Reviews tagging 'Death'

Don't Fear The Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

49 reviews

mnboyer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Absolutely love the dark twists and turns this novel, set on the rez, took. SGJ is a wonderful horror writer, it is just a bonus that his content is Indigenous! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing

elysianbud's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

"...many sequels have surpassed their original!"
"Name one!"

The answer: 'Don't Fear the Reaper'.

He's only gone and Terminator 2/Aliens/The Godfather Part 2'd us. One has to wonder if Stephen Graham Jones did this on purpose--the ultimate meta callback to Scream 2's classroom scene about sequels, because this sequel is better than the original.

Yet another incredibly fun ode to slashers, in my opinion, 'Don't Fear the Reaper' far exceeds its predecessor. I found the plot easier to follow, the characters more alive (until they're dead), and overall more entertaining. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Child death, and Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Classism, Medical trauma, Cursing, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Medical content

regaliaofchaos's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide attempt

There is way more gore in this book than you think. The suicide trigger carries over from the previous book.

atomicbritt's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.5

I rarely enjoy the second book in a trilogy more than the first. That is indeed the case here. 

Love Jade and Letha’s return, as well as some other familiar faces, and the introduction of new faces including our new boogeyman (all with a surprise twist at the end because duh it’s Graham Jones after all) that closes the loop on a subplot from My Heart Is A Chainsaw. 

And the last couple lines whewww! Spoiler:

” …along with what no photograph could have captured: Jade shrugging free of the two state officials holding her by the upper arms, shaking free and stepping ahead, reaching her right arm back to her waistband. When she thrusts her right arm up in victory, what she’s holding there for all the gods to see, for the whole world to know, for you to never have in your sacred collection, it’s a hook. From the killer she killed. Because she’s Jade fucking Daniels. And a thousand men like you can’t even reach up to touch her combat boots.”

Gods I love a good slasher. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the close of this series and returning to Jade, Letha and the gang, while revisiting films in anticipation of how we might close out this saga. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Child death, Blood, and Death

jillaay_h's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Stephen Graham Jones is such a spectacularly talented writer I and it is such a treat to read a sequel better than the first installment. I honestly think it's better than My Heart Is A Chainsaw--something about Jade and her crew being grown up and them dealing with this trauma and violence that is at the heart of the American West and the small towns just hit right. And I didn't know if I would love the multiple character POV, but it worked so well. It also had these moments of dark humor that made me chuckle amongst the horror that I just loved (Jade being indignant about a slasher using a gun was very good). 

My only criticism is that I felt that the fantastical element was as seamlessly integrated into the plot as it was in the last one. But I'm so excited for the third book in this series it's been so good so far. 

On a reread I agree with everything me from a year ago said, but I think this is book, like the first in the series, improves on a rereading. Knowing the twists in the plot makes it really fun to see the foreshadowing for the reveal for what it was.

I also missed this on the first read through, but the way Dark Mill South is continually compared with at least vaguely physically resembling Tab Daniels just makes it fit in so well with the slasher genre of the Big Bad Slasher rising from his grave for the sequel. Also, Jade's mom hits so hard because it's a woman who tries to protect her daughter but is ultimately too weighed down by her ineffectiveness, her unrealized dreams, to actually be a protector. I think reading this one so soon after rereading the first one really just made her death a lot more meaningful than I found it the first time through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Violence, Death, Gore, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, and Self harm

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Now I love me some Stephen Graham Jones but this book was a little too convoluted, especially getting to end with the reveals (plural). 

Why do we need two murderers? Why does Jade keep switching her name?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Murder

alexg52's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Rape

perthalus's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

The writer tries way to hard to make his main character an iconic badass horror protagonist to the point where it becomes eye-rolling.  Instead of focusing on character dynamics and relationships you just get mostly pointless snapshots of random character’s lives before they die a few pages after.

The antagonist somehow also feels incredibly undercooked despite the book being 500 pages long, and the prose is so confusing at times that I honestly can’t tell what is where and how something is happening. You think you’re in one place and then bam you’re on the opposite side of where you thought you were.

Made me miss the first book, which wasn’t too great in the first place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Cursing and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Police brutality, and Emotional abuse