Have you ever wondered what goes through a slasher’s mind as he goes on his bloody rampage? If you’ve read any of Stephen Graham Jones’s other novels (such as My Heart is a Chainsaw or The Only Good Indians), you’ll notice that Jones is fascinated by classic slasher films and their tropes and often uses these topics as a lens through which to explore deeper issues. In his latest horror novel, I Was a Teenage Slasher, which came out last month, he returns to this topic once again but from a new perspective: that of a reluctant killer.
Tolly Driver was a good kid. A rising high school senior in the summer of 1989 in rural Texas, Tolly has no grand plans. He’s just trying to graduate high school after his father’s sudden, tragic death last year and spend as much time as possible with his best friend, Amber Big Plume Dennison, before she goes off to college somewhere. But everything changes after an ill-fated house party where a misguided prank nearly ends Tolly’s life and a past victim of Lamesa High’s popular crowd shows up looking for vengeance. Infected with the slashing spirit, Tolly finds himself waking up in strange locations with only fractured memories of hunting down his tormentors. He doesn’t really want to kill the pranksters, but does he have a choice? As the resident expert on slasher films, Amber explains the tropes of the genre to Tolly and together they try to predict what he might do next while under the slasher’s spell and prevent him from hurting anyone else. However, even knowing the genre they’re in might not be enough to change their story’s ending…
Jones brilliantly turns common slasher film tropes into the basis of his supernatural world-building to both humorous and heartbreaking effect. I particularly loved Amber’s scientific and methodical approach to discovering the “rules” of Tolly’s new life as a slasher. An experiment with a stopwatch at the school track course reveals that Tolly can move supernaturally fast—but only when no one is watching—and he can move faster still when walking with a limp. At first these experiments feel almost fun and playful, but as Tolly becomes more subsumed by his slasher urges, Amber must use her slasher knowledge to try to outwit him and beat him at his own game.
This dynamic between Tolly and Amber becomes even more poignant once you realize that this isn’t just a horror novel—it’s a love story. Tolly’s narration is a love letter of sorts written to Amber seventeen years after that blood-soaked summer. From this vantage point, Tolly looks back at his younger self with both empathy and frustration—particularly for not recognizing his feelings for Amber sooner. He feels the most guilt and regret for his violent actions when he thinks about the effect they may have had on Amber and the trajectory of her life. I think it’s no spoiler to say, though, that this book does not have the typical happy ending of a romance novel. Nonetheless, the love that exists between Tolly and Amber adds depth and another layer of tension to Tolly’s transformation into a killer.
The other most notable aspect of this story is its rural West Texas setting, which Jones explains in an author’s note at the end was inspired by his own childhood. This setting comes with a unique set of dangers: from drunk drivers endangering the roadways and endless cotton fields that killers can slip away into to unsupervised water tanks and the heavy machinery of oil pumpjacks that make tempting playgrounds for teens. Many of the bloodiest scenes in this book are only able to occur because of the emptiness and isolation of this rural backdrop and the lack of societal guardrails around common dangers in the 1980s. Jones beautifully brings this setting to life with a mingled sense of nostalgia and criticism.
Stephen Graham Jones’s books are always a joy for slasher film lovers, but I Was a Teenage Slasher is an especially fun and thoughtful riff on the genre. Definitely pick this one up if you’re interested in rural horror or in how genre tropes can be turned upside-down. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or order a copy online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!