What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week:<\/strong><\/p> A book it feels strange to tease after talking about reading a series last week. A book that does what all good slasher sequels do: expand its point of view, grow its characters, and have a bigger body count. A book that, while ramping up the kills, slows down a good deal to give us some real interiority with the people caught up in this mess\u2014what a way to make use of a novel over film. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Don\u2019t Fear The Reaper<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones. <\/p> We talked a little about Jade Daniels\u2019 concept of slasher being about revenge and the righting of wrongs. I cast some aspersions on that, not because I disagree, but because I think slashers are more complex than one thing. That said, our killer this book\u2014the amazingly<\/em> named<\/em> Dark Mill South\u2014has plenty of vengeance on his mind. Before he even gets to Proofrock, he\u2019s killed 38 in revenge for for the largest mass execution in US history: 1862, when Abraham Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota men hanged. Look, this blog isn\u2019t gonna side with serial killers, but\u2014y\u2019all remember the January blogs, right<\/a>? The United States of America is overdue for some retribution. <\/p> That said\u2014this book is hard to talk about without falling face-first into the circle saw of actually ruinous spoilers. Not obvious stuff, like \u201cJade\u2019s going by Jennifer now to show she\u2019s changed but she drops it not even halfway through and goes back to Jade.\u201d Spoilers that\u2019ll hurt your enjoyment of the novel. So let\u2019s just say that SGJ\u2019s working with two underlying themes: 1) there are men who hate women and girls, and women and girls have to figure out how navigate this perilous world and 2) the colonial mindset white people get upon seeing open nature is deep, and it is insidious. <\/p> So the body count\u2019s bigger, yes\u2014the prose, however, is a touch more ponderous. Early on, we get an extended meditation on aging, missing a dead child, duty to community, and plenty more from a Retired Sheriff Hardy. It\u2019s not the only such chapter, we get these digressions (which sometimes set up kills) from Letha Mondragon, Kimmy Daniels, new history teacher Mr. Armitage, and many more. Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re still hanging out with Jade Daniels, but maybe don\u2019t call her Jade anymore. Like last week, I hope this semi-warning about the prose doesn\u2019t turn you off from reading. This book is still great, and I\u2019m stoked<\/em> to wrap up with Angel of Indian Lake<\/em> next week. Just, don\u2019t expect a thrill-a-minute horror ride. It\u2019s [Jenna Ortega in <\/em>Scream voice] <\/em>elevated horror. And no shade to The Babadook<\/em>, but I\u2019ll probably be re-reading this book before re-watching that movie. That movie can be re-watched when my six-year-old has aged into college, thank you very much. <\/p> Derailing slightly\u2014I do like this book. In a Reddit thread that I now can\u2019t find, a poster claiming to be Native interprets the multiplicity of narrators to connect with Native American storytelling traditions. Heavier focus on community, not just Final Girl and Killer. Indigenous Americans are far more community-oriented than the colonizing occupiers of this continent, so this tracks. Honestly, more slashers would benefit from taking stock of the fallout on a community-wide basis, rather than \u201cJason\u2019s got a new crop of campers\u201d or whatever. Scream<\/em> does this, of course, and SGJ is heavily influenced by Scream. <\/em>Something this book seems to be doing, with its references to post-Cabin In The Woods<\/em> horror, is canonizing these new movies, like It Follows<\/em> or Happy Death Day. <\/em>It\u2019s a worthwhile endeavor, imo, and I am excited for the cultural touchstones of horror to be evolving to include more than schlock. Not that the 1977 Halloween<\/em> isn\u2019t a perfect film or anything. But we can talk about It Follows<\/em> now, too. <\/p> Too long on the book summary! Okay okay, SGJ does this for me. He\u2019s getting \u201cTop 5 favorite writer\u201d status, I think. Might have to do a whole Wednesday column on the post-Cabin In The Woods<\/em> divide in horror, how Scream IV<\/em> plays into it, okay, okay, let\u2019s get to the links. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? Am I gonna shamelessly plug the music videos I put up earlier this week? It\u2019s my blog, isn\u2019t it? <\/p>![\"Don\u2019t](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/97e5d6f7-9abb-4584-b03f-f98730e1e7bf_3024x4032.heic\")
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