Lockjaw by Matteo L Cerilli is a YA horror that explores small town niceness and what makes a monster real. I’m still fairly newly into horror and very particular, but I like seeing the themes of monstrosity explored through marginalized lenses, so I took the chance to read Lockjaw with glee.
This is a story told from several points of view and does some time jumps that aren’t obvious, for reasons that become evident about halfway through the book. I found several elements absolutely heartbreaking, as Paz is a Latina pre-teen that is immediately labeled trouble and no-good for trying to help her friends who are being abused by their foster parents. There’s also a lot with Paz’s sister, Marcela, trying so hard not to be like Paz so she can find safety in the small town of Bridlington. Marcela is dating the sheriff’s son and does everything in her power to follow the mores of minding her own business and keeping quiet, all in the name of survival.
The other big focus is on Asher, a homeless teen who rolls into Bridlington just as things are going bad with his dog, Bird. He meets Beetle, a confident though scared genderqueer person who is only back home for the summer and has no intentions of staying in a town he views as cursed. Asher is trying to survive, but keeps having twists of fate that make it harder, especially as he’s trying to hide that he’s living in his car and doesn’t want anyone to know he’s trans. Watching the contrast of Asher’s attempts at masculinity and Beetle’s comfort in his own skin with pastel hair and pink shirts, and how Beetle subtly helps Asher was one of the elements I really enjoyed.
I think in some ways Lockjaw does a lot of interesting things with small town dynamics and anger and revenge, but there was a point about halfway through, just before the Big Reveal, that I nearly DNFed. If you’re someone who can’t read books where dogs/animals and/or children die, DO NOT READ THIS. Major spoilers below (which was information I would have appreciated going in, even though it does spoil the Big Reveal).
MAJOR SPOILERS
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It turns out that Paz and her friends died six years prior and are ghosts haunting the town, hunting the monsters who hurt them in order to make the town safer for kids like them, the kids who don’t fit in and refuse to try. There are also dogs that die; three are killed by Paz telling them to jump when she first comes back as a ghost (they hurt her and her friends), and Bird also dies in the end, though his death isn’t quite as final; he and Paz continue on at the end of the book.
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END OF SPOILERS
In a lot of ways, I still don’t know how to feel about this book, and I don’t know if I enjoyed it, though it was a very compelling book. And the last half I absolutely devoured because after the Big Reveal I had to know what was going on and how everything would resolve. My biggest issue, I think, is in some ways the ending felt too neat. Things improve so much, it felt almost saccharine and hard to believe that level of change was possible given the history of the town. This may be a book better suited to people who typically gravitate towards the horror genre, and I wouldn’t say I disliked it, but it’s also a book that’s leaving me sitting in conflicted feelings, even twelve hours later. In many ways, this is a story of how “minding your own business” can translate to negligence and lead to tragedy. I did like that exploration, and the writing was compelling, especially the second half. The actual execution of the Big Reveal was incredible, and I do like the way the story messed with perception and timelines.