Mike’s review
I read this because I loved The Only Good Indians so much (no link because I’m disorganized and lazy and haven’t yet posted that review. Will I remember to link here later? Probably not). But this is a very different book. Shouldn’t be unexpected with someone as prolific as Jones. No way could a person crank out books like The Only Good Indians at the pace Jones cranks out novels. Which probably sounds like I didn’t love this or I think this is a lesser book. I don’t think that’s true. I’m sure there are people for whom this book would be as haunting as The Only Good Indians was for me. For me, this book, well, I’m not totally sure what to think.
So, I suppose a plot synopsis works as good now as ever. Jade is a senior in high school who is obsessed with slasher films. She uses them to make sense of the world, sees everything through the lens of the slasher. People start dying in Proofrock, where Jade lives, and she sees this (of course) as a slasher movie come to life. Jade spends some time trying to figure out who is the killer, but I wouldn’t really call that a plot point. She spends more time trying to analyze the context of the killings, how they fit into the slasher oeuvre and what they mean for the final girl, Lena Mondragon, who just moved to town.
There are tons of references to slasher films throughout this book. I picked up on the more overt ones and I’m sure there were more subtle ones that flew right over my head. I am not a slasher connoisseur. I’ve seen some, but only once and the people who like these movies tend toward repeated viewings. The whole genre is at least a little self-referential as I understand it. I didn’t pick up on that stuff.
What I did pick up on was that Jade had something larger that led to her obsession with slashers. I can’t say Jones was totally subtle in letting the reader know that something was the cause, but never fully let on what the cause was. Until he did. At which point, it hurt like a motherfucker.
Usually when I write this much in a review (especially when I didn’t take any notes and am doing this off my head), it means that I loved the book. And I’m close to that here, but not quite. There were some leaps that lost me. Not narratively exactly. They’re leaps of Jade’s. I see them as manifestations of Jade’s instability. That adds to the book, being immersed into Jade’s instability. But it’s not the most easygoing read. Which is a lame complaint. I don’t mean this isn’t a beach read and I’m butthurt about that. I mean that I found myself going back to reread things to understand Jade’s motivation/thought process and even after going back there were times where I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “Guess that’s the way it is.” Well, wait. I mostly didn’t do that with actions Jade took. It was more with her thoughts. Sometimes with descriptions. There were just times that, despite rereading and truly doing everything I could, I felt lost. So, I took that to mean that Jade feels lost, too, and just deal with it dummy.
This feels like one that could be significantly better with a reread. Will I ever do that? I don’t know. Maybe if Jones writes one more that kills me like The Only Good Indians I’ll come back to this.
The Heart of Literature 