Clowning Around

 I've seen Adam Cesare's name floating around on several social media platforms, and even have a title or two of his waiting on my Kindle to be read, but I've been hearing such great things about Clown in a Cornfield, I decided to let it jump to the front of the line.

The book starts out with a group of kids hanging at the reservoir of Kettle Springs, doing what kids do -- drinking, smoking, high-diving off the rocks. And we're in the days of social media, so everything is being filmed and streamed live. Cole Hill is the star attraction, a local bad boy who had it all -- fame (local though it may be), good looks, and money. But attention is quickly drawn away from him when his younger sister climbs the stacks, a natural feature of the area that would put her relatively high up. And she proceeds to jump -- and hit her head on the way down. You know what comes next. Yeah, she's dead. And it's all been caught on camera. It was an accident, but Cole is seen as the one responsible for his sister's death.

Jump a year later, and we find Quinn Maybrook arriving in town with her father, who is replacing the town's previous doctor, who up and left rather suddenly. It's not long before Quinn falls in with the local pack of bad ones. You know the type, the pretty girl who's pretty and knows it -- and wants everybody else to know it; the clingy hanger-on, who clings to everybody -- the pretty girl, the jock, her boyfriend, who, while pretty herself, isn't the center of attention but wants to be; the jock, dumb, obnoxious, often acts without thinking; and in the center of it all is Cole, just returning from school after being investigated for suspicion of arson. The kids aren't really bad; they just do what kids do in a small town -- pranking anybody and everybody and filming it all for their followers on social media. Quinn soon learns that one teacher at the school has it in for this crowd; his boner for this crowd has him assigning them detention for the slightest offense, and Quinn soon finds herself thrown in with this crowd on her very first day of school because she giggled at the teacher's overreaction to a minor offense. So now, without even knowing these kids, she's gained a reputation.

It's not long before the kids are throwing a party out at an old, abandoned farm. And it's not long after the party starts that the blood starts to flow. And it's not just the "bad ones" who have fall prey to the killer; any kid in attendance is fair game. The killer? Frendo, the Clown. The town's mascot. But who is behind the mask?

If you're familiar with slashers, you're not going to find anything new here. You can quickly figure out who the killer is, who the final girl is going to be, and pretty much who will live and who will die. It's pretty formulaic. But that doesn't stop it from being fun. It's like going to see Friday the 13th, and the following year going to Friday the 13th Part II... And Part III, and Part IV, and Part V. You get the idea. You tune in not for the great story (because face it, slashers are pretty much all the same -- only the locations, names, and backstory change), but for the creative ways in which characters will die. Sadly, there's nothing creative here, with all the deaths again being relatively formulaic. And sadly, there's no point in the story where you stop rooting for the kids and start rooting for the killer, which I think is part of the fun of a slasher film. Cesare has created a cast of sympathetic characters, and you want to see them survive. Yes, even the annoying characters, as there's just enough backstory given on them for you to understand why they are the way they are. As I said earlier, they're not bad kids. Wait a minute. I take that back. There are two kids you really want to see bit the big one, but you don't realize that until you're almost at the end of the story. That was a twist I didn't see coming.

All in all, I enjoyed Clown in a Cornfield. Is it the great masterpiece folks are raving about? No. Not in my opinion, but it is a fun read, especially if you're a slasher fan. And don't be too surprised to see Clown in a Cornfield II in the not too distant future, as the author has set it up for a possible sequel.

Out Goin' Squatchin', Take II

I first discovered Hunter Shea back in 2016 when I read The Jersey Devil. As a big cryptid fan, I was hooked, and went on to read a number of other books by Shea that dealt with the Loch Ness Monster, Florida's skunk apes, giant iguanas that eat Florida, and mutated rats that overtake NY. Plus I have a number of other books in my TBR pile. As a native NYer, I also have a thing for horror novels set within the five boroughs, so when I saw Shea's latest, Bigfoot in the Bronx, it jumped to the top of my TBR.

The premise of the book is simple. BFFs Shay Walsh and Vito Esposito are planning an overnight hunting trip. Shay has been down on his luck, having been laid off from his job and no prospects in sight. He's hoping to bag a buck that will keep his family in meat for the coming winter, and Vito, should he succeed in bringing down a buck, has vowed to give the lion's share to Shay, but why should this year be any different than any other year. The only thing they ever bagged was a hangover from too much drinking on their way home. As luck would have it, though, once they get settled into a prime hunting spot, a buck wanders into the clearing, but before they can bring it down, something big and hairy runs out of the forest and kills the deer. When the creature collapses and doesn't move, the two men go to investigate. It seems somebody else has been on the hunt, but his prey was the ever elusive cryptid.

