The villains in horror, though? To borrow from Stieg Larsson, there are plenty of Men Who Hate Women in horror. Michael Myers, all the dudes in the Scream<\/em> movies, even Dracula\u2019s all Victorian. Something Jade Daniels learns in these books? Life isn\u2019t a slasher, even if people are dying around you. So with the knowledge that there are men who hate women and all the attendant CWs, let\u2019s get into it. <\/p> What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week:<\/strong><\/p> Come on, you know what time it is. We\u2019re wrapping up a trilogy this week! Idk if my heart is a chainsaw yet\u2014my heart has Gil-Man webbing and werewolf teeth\u2014but reading these books has inspired me to watch the first three Nightmare On Elm Street<\/em> movies, first two Halloween<\/em> movies, the third Friday The 13th<\/em>, and I think a second viewing of Happy Death Day <\/em>is due. Oh! And I watched Haunt Season<\/a><\/em>, a totally kickass new movie starring my dear friend and Best Co-Dad, Adam Hinkle<\/a>. More on that in a minute. We now, of course, must talk about The Angel Of Indian Lake<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones. <\/p> Jade takes the first-person mic for the vast majority of the finale, as she should. She\u2019s also talking to people in her head, and an increasingly unreliable narrator\u2014though more trustworthy than anyone else in Idaho, I\u2019d argue. Is Jade the Angel of Indian Lake, vandalizing the attempts at a Death-Star-in-Jedi version of Terra Nova? Jade\u2019s not responsible for those fires, is she? There are a lot of questions, and the answers do come. Not that I doubted Jade.<\/p> The body count rises. You got to. We also get our first invocation of Cabin In The Woods<\/em>. If you, like Brendan and me, have always wanted to see what happens when ALL THE MONSTERS from that little file cabinet gets released? This book is close. SGJ also does the fun Stephen King\/GRR Martin thing of\u00a0of throwing so much blood <\/em>and so much going on<\/em> that when they inevitably make an HBO series of these books (and make SGJ the millionaire he deserves to be), there\u2019s no way the adaptation will have the budget or the stomach for all the kills. Be on the lookout for a Cracked<\/em> article in 2040 about \u201c5 More Movie Deaths (That Were Way Crazier In Books)\u201d to feature these novels. <\/p> There\u2019s so much here, thematically, though, that just can\u2019t fit in this column space. Terra Nova as colonial allegory. Indian Burial Ground Trope vs. Have You Ever Thought About What Christian Graveyards Are For Native People? Are these books even slashers or is the narrative trick of Jade telling<\/em> us<\/em> how things would play out if this was a slasher tricking us, the reader, into making patterns out of coincidental actions. What responsibility do the living have to make sure the dead stay asleep? Most importantly and implicit in all horror, how do you carry on once what\u2019s happened has happened? This trilogy features killers, the dead rising, blood splatter, and haunted cabins, but\u2014the most horrifying things are what normal people do to other people, right? I\u2019m more worried about the Tab Daniels and Rexalls in my community than the Dark Mill Souths, more worried about the Kimmy Daniels and Lana Singletons than the Ghosts of Staceyes Graveses. Stay safe out there, and don\u2019t let the evil in\u2014supernatural or otherwise. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? It\u2019s October, here\u2019s a video of The Devil\u2019s Bastard Brendan Johnson for the b & the nothingness song \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Bastard.\u201d<\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/526ec235-38b2-4878-b794-3da6c30d2fd0_2656x3806.heic\")
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