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grimdark_dad's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Violence, Blood, Gore, Grief, Cursing, Death of parent, and Alcohol
kimwritesstuff's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Stephen Graham Jones might be my favorite horror writer. If you liked the Indian Lake trilogy or Cabin in the Woods, you'll like this book. This book doesn't just fill you with dread as you follow Tolly as he reluctantly carves through Lamesa, but also anger.
Tolly is cursed to be a slasher, but he's also motivated by a serious wrong done to him by his classmates. I know, I know, it's framed as an accident like most slashers are (think Jason's origin story in Friday the 13th). You see Tolly is deathly allergic to peanuts and at a high school party a drunk Tolly makes a fool of himself. In the process of being a fool, he jumps in the pool and splashes popular girl Mel as she's flirting with an older college guy. An enraged Mel rallies her marching band friends and ties Tolly down to a patio lounger while also force-feeding Tolly a drink that has peanuts in it. And thus Tolly's origin story is created and from here he's destined to get his revenge.
This story is told through an autobiography lens, Tolly is in his 30s looking back on the events that took place 17 years ago in Lamesa. He never tries to excuse his actions, but instead tries to explain what happened and what drove him to massacre 6 people in small town Texas. Let's be clear, this book lives in the grey, none of the characters (except Amber, Amber is a gem oh, and Tolly's mom and probably Justin) are blameless. Not that they deserve to die, but they aren't clean either. They're guilty of their own sins and now are being punished.
I love how this book outlines a good slasher and the rules that have to be followed. Tolly is incredibly ordinary as a teenager, but as a slasher, he's deadly for no reason other than revenge. Hit him with a car and he'll get back up. There were two things I didn't love and kept it from being a 5-star review. The first is the chapter style; I wish some of the flashbacks had been broken out more instead of the large chapter format. The second is Tolly's mask, I get the reason for the belts and the symbolism is nice, but I just kept picturing Jim Carrey with tape around his face. And the nickname Strappy? Awful. Just nope.
If you like a good slasher flick and a quick horror read, this book is for you!
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC; all opinions are my own.
Tolly is cursed to be a slasher, but he's also motivated by a serious wrong done to him by his classmates. I know, I know, it's framed as an accident like most slashers are (think Jason's origin story in Friday the 13th). You see Tolly is deathly allergic to peanuts and at a high school party a drunk Tolly makes a fool of himself. In the process of being a fool, he jumps in the pool and splashes popular girl Mel as she's flirting with an older college guy. An enraged Mel rallies her marching band friends and ties Tolly down to a patio lounger while also force-feeding Tolly a drink that has peanuts in it. And thus Tolly's origin story is created and from here he's destined to get his revenge.
This story is told through an autobiography lens, Tolly is in his 30s looking back on the events that took place 17 years ago in Lamesa. He never tries to excuse his actions, but instead tries to explain what happened and what drove him to massacre 6 people in small town Texas. Let's be clear, this book lives in the grey, none of the characters (except Amber, Amber is a gem oh, and Tolly's mom and probably Justin) are blameless. Not that they deserve to die, but they aren't clean either. They're guilty of their own sins and now are being punished.
I love how this book outlines a good slasher and the rules that have to be followed. Tolly is incredibly ordinary as a teenager, but as a slasher, he's deadly for no reason other than revenge. Hit him with a car and he'll get back up. There were two things I didn't love and kept it from being a 5-star review. The first is the chapter style; I wish some of the flashbacks had been broken out more instead of the large chapter format. The second is Tolly's mask, I get the reason for the belts and the symbolism is nice, but I just kept picturing Jim Carrey with tape around his face. And the nickname Strappy? Awful. Just nope.
If you like a good slasher flick and a quick horror read, this book is for you!
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC; all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Gore, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Death of parent
thereadingrambler's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I Was a Teenager Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
One Sentence Review: This was a fascinating take on the slasher genre that proposes a way of looking at the slasher (the figure and the genre) that I have never encountered before.
I have been deep in Stephen Graham Jones’s bibliography lately and his approach to the slasher. The Indian Lake trilogy plays with the concept of the final girl in interesting ways, and this book turns the lens on the slasher himself. Seventeen years after his killing spree, Tolly is telling the story of what he did and why. Telling a villain story can be executed so poorly, especially when that villain is a slasher, a breed of villain who is so mindlessly evil that any tragic backstory is irrelevant compared to his crimes. Tolly does not shy away from the fact he did many evil things, but the circumstances through which he becomes a slasher are unlike anything I’ve encountered before and, to me, paint the genre in an entirely new light.
This has Jones’s distinctive writing style that he has developed in the recent years of his career (as compared to books like Mongrels or Only Good Indian). The conceit of an adult man recounting what happened when he was a teenager can often fail, falling into traps of weird nostalgia, excuses for behavior, and the many other kinds of rose-colored glasses we put on when we look back at our youth. But Jones balances an adult’s perceptions (and fully developed brain) with the choices of a scared and hurt teenager. I sympathized with both the teenage and adult versions of Tolly and the things he went through. And yes, Tolly is a sympathetic character even though he is the slasher (as is obvious from the title). He is both the mindless force of evil and a complex human figure struggling with a series of complex choices, none of which are good options.
