Set at the very end of the 80’s (1989) in Lamesa, West Texas, this book is exactly what the title says it is. It’s about a slasher (think Ghostface from Scream, or Michael Myers from Halloween and so on) who also happens to be a teenager. The story is told by Tolly, the slasher of the title, as he explains what happened over a few weeks in 1989. Tolly didn’t wake up one morning and choose violence, or well he did, but it was only after violence chose him. In the world that this book is set in, there can be outside forces that almost possess the characters, forcing them into acting out a horror movie scenario, that operates within horror movie “rules.”
Early on in the book, Tolly is the victim of a pretty vicious assault by some of his classmates. That was bad, but then things get worse and take a turn for the supernatural when he is a witness to the slaughter of a different set of classmates. These classmates are taken out by a reanimated corpse of a student whose death they played a role in. If you’ve watched a lot of horror movies, you know the killer coming back via supernatural means for revenge is a trope that shows up in a lot of horror movies. It (mostly) works in the movies and it really works here. These slashers were created because they were hurt (and badly) and now they are going to hurt back – to the tenth degree.
For the rest of the novel, tropes are embraced (the unstoppable villain marching endlessly forward, the promiscuous teens, the final girl, the killer’s mask, the rising body count) but are written in a very cool way. The “powers” that are running this universe do have rules they need to abide by, and while the deck seems stacked in favour of the slashers, there is always a Final Girl who is out there to balance the scales. How Stephen Graham Jones works the tropes that govern horror moves into the narrative is very, very well done. (For example, as he becomes the slasher, and not so much Tolly, colour bleeds out of Tolly’s world and he starts seeing everything in black and white.)
What it also embraces is violence. So much violence. If this had been a movie, there would have been parts where I would have put my hands up to cover my eyes. I wasn’t able to do that when reading, but I did at some points hold the book away from me. Seriously it is very very violent.
But there is more going on here than slashers and violence, every description I’ve read of the book notes that the author is exploring the time period of his youth in Texas. And I buy that. The loving detail put into the slasher aspects of this book are matched by the details about Lamesa, Texas. I have never been to Texas, not even close but reading this book? I felt like I was there. Not going to lie, I dreamed about Texas after reading this.
Stephen Graham Jones has also written a trilogy (The Indian Lake Trilogy) that deals with the slasher genre and is told from the point of view of a final girl. I have only read the first book in that trilogy, but I think that series and this stand-alone book would speak to each other in a really interesting way. If I am ever able to, ahem, slash my way through my TBR I do plan to finish that series out and see if that is correct.
And with this review – cannonball! I was hoping to get in a few more, but time has caught up to me (just like Tolly caught up with some of his victims…). Looking forward to seeing what books 2025 brings with it!