Reviews - Clown in a Cornfield

4.53k reviews for:

Clown in a Cornfield

Adam Cesare

3.75 AVERAGE

iamaplant's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ceruleanrider's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

candikat's review against another edition

4.0

Clown in a Cornfield is that unicorn of a YA novel that is YA only in that its main characters are teenagers that act like teenagers, but, unlike some in the market, Adam Cesare's writing is - for lack of a better word - good.

I'm not going to name any names, but we've all read YA novels, in and out of the horror genre, that feel lazy, are poorly edited, or seem as if they don't think their readers expect high quality. This is the opposite of that.

Clown in a Cornfield starts with a classic premise, Quinn and her father move to a small town from Philadelphia after Quinn's mother dies, and Quinn immediately senses things are off. She barely has a chance to start getting to know any of her classmates before the slaughters begin, and I am fully on board this ride. Though the events timeline is short, Cesare takes the time to show us the inner lives of several characters and the town, and, while we recognize the tropes, he applies just enough spin to keep it interesting, and I am glad to know there are at least two more sequels (not to mention the film) in my future.

Note: Also included a reminder of how handy it continues to be to be able to drive a stick shift.

queenofoncall's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

While this book doesn’t necessarily add anything new to the horror genre, it’s a fast paced fun romp for anybody who likes slasher especially the Scream franchise. I don’t know that I would recommend this to anybody under the age of about 17 because it does get pretty graphic pretty quickly. But, overall, it was a fun ride that was so quick. I kind of wanna jump onto the next book immediately. And thankfully, as far as I’ve seen, there are two other books after this so I will be reading those!

Content Warnings

noodlemanning's review against another edition

4.5

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Clowns are already scary AF so when they’re in multiple and also trying to kill a whole bunch of teens, well, it’s a nightmare scenario for me. I’ll say I was impressed by Cesare’s surprisingly deft moments of social commentary… they gave some heft to the teen slasher without sacrificing the novel’s engagement with its genre. I know everyone has said A LOT about the double plot twist, but I thought the major reveal that ISN’T the actual whodunnit was handled with more thoughtful grace than I would have imagined.

So yeah. A great end-o-summer read.

(My only note is that I don’t think we needed the sub-plot about Quinn’s mom’s death; it opened a delicate subject matter that the novel wasn’t really interested in properly working through, so it feels needlessly dramatic because it remains underdeveloped.)