After My Heart is a Chainsaw I knew I’d take my scaredy cat self and read the rest of Stephen Graham Jones’ upcoming releases. And I Was a Teenage Slasher is surprisingly tender? You start rooting for the….unexpected. Keep reading this book review of I Was a Teenage Slasher for my full thoughts.
Summary
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I Was a Teenage Slasher immediately begins with intrigue. It starts with this almost reflective frame narrative. We know pretty soon that something happened, something bad, but we don’t know yet how or why. But we will. It’s a story about the things put in motion before we even know. Jones doesn’t shy away from the casual cruelty and also the meta Final Girl lore you might be familiar with now. There’s a sense of wanting to shy away from what happens, while also realizing the ‘poetic-ness’ of it combined with this idea of justice.
If you’ve read the Indian Lake trilogy, it pays similar homage to Horror tropes, Final Girl symptoms, and the way we can see the credit scenes creeping in. I Was a Teenage Slasher examines revenge and violence, but it also explores friendship. There’s this distinct sense of tenderness as we witness friendships that seem remarkable. And at the end there’s this feeling like the floor drops out from under us as we question the ending.
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I listened to this in audiobook form and that was truly one of the best experiences. Michael Crouch does a phenomenal job at infusing this subtle feeling of doubt, of fear, or lovingness in the most intense scenes. You can hear these wiggles of morality and also of motivation.
One of the best books I read in 2024 hands down! If you’ve never read Stephen Graham Jones or if you had, this is a must read. Find I Was A Teenage Slasher on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.