I Was a Teenage Slasher

 

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

245 pp

“I Was a Teenage Slasher” is told via a letter from Tolly to his best high school friend Amber, not unlike other books by Stephen Graham Jones.  It seems that if the blood of a reanimated corpse bent on revenge mixes with your blood, it turns you into a “slasher” bent on vengeance.  This is what happens at popular kid  Deek’s party who also happens to be one of the kids who accidentally killed Justin Joss.  Tolly and his friend Amber (who are not popular) decide they are going to the party.  Unfortunately, the popular kids aren’t done picking on unpopular kids like Tolly and Justin.  Tolly gets raging drunk at the party because people keep giving him mixed drinks.  Once Tolly is incredibly drunk to the point of vomiting, the band kids decide to have some fun and strap Tolly to a lounge chair with their belts.  Then someone gives Tolly a drink with a few peanuts in it and force him to drink it.  Despite vomiting, Tolly has a bad reaction to the peanuts because he is violently allergic to nuts.  Fortunately one of the girls at the party who used to babysit for Tolly knows about his allergy and goes and gets his EpiPen.  Once Stace uses the EpiPen on Tolly, his condition improves, but then Justin Joss shows up at the party.  Several of the kids at the party were responsible for Justin’s death and he wants his revenge.  During the melee in which Justin kills several of the kids, two drops of “blood” from Justin drop onto Tolly.  When Tolly rubs his forehead to remove the blood, Justin’s “blood” gets into the cut on his forehead.  The book continues on with Tolly becoming a “slasher” killing the kids that had wronged him.

I really enjoyed this story.  It was different from the Jade Daniels books in that Tolly himself is not a “slasher” fan, although his friend Amber and her brother are.  The way that Tolly becomes a “slasher” is different from any other thing like this I have read.  It was an incredibly creative idea.  As a “slasher” fan from the 1980’s, I understood a lot of what Tolly and Amber were discussing and I think people who know the film genre will enjoy the storyline. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Saga Press for allowing me to read the book in advance of publication.

The Angel of Indian Lake

 The Angel of Indian Lake

Stephen Graham Jones

343 pp

The Angel of Indian Lake  by Stephen Graham Jones is the third entry into his trilogy starting with My Heart Is a Chainsaw.  In this series, Jade Daniels (real name Jennifer), is a horror movie fan with almost encyclopedic knowledge of the films in this genre.  As in the other books, the chapter titles are those of horror movies.  Jade uses the plots of movies she has seen to compare what is happening to her in real life to what happens to characters in these movies.  She also uses the behavior of the “final girl” to inform the way she reacts to situations, although she does not believe herself to be worthy of that title.

Jade is back after a stint in prison and is teaching history at the high school like her former teacher Mr. Holmes.  Instead of writing papers on the assigned topics, Jade always wrote about the horror movie.  She has given her class the assignment to do a report on the history of Proofrock and Indian Lake.  Unlike when she was a kid, the reports of today are high tech.  One of the reports even is filmed by drone.  During one of these reports, a missing Bronco is  shown with the bodies of two former Proofrock residents in it.  Then the drone shows teens from their school who have been brutally murdered.  Meanwhile, the local game warden sets a forest fire and the sheriff’s office must find him before things get worse.  The sheriff (Jade’s best friend’s husband) enlists Jade to watch over their daughter since he knows he will be busy.  Things get even busier for him when a parent waiting for their child in the pick up lane is beheaded.

Even though Jade has vowed not to get involved in figuring out any of the crimes, she just can’t help herself.  After she finds out more people in town have been killed she goes after the sheriff so she can tell him what is going on.  Once dropped off in that area, she does not have a lot of mobility since all of the boats have been tampered with.  Eventually, Letha (the sheriff’s wife and her best friend) comes to the rescue.  There’s even more after this, but I won’t spoil it.

To read this book effectively, you must have read the first two books.  There is too much that refers back to the first two “massacres” to comprehend the story otherwise.  I loved this book and am sorry to see the trilogy end.  I will be sure to recommend this to other horror lovers.  

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for giving me an advance reading copy.