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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Lots of body horror and not enough plot for me to want to continue. I may come back to it, but I was reading outside my genre in this one and don't have a high enough tolerance for gore to truly appreciate the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abandonment
Minor: Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Religious bigotry
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Both of these stories were fantastic! KotR was brutal af, and Babysitter was, just something else. I found them to be quite unlike each other, but no less enjoyable!
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Both stories! Read ‘Killer on the Road’ first. Needless to say I will NEVER hitchhike…ever! Such great intensity and horror…frightening. ‘The Babysitter Lives’ was amazing. A combination of Coraline and your worst nightmare (as a person who used to babysit). So freaking good! All the stars!!!⭐️
challenging
dark
emotional
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
5 stars for Killer on the Road. 2 stars for The Babysitter Lives.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
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
I actually really like this release format for shorter entries from the earlier part of Jones' career that people might not be able to access now. Saga seems to be branching into doubles here, and I'm intrigued to see how it goes. Killer on the Road is about two teenagers who get caught by a road legend, and their struggles to keep from taking his place, and the Babysitter Lives is about a hell of a babysitting job. Interested to see what they do with these.
Ah, Stephen Graham Jones, you genius! Two stories spinning classic horror tropes into new, gory delights. Main characters that show their teeth when cornered and fight until the bitter end. And the charm & nostalgia of a double-ended novella book was perfect – a little bit playful, a chunky reading experience split into two digestible (eurgh, sorta) tales, and stories that fit perfectly into each other’s seams.
Killer on the Road is what we all fear in the dead of night on the highway. A monster that can hunt you down wherever you may run or drive, a monster that knows the barren and windy territory so well that you’ve barely got a chance at all.
Harper is a sixteen-year-old on the run after another massive argument with her mom. So she hitchhikes down the highway, but her worried friends (and her tag-a-long little sister) scoop her up to stage an intervention and get her home safely. The trouble is, they’ve run into a dangerous highway serial killer, and they’re all targets now.
I’ve only lived in cities and suburbs of cities. I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about half the time in regards to trucker lingo and experience and lifestyle and … machinery? If you’re like me, you’ll probably be a bit confused by the specifics of the action scenes and the slights that seem to happen between truckers.
But oh boy, the deep horror of this was perfection. Harper is a fierce big sister – and a teenager who so badly wants to strike out on her own and recognize herself in the mirror without being frozen in time at the moment her dad left. She’s in over her head, for sure, but she’s clever.
It’s one of those stories where the tension and fear is so deep and real that you never, ever know who might be safe and who might be dead. I had to keep turning the pages, but I was trembling at what I might find out next. The friendship crew had smaller parts to play, but they were each very distinctive and I thought Harper’s world was fleshed out very well.
This is a story of identity, seeing yourself in the eyes of your parents, and protecting your friends as best you can.
As someone who spent many years babysitting and nannying, The Babysitter Lives hit much closer to home. It’s an absolute nightmare. But in addition to the haunted horrors of the house itself, Stephen Graham Jones also folds in the micro terrors of being a teenage babysitter. The creepy dad, the rules both spoken and unspoken, the children that magically stumble their way into new and dangerous situations.
We’re following Charlotte, who’s ready for an easy night with two six-year-old twins and to prep for her SATs the next morning. Her girlfriend is being a little tricky, these parents are a little weird, and this house might have a strange history, but she's PREPARED. At least she thinks she is.
WHAT a new sort of terror! I could have never anticipated where we were heading next. This is a fever dream, there’s time funkiness, and you will probably be confused. But boy was I along for this funhouse ride. My mind is bent and I am scared.
I think that both of these stories were a little meandering. They’re both about 220 pages, and I think they could have each really gone either way – fleshed out into 350ish page full books or cut down into truer novellas. But instead we were left with some open threads and some moments that could have been more poignant.
I’m always down for a Summerween read, and I always trust Stephen Graham Jones to bring me something I have never, ever seen before. Two young & determined Native main characters, two bone-chillingly terrifying nights, and the combination of a small house and an open road story hit perfectly.
CW: murder (children/parents), gore, cannibalism, guns, fire, torture, racism, sexual assault, pedophilia, decapitation, drowning
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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)