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juliana18's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Torture
Minor: Pedophilia
zosiablue's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
Man, marry me, Stephen Graham Jones. He's just the best. Like all his stories, this one has full heart and gorgeous writing and campiness and tragedy and action and total respect for the genre. He's the only my writer I know who can do textual jumpscares. This is true horror but it's exhilarating because it follows slasher-horror rules until it doesn't and the rule breaks are totally earned. Can't wait for the next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
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? No
3.5
I'm so disappointed to say this one was just meh. Because I ADORED My Heart is a Chainsaw. The best part of Chainsaw to me is Jade's perspective, it scratched a very specific itch for me, the unreliable narrator, obsessive focus on what the character loves, disregarding a lot else, the way in her essays it Mr. Homes it feels like she is lecturing at you, telling you about slashers with an infectious enthusiasm (I love horror but slashers really aren't my thing). Also Chainsaw all came together at the end in a very perfect way. Which all that is what Reaper was missing. The multiple POVs didn't add much, in fact to me it felt like it lessened my emotional investment, rather than heightening it. There were too many ppl to keep track of, I didn't reread Chainsaw which was maybe a mistake. I'm not the best at remembering names and some of the characters Reaper brought to the forefront I couldn't remember from book 1, and then they still failed to make an impact. I didn't count but we had at least ten POVs which for a 450 page book is too many. Also the "it all comes together at the end" didn't feel as strong or emotionally impactful in this book. Dark Mill South as a slasher is actually the kind of slasher that idgaf about, some brick wall who just loves killing. The thing with Cinnamon was also eh, the stag was the only one I really liked and delivered the way I think it was supposed to. So a lot of this is all my opinion, I've tried to make that clear bc like I said I'm not a slasher girl so slasher fans might still love this, but since this is a sequel, I don't think it lived up to the expectations of the first book. The first book still had enough of an impact for me to likely read the third when it comes out.
Second reading review: While having just read Chainsaw helped with the characters the multiple povs still hurts the book, slows momentum, etc. Showing what someone was doing before they are gored is how slasher movies operate but I think SGJ wants to flesh out his characters maybe too much.
Still looking forward to the finale though!
Second reading review: While having just read Chainsaw helped with the characters the multiple povs still hurts the book, slows momentum, etc. Showing what someone was doing before they are gored is how slasher movies operate but I think SGJ wants to flesh out his characters maybe too much.
Still looking forward to the finale though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Sexual harassment
voicenextdoor's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
lennybiird's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use
bookshelf_al's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
magellen's review against another edition
dark
funny
slow-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? Yes
3.0
If this book was a slasher, it'd be tripping over its own dark robe every three feet and you'd stand there shaking your head rather than running.
What a bummer follow up- I say that with love, as I'm obviously still reading the third when it drops, but oof what a precipitous drop off after the first.
Where Chainsaw succeeds beautifully in tying horror and slashers to catharsis and processing trauma, Reaper tramples the dialog between healing and relapse/generation trauma into memes.Having a teenager find solace from abuse via slashers and wishing it into the world had a much better punch than circumstantially dropped in serial killer does some killing but there's also a corrupted final girl out killing and for some reason movie rules get applied to the real world killer even though like...sigh what? The book runs itself in too many directions. Even with the mirror of Armitage and Cin, the mirror of obsession with vengence, it grapples to get the comparison out clearly.
Because of the narrative clutter(honestly, Letha? Aside from her brief foiling of Jennifer not yet Jade, she feels like an after thought, a PPS - hell, Jade feels like an after thought at times, and sure a slasher progresses to next gens, but the juggling of Cin and Gin and Gal is uh...uninspiring. ) , the book reads much how a car drives with one incredibly flat tire on a potholed road. It gets some speed and drags behind, we change location endlessly, aimlessly, trying to find an ending. The references don't land as well, largely because they're reaching to put movie logic over an already established 'irl' killer. Yes, Jade is more aware, more critical of her slashers as she applies logic to ground the narrative somewhat, but it veers off hard time and again. (and then the stuff with Melanie? And Hardy? Just...unless it's coming around in book three, it didnt have the emotional punch to float).
SGJ is *very good* at writing the conversation this book wants to be, and I wonder where it got lost along the way.
What a bummer follow up- I say that with love, as I'm obviously still reading the third when it drops, but oof what a precipitous drop off after the first.
Where Chainsaw succeeds beautifully in tying horror and slashers to catharsis and processing trauma, Reaper tramples the dialog between healing and relapse/generation trauma into memes.
Because of the narrative clutter
SGJ is *very good* at writing the conversation this book wants to be, and I wonder where it got lost along the way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
megandherbook's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
The second book in the Indian Lake Trilogy did not disappoint. In fact, I think I enjoyed this read better than the first.
Jade Daniels, now going by Jennifer, returns to Proofrock after spending the past 4 years in prison due to the infamous events that people call the 4th of July massacre. Right when she returns, a convicted serial kill named Dark Mill South escapes his prison transfer convoy right near Proofrock during an intense blizzard. Jade (or Jennifer) is thrown right back into the world of slashers and will have to use her vast knowledge of horror movies that she's tried to forget to save her and the others in this town. But as before, Proofrock and Indian Lake are never quite what they seem.
First, I want to say that if you are a fan of horror movies, especially slashers, at the very least you'll appreciate the vast knowledge Stephen Graham Jones includes in this series. It's a dream for horror aficionados - I even wrote quite a view titles down that I wasn't familiar with.
While I enjoyed the first book, it was exhausting being inside Jade's head the whole time. Sometimes it was hard figuring out what was fact and what was just in Jade's head. I very much enjoyed how this book jumped between narrators. While it may seem confusing (and could be at times) I felt like I had a better understanding of what was going on. It also really allowed me to get a sense of just how impactful the Lake Killings of 4 years prior were to the town and people in it as a whole. The amount of characters are a lot, however, each one serves an important purpose and helped the many moving parts of this book to come together. This book also solidified my love for both Jade and Letha.
Overall, I highly recommend this horror series. To fully appreciate Don't Fear the Reaper I recommend reading the first book My Heart is a Chainsaw first.
Jade Daniels, now going by Jennifer, returns to Proofrock after spending the past 4 years in prison due to the infamous events that people call the 4th of July massacre. Right when she returns, a convicted serial kill named Dark Mill South escapes his prison transfer convoy right near Proofrock during an intense blizzard. Jade (or Jennifer) is thrown right back into the world of slashers and will have to use her vast knowledge of horror movies that she's tried to forget to save her and the others in this town. But as before, Proofrock and Indian Lake are never quite what they seem.
First, I want to say that if you are a fan of horror movies, especially slashers, at the very least you'll appreciate the vast knowledge Stephen Graham Jones includes in this series. It's a dream for horror aficionados - I even wrote quite a view titles down that I wasn't familiar with.
While I enjoyed the first book, it was exhausting being inside Jade's head the whole time. Sometimes it was hard figuring out what was fact and what was just in Jade's head. I very much enjoyed how this book jumped between narrators. While it may seem confusing (and could be at times) I felt like I had a better understanding of what was going on. It also really allowed me to get a sense of just how impactful the Lake Killings of 4 years prior were to the town and people in it as a whole. The amount of characters are a lot, however, each one serves an important purpose and helped the many moving parts of this book to come together. This book also solidified my love for both Jade and Letha.
Overall, I highly recommend this horror series. To fully appreciate Don't Fear the Reaper I recommend reading the first book My Heart is a Chainsaw first.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence and Vomit
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent
val_so_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Torture, and Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment