Okay not going to lie, I liked My Heart is a Chainsaw, but I didn’t get the hype yet. But now that I’ve read Don’t Fear the Reaper, I’m fully on the train. Sign me up. I adored this sequel so much and it swept me away! Keep reading this book review of Don’t Fear the Reaper for my full thoughts.
Summary
Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.
Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.
Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I have to 100% recommend this audiobook of Don’t Fear the Reaper. I’m not sure if it’s that this was a sequel or the audio, but I fell in love with this one. Since it’s a sequel, there’s a lot of the legwork and foundation in My Heart is a Chainsaw. I knew there would be some sort of Horror 101. And I knew what happened in the first since I immediately jumped in. But Don’t Fear the Reaper just got me. It examines what happens after the ending. The credit scene. And how what happens impacts the community. How it creates another layer of trauma and superstition.
We are able to witness the injustices afterwards. And the ways the town recovers and, in many ways, doesn’t. The echoes of what happened which ripples throughout the lake. This multiple narrator cast creates this cinematic effect. It helps immediately differentiate the characters, their pains, and their fear. Yet at the same, their resilience and strength. 100% recommend in audiobook.
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Don’t Fear the Reaper is the book that hooked me. It asks similar thematic questions to My Heart is a Chainsaw. We wonder who the Final Girl is. Who will be the one who saves the town – if it’s even possible. There’s a distinct blurring of the supernatural here. And it’s about revenge, these ghosts, and past mysteries. It’s triumphant and captivating. Find Don’t Fear the Reaper on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.