A review by house_of_hannah
Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is a bit of a rollercoaster. I absolutely do not care about the first 100 pages, and found it to be quite boring and cliché. I was not expecting to be 1/3 of the way into the story before anything happens. But when it does the story absolutely takes off. 

I was quite invested in the next 100 pages of the book. The murders were just stacking up one after another. I did not realize going into this that everything happens in just one night, so we jump from 0 to 100 instantly. For that last 1/3 though it just started to go downhill again. After we start having some reveals I'm just left thinking, "Really ? This is what we're going with ?". 

When the plan is all laid out for us it's actually laughable. The culprits are truly some of the dumbest antagonists I've ever come across, and honestly, I think that's done on purpose.
It truly felt like a repeat of the January 6th insurrection at the US capitol, down to the fact that people were caught because of their phone's GPS.


The only likable characters here are Quinn's dad, and maayyyybe Quinn herself. I find her to just mainly be an observer though; almost like a self insert for the reader or something. She never really has a chance to show her personality, so we never get to know her.  

Essentially this book is
what would happen if you were trapped in a town where the MAGA crowd was murdering teens who annoyed them.
AKA my worst nightmare. 

Overall this is a book where I greatly enjoyed the parts that were good, but really disliked the parts that weren't. I will probably skip the sequel. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings