“I would love to do one of those blind taste tests and have someone give me three stories without a name on them. I bet I could tell which one [Stephen Graham Jones] wrote.” – Sadie Hartman, 100 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered
She’s only twenty-two, Hardy reminds himself.
The world is shit, to not have treated her better.
She should be on a full-ride scholarship at some school far away. All she should be worried about is a test, a date, a party.
Instead, her only friend is an old man dying … at the top of the world, and her only memories are stained with blood.
From Don’t Fear the Reaper
In the wake of the deaths on Independence Day, 2015, Jennifer (no longer “Jade”) Daniels served four years in prison, never convicted of anything except destruction of federal property. On parole, she returns to her home in Proofrock, Idaho and, as one might expect after My Heart is a Chainsaw, all is not well.
Slashers like holiday festivities (Halloween, April Fool’s Day, Black Christmas, etc.), and Jennifer’s return coincides with a Christmas blizzard, the same blizzard that causes the conditions for escape from authorities by Dark Mill South, a convicted serial killer, in the mountains near Proofrock. But there’s more to the deaths of several high school students than Dark Mill South and it’s complicated by the appearance of a white elk in town. What does that mean? What does it stem from? Does it matter that Dark Mill South is rumored to be part Native American and the only survivor of his cross-country killing spree to date was also Native American? And that Jade is Native American?
Together with former Sheriff, Angus Hardy, who treats her like the daughter he lost, her friend Letha and Letha’s husband Banner, both of whom know her true role four years previous, and Cinnamon Baker, who Jennifer identifies as the new final girl in town, Jennifer’s knowledge of slashers is tested by the mysteries behind the killings that may, or may not, be by Dark Mill South. As bodies start falling, the question of who stands up to the killer or killers comes down to who is left standing.
Early on Graham Jones orients the reader to the changes in Proofrock since My Heart Is a Chainsaw, summarizes Jade’s experiences since the Independence Day festivities of 2015, draws parallels with Jade’s favorite kind of movie and meantime sets the reader smack in the middle of a rocket fast plot. More impressive is he does this while expanding on Jennifer “Jade” Daniels, who is an amazing creation. Damaged by her father’s lack of caring, her mother’s abandonment, always feeling like an outsider because of them, and her interests, and her Native American heritage, she has reason to hate Proofrock and want it razed to the ground, and yet her conscience won’t let her stand aside. Her big heart is on display time and again as she wrestles fear and self-doubt to fight for the people there, especially the ones she loves, and maybe especially Addie, Letha and Banner’s young daughter. Jade doesn’t believe herself to be a true final girl but feels compelled to find one who is and get her ready for the final fight, just as she had with Letha four years before.
This book is not a great read because it’s unsettling, but because Graham Jones knows how to develop his characters while making the danger of this place at this time explicit. No puppets here, just people trying to survive threats human and — otherwise. Some don’t, some do, but at a cost, and the greatest cost may be to the final girl, the scars and trauma inflicted, the losses endured. Like its predecessor, My Heart is a Chainsaw, I highly recommend Don’t Fear the Reaper.
DON’T FEAR THE REAPER by Stephen Graham Jones
(Indian Lake Trilogy #2)
457 pages, Hardcover
