On the run from the FBI, respectable-looking serial killers Norwood and Penelope Thawn head to Crystal Lake in an attempt to contact Jason Vorhees, whom they feel shares their mission to rid America of sin, but they soon find that Jason likes to work alone.

After reading & absolutely loving The Last Days of Jack Sparks, I was super excited to find out that Jason Arnopp had written a Friday the 13th novel, Hate – Kill – Repeat! I immediately went to buy it from Amazon, as one does. Only…holy fuck, prices for used copies were in excess of $100 and I just…couldn’t. I posted a story about the whole thing on Bookstagram, and a really good friend squirreled that idea away & somehow managed to find a copy in pretty good shape AND SENT IT TO ME FOR CHRISTMAS!!! It was a goddamn Christmas miracle!!

And fucking hell…this was such a blast to read! This book completely captures the spirit of the movies, while also really standing out in some unique ways…this has got to be the most ambitious tie-in novel I’ve ever read!

This takes place after Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. I couldn’t even guess how many years it’s been since I’ve seen that one, and it didn’t impact my enjoyment of this story in any way. There are certainly some nods & references to characters & events from the movies, but you for sure DO NOT need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Friday the 13th films to enjoy Hate – Kill – Repeat. I mean, you gotta want to see Jason Vorhees creatively & violently dismember massive amounts of people, but that’s the only prerequisite.

Alas, our beloved Jason isn’t the only threat in this book, as Arnopp introduces us to Norwood and Penelope Thawn, a well-spoken, nicely-manicured, middle-aged married couple. Who are also serial killers. They’re part of a cult of sorts, and they travel the country killing people who don’t live up to their own heightened sense of morality. They know the legend of Jason Vorhees, and seek him out. They feel they have common ground with him. After all, Jason spends much of his time butchering teenagers who are drunk and/or having pre-marital sex. Sinners, right?

But, like…is Jason killing these kids because of the inebriation & the sex? Or is it just that, you know, he spends a lot of his time hanging around a nice lake where kids just happen to be inebriated and having sex? That’s what the Thawn’s will have to find out.

There were moments reading this where I worried there were too many characters for a tie-in novel to a slasher movie franchise. But in the end, Arnopp pulls it off like a goddamn magician. You spend just as much time with a character as you need to…and then they either get brutally disassembled by the big guy in the hockey mask, or they carry on as one of the characters you need to pay attention to.

To that end, the main character of the book is, ostensibly, a girl named Hayley Harlan. She goes by Halo, and she goes through a seriously impressive amount of growth & character development in this book. A final girl to be reckoned with, you find yourself rooting harder & harder for her as the book carries on. Oof…Halo is a pretty badass character!!

And what would Friday the 13th be without the epic kills? I mean, that’s kinda the draw of the movies, no? Arnopp goes fully fucking bonkers in Hate – Kill – Repeat. Some of the kills are wildly hilarious, completely fucking disgusting, and shockingly violent. The book is like a fireworks display of murder & mayhem, leading up to the utterly blood-drenched grand finale.

I read most of the book today, Friday the 13th. It seemed an appropriate way to celebrate a franchise that I’ve been enjoying for…holy shit, for a lot of years. In a way, Friday the 13th movies (along with plenty of other horror movies) can feel almost like comfort movies to me, and Hate – Kill – Repeat certainly gave me that same feeling!

Happy Friday the 13th!!