Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - Don't Fear the Reaper

I totally get that this book isn't for everyone. It's a gore-filled, violent, dense book that has prose that often twists into itself so often that I had to keep going back to see what I missed. But I loved it. 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 slahser using a gun was very good). I am not particularly familiar with slasher movies (I can read gore, but I can't watch it), but that didn't really turn me off anything in this book.

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.

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megandherbook's review against another edition

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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.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I preordered this book and then proceeded to not read it for months. "Chainsaw" had what I consider the perfect ending and it was hard to imagine what a sequel could bring to the table. Now that I've finished the book I regret not giving it a chance earlier.

While Jade is still the star of the show, this book expands to show other characters' POV, and all of these characters just feel so perfectly human. One of the early victims' internal monologue stuck with me for the entire rest of the book. There are a lot of moving parts and things going on in the book, but somehow it all slots together in a way where you couldn't take any of it out.

I really loved this. Fantastic sequel.

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annemariemulksibb's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

Don't read this if you haven't read My Heart is a Chainsaw yet.
While Jade didn't need to be loveable (and I didn't love her at first) in order for me to root for her and whoever she was rooting for in Chainsaw, I absolutely loved her in Reaper. Her obsession with slashers in the first book was just a lot and annoying, and I expect that this was intentional. It was effective. I loved in Reaper when Armitage comes along and his obsession has Jade wondering if she was ever that annoying. Lol. "Yes, you were. But I better understand you now for it."

I expected Reaper, once you got through the first scene, to take off as slowly as Chainsaw, but no. The first scene took off, and it never slowed down. I can't count how many times I audibly gasped while reading this book.

There were several times I had to reread passages to really understand what was happening. This was a combination of my having difficulty understanding spatial descriptions and the truly bizarre and unbelievable scenarios Stephen Graham Jones has his characters die in ("Wait, what just happened?!?")

I loved reading this book, and I wish it wasn't over. I wish I didn't have to wait for however long to read the third book.

Oh yeah, and there's more elk.

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readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

4.0

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edoherty's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

4.25

I didn't think this was quite as strong as My Heart is a Chainsaw, but it still grabbed me and pulled me along for the ride. For all their flaws, I like Jennifer (Jade) and Letha and (most of) the other inhabitants of Proofrock Lake and I care about their fates. While I preferred the slower buildup -> explosion of violence of MHiaC, I appreciated the gonzo approach of Don't Fear the Reaper: there was certainly no waiting to find out when the violence was going to start!!

I have two main reasons for rating DFtR slightly lower than the first book:

1.

I thought I could follow the identity-swapping between Ginger and Cinnamon, even up until the end. The final reveal with the wigs in Cinnamon's room, though, was one twist too far: I'm no longer sure I know which twin survived, and - more importantly - I'm not sure why it matters from an overall trilogy perspective. Whichever one survived, will, I'm sure, be an antagonist in the final book, but I don't know what I'm expected to conclude about that.

I didn't think the supernatural element worked quite as well. I figured out the identity of the ghost elk at about the earliest possible point, and it was interesting and had emotional resonance, but I didn't feel like it connected to the book as well as the appearance of Stacey Graves did in the first book.</spoiler?

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

Oh, yes - this is the continuation that I craved after finishing My Heart is a Chainsaw.

We pick up back in Proofrock four years later, where kids have grown up and loss has reshaped the community … but some things never change, do they? There will always be a killer lurking around the corner, ready to hunt down unsuspecting locals.

Jade Daniels - who goes by Jennifer now, thank you - is returning to town for the first time since the events of the first book. With this new distance from her home & trauma, Jennifer has reframed her point of view a bit and no longer sees the world exclusively through the lens of slashers (as she once had to for her own protection) - but that doesn’t mean she’s left her great depth of knowledge behind.

And when the power & phone line goes down and a serial killer escapes his convoy … Jennifer & Letha have to team up once more to save their town.

We have a massing scattering of perspectives here, and things aren’t always told in a linear fashion. It’s fascinating but can also feel disjointing - I struggled a bit at times to recall which characters and pieces of information were a continuation from the first and which were brand new.

Jones has such a unique bite and style of writing. It’s gory and horrifying and then unexpectedly emotional - and each narrator’s way of storytelling is distinctive, even those who only get a few paragraphs to shine.

However, I did miss Jade. She’s here, and she shines, but the focus is split so much that I was left wanting more from her arc. We’ll see where the third book goes.

The pace is much faster than the first, and I found myself catching breaths alongside the characters’ brief reprieves. There’s more guts and more gore. There’s identical twin mindbenders and chilling scenes with elk and monsters that were painfully human.

There’s a great blend of slasher nods and winks and references alongside horrifyingly creative all-new kills. I’ve seen my fair share of slashers but I’m sure there were also clever & specific references that went right over my head - Jones does a nice job of explaining just enough.

I personally preferred Chainsaw for its deeper emotional story and focus on Jade - but Don’t Fear the Reaper was still a wonderful sequel. And if you found Chainsaw to be too slow … you won’t be disappointed here.

CW: murder, death, gore, blood, child death, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, drug use, abuse, gun violence, self harm, chronic illness, mental illness, medical trauma, cultural appropriation, racism, classism, vomit

(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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