very well and deserves to be commended for her work on the book. The writing is solid, having good pacing, scare factor, and characterization. This is a purely subjective take with my thoughts on the portrayal of Mrs. McDonnell in the book compared to the game.

[aphantomslibrary]

Killer clowns in a cornfield? Sign me up!

I recently finished this slasher and thought about it for days. I loved the many different levels of horror that were layered throughout the book, the classic 80s slasher tropes, and the modern setting. It was fun and it absolutely freaked me out; I think my jaw permanently unhinged from how hard it hit the floor in that last act, which is saying something because I’m incorporeal. Anywho, a great horror to keep you on your toes and up all night!

Synopsis: Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half.

On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

[bekah-reading]

95

5/5

Before you results for the poll came out, I was lucky enough to be gifted this book. I absolutely ate this shit up. I have started Vampires of El Norte and I will finish it this week for sure.

This is a book that is about a teenager who ended up going on a killing spree. This is told as a memoir of the man looking back and writing about the experience he had.

I devoured this book. I loved it so much. Absolutely my favourite Stephen Graham Jones novel. The characters were amazing, the humour was funny. And I loved how intimate this felt. You can tell this story had such a personal and emotional impact on Stephen Graham Jones.

I would very much rather people experience this book for themselves rather than me tell about it. If you enjoy Paul Tremblay’s The Pallbearers’ Club; this book is for you.

[island-in-ignorance]

Just finished You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight and wow. If anything this book proved to me that I in no way am emotionally strong enough to be a Final Girl in a horror movie.

I'm so uncoordinated I would take myself out on accident while the Killer just stares at me, slightly amused and mostly annoyed.

[seaside-writings]

What are you working on?

Many, many, many things as all creators are lol.

But one of my favorite wips is a horror slasher I'm working on. It's still in the beginning stages and I don't know how well everything will go I mean I just have a premise and one very specific scene in mind. And I won't lie the premise is pretty cliché, but that's why I love it! Slasher movies have always been simple and they repeat like a loop, that's what makes them so much fun in my opinion!

But I've watched so many slasher movies that I thought it was time to give writing my own a shot!

[spookychloereads97]

Clown In a Cornfield(2020) by Adam Cesare review🤡🌽📚🚜

Synopsis: Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it to graduation, but she might not make it to morning. When Quinn and her father moved to a tiny town with a weird clown for a mascot, they were looking for a fresh start. But ever since the town's only factory shut down, Kettle Springs has been cracked in half.

Most of the town believes that the kids are to blame. After all, the juniors and seniors at Kettle Springs High are the ones who threw the party where Arthur Hill's daughter died. They're the ones who set the abandoned factory on fire and who spend all their time posting pranks on YouTube. They have no respect and no idea what it means to work hard.

For the kids, it's the other way around. And now Kettle Springs is caught in a constant battle between old and new, tradition and progress. Its a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until one homicidal clown with a porkpie hat and a red nose decides to end it for ood. Because if your opponents all die, you win the debate by default:

This book was absolutely insane.

I felt like I was watching a slasher movie when I was reading it.

I really liked the how Adam captured the whole conservative adults not understanding the younger generation and the younger generation not understanding the older conservative generation and how the conservative generation feels about how “things were better,” and all that.

I also appreciated the Midwest feel it has to it since it takes place in Missouri as someone who lives in the Midwest myself.

Some things could’ve been a little better but ehh no one is perfect.

I wish got a little more in depth with certain characters but again no one is perfect.

I was definitely getting some 90s teen slasher vibes from this book. Definitely Scream vibes for sure.

I really liked Quinn as the main character, I thought she was badass and well written in my opinion, I really liked the relationship between her and her dad and how they would do anything to help each other.

Some of the characters I didn’t really care for like Ronnie, but whatever.

The plot was a bit hokey if that makes since but I ain’t mad about it.

Overall it was a fun read and I definitely will be looking out for Adam’s work in the future and I will definitely be reading the sequels.

8/10

[deludedimages]

Review for I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

My first Slasher was Halloween. I was 10. My mom rented a couple of movies from UHaul—yes, you could do that at one point—and I watched them repeatedly. My older sisters were teenagers, and I was left to my own devices. My younger sister was too small to watch it, and I knew that after the first time through. I remember the opening scene vividly. Michael stalked around the house. His mask went…

[egophiliac]

they're baaaaaack

[wormwoodandhoney]

books read in 2024: i was a teenage slasher by stephen graham jones

i was the scary thing in the dark.

tolly driver is a good-hearted screwup in a small town in texas in 1989 when, after a prank gone wrong, he's cursed to be a slasher seeking revenge. he doesn't want to do this, but a curse is a curse and the genre has strict rules.

[mylifeinfiction]

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

Scars proved you lived.

I admittedly have a pretty serious love/hate relationship with Jade Daniels. Her papers throughout My Heart Is a Chainsaw really tested my patience, and her immaturity throughout the events of that book seemed a bit too much. But the person she begins to grow into by the end of Chainsaw and throughout the events of the all-around masterpiece that is the middle book of this trilogy, Don't Fear the Reaper , is so interesting and complete that I couldn't help but fall in love with Jade Daniels and every blood-soaked thing for which she stands.

"...the cool thing about trilogies is you get to use every last part of the buffalo."

Stephen Graham Jones's The Angel of Indian Lake isn't quite the all-around horror masterpiece that Reaper is, but it is a wholly worthy final chapter in The Indian Lake Trilogy, or: The Savage History of Proofrock, Idaho. Throughout the trilogy, we've seen Jade Daniels go from immature, delusional slasher fantasist, to begrudgingly badass final girl, to hesitant horror historian. Best to call it the The Violent Coming-of-Age of a Reluctantly Willing Final Girl. It's an authentically compelling character arc that relishes the romance of the final girl without ever shying away from the traumatic weight of the role and the cyclical nature of violence throughout the history America.

She's right. In the rock/paper/scissors of horror, chainsaw always wins. Cops and guns don't work against slashers, trucks and fire are big fat fails, but a chainsaw? If you've got a chainsaw, you're pretty damn golden.

The Angel of Indian Lake ties the trilogy together so beautifully, so viciously, that even its flaws are fascinating. SGJ makes the risky decision to close out Jade's story by throwing us headfirst into her mind, writing Angel in an (often stream-of-conscious) first-person narrative. Jade's mind is a chaotic, damaged landscape that can often create pacing issues due to her unfocused, rambling narration, but it also gives us a deeper look into the root of these horrific events, bringing the many disjointed storylines together in a brutally bloody, emotionally exhausting and thematically cathartic manner.

And the plotting itself is even more risky, bringing together every last piece of this epic horror saga in a batshit crazy onslaught of slaughter. But thankfully, SGJ's vision is complete, and he conducts these exceedingly insane displays of slasher carnage in a way that only ever enriches the overarching themes; and more than makes up for the lulls between. The climactic massacre is so dam wild, and I loved every bizarre, messy minute of it. Jade and those she loves are seriously put through the wringer, here, but it all comes together for such a fitting, bittersweet ending that brings Jade to exactly where she needs to be.

Despite those pacing issues and some moments of feeling completely lost among all those players and plot-points, SGJ sticks the landing, delivering a third installment that does indeed "mash that pedal to the floor until it gets stuck", and thankfully never loses traction.

It's supposed to mean Proofrock's slasher days are over.

8/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[y3strr]

Me, fully convinced that the slashers wouldn’t kill me bc I’m basically Y/N

[lalicel]

[the-irreverend]

My favourite thing about the horror fandom is how we look at some of the most disturbed, vile, grotesque and flat-out evil people/creatures in all of fiction and collectively thirst over them like they're swimsuit models.

All the normal MFs are recoiling at them in fear and disgust and us yahoos are here arguing whether we should smash or pass lol.

P.S. Slenderman, Billy Lenz, and Hannibal Lecter are my favs

[judith-lore90]

STORE UPDATE!!

STORE UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY!

I would’ve had it done today but I got sick over the weekend and A LOT and I mean A LOT of drama happened since Monday morning. Thank you everyone who’s been patient with me!

A lot more stuff we’ll be added as the week goes on!!