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When MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW came out, I think I had already read maybe two or three books by Stephen Graham Jones. MONGRELS, THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, and NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS. I could have something missing, but either way, he was an author I was growing familiar with, and I had really loved what I had read up until that point.

And the first 3/4 or more of MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW kinda blew me away. It’s just an electrifying book, and Jade Daniels was a character I loved straight away. But gah…the ending of the book was just so wildly unhinged, I felt almost a bit lost at times. Ultimately it was a book that I really loved, but I just felt slightly disconnected from the ending of.

But I went into DON’T FEAR THE REAPER, book two in THE INDIAN LAKE TRILOGY with really high hopes, and fucking hell…this book wound up being one of my very favorite horror novels.

Like, ever.

DON’T FEAR THE REAPER feels somehow even more intense than MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, but also more personal, and intimate. This book is a fucking masterpiece of slasher horror AND winter horror!

Four years after the events of MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, Jade is released from prison and returns to Proofrock. She’s clearly been changed & traumatized by the ordeal, grown up quite a lot, and is also going by Jennifer instead of Jade.

Her return to Proofrock has a kind of somber quality to it, as Jennifer is worried about what will be left of the relationships she’s left behind. She’s got work to do to build back some friendships.

But this is the second book in a slasher trilogy, a blizzard is bearing down on the area, and oh, a convicted serial killer has just escaped a prison transport bus.

Fucking hell.

The serial killer’s name is Dark Mill South, he’s got a hook for a hand, and as Jennifer finds out sooner rather than later, she’s not the only person in town who speaks fluent slasher movie. Dark Mill South’s kills are gnarly and elaborate, and he always seems to be one step ahead of Jennifer, Letha, Hardy, and some other familiar (and new) faces.

The relationship between Jennifer/Jade and Letha in this book is fucking everything. Oof. Letha has had to overcome so much in the time between the Independence Day Massacre and now. Part of her jaw has been replaced with a prosthetic, and she’s never fully physically healed from her wounds. To say nothing of the emotional trauma she’s endured. That said, she’s moved on, has a little family now…this is all pretty mind-blowing to Jennifer/Jade, but the two try to pick up where they left off. Only now, Letha seems to be the one who can’t get enough slasher movies, watching them almost as a coping mechanism.

This aspect of Letha’s recovery really hit home for me, as I’m sure it will with all kinds of genre fans. The idea that you could find comfort & healing in something as seemingly outrageous & disturbing as a slasher film is really just…special to me. It’s a really personal thing, I think. When something that may be outwardly disturbing still manages to provide you with comfort on some level…yeah, I don’t know. The Silence of the Lambs is one of my comfort movies, so I really loved & related to this aspect of Letha’s healing.

I’ve been chipping away at this review for quite a few days (which is pretty typical for me), but I’ve been thinking about DON’T FEAR THE REAPER basically every day since I finished it. As I mentioned, MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW left me feeling a little lost at times, particularly towards the end. But book two was much easier for me to follow & really just sink into, completely. There’s a quality to Jones’s writing that I think lends itself to quick reading…just something about the way he writes dialogue, maybe. Either way, this one is hard to put down. That said, if I had one complaint about the book, it’s that some of the chapters are super long…sometimes around 50 pages, and I think one was around 100!! A minor gripe, but I’m always going to prefer shorter chapters.

I’ve rambled on & on, it seems. The long and short of it is, DON’T FEAR THE REAPER fucking blew me away. Jennifer/Jade and Letha make for such an incredible duo…oof, I just love these characters so damn much. This book had me feeling BIG FEELINGS! But it also had me laughing a lot, and being totally horrified and not exactly comfortable flipping the page to see what would happen next. I CANNOT WAIT to see what Stephen Graham Jones has up his sleeve for the finale of THE INDIAN LAKE TRILOGY!!

Massive thanks to Saga Press for sending me a copy!! DON’T FEAR THE REAPER is out this Tuesday, February 7th!