I Was a Teenage Slasher
Stephen Graham JonesÂ
Publisher: Saga Press
Publisher’s Summary: From New York Times bestselling horror writer Stephen Graham Jones comes a classic slasher story with a twist—perfect for fans of Adam Cesare and Grady Hendrix.
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
Stephen Graham Jones, the prolific and award-winning author of The Indian Lake Trilogy, offers a brilliant entry into the horror genre with his latest novel, I Was a Teenage Slasher. The novel tells the story of Tolly Driver, a reluctant anti-hero effectively trapped in the summer of his teen-hood and doomed to endlessly scrutinize every choice he and his best friend, Amber Dennison, made during the fateful summer that put him on the path to destruction. The novel owes a debt to the slasher movies of the 80’s and 90’s, but Graham Jones deftly puts his own spin on the familiar tropes, offering a unique blend of the familiar and the surprising.
As the title makes clear, this is a novel about a young man who becomes a slasher. The novel is narrated by Tolly, and his rambling stream of consciousness conveys the impression that he is still trying to make sense out of the injustices that ultimately shaped his life. It’s easy to slip into Tolly’s perspective as he offers a story that is part confession, part love letter, and part tragi-comedy, and despite being a villain, it is our sympathy for Tolly and his fate that make the book so compelling. Graham Jones manages to combine the regret and nostalgia of a man looking back on his tumultuous teenage years, and not appreciating the good things in his life, despite the hardships that plagued it.
Graham Jones excels at evoking a sense of place, and he deposits the reader right into Lamesa, Texas at the tail-end of the 80’s. The setting is essential to the story, and this reviewer was transported right into the sweltering summer in a small town filled with bigotry, racial prejudice and rising fear when a killer is unleashed in their midst. Many of the characters appear to be caricatures at first glance; football players made cruel by their popularity, outcasts desperate to fit in, bitchy cheerleaders and tough-as-nails final girls, but these are the necessary ingredients of a horror-movie homage, and Graham Jones pulls them off with aplomb. The showdown between the Final Girl and the Slasher is well-represented here: Tolly and his final girl are at once individuals, but they also transcend their personhood to inhabit these roles of Slasher and Final Girl, almost as avatars, and are locked in combat until one of them permanently destroys the other. It’s not necessary to be a horror film buff to appreciate the book, but there are lots of homages and easter eggs hidden throughout the narrative, and those with a love of the genre will be delighted.
One of the most compelling aspects of the novel is relationship between Tolly and his best friend Amber. Both are outcasts for different reasons. He is a scrawny, nerdy kid with a peanut-allergy, and she is ostracized for the darkness of her skin and being from the reservation, but their friendship is the beating heart of this story. Much of Tolly’s humanity centers around his feelings for Amber, and the actions they take because of their friendship offers some of the novel’s most compelling moments. I Was a Teenage Slasher is a coming-of-age story for both Tolly and Amber, and it is this deeply human element that keeps the novel grounded even when it reaches its bloodiest. Readers should be aware that the novel has elements of gore, violence, extreme bullying, suicidal contemplation, and animal deaths, but these elements feel justified within the narrative as an essential part of the story.
Overall, Graham Jones has crafted a nuanced portrayal of a man whose life is filled with regrets, both for the choices he made and for the choices that were taken from him. Despite his hardships, Tolly does his best to protect those who matter most to him, and readers will be in suspense over Amber and Tolly’s eventual fates. Those in search of a horror story won’t want to miss this excellent novel from one of the genre’s best authors. Highly recommended.
