This book is the second in a projected trilogy that takes place in Proofrock, Idaho. This story begins 4 years after the end of the first book. Here, Jade, now calling herself Jennifer, has been found innocent from any wrongdoing during the tragedies of 4 years ago, and is released from jail, returning to her hometown to see how things may have changed. At the same time, convicted mass murderer Dark Mill South escapes from a prison transport during an avalanche near Proofrock. This perfect storm of events helps move this odd horror story forward. It involves more citizens and many more deaths, before the ending that isn't really an ending, since this is #2 of 3 books. The writing is again long, disjointed, confusing, wordy, and hard to follow. The author loves to go off on long tangents about unnecessary background information or endless horror movie rants, although those are fewer in this book. I think that I must admit that I am just not a fan of Mr. Jones's writing, although it appears, based on many reviews, that I am in the minority. Thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Saga Press for providing an ARC.

There are rules to horror sequels. Higher stakes, higher body count, and more gore. Stephen Graham Jones knows these rules. Don't Fear the Reaper delivers all these things and more. Taking place over just a couple days, slasher Dark Mill South is on the loose and running rampant in Proofrock. But so is Jade Daniels, our protagonist from My Heart is a Chainsaw, the more, the very heart of these stories. She's back in Proofrock after the events of Chainsaw and she's not really ok. Trying to overcome her trauma, Jade is one of the most well-developed characters in any horror I've read. I was more than rooting for her, I was right there with her. And at one turning point in the book, she's never made me more proud. Weird, I know, but there it was.

Full of horror movie references, just like in Chainsaw, SGJ digs deep in the B-movie vault for this sequel. (And to my surprise, made me realize I'd never seen Silent Night, Deadly Night. So I fixed that and was treated to a truly spectacular horror kill.) SJG's ability to combine tenderness with gore, just casually dropping all those movie references a horror nerd lives for, and creating a story that plays out like one of those same classic B movies but with a weightiness they normally lack is unparalleled. I can't wait to see how this trilogy will conclude, but I miss Jade, my final girl, already.

Thank you Gallery Press for Don't Fear the Reaper via NetGalley. I was delighted, if you will, by My Heart is a Chainsaw, completely mesmerized by Jade and the literary horror style from Stephen Graham Jones.

I am, glad that Jade gets the sequel she deserves, even if it follows the fate of final girls everywhere by putting her back in unending danger once more. What stands out is a story that allows Jade to grow, to be more than who she was in the first book, and to move into a more confident version of herself. I love that the writing is still powerful and the plot honors tropes but also doesn't rely on them, just as Jade is growing so is the way the story unfolds... it is distinctly an homage to horror and horror films but also very much a unique story.

I know fans of My Heart is a Chainsaw will enjoy this read and I hope more will discover this trilogy.

As soon as I finished reading My Heart is a Chainsaw last year, I knew I wanted more of Jade and her encyclopedic slasher film knowledge and more of Proofrock. Don't Fear the Reaper delivered that and so much more.
Jade's return home to Proofrock coincides with the escape of prisoner Dark Mill South. After only a short time home the murders begin, Who will survive? You'll have to read to the end to find out..
This book was creepy and suspenseful. It kept me on the edge of my seat and rooting for Jade, and Letha to survive the horror that was happening for the second time. There was no downtime with a new horrible murder around every corner, each death different from the last, and I had no idea what was going to happen from one minute to the next. I can't wait to see what we will get for the finale of this trilogy!!

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones #sixthbookof2023 #arc

CW: Murder, death, serial killer, extreme violence and gore

The sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw takes place four years later. Jade has been released from prison after her conviction is overturned, just as a convicted killer escapes his transport convoy.

This book took me a minute to get into, to get back into the rhythm that Jones uses in his novels, but once the action started, it didn’t let up at all and I was propelled to finish it in several sittings over the course of a day.

MHIAC was one of my favorite books of 2021, and I was very eager to read this one. I really enjoyed the slasher related banter between Letha and Jade and I’m eager for that to continue in book 3. The action is nonstop and heart pounding. And of course, the tributes to Jones’ wife in the acknowledgments are always worth the price of admission. Swoon.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sagasff for the advance copy. (Pub date 2/7/23)

#dontfearthereaper #myheartisachainsaw #stephengrahamjones

Jade Daniels has just been released from prison four years after the events of My Heart is a Chainsaw and returns to Proofrock, Idaho, but, wouldn't you know it, it's at exactly the same time a brutal serial killer named Dark Mill South escapes from a high security convoy a short distance away.

