My review from The Scariest Things Website:
It is very hard to write a book report on Night of the Mannequins, the upcoming novella from award winning author Stephen Graham Jones, because to say too much would spoil the fun of letting this bizarre story unfold like a B-movie come to life on the page.

Here’s the set up: a group of friends find an abandoned mannequin (and in a horror book is there really any other kind?) in the woods one summer and make him one of the group, including him in all activities and dubbing him “Manny”.

Later, one the gang gets a job at a movie theater and of course uses her new found authority to sneak the others into shows without buying tickets. After getting busted by the theater manager, the others think it would be epic to prank her lame boss by dressing Manny up, seating him at a show, and watch as the manager freaks out when he tries to check Manny for a ticket. But when the prank doesn’t exactly go as planned and one by one the gang starts dying, Manny’s friendship and the group’s sanity are called into question.

This book is my first experience reading Stephen Graham Jones and even though the stream of consciousness style and the monster movie/ creature feature vibe isn’t really my cup of tea, it was great fun and I will definitely be adding more of Graham Jones’ work to my TBR list.

There's a great premise here, but I can't help but feel that the execution was lacking. After attempting to prank their friend by putting a mannequin into a seat at the theatre she works at, a group of friends may be getting murdered by the mannequin who seemingly got up and left the theatre.

It's a fantastic idea, narrated by one of the group who is slowly losing his grasp on reality, but it falls apart in the final chapter. A twist comes off as highly improbable in the context of the pretty realistic story, and we're left at the end without any conclusion whatsoever.

Until that point, things are really gripping. The short length does limit the exploration of characters and situations, but the madness going on makes up for it. It's just the lack of closure that left me wanting at the end.

Stephen Graham Jones once again delivers a voicey, escalating thrill ride with nuanced characters and incredible prose.

Sawyer Grimes and his teenage group of friends stumble upon a mannequin in a creek buried in the mud. Things take a dark drastic turn when an attempted prank utilizing their discovery evolves into a psychotic break down of reality.
Stephen Graham Jones delivers an abstract style of storytelling to his novella Night of the Mannequins. His quirkiness advances into magical thinking and conspiracy theories developing into a slow spiral of madness. Readers will be compelled to believe in a blank facemask killer that has a warped view on “survivors guilt”. A giant department store dummy Kaiju that begins a rampaging course of destruction leaving only rubble in its wake. A mannequin answering to the name of Manny that lives in the wild surviving only on fertilizer, bubble wrap and packing peanuts.
The author digs deep in his creative mind for this one. I enjoyed trying to follow the thought process of one who decides taking matters into his own hands is the right decision, even if it’s to the point of delusional reasoning. Stephen Graham Jones has an exceptional back catalog of well written books, and this one is no exception to his excellence. So when you hear that tornado siren slowly begin to roar in the distance, you might want to set the book down and make sure nothing plastic and colossal is heading your way.

This is a sneaky little novella that starts as one thing and then slowly reveals itself to be another thing entirely, which is absolutely my jam.

As far as what vein of horror novel we're talking about here, this does include violence and gore, and you could look at it as a riff on the slasher novel. But really this is one of those books where you realize with growing dread that everything is very, very bad.

I really don't want to say much more than that, because that already feels like verging too close to spoilers. But while this is a short, fast horror novel I wouldn't call it a fun or light one. But if you, like me, enjoy reading stuff that is super-effed-up, there is a lot to love here.

4.5 Stars!

Why is Stephen Graham Jones so good at making me feel ALL the emotions in one little story? It's hard to talk about this one without spoiling anything, but let's just say this is about a group of high school friends, a superhero movie, a mannequin and a prank gone wrong. This does a great job of playing with the readers expectations. Strong recommend from me!

What an entertaining and unexpected novella! This started out as a classic coming of age narrative, but quickly evolved in a brilliant slasher story.

The writing and characters were both excellent as I have come to expect from Graham Jones. His work always has a literary flair, but this one leaned more into the genre fiction with a gripping narrative plot.

As a novella, this was the perfect length. Horror works so well in the short form and this one maintained it's suspense from start to finish.

From the premise, I initially expected some killer dolls horror, but this story was very far more psychological in nature. I would love to say more about the plot, but it's best going into this one without knowing too much.

I would highly recommend this one to just about any horror reader. I think this one of those stories that will appeal to a wide audience.

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publisher, Tor.com.

Night of the Mannequins is a juicy and juicy witty psychological horror, told in the perspective of the main character. After a prank involving a mannequin in a movie theater goes awry, a group of friends and their livelihoods are changed forever. This book is at times scary and at times a satire of the horror genre. It definitely is a fun quick read that horror fans will enjoy. I left it wanting more of the story, but I also really felt that it was a solid novella.

I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK.

This book it´s one of my favorite books of this year and I feel very happy and surprised!

This is a perfect book to read in a day! It´s only 144 pages and according to my kindle it´s only 3 hours.

