Reviews with content warning for Violence - Don't Fear The Reaper

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Don't Fear The Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

71 reviews

ethers_elixirs's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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taliesinrex's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

I found this one a little harder to follow than its predecessor at times, and wasn't sure how I felt about the Ginger/Cinnamon twist. However, this was still a ton of fun and I really enjoyed returning to Proofrock and following Jade after her release from prison following My Heart Is A Chainsaw. While there's a lot of back-and-forth in the blizzard, I think the heavy snowfall and lack of communication resources or way into/out of town lend themselves well to a tense and harrowing plot. I also think the supernatural elements of this were a little better integrated than in the first book.

I really was not expecting to like Banner going into this, but he really came through and I found him an interesting "outsider" type of character to follow in contrast to Letha and Jade. In general it was cool to get to know some of the other characters featured in the first book in-depth, and involving the kids who survived the massacre in Chainsaw was a very fun move. This one really moves into a full-on teen-killing slasher VERY quick and I had a great time with it. I do wish we got a little bit more discussion about

Theo Mondragon between Jade and Letha as while it would definitely be a stressful moment for their friendship I would have liked to see that side of things as well as how Letha felt about Jade's testimony/her father at large. I also think some kind of discussion on that would have been an interesting potential foil to Jade's parents, especially her mom now showing up towards the end of Don't Fear The Reaper to finally stand up and try to defend her daughter (which yes, did make me cry).

Its pace is significantly quicker than Chainsaw but it is about the same length, which I think works both for and against it. It ramps up the action fast and never takes its foot off the pedal, but as I noted there is a lot of literal back-and-forth and characters traverse the town which can make things hard to follow especially in conjunction with Jones's writing style. Even so, a great sequel in my opinion; very excited to read The Angel of Indian Lake.

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