At the praise of one of my recent favorite authors, Grady Hendrix, I couldn’t resist his recommendation to read Stephen Graham Jones’ latest novel, I Was a Teenage Slasher.
Since I consider Hendrix to be a fantastic horror writer, I was pretty excited to give this book a shot. The title was also very intriguing to me. Essentially what I got was almost a tell-all from a serial killer. I can truly say I’ve never seen that done before. Jones also did a fantastic job of making me empathize with the killer even though he tells us many times throughout the novel that he knows he’s a bad person and to not let him off the hook.
I will say that even about a hundred pages in, I was not confident that I was going to like this book. The most difficult part for me was getting used to Jones’ writing style. I personally found it really confusing to follow for the longest time, but once I finally found myself making sense of what he was saying, I ended up really enjoying this story! Before Tolly Driver got into his killing origin story, he had to start with someone else’s because it played a pivotal role in how he became this way. It also involves his best friend, Amber Dennison.
In high school, on the way to a party they weren’t totally invited to in the late 80s, Amber stops short in her little “truck,” which prompts Tolly to smash his head into the windshield. This leaves a bit of an open wound, which will come to really haunt Tolly and the rest of his small hometown of Lemesa, Texas. Prior to this party, a dorky classmate of their, Justin, thinks he’s about to be in with the popular crowd, when he meets a gruesome fate courtesy of an oil pump. His tragic death means he’s prime for some undead finished business, so that’s exactly what his recently undead corpse sets out to do on the night of that party.
He’s out to finish the job for everyone who was witness, including popular, but extremely kind, Stacie, who just wasn’t quick enough to save the day. This makes her Justin’s final girl. Of course, this all doesn’t make sense to Tolly until much. much later in his serial killer journey. Instead, he’s fighting for his life after some peanuts get mixed into a drink some popular band students give to him. Everyone knows about his peanut allergy, but they apparently think it’s not actually that fatal. Somehow, Tolly gets out alive, or so we’re made to believe at first. He just narrowly escapes Justin’s wrath, but not before getting just a little bit of his blood in the cut on his forehead.
Slowly, but surely, Tolly’s world starts to change. He seems invincible to danger, he causes certain things to not work properly, dogs hate him, and knives make a very distinct noise when he picks them up. Amber, a horror aficionado, is the one who puts the pieces together, but not fully. Not in time for her to save a few classmates involved in Tolly’s episode. Reading about how these two get through this whole story was really fun, sometimes funny, and surprisingly gruesome at times.
I really, really hopes this gets a proper adaptation treatment someday. And it’s got me interested in reading more of Jones’ work! Ironically, my friend had just recommended a trilogy of his to me before I picked this one up. It didn’t even occur to me that it was same author at the time, so that’s two nods in his favor! If classic horror is your thing, this certainly lends an original take, but the sentiment is still there – so check it out!