What could have been a "how can the same thing happen to the same person twice" scenario winds up being one of the rare sequels that bests the original in just about every way! Jade trades the grating "cleverness" of her encyclopedic slasher knowledge (that felt unending in Chainsaw) for capability, courage, resourcefulness, and heart. There are a lot of references, but they are largely relegated to papers written for a slasher obsessed teacher at the school, which was easier for me to take. I actually liked how they glued the story elements together and were an interesting palate cleanser throughout. The gore drips off the page, and I did not find myself infuriated with any out of nowhere twists like I was with Chainsaw.

Oh, Jade, why go back to Proofrock?! This is the sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw. Yes, please read that first. So 4 years after Jade' Daniels's senior year of high school, she is released from prison right before Christmas. And of course it gets really bad in Proofrock because convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho. (I mean, of course he does.) His reign of terror lasts for 36 hours and ends on Friday the 13th. (Again, OF COURSE it does.) And yes, there will be another. :Lake Witch Trilogy, y'all.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Press for this e-arc.*

Don't Fear the Reaper is listed as a highly anticipated books in many of my reading groups either via Goodreads or swap-bot. Stephen Graham Jones is a relatively new-to-me author, and he has quickly ascended my list of favorites / go tos when choosing a book or an author to read, and Don't Fear the Reaper only solidified this! I will continue to read this author's new releases as well as those I missed out on before I very luckily and happily discovered his work.

This sequel had everything I loved from the first book but added in new POVs and new characters with a fresh new creepy murder mystery to solve.

Jade returns to her hometown at the same time a serial killer escapes from a prison transport. I loved how the author revisits the murders in the first book but gives us different perspectives on what happened four years ago, while also connecting it to the current events happening in Proofrock.

Like the previous book, Jones has created another love letter to the slasher genre and his fans will be thrilled when they get to return to this messed up intense story.

3.5 stars, rounded up. I would like to love this book. It does a lot right -- it's another love letter to the slasher genre, which is one I've never really loved personally but I can respect Jones's enthusiasm (and I do appreciate enough of the genre to be on-board for the book generally), this time in the "hulking unkillable killer" vein rather than the "spooky ghost girl" vein . It is in some ways more focused than <i>My Heart is a Chainsaw</i> -- the stakes are immediately clear, with an escaped killer on the loose, rather than spending most of the previous book with Jade believing a "slasher cycle" is about to start for no real reason. This time our main point of view is still Jade, with a few more POVs mixed in, including several vignettes featuring soon-to-be victims, and these narrative digressions are among the strongest moments of the book. Jones has a deft hand at scene-by-scene tension and high-impact scenarios.

Unfortunately, there are still some problems. Some are holdovers from problems I had with <i>Chainsaw</i>. For instance, characters are sometimes <i>Ready Player One</i>-ish walking encyclopedias of slasher references, and spend the whole book trying to contextualize what's happening in terms of slasher genre conventions (<spoiler>to the point that when our villain picks up a gun Jade is incensed and horrified at his betrayal of the no-guns trope</spoiler>), but again there's no real reason why they should be so certain. The book isn't meta enough for the characters to be self-aware of their status as characters in a slasher story, so they come across as insane people who are accidentally right about being in a genre-specific "slasher cycle." This is tempered slightly by the killer ALSO apparently being obsessed with slasher movies and setting up kills in homage to various movies, but the weird coincidence of the slasher being obsessed with slashers is still a little iffy. Jones also tries to do a little too much, with the climax of the book being overstuffed, including a bizarre supernatural intrusion into the story that seems to come out of nowhere for no reason other than to increase the body count.

In the end, the fact that it's a little silly isn't a death knell, as most slashers are silly. If you've come through the first book and still decided to pick up this one, you probably won't be bothered too much, and it's worth a read. I'll definitely pick up the next book in the trilogy, if for no other reason that I'm <i>still</i> baffled how this book can have a sequel.

*4-4.5 stars. The second in the Lake Witch Trilogy is another gore-filled slasher fest. What keeps me reading these books is the main character, Jennifer 'Jade' Daniels, who is brave, smart and honorable, if badly damaged by her life. In this edition, she's just been released from prison after four years and has returned to her home in Proofrock, Idaho. Unfortunately, a serial killer with victims spread across several states has escaped a prison transport and may be in the area as well. And then the killings begin. Who will be 'the final girl?'

If you enjoy the horror genre, I highly recommend these books but do start from the beginning with My Heart Is a Chainsaw.

I received an arc of this novel from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks for the opportunity. My review is voluntary an the opinions expressed are my own.

Getting an ARC of Don't Fear the Reaper sent me over the moon, as My Heart is a Chainsaw was one of my favorite books in recent years. As the second in the Lake Witch Trilogy, Reaper takes the reader back to Proofrock, Idaho, four years after the Independence Day Massacre, as Jade is released from jail and returns to her hometown just as a blizzard engulfs the town and Friday the 13th approaches. When Dark Mill South, a serial killer who has escaped the motorcade transporting him, arrives in town and begins killing high school seniors, Jade and her friend Letha become involved in the efforts to stop the carnage.

