Review: I Was a Teenage Slasher

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
Surprisingly, I really REALLY enjoyed this book. I decided to read it because it's set in Lamesa, just an hour away from where I live. And as I read, I loved all the touches of a small West Texas oil town in the late 80s. I can remember going into Town and Countries, I've driven past the Sky-Vue and am familiar with a chihuahua, and know exactly where Welch AND Punkin Center are. But Tolly, our main character, is what really drew me in. He's a 17 year-old who recently lost his father, will soon begin his senior year as a Golden Tor(nado) at LHS, doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life, drinks too much at parties, and spends most of his free time hanging out with his best friend Amber. One night at a party after Tolly gets way too drunk and offends the wrong people, things take a very strange turn. And all of a sudden it seems like Lamesa, Texas, has turned into the setting of a classic (it's classic now, but not quite back in 1987...) slasher movie.
It was fun to see how Tolly, Amber, and so many of the secondary characters fell into the tropes of movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, but what made this book great was the heart of Tolly. He really struggled not only with what was going on in his town, but also his future--this was almost a coming-of-age story. In the midst of trying to decide if he wanted to stay in West Texas and work in the oil fields, work at his mom's store, or if he wanted to move away and go to a ju-co or even Tech, he was constantly faced with the ramifications of the literal horrors of the slasher violence being spread all across town. Due to Tolly's age and the nature of this almost memoir-like story, there are many instances of stream-of-consciousness tangent-like passages, which at first I had a hard time with--I wanted to get on with the action. But soon I realized these were key to understanding Tolly's state of mind not only at the time the action was occurring, but also later, as he is typing his "memoir" out and remembering the events as they happened. Some readers may have a hard time with the seemingly meandering way Tolly tells his story, but I think it added to understanding who Tolly was, where he grew up, how he was shaped, and his relationship with Amber. And that relationship with Amber was what had me tearing up as I read the last page of the story. Can a person say a horror book about the gory murders of teenagers is extremely touching and meaningful? I guess I just did... This almost reminded me of My Best Friend's Exorcism, set in Lamesa. It's definitely not my usual kind of book, but I am glad I read it. If you like clashic slasher movies, horror, 80s nostalgia, or if you grew up alongside pumpjacks and turnrows and have driven up 87 or down 385, I would recommend this book.

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