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I Was a Teenage Slasher
OverDrive Inc.  Eaudiobook
2024
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I Was a Teenage Slasher
Rating:0 stars
Publication date:2024

About the author:

Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Description:

*USA TODAY Bestseller * Alex Award Winner *

The "viciously clever, over-the-top, genre-skewing" (The New York Times Book Review) classic slasher story with a twist from Stephen Graham Jones, the master of modern horror and bestselling author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, The Only Good Indians, and the Indian Lake trilogy.
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small 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 "playful, self-aware, and remarkably gory horror novel" (The New York Times).
Reviews:

Publisher's Weekly

May 20, 2024
Bestseller Jones (the Indian Lake trilogy) again riffs on 1980s slasher movies in this indulgent bloodbath. Tolly Driver witnesses a massacre at a high school party at the hands of Justin Jones, an undead classmate who died during a vicious prank gone awry. Having gotten infected with a couple drops of Justin’s blood, and reeling from a near-death experience stemming from his peanut allergy, Tolly finds himself driven by the urge to go on a murder spree of his own. He dons a mask and slashes his way through his small Texas town. Only his childhood friend, final girl Amber Dennison, serves as a tether to the scared and fragile kid he was before the killing began. Will she be able to stop the slaughter once and for all? The story has a clear love for the splashy slasher films that inspired it, and Jones does a great job of landing the plot’s gorier excesses as the bodies pile up. Unfortunately, chaotic plotting undercuts the story’s tension and narrator Tolly’s many tangents make the pacing somewhat start-and-stop. Still, fans of meta horror will find a lot to love as Jones remixes well-worn tropes with glee. Agent: BJ Robbins, BJ Robbins Literary.

Kirkus Audiobook Reviews
Texas-born and raised, narrator Michael Crouch draws on his roots to bring the title character of this audiobook to life. In mournful tones, Tolly Driver recounts the events of the summer of 1989, when a peanut-infused Coke nearly kills him (he's allergic) and ultimately triggers a gruesome revenge rampage against the bullies who forced it on him. Crouch makes sure listeners understand that Tolly is the most reluctant of killers--and is totally aware of the ridiculousness of the setup--but he's caught in the inexorable grasp of the slasher genre's conventions. There's vomit and blood aplenty, but Crouch's light touch leaves listeners remembering the love: for the small West Texas town Tolly can never return to and for his best friend, who tried to save Tolly from his fate. Unexpectedly sweet. V.S.
Library Journal

September 1, 2024

Jones's ("Indian Lake" trilogy) latest is a gore-filled yet tender coming-of-age story full of gruesome nods to the slasher genre. Listeners meet Tolly Driver, who, 17 years earlier, embarked on a horrific killing spree during the summer of 1989 in the small Texas town of Lamesa. During a house party gone terribly wrong, Tolly, a good but fragile kid with a peanut allergy, was transformed into a slasher. He rampaged through the town, with the body count steadily rising. Despite the horrifying content, Michael Crouch narrates Tolly with engaging tenderness, making the quintessential slasher into a sympathetic character. Listeners may find themselves rooting for Tolly, someone who's faced many obstacles and is forced to kill owing to circumstances beyond his control. Jones narrates his acknowledgments with appealing casualness, describing his memories of growing up in a West Texas town 45 miles from Lamesa. VERDICT From final girls to slashers, Jones's ode to the genre and exploration of what it means to be an outsider is a fast-paced, horror-filled book that listeners won't be able to put down.--Elyssa Everling

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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