Angela Slatter Reviews Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga 978-1-98218-659-3, $27.99, 464pp, hc) February 2023.

“It’s starting again.”

Welcome home, Jade. Well, Jenni­fer – Jade’s not herself right now. Not after several years in the injustice system. That experience has beaten her all out of shape – out of her true self. She’s started to think that safety lies in denying who she was – is – the one with all the slasher knowledge. But she’s going to have to remember because that’s what kept her alive last time.

My Heart is a Chainsaw introduced us to Jade as the outcast at Proofrock’s high school: a horror movie enthusiast, spectacular underachiever, a girl in custodian’s overalls trying to hide from a whole range of hurts. The Independence Day Massacre that finished the first Indian Lake book (and a lot of lives) has hijacked Jade’s own life – even though she saved the town. Conflicting testimonies, truths, and urban legends mixed together like so much blood in water, and no one can really distinguish one from the other. The only thing that seems to be agreed upon was that Jade was somehow responsible for it all. Or part of it. Or at least she’s someone who couldn’t defend herself, so she’s spent four years paying for it.

But she’s back in Proofrock ID (released under some very specific conditions), living in her old home (basically a house of horrors), and finding that Letha Mondragon, the one Jade thought was the final girl, has changed too.

Letha’s still nursing her own chronic injuries. Letha, who thought Jade Daniels was disturbed, who scoffed at every bit of slasher lore Jade ever spouted – well, nowadays Letha can recite it chapter and verse. Everything Jade’s trying to forget is now her best friend’s bible. And Letha’s got more to lose than ever: a two-year-old daugh­ter and a husband.

Both Jade and Letha know that something’s coming on the wings of the worst blizzard in years: Dark Mill South. A serial killer so inven­tive that, just maybe, he’s getting credited for kills that aren’t his. Panic, paranoia, and a peculiar kind of staring-at-the-entrails murderomancy that criminal profilers and armchair detectives love to indulge in is just giving the guy ideas. It helps make him a shapeshifting sort of slasher, his history murky and mythic, maybe true and maybe false. He’s coming under cover of dark­ness and snow and blood.

Rounding out the cast are familiar faces from the last massacre – most of them bearing scars, internal, external, or both. Ex-Sheriff Hardy, still waiting for his dead daughter, still looking out for Jade, the surrogate child. Banner Thomp­kins, who should be off playing football, is now a deputy and Letha’s husband, burdened by the fear he can’t keep his family safe. Jade’s mother, who let her daughter down so badly before. Creepy janitor Rexall, fixated on the idea that Jade’s father might return. Twins Cinnamon and Ginger might be less unscathed than they appear to be. There are new characters too, drawn to the town like a shark to blood – it’s a bro­ken place, no matter how much money Letha’s throwing at it. There are those using Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour as cover for their own wetwork. And there’s a fresh chronicler of Proofrock’s troubles. Jade’s no longer a witness, no longer writing Slasher 101 essays – she’s the main event, the stuff of legend.

Thirty-six hours, twenty bodies, and Jade is the one thing standing between Dark Mill South and whatever else the seamy underbelly of Proofrock might throw at the survivors.

Jones’s writing is always engaging, energising and affecting. There’s never any doubt that you’re in the hands of a tremendous stylist. He can turn the mood of a scene on a dime, make you love or hate a char­acter in less than a line. He can hook a heart and mind in a few seconds – and defy expectations in a breath. He’s undoubtedly one of the most skilful authors working today, in either genre or “Big L” literature.

Stephen Graham Jones delivers another bloody billet-doux to the slasher genre and Jade Daniels, the best Final Girl there ever was (okay, equal best with Laurie Strode). If I had one tiny criticism, it would be around the namechecking of Slasher 101 references. Not to downplay the encyclopae­dic knowledge that Jade and her friends have and need, but sometimes it starts to drag. But I’m aware that’s a personal thing for me, and a matter between the writer and his editor.

Don’t Fear the Reaper is bloody and violent and utterly riveting. Best served with a nice chi­anti, and both books will make for a fantastic re-read when the third Indian Lake book comes out.

This review and more like it in the May 2023 issue of Locus.

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