Shay and Vito think the creature is dead, overdosed by the tranquilizer darts embedded in its back. While Shay stands guard over the body, Vito goes to get his truck, and between the two, they get it loaded and head back home. Their hope is to reveal their evidence that Bigfoot is real and cash in on a big payday. What they don't count on is the Bigfoot only being knocked out, so by morning, the creature had awakened and broken free to go on a killing rampage through the Bronx. Shay and Vito are in hot pursuit, believing it's their responsibility to capture the beast since it their fault the creature was in their neighborhood anyway. But the tricky part is trying to keep it a secret from their wives until they can recapture the creature so they can expose it to the world and still win their big payday.

While there's plenty of blood and guts throughout the book, there's also some humorous moments, such as when the Bigfoot becomes high after consuming somebody who happens to have an entire pharmacy running through his system. As the story progresses, though, you realize that the creature is only killing because it's scared; by nature, it's a timid, intelligent creature that just wants to return home. As is typical with this type of story, character development takes a back seat (but that doesn't mean it's not there) to the action taking place. And while the story starts off slow, it quickly ramps up to a breakneck speed that doesn't let up until the end. We do see a change in our two main characters, who are originally motivated by greed. By the end of the book, however, they've grown sympathetic to the creature and want only to recapture it and return it to its home. There's too much guilt involved, as they feel responsible for every death. Are they successful? Or do they fall prey to the rampaging creature? You'll just have to read and find out.

Recently, because of various reasons I won't bore you with, it's taken me a while to get through books, no matter how long they are. But Shea's latest hooked me from the beginning, and I finished it within a couple of days. It's a book you can easily get caught up in, and you won't want to put it down. If you like killer Bigfoot stories, or are just a fan of killer cryptids in general, this is definitely a book you'll want to check out. I definitely recommend it.

 

The Boys in the Band Meets Stephen King

 

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading The Boys on the Mountain, as this is the first book by John Inman that I've read, but I was looking for a good haunted house novel, and this came up in a random search. Let me warn you, this is not for the squeamish or faint of heart, as there are events that take place in this novel that are quite disturbing.

We've all seen the premise before in countless other novels - horror writer buys house that is reputedly haunted. The house belonged to celebrated horror movie actor Nigel Letters, who died of autoerotic asphyxiation. But apparently Nigel isn't the only ghost inhabiting the house. From the first night James Brandon spends in the house, the ghosts make themselves known. That's right. There's more than one ghost haunting the old Letters house. As it turns out, there are at least fifteen spirits in the house, not including Letters himself, and each spirit is that of a young man who had fallen victim to Nigel Letters's kinky obsession, that of torturing and murdering young hustlers. They are all trapped in the house, forced to relive the moments of their deaths over and over again. James takes it upon himself to be the liberator of these "children," who he believes he can free by writing their stories as told by the spirits themselves. And it is through Jim's eyes that we relive the final moments of several of the young men trapped in the house. Inman doesn't shy away from details, as the scenes he paints are sexually graphic, horrifying, and gory.

In order to relieve the tension created by these horrific scenes, Inman introduces humor in the form of several friends Brandon has invited to spend the weekend, not realizing at the time that the house was as haunted and dangerous as it has revealed itself to be. Letters isn't afraid of making his presence known to the group of men, and neither are the ghosts of the hustlers. Letters is actually trying to drive them from the house because he realizes what Jim is trying to do. And once Jim explains to his friends what is going on, they agree to help as much they can. But what's a gathering of gay men without the campiness and flippant and sometimes bitchy humor. It might seem inappropriate, and even irreverent considering what the victims have gone through, but it works, as the reader often finds themselves chuckling in response to the reactions of these men to the horrors going on around them. Some might think it unrealistic, but the way Inman weaves it into the narrative so fluidly, it just seems natural. After all, folks often deal with traumatic events with humor.

I'm not going to offer any spoilers. If you want to see if James and his friends survive the ordeal and if they're successful in liberating the unfortunate victims and exorcising the ghost of Nigel Letters, you'll just have to read the book. I rarely have to put books aside because of content, but some of the scenes contained in this book are emotionally draining, and I was forced to set the book aside to allow myself to regroup before pushing on. I do have to admit, however, that the ending, at least for me, gets a little muddy and raises a big question, but the overall ride was intense and enjoyable. I do want to re-emphasize that this book has a number of triggers that can upset readers, so if you are put off by rape scenes, gay sex, or child abuse, this is not a book you should read, but if you can deal with those issues and are looking for an excellent haunted house story, this is one to consider. Beyond the horrors endured by the young men in this book, Inman has created some disturbingly creepy instances as regards the haunting. I'm curious to see what his other books are like, so I will definitely be reading more of Inman's work.