This is definitely not a standalone novel, and I found myself wishing I had reread Chainsaw just before beginning Reaper, as there are numerous references to events in the first book. The second book is, like the first, a tribute to slasher flicks, a kind of meta experience in that it is ultimately the story of a slasher/killer who is modeling their killings after those in slasher movies. Interspersed within the novel are the research writings of a student to the new history teacher (echoes of Chainsaw), which served to make me question what was really happening. I also found myself chuckling a few times as Jade refers to various 'final girl' moves (ie. Laurie dropping the knife in Halloween) with disdain, yet finds herself in the same situation.

I find this trilogy unique and fun, though it is definitely high on the blood and gore scale. If you have a relatively strong stomach and a love of slasher movies, you will enjoy these books.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the digital ARC of Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones. The opinions in this review are my own.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Don’t Fear the Reaper in exchange for an honest review. ~

Alright, so I’m not SUPER surprised that I ended up really liking this, but after feeling like My Heart is a Chainsaw was pretty middle of the road, I was surprised. Every time I was reading, this book was so unsettling and creepy, the blizzard atmosphere never letting up. We bounce back and forth between whether events happening in the story are due to something supernatural or not, but by the climax, there are some fantastically done twists that I had to go back and reread to ensure I knew what happened. The final girls were really the center of attention, which made this book feel true to the many slasher movies it was referencing. All of the pop culture references were clever and well incorporated into the story as well as the writing.

I felt sort of ambivalent about Jade in the first book, but she, and Letha, really won me over in this one. I couldn’t help cheering for them to survive after everything they’d been through, especially with all the growth Jade has had from where we meet her in the first book. When we see them against the big bad I was on the edge of my seat, hearing that final girl scream echoing in my ears. We have a far bigger cast of characters in this book, some of which I wasn’t sure why we were seeing from their perspectives but were utilized in a way to build suspense perfectly. Every character we see from, Jones perfectly shows us their personality and very quickly, too. And while the big cast could have been a good thing when protecting some characters and taking down the antagonist, it also meant there were plenty of people on the chopping block, which did make me nervous throughout.

The horror truly spanned the entire book. There are some particularly stomach-churning scenes that I had to pause and try to bleach out of my brain (spoiler: that did not work and those images are haunting me for the rest of my life.) It was impressive though, that every horrific moment stood out to the rest. None of them felt as normal as a gunshot wound or a stabbing, no that’d be too easy. Instead, Jones matches the over-the-top campiness of horror movies with the graphic deaths that we watch or find in the aftermath.

A great follow up and I’m pretty intrigued to see where the last book will go.

It pains me to say this but this book was just not for me. I am a big fan of Stephen Graham Jones, but I found this book to be a little confusing as to what was going on. I'll continue being a SGJ fan, and look forward to his next release.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books/Saga Press for the digital advanced reader's copy.

This is a worthy sequel to Jones' My Heart Is a Chainsaw, although this one didn't pack the same emotional punch as Chainsaw.

Also, if you haven't yet read My Heart Is a Chainsaw, I strongly advise you start there, even though Jones gives enough backstory that you could pick this one up without having read the other. Don't do that.

Jade/Jennifer Daniels is now nearly four years removed from that traumatic Independence Day Massacre. However, she's spent most of that intervening time in jail and in trials for her father's death.

The same day she decides to return to Proofrock, a snowstorm and some ex machina work together to bring serial killer Dark Mill South to town, resulting in the expected slaughter.

This time around, this felt more like a slasher film than the first, which felt slower-paced and more of an exploration of Jade herself and the world that made her. This time, you move immediately into the action with a snowstorm, a killer, stock characters (although none of them are really exactly as they seem), the wildly creative and violent deaths, and the heroic actions of some of our now familiar favorites.

If you enjoy horror novels, this to-be trilogy is a can't miss.

Jones offers plenty of allusions to little-known and well-known horror films, as well as characters you really care about.

This slasher has a lot of heart and a great build-up to the finale.

