Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

11 reviews

chezler24's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

"Quinn took comfort in that. The fact that history bent toward progress, no matter how hard the assholes tried pushing back." (p. 336)

If you want a straightforward slasher to entertain you, then Clown in a Cornfield is the book for you! This book just screams summer slasher!  Quinn's dad uprooted her life to move to the small town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. She wanted to stay invisible and make it to the end of her senior year; however, making it to graduation and actually *surviving* seemed to be a bit more of a challenge. Quinn and her dad accidentally find themselves in the crossfire of a major clash between the older and younger generations of the town. While the slasher and thriller aspects were executed perfectly, I wish the backstory and characterizations had been more fleshed out before getting to the bloody meat of the story. Quinn felt a little bit of a standard final girl, Cole was a popular kid with a sad backstory, and Rust was a loner country kid cast aside by the "popular" kids. I would have loved more time setting up their backstories instead of dealing with the annoying kids who kept shoving cameras into everyone's faces. (I understand why they had to be annoying, but I was slightly over them before the prologue ended.) Regardless, I'm still rounding up to 4 because it felt very much like a slasher I would devour with my friends in the summertime. The book does leave room for a clear sequel so I'm interested to see where book two and the eventual book three will take our remaining cast of characters. 

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Police brutality, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

riflelizards's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

2.75

heavy handed but otherwise enjoyable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Fire/Fire injury

wganas4's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Murder, and Police brutality

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Cursing, Medical trauma, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Suicide, Bullying, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Car accident

kups's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A cheesy slasher book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Misogyny and Suicidal thoughts

uhhlexiconic's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A brilliant horror story that doesn't realize who the lead character is, Clown in a Cornfield is nonetheless brilliant

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is a bit of a rollercoaster. I absolutely do not care about the first 100 pages, and found it to be quite boring and cliché. I was not expecting to be 1/3 of the way into the story before anything happens. But when it does the story absolutely takes off. 

I was quite invested in the next 100 pages of the book. The murders were just stacking up one after another. I did not realize going into this that everything happens in just one night, so we jump from 0 to 100 instantly. For that last 1/3 though it just started to go downhill again. After we start having some reveals I'm just left thinking, "Really ? This is what we're going with ?". 

When the plan is all laid out for us it's actually laughable. The culprits are truly some of the dumbest antagonists I've ever come across, and honestly, I think that's done on purpose.

It truly felt like a repeat of the January 6th insurrection at the US capitol, down to the fact that people were caught because of their phone's GPS.

The only likable characters here are Quinn's dad, and maayyyybe Quinn herself. I find her to just mainly be an observer though; almost like a self insert for the reader or something. She never really has a chance to show her personality, so we never get to know her.  

Essentially this book is

what would happen if you were trapped in a town where the MAGA crowd was murdering teens who annoyed them.

AKA my worst nightmare. 

Overall this is a book where I greatly enjoyed the parts that were good, but really disliked the parts that weren't. I will probably skip the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Death, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Cursing

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

mangocorpses's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I picked this book up skeptical of what it may actually be like considering it’s a YA novel about a clown and I was more than pleasantly surprised. As a fan of the slasher genre I never would’ve expected a book labeled YA to be so outwardly violent but I thought some of these kills were gnarly and fun, I also enjoyed that it become almost survival horror as we watched our main character turn into an absolute badass. This book was quick paced and exciting but also an interesting statement about how generations progress and change but sometimes our elders can’t let the old ways go.

There was even a bit where the sheriff blamed the teens of the towns bad behavior on “growing up too fast” even though I’m sure we’re all aware that children really only grow up too fast when they’re made to (usually by adults in their lives). Cole makes a wonderful statement about how the generations before him laid out the world they live in now and then are angry at the children for learning to live in it in their own way.

I will definitely be picking up the sequel to this novel asap.

I also could not have been happier when they revealed Rust and Cole had feelings for each other, I kept wondering what the hell was up with them but that was so much better a conclusion than I expected.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Gun violence, Police brutality, Death, Confinement, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Police brutality, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Grief, Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

ekmook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexism, and Misogyny

werewolvesnotswearwolves's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Murder, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism