In case you missed it, I’m reading my way through the Goodreads 78 Most Popular Horror List - check out my first post here.

Next up I chose I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. I’ve read a few books by SGJ over the years and enjoyed them thoroughly. This one is absolutely my new favourite, it completely blew me out of the water.

It follows teenagers Tolly and Amber who live in a small Texas town, Lamesa. It’s set in 1989 (the year I was born, hiiiii) which feels like the perfect choice to tell this story in. Tolly is going through it after the tragic passing of his Dad but with Amber by his side, the two of them are doing their best to make it through life.

“When your Dad dies, whenever in life you are, you realize that you’ve either got to hold yourself up, now, or just start falling and falling.”

Written as a sort of confessional from a ‘serial killer’, Tolly narrates his life from his adult perspective in a stream of conscious talking mostly to Amber who is no longer in his life.

“You’re good with anything you can kill someone with,” Amber said. “Chainsaws, like, listen to you. They stretch their backs like a cat when you touch them.”

What I really loved about this story was the bond of friendship between Amber and Tolly. You never have friends like the ones you have as a teenager, there’s just something special in that time of your life. The care and love that Tolly has for Amber is present throughout his whole story, and made me quite emotional in a few different parts, and the ending tore me apart.

There’s also such a strong sense of nostalgia throughout, and the setting of 1989 is really the perfect spot to tell this story. This is really a love letter to the slasher genre which of course, was at its most dramatic peak in the ‘80s. It’s such a meta novel poking loving fun at the tropes and the ridiculousness of the killers that never seem to die. SGJ has a reason for every silly thing a killer can do, told with Tolly’s sarcastic drawl which is a tone of fun to read as a slasher fan myself. Freddy vs Jason is one of my favourite movies of all time, and no I won’t be taking questions at this time.

“All any good slasher needs is a shadow — even half a shadow — and we can turn on the thrusters, fade from view completely. Especially if we’ve earned that limp. No, you’ll never see us run, that would be undignified, too much like scrambling, which is a desperate thing, but don’t worry about us. We’ll be right there behind the door when you close it. We’ll be standing there in the bathtub. We’ll be down on the lawn, looking up at your window.”

I feel like there’s also this undercurrent in the story studying male puberty and male rage. Tully, a few times, admits that despite the infection making him a killer, there are moments when he’s making choices and partly in control. So did he kill those teenagers without his own consent? Potentially not. And why is he killing them? Well, they tried to kill him. And so all’s fair in love and slashing. Right? He’s dealing with teenage emotions, a still developing teenage brain, and testosterone.

Tully is at such a crucial moment in his boyhood and is having deep and complicated thoughts about his Dad, his future, what shoes he’s trying to fill. So when he becomes infected, there is a part of him that gives up the reigns and gives into the rage I believe.

But this is also why Amber is such a crucial person in his life. She is his emotional conscience, she is his beating heart. When he is faced with killing her, he is able to truly break free from the infection and stop himself. And I love the vulnerability of him in these moments.

“and know that, in my heart, I’m lying beside you on the grass of an empty football field one July afternoon in Lamesa, Texas. That’s where I’ll be by the time you read this, Amber. It’s where I’ve always been. It was the first time you held my hand, I think. I’ll never let it go.”

Overall, SGJ never misses, and this is possibly his strongest novel yet. It is personal, loving, violent, meta, emotional, gory, and unhinged. All the things I love in my books.

That makes 39 total read out of the 78. And another 5 star!