A tribute to slasher horror movies
SPOILERS!
What is it about
This book reads like a horror movie and rightfully so, because it is a loving tribute to all those slasher movies. We have a complex character in Jade Daniels, a teenager from rural town in Idaho. She has just finished her rehab stint at a psychiatric facility, following a suicide attempt. Her home life sucks because she lives with an abusive and alcoholic father. Her only escape is in horror movies, for which she is a huge fan of. She has an impressive knowledge of all the slasher movies and also her town’s own bloody past.
When she finds a mobile phone, she uncovers a video that convinces her of a serial killer being loose in her town. It excites her, rather than making her run away from the place. She has a hard time convincing the sheriff, and when she meets a fellow classmate, Letha, she believes her to be the final girl. When Jade explains this to her, Letha suspects Jade is having a mental breakdown.
In a true horror movie format, where nobody believes the loner main character until they see for themselves. Instead of Letha being the final girl, Jade ends up being the final girl. The girl who defeats and survives.
As Phoebe from Friends would say “and there is your movie!”
What I liked about it
This novel read like a horror movie, where a complex character like Jade has a hard time convincing authorities and then stepping up to save the town and becoming the hero. I enjoyed unpeeling Jade’s character and wondered if her obsession with horror genre is really to mask her own traumatic past and broken family life.
This book will appeal to hard-core horror fans, who will enjoy the many references to popular slasher movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. They will enjoy Jade’s extensive knowledge of all things horror movies. In almost every chapter, she writes rambling internal monologues, explaining theories behind slasher horrors and the town’s murderous past, as part of the history paper she is writing for extra credits.
This is the first book in the Indian Lake trilogy. Jade Daniels returns in the second book.