Hey, look! There’s a new Stephen Graham Jones book out!
I mean, naturally, I picked it up for review, so here we are.
I Was a Teenage Slasher is the story of Tolly Driver, a 17-year-old boy in the small town of Lamesa, Texas. While not a stunningly popular kid in his school, Tolly is largely unremarkable before everything goes wrong at his classmate Deek’s party. Before that night, he was known mostly for his deathly peanut allergy and for the tractor collision that killed his father. It’s the summer of 1989, and all hell is about to break loose.
See, another student who was trying to fit in with Deek’s gang died during a hazing ritual. In true slasher fashion, he rises from the dead and comes back for a roaring rampage of revenge, meting out justice to all of the other high schoolers who didn’t prevent his death in the first place. In the aftermath of that encounter, Tolly ends up getting some of the killer’s blood into an open cut on his own forehead. Now things are getting weird. Vehicles fail to start when he’s around. The kitchen knife makes an audibly sharp SHTING sound when pulled from the wood block, but only when he does it. Is Tolly Driver the new killer?
I Was a Teenage Slasher isn’t the first time Stephen Graham Jones has tackled horror from the killer’s perspective. This is his wheelhouse, after all. He plays with classic slasher movie tropes much as he did in his Angel of Indian Lake Trilogy. This time, though, we’re dealing with a delightfully reluctant killer who gradually becomes aware of what’s happening to him, but unable to stop himself. After all, he’s not the final girl. No matter what, he’s definitely going to be notable now.
My utmost thanks to Saga Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this one in exchange for a fair review. I Was a Teenage Slasher is out in the world as of yesterday, 7/16/24. Run out and get it. Just… watch your back.
The Swords of the Ancients 