This is a thriller that is very surprising and is about a group of five friends who want to make the last joke with Many the mannequin (a mannequin they found when they were little and used for their games) making him watch a movie to scare people who work in the cinema, but everything starts to go wrong when he finishes the movie Many stops and leaves the group of friends surprised and scared.

Everything worsens when one of these friends is killed by Many and the protagonist realizes that they will all die, and their families will be left in the middle of the killing.

The decision one of these friends makes to save them all really impressed me and wooooow, I really loved this book.

What perhaps I did not like about this book is that there are several things that I did not understand and I found them quite unnecessary, such as the fact that Many ate very chemical fertilizers and these were the ones that gave it life and increased in size, that to me was like: seriously? Not necessary.

But I really think this is a perfect book to spend a quiet afternoon reading and relaxing, it is one of those books that you are very involved in and you need to know what is going to happen.

Stephen Graham Jones just knows how to tell stories - and each one he tells is uniquely wild and told from a different perspective or point of view than I am used to. You NEVER know what to expect from him... but it is clear that you can expect a great story!

This book is full of little turns and real horror and psychological horror. He makes me want to feel disturbed as a reader (is that even a thing?!) and writes in such a way that you just can't stop and need to know what's going on.

This is a quick read that every horror fan needs!

I received an electronic ARC of Night of the Mannequins from Netgalley and the publisher Tor in return for my honest review, which follows below. I thank both for the opportunity.

As kids, a group of friends find a mannequin in a creek bed and play a series of pranks with "Manny." During their sophomore summer, they decide they've outgrown Manny, so they decide to send him off with one last epic prank, and end up regretting it. That's the bare bones of this novella, and really all you should be given in the way of hard facts of the contents. Sharing too much would ruin your own uncertain steps through this mental maze that Stephen Graham Jones lays out for us. I am divided on what I think the truth is, I feel several readings, and maybe several different decisions are in my future.

There is death.
Inexplicable things happen around town that may be part of this or not.
The narrator is seeing things clearly or horribly distorted.

These are things that are made clear early on and left for you to work out on your own. It is a mindbogglingly trippy read that I loved just as much it left me hollowed out at the end.

He writes horror that gives you emotion that you can't remove yourself from; as you read the story you will be broken as the characters are, or in your own unexpected ways, as you react to the situations he presents. I love that about his writing, that no matter the length, he is able to give you a complete story, fully realized characters, and complex concepts. When you're done reading, you're left drained and trying to recover so that you can read more by him.

I rated this 5 stars because I would recommend this to others, give as a gift, re-read and will buy a physical copy for myself when this is out.

Another excellent title from Stephen Graham Jones. His unique voice is always present in his stories about a world most of us don’t encounter. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to suggesting it to others.

A group of teenage friends. A prank gone wrong.

Night of the Mannequins will gleefully take you to some dark places.

Unsettling and entertaining, this novella is a fun house ride you won't want to leave. Stephen Graham Jones works his magic, insuring the reader is on unsure footing and loving every minute of being disturbed, scared, and amused.

It's very hard to describe this book without spoiling it, but I'll say this: Things start out as grown-up Goosebumps, and then the story shifts dramatically. That's to be expected with Jones, who is a master of the misdirect. This isn't my favorite from Jones, but it is fun (in a deeply unsettling way) horror nonetheless.

Potential coverage:

TOR NIGHTFIRE: Inclusion in roundup of Unreliable Horror Narrators

"So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead and I'm really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all . . . "

This book ended up being even better than I expected! I have such a massive love for the Tor novellas that I will pretty much pick up any of them and with a very high probability end up loving them. So when I saw this one, and read the fantastic first line, I was pretty much a goner already.

Dressing up the mannequin they found in an old creek as a prank sounds like a perfectly fun and harmless idea. But then the mannequin walks out of the movie theatre by itself, and the first of them is murdered...

This is such a fun and entertaining book! I ended up reading it almost in one sitting, unable to put the book down. The first line alone builds up fantastic suspense that hovers continuously over the entire story, and becomes more and more gripping as the plot intensifies. The narrative voice is incredible--this feels more like someone telling you a story than you reading a book--and the narrator becomes more and more unreliable over the course of the book. It is also much more scary than I anticipated--I initially started reading this in my dark room at night, and promptly put it down again to start over the next day, in the garden sunshine.

Plot-wise, I am not going to say much, because I think this book works best if you come in knowing nothing about the story. I will just say that it is completely unpredictable, very smart, and makes you question not only the narrator, but also yourself.

If you are looking for a fun and gripping story that's perfectly told and completely unpredictable, I can definitely recommend giving this book a go: I enjoyed it so so much!

NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS is a novella by Stephen Graham Jones. This gave me a "B-movie" feeling throughout, that was fast paced and full of dark humor. In addition to the horror, there was a strong coming-of-age theme here, that underlies the entire tale.

The opening sentence really sets the tone for how our unreliable narrator views things, and instantly grabs your attention.

"So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead and I'm really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all . . . "

We have a group of five friends--who have been close for years--now in high school. What begins with our narrator reminiscing about a summer years ago--where one of them found a discarded shop mannequin in a creek--goes on to explain the fun they had staging various pranks with "Manny". It's easy to see that this is viewed as one of the "best years" of his young life.

". . . Is it just automatic to steal any mannequin you happen to encounter? . . . "

Now that Shanna is working at a movie theatre, the rest decide to bring "Manny" back for one last prank like the "good days".

What happens next sets up a chain of events that I never would have seen coming.

". . . This is what I do, I save people. And dogs. . . ."

The story never loses its dark comedic style, even in the midst of more horrifying incidents. That's a strong reason as to why this story was so easy to flow along with. The way our narrator speaks, sees, and interprets things around him give us an added sense of consistency that helps balance out the action.

". . . the way you know you've done good is that the whole town hates you and wants you dead . . . "

Overall, an unexpected experience that I had a lot of fun with. Nothing in this novella felt the least bit predictable, and I feel that was why it stood out so well.

". . . If you take the first domino away, do all the others keep standing? . . ."

Recommended.

This book is SUPER different from what I expected it to be -- but I don't want to say how. I'll only caution that it'd be possible for the reader to be disappointed, to keep looking for the story to twist in a direction that it is resolutely ~not~ twisting in. But if you can go in thinking less about Slappy the Dummy and more about what Jones is doing on the page, you'll fall right through this one. I read it in the course of a single thunderstorm, bewildered and creeped the hell out. Particularly by Jones' ability to sit right there in the middle of gruesome violence, a particular dark skill he excels at.

Short and sweet horror tale. Stephen Graham Jones is always on point. Would recommend to anyone looking for some entertaining frights.

Stephen Graham Jones has written some terrific short stories and novellas and Night of the Mannequins ranks favourably against his best work. It is hard to say much about the plot without spilling spoilers, so I will be relatively vague and refer to proceedings out of context. Rest assured, this beautifully constructed novella is incredibly dark, very funny, slightly twisted and arguably an upside down coming-of-age tale. It also had a strong whiff of YA and older teenagers may discover much to enjoy, as was the case with his excellent werewolf novel Mongrels.

Night of the Mannequins features a classic unreliable narrator, Sawyer Grimes, who completely steals the show with the unburdening of his unique story. Hell, I was so engrossed I felt I was sitting in the same room as Sawyer as he dropped his bombs. I love an unreliable narrator and Sawyer ranks amongst the best fiction has to offer, mixing with Frank (my all-time favourite) from The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks), Alex from A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) and Tyler Durden from Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk). He tells his story with a convincing and informal teenage voice which will take you right back to the angst you may have felt in your own formative years. Read what he says very closely, try to read between the lines, as with all unreliable narrators he has his own agenda and just because he is ‘unreliable’ does not make him a liar. Simply put, Sawyer Grimes is an outstanding creation.

The opening paragraph reveals that one of Sawyer’s best friends, Shanna, landed a new job in a movie theatre and that the others in their close friendship group decided to pay a prank on her. The five teenagers decide to pose a discarded store mannequin as though it is a real patron in her cinema, even providing ‘’Manny’ with a ticket, whilst they sit elsewhere and enjoy what they believe will be a hilarious fallout. According to Frank this prank goes horribly wrong and as a result, deaths have followed. Here is the opening paragraph:

“So Shanna got a new job at the movie theatre, we thought we’d play fun on her, and now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all.”

As well as Shanna, the other friends are Danielle, Tim and JR and the kids are all huge cinema freaks, who love sneaking in for free, know loads of tricks and often watch the same superhero films multiple times. The story has a vibe which is both lovingly cinematic and nostalgic to the slasher films of yesteryear, with a pivotal scene near the end taking place at a local drive-in theatre. Like most teenagers, most of the time they are bored, and Night of the Mannequins convincingly portrays the lifestyles of kids with too much time on their hands in the suburbs, but too lazy to find something new to do.

I adored the very droll sense of humour which Sawyer’s narrative injects into Night of the Mannequins which masterfully balances making a villain out of “Manny” the dummy with the obviously troubled psyche of the teenager narrator who has more problems that he realises. As Manny begins to play a bigger part of proceedings the novella just got stranger and I was fascinated in finding out what was going to happen in the end. Stephen Graham Jones had me on the hook.

The author obviously had a lot of fun messing around with the tropes normally found within the horror genre, particularly the slasher film, and the result was a superb blend of absurdity, thriller, and horror. Night of the Mannequins was funny but treaded the tightrope perfectly and never descended into stupidity, taking in other themes including loss of innocence, friendship, and madness. If you have never tried Stephen Graham Jones this quirky novella is the perfect introduction.

An engaging take on a teenage slasher that fully leans in to cinema feel. Like most great horror films, this novella was full of character, humor, and bone chilling depravity.