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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
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
It pains me not to rate this book higher because I loved "My Heart is a Chainsaw". But sequels are tough, especially writing during a COVID year.
The issues I had with the book:
1. It burned through POV characters and I had a hard time following a plot because of it. In the first hundred pages I think there were five or six different character's heads that I visited? Part of the reason for this is because the author is using the time-honored device of putting you in a victim's head before death strikes. This means that I was inside the skulls of several horny and oblivious teenagers and I just don't enjoy that headspace as much as I used to.
2. Jade, the main character of the first book, is not herself for a good part of the sequel. She's decided to go by Jennifer and she is trying her best not to get involved. It's always hard to be reading along with a character who doesn't want to get involved with the plot when you know damn well that they're going to. Jennifer refuses the call to action several times. This is also a time-honored device, but it's one that I don't enjoy.
3. The new characters in this book are not as compelling as the characters from Chainsaw. This is yet another time-honored device- you need fresh blood for a sequel, someone for the main characters to play off. But, inevitably, these new characters end up taking space from the characters you really want to hear about.
4. There's what seems to be a red herring for most of the book that plays out in a very strange way by the end. I wasn't sure this was necessary. But YMMV. Watch out for antlers! Jennifer and Letha spend a lot of time trying to figure out the Why when really the What and How are more than enough. The unraveling of complicated lore was more confusing for me this time and I missed the Slasher Rules that the author used in the first book.
5. In the first book, the killings were tied to the history of Proofrock(Prufrock? I know the author is doing something with this name and wait to hear his thoughts). In this one, much of the killing is random and it could have been any town. Proofrock has its own stuff going on and then there's the imported killer and it's confusing again.
I think that is my main issue. The feverdream feel of the narrative, combined with the very complicated plot that the author is pulling together behind the scenes, was confusing to me. There was too much information and not enough time to digest it. Maybe I'm getting old; horror is a young person's joy I think.
The touchstone for this book seems to be the Scream movies, which were shoutouts to and mockeries of the horror that had gone before. The horror of the 90's was a very different feel from that of the 70's or 80's, which is what the previous book paid homage to. The 90's were almost too self-aware in horror, very arch, more about imaginative ways to die than visceral horror- at least that's how the Scream movies seem. They were also about red herrings about who the killer was and they were the beginning of the wrenching plot twist to surprise the audience. Sometimes the logic of the movies suffered because of this and perhaps this book does too. Be warned- this book might be more gory in its descriptions than the previous one too, and that's saying something.
So, I'm sorry, SGJ. It's probably me. I wanted to read this during the horror month of October but my brain just didn't seem to want to do horror even though it was the month for it. Now I'm going to go baby my brain with stuff that's easier and more fluffy. If you're ready for it, I think you'll like Reaper, I just wasn't.
The issues I had with the book:
1. It burned through POV characters and I had a hard time following a plot because of it. In the first hundred pages I think there were five or six different character's heads that I visited? Part of the reason for this is because the author is using the time-honored device of putting you in a victim's head before death strikes. This means that I was inside the skulls of several horny and oblivious teenagers and I just don't enjoy that headspace as much as I used to.
2. Jade, the main character of the first book, is not herself for a good part of the sequel. She's decided to go by Jennifer and she is trying her best not to get involved. It's always hard to be reading along with a character who doesn't want to get involved with the plot when you know damn well that they're going to. Jennifer refuses the call to action several times. This is also a time-honored device, but it's one that I don't enjoy.
3. The new characters in this book are not as compelling as the characters from Chainsaw. This is yet another time-honored device- you need fresh blood for a sequel, someone for the main characters to play off. But, inevitably, these new characters end up taking space from the characters you really want to hear about.
4. There's what seems to be a red herring for most of the book that plays out in a very strange way by the end. I wasn't sure this was necessary. But YMMV. Watch out for antlers! Jennifer and Letha spend a lot of time trying to figure out the Why when really the What and How are more than enough. The unraveling of complicated lore was more confusing for me this time and I missed the Slasher Rules that the author used in the first book.
5. In the first book, the killings were tied to the history of Proofrock(Prufrock? I know the author is doing something with this name and wait to hear his thoughts). In this one, much of the killing is random and it could have been any town. Proofrock has its own stuff going on and then there's the imported killer and it's confusing again.
I think that is my main issue. The feverdream feel of the narrative, combined with the very complicated plot that the author is pulling together behind the scenes, was confusing to me. There was too much information and not enough time to digest it. Maybe I'm getting old; horror is a young person's joy I think.
The touchstone for this book seems to be the Scream movies, which were shoutouts to and mockeries of the horror that had gone before. The horror of the 90's was a very different feel from that of the 70's or 80's, which is what the previous book paid homage to. The 90's were almost too self-aware in horror, very arch, more about imaginative ways to die than visceral horror- at least that's how the Scream movies seem. They were also about red herrings about who the killer was and they were the beginning of the wrenching plot twist to surprise the audience. Sometimes the logic of the movies suffered because of this and perhaps this book does too. Be warned- this book might be more gory in its descriptions than the previous one too, and that's saying something.
So, I'm sorry, SGJ. It's probably me. I wanted to read this during the horror month of October but my brain just didn't seem to want to do horror even though it was the month for it. Now I'm going to go baby my brain with stuff that's easier and more fluffy. If you're ready for it, I think you'll like Reaper, I just wasn't.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This is the first sequel I’ve read in…over a year I think? And I was so nervous that I wouldn’t like it nearly as much as Chainsaw, but thankfully it delivered!!! I thought it was a little longer than it needed to be, and there were perhaps slightly too many moving parts, but Jade is such a shining character that she far outweighs any technical quibbles I had. Her and Letha’s relationship really gets the space to grow in this installment and I CAN’T GET ENOUGH.
There’s one sequence toward the middle of the book where Letha and Jade are across the lake, and it was, to me, the emotional core of the story. Their journey back across and Jade’s thoughts during that almost had me in tears. It was some of my favorite writing that I’ve seen so far from Stephen Graham Jones.
Fingers crossed that I’ll like the third book just as much! My only hope is that Rexall and Mr Armitage, at the very least, get their fucking teeth kicked in.
EDIT: came back a few hours later to bump up from 4.75 stars to 5 stars because as I was about to get into the shower, I remembered a conversation Jade and Letha had and made a sound like I was going to throw up (but in a good way.)
There’s one sequence toward the middle of the book where Letha and Jade are across the lake, and it was, to me, the emotional core of the story. Their journey back across and Jade’s thoughts during that almost had me in tears. It was some of my favorite writing that I’ve seen so far from Stephen Graham Jones.
Fingers crossed that I’ll like the third book just as much! My only hope is that Rexall and Mr Armitage, at the very least, get their fucking teeth kicked in.
EDIT: came back a few hours later to bump up from 4.75 stars to 5 stars because as I was about to get into the shower, I remembered a conversation Jade and Letha had and made a sound like I was going to throw up (but in a good way.)
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dickensian in its character count, Craven-esque in its body count, this book brings slashers back. It's true I had some difficulty remembering who was who (so many people! so many corpses!) but I managed. Throughout the carnage, despite the numbers, there is a depth of characterization I've not seen in other horror fiction. This author is something else.