Scan barcode
A review by thereadingrambler
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
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