*language, graphic violence (not for the squeamish)

If this book was a movie it would be the first horror movie sequel that is better than the original. I love how this book played out and I am more in love with Jade than I ever was before. This book plays off of traditional horror movie tropes for sequels: There is more blood, there is more destruction and there are a lot of bodies. This book takes place four years after the original, when Jade finally returns to town. The current batch of high schoolers are being murdered using kill patterns from well known scary movies and a serial killing legend is loose in town during a snow storm. With a new final girl in place Jade and Letha simply have to make sure everyone is in the right place at the right time... or so they think. This book has quite a few twists up its sleeves and keeps the reader sufficiently surprised by what happens. This book also gives the reader a chance to see the character development in a few of the OG characters which makes them more 3 dimensional and less annoying high schoolers. The bond between Letha and Jade has grown and it makes you feel the 90's "girl power" movement never really died. They have a bond forged in blood and hearts made of steel. As with chainsaw, the love of scary movies (slashers in particular) oozes from the page. If you were not a scary movie nerd like myself this book might send you down a rabbit hole to see what everyone in the book seems to be talking about. This book is definitely going to resonate more with fans of slasher movies and horror books than it will with people who are just following the buzz.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

While I normally love Stephen Graham Jones, this books was a little bit of a miss for me. It felt disjointed in places and it took a lot of work to figure out where or what was going on. I thought that the multiple POVs got a little confusing and it was difficult to track what was going on. I did enjoy picking up the same characters from My Heart is a Chainsaw, and I thought the descriptions of Proofrock were excellent. I would still encourage people to read this book, it was just a miss for me.

Stephen Graham Jones is an auto-buy author for me. The Only Good Indians blew me away, and My Heart Is a Chainsaw was one of my favorite reads of the year in 2021. When I saw the cover reveal for Don't Fear the Reaper, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

From Goodreads: December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones.

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.

Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.

Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.

This. Book.

Sequels can often be disappointing. Living up to the original can be challenging. You already know the characters. You're dealing with a time gap. Sometimes the conflict isn't as gripping or high-stakes as the original. But like one of my favorite meta-horror takes (Scream 2 is a classic, y'all), Jones knocks it out of the park with Reaper. I could see this translating well to the screen and *really* hope this happens. Leaning into the genre, Jones highlights the tropes and uses them to his favor instead of shying away from them. The characters have learned from their mistakes. They understand the conventions and use them to their benefits (or detriments, in some cases) and the awareness makes for a truly entertaining and thrilling read.

Clever, brutal, witty, and fun as hell, Don't Fear the Reaper will easily be one of my top reads of the year. Add this to your TBRs immediately, make some popcorn, and don't forget to lock your doors.

Four years after the end of My Heart is a Chainsaw, Jennifer "Jade" Daniels returns to Proofrock, but on the same night a convicted serial killer's transport crashes and he escapes. Jade realizes she is once again in a slasher movie, but this time she might not be the final girl. The bodies begin piling up as Jones draws inspiration from some infamous slasher kills.

Jones is a wonderful writer, and his prose brings beauty and depth to all of the characters and also some gloriously detailed descriptions of horrific murders. The book has a deliberate pace, but once you are in rhythm with it, it became so hard to put down. Most of the book takes place within a 24 hour window, which keeps all of the characters moving towards their various fates. The book has a lot of tense, horror-inspired scenes, but also ensures the characters have emotional depth that makes the death and destruction of the community feel impactful.

Jones does the same thing for Proofrock as David Gordon Green did for Haddonfield in the new Halloween trilogy. Where the first book was very centered on Jade's story, Don't' Fear the Reaper expands its scope outward, to the whole town of Proofrock, and how the events at the end of the first book continue to haunt its inhabitants. The book brings in multiple POVs and you get to experience how collective grief and trauma can take over a community.

Once again, Jones shows his deep knowledge of horror movies, with multiple digressions throughout the book of characters discussing specific scenes from slashers or thinking about how they function. As a horror fan, these scenes were so much fun to read and think about. A multi-page discussion of who was behind the mask in a specific scene in Scream? I love it. Towards the end, there are some great references that we as the reader get and Jade does not because she was in prison. If you don't like horror movies, then all of these discussions may not be for you, but as someone who tries to see most horror movies being released, it could not be more exciting.

This book was more exciting My Heart is a Chainsaw and I can not wait for the conclusion of the trilogy. Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a copy of Don't Fear the Reaper in Exchange for an honest review.

What a powerful read. If you like dark reads this is for you!

This book is the second in the Lake Witch series. I didn’t read the first book called My Heart is a Chainsaw but followed this one just fine.

Jennifer aka Jade had been in jail for possible murder charge but no body turned up and after 4 years the conviction was overturned and she was released.

Dark Mill South aka Eastfork Strangler aka Ninety-Eye Slasher aka Bowman Butcher aka Rapid City Reaper was killing from Wyoming to Montana to South Dakota. He had an agenda to kill 38 people due to the 38 hung Dakota men and he escapes during a prisoner transport.

Murder again starts back up in Proofrock.

This was a very dark read and one book I took my time with. It recapped the first book so it was easy to follow but I would recommend reading the first before this one.

Thank you Netgalley for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.