#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: I Was a Teenaged Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

Today I have an ARC of a hotly anticipated book which I gave a STAR to in Booklist here. More below, first here are the rules for the giveaway:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see the previous giveaway. Our winner was Rosemary from Queens [NY] Library Now on today's giveaway. 

I am just going to repost my May 16th draft review of I was a Teenaged Slasher with bonus info below. And the you....yes you...all of you, enter now for a chance to win this book or the many others I have piling up here in my office. Thanks to Saga Press for this specific title.

Remember, enter once and you are entered going forward. 

I am planning a multiple book, multiple winner week around the 4th of July. The 4th is a Thursday so I would be offering it earlier in the week to also coincide with my July Horror Genre Preview in LJ. 

More on that soon, but this week I have...

STAR
I Was a Teenaged Slasher
Stephen Graham Jones

Hot on the heels of the conclusion to his Indian Lake Trilogy which introduced the 21st Century’s Final Girl, Jade Daniels, Jones is back with Tolly Driver, the yin to Jade’s yang. Narrated from 17 years in the future, Tolly recounts in an engaging and brutally honest narration, the summer he was 17, 1989, in Lamesa, TX, when he killed 6 (or 12 or 14) of his high school classmates. Beginning with the fateful night he and his best friend Amber attend a house party, and leading readers through Tolly’s transformation from skinny kid with a peanut allergy to an inevitable killer, this novel lays down new ground rules for the Slasher, deeply rooting it in its established tropes, moving it in a new direction, while still making novices feel welcome. Readers will watch something original emerge before their eyes, realizing why everyone needs to be as obsessed with the Slasher as Jones is himself. Suggest to every reader who loves a perfectly rendered time and place or just wants a chilling, captivating, and thought-provoking story where every detail matters and every page is worth their time, but especially those who recently enjoyed The Pallbearers Club by Tremblay and The Eyes Are the Best Part by Kim or have missed Deaver’s seminal sympathetic killer, Dexter.

Three Words That Describe This Book: strong sense of place, dark humor, engaging narration

Further Appeal: The hardest thing about talking about this book is that you cannot talk about any of the amazing specifics. There is a twist early in the book that begins the process of how this book changes the entire Slasher genre in the VERY BEST way. It explains the entire trope as it appeared before this book, in books and movies, and move it forward. It provides the information we never knew, but it makes so much sense and you can never unknow it.

Watching this book all unfold was a joy. I bolded the word "every" as it repeated in my review when I turned n the draft and gave this note to my editor-- "please keep the 'every' repeating. I did that on purpose. I cannot stress enough how there are no wasted words here and even more, how they all matter. To the final page. It is remarkable to have something so entertaining be so well written."

Throw out every slasher you have ever read and just put this novel next to the Indian Lake Trilogy and you have the definition of the slasher genre in the 21st century. I cannot stress enough how well Tolly Driver pairs with Jade Daniels as opposite side of the same coin. Standing alone they are great and can be enjoyed without the other, but together they are masterful, informing each other and enhancing the enjoyment of each other.

The setting is also perfectly rendered-- 1989 which was the year I entered high school, so I felt the time in my bones. But also, Jones set it near the place he lived as a High Schooler in West Texas in 1989. He writes in the acknowledgments about the real spaces and how hard he worked to get it all right. You can feel that. Also the music! All the hair bands.

Tolly's narration was intimate and engaging. You knew he was going to be a teenaged slasher-- the title tells you, he tells you over and over again of the number of dead left in his wake. It is clear he is narrating from the future, in a place where no one knows who he is-- he tells you this. But you come to love Tolly, you want to protect him, you want it all to be okay-- despite knowing it will not be okay. That is masterful storytelling. Jones's unique cadence in how he has Tolly share his story will grab you and keep you hooked for the duration- even when you want to look away and not see what is about to happen.

And not only does every detail matter, but the ending was perfect-- heartbreakingly beautiful-- done

with love and care.

Amber and Tolly-- BFFSs 4EVER! That should be spray painted in the Lamesa graffiti wall. Someone in TX get on that.

Readalikes: The above books made the cut into the review. But I do need to say people who are not as obsessed with Jones or Jade Daniels should read this BEFORE starting the Jade trilogy. Maeve Fly by CJ Leede is also a good readalike here. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite an even better one though.