If you are someone who is fascinated by the slasher genre not because of its goriness and violence but because of the complex ideas about culture that are presented through this genre, I would highly recommend this book.
One Sentence Review: This was a fascinating take on the slasher genre that proposes a way of looking at the slasher (the figure and the genre) that I have never encountered before.
I have been deep in Stephen Graham Jones’s bibliography lately and his approach to the slasher. The Indian Lake trilogy plays with the concept of the final girl in interesting ways, and this book turns the lens on the slasher himself. Seventeen years after his killing spree, Tolly is telling the story of what he did and why. Telling a villain story can be executed so poorly, especially when that villain is a slasher, a breed of villain who is so mindlessly evil that any tragic backstory is irrelevant compared to his crimes. Tolly does not shy away from the fact he did many evil things, but the circumstances through which he becomes a slasher are unlike anything I’ve encountered before and, to me, paint the genre in an entirely new light.
This has Jones’s distinctive writing style that he has developed in the recent years of his career (as compared to books like Mongrels or Only Good Indian). The conceit of an adult man recounting what happened when he was a teenager can often fail, falling into traps of weird nostalgia, excuses for behavior, and the many other kinds of rose-colored glasses we put on when we look back at our youth. But Jones balances an adult’s perceptions (and fully developed brain) with the choices of a scared and hurt teenager. I sympathized with both the teenage and adult versions of Tolly and the things he went through. And yes, Tolly is a sympathetic character even though he is the slasher (as is obvious from the title). He is both the mindless force of evil and a complex human figure struggling with a series of complex choices, none of which are good options.
If you are someone who is fascinated by the slasher genre not because of its goriness and violence but because of the complex ideas about culture that are presented through this genre, I would highly recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gore
dreamer626's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
This was the first book that I ever read by this author. The reason I decided to pick it up is because I made a promise to myself to read more genres outside of my comfort zone, one of these genres being horror. The synopsis also intrigued me.
I would say that the beginning of this book was the most interesting to me. I read that first 50ish pages so quickly. After that my interest started to fall off again until something happened in the plot. The last third wasn’t too bad either. Where this book suffers is the middle.
At times it was also hard to follow where the plot was going. I think that would be its biggest weakness. Overall not bad for my first book from this author and I will be reading more of his work in the future.
This was the first book that I ever read by this author. The reason I decided to pick it up is because I made a promise to myself to read more genres outside of my comfort zone, one of these genres being horror. The synopsis also intrigued me.
I would say that the beginning of this book was the most interesting to me. I read that first 50ish pages so quickly. After that my interest started to fall off again until something happened in the plot. The last third wasn’t too bad either. Where this book suffers is the middle.
At times it was also hard to follow where the plot was going. I think that would be its biggest weakness. Overall not bad for my first book from this author and I will be reading more of his work in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
thecriticalreader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The Run-Down: In I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones boldly inverts the slasher genre in this heartfelt, yet frequently confusing, horror entry.
Review:
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones is a retroactive perspective of a former teenage slasher, Tolly Driver, who was cursed to murder for revenge at the age of seventeen after a party goes very wrong. Jones fully adopts the voice of Tolly, even down to his typing style (Tolly underlines italicized words and uses a double en-dash for an em-dash). It takes a skilled author to write a novel in the style of an amateur, but Jones mostly pulls it off. Tolly’s desultory and uptalk-riddled narration adds a certain level of charm to the story, and it highlights the tragedy of Tolly’s situation—even though he is cursed to murder his peers in a universe-ordained act of revenge, he’s still a goofy, astray kid at heart.
The narration in I Was a Teenage Slasher will not work for everyone, however, as it requires a certain level of concentration to understand. The setting, action, and characters of the story move at a rapid pace without visible markers for transition between them—this, coupled with constant references to specific pieces of mechanical equipment or set pieces, often results in a confusing and frustrating reading experience. Tolly’s reflection on his life alternates between the profound, irreverent, and tragic; this book is concerned with the loss of innocence and agency in a world that expects people to play certain roles. Unfortunately, the frequently bewildering plot mechanics of Tolly’s slasher role often undermine the depth and clarity with which Jones explores these themes.
The heart of the story, however, lies in Tolly’s character and his relationship with his best friend, Amber. Jones nails the awkward, aimless nature of Tolly’s seventeen-year-old character as he navigates the death of his father, high school bullies, and his transformation into a movie villain. At his side is his loyal friend Amber, who recognizes Tolly’s cursed state for what it is and does her best to guide him through his path from dopey teen to violent murderer. Their relationship lends this story its heart, humor, and tragedy, and ultimately results in a surprisingly poignant ending to a book riddled with groan-worthy jokes and gag-worthy slasher horror.
You might like this book if . . .
· You are a fan of slasher movies
· You want to read a unique take on the slasher genre
· You want to read a book that will make you laugh, scream, and cry
You might not like this book if . . .
· You don’t have a strong stomach for gross-out horror
· You find the narrative style—written to mimic Tolly’s unfiltered, amateurish, and confessional writing style—distracting or irritating
· You want a horror book that you can enjoy with your brain off
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Blood, Gore, and Vomit
Moderate: Alcohol and Death of parent
Minor: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Racism
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