Stephen. Graham. Jones.

The man can do no wrong, and this follow up to "My Heart is a Chainsaw" is a true slasher sequel in every sense. The plot is more propulsive, the body count higher, and while he doesn't go for the emotional wallop of the first book, there's still so much heart in this novel. If you struggled with MHIAC I would highly recommend giving the series another shot. "Don't Fear the Reaper" lowers the barrier for entry and dials up the fun.

This was a fun continuation of a character that is well-loved by so many. While I'm still not fully convinced that SGJ's writing as a whole is for me, I can definitely see where people connect with his stories and especially this one.

In this follow up to the hugely popular MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, Stephen Graham Jones brings Jade home to Proofrock. She's not "Jade" anymore... not trying to be that girl, like it's a coat you can take off and hang up. In this fast-paced ride that hits high gear very early on, no one is putting aside any jackets. For one thing, it's cold out there. For another, you need all the padding you can get when bodies start piling up, old horror movie plots and scenes appear, and a giant of an escaped serial killer is on the loose.

The survivors of the first book come together in a disjointed battle against an ever changing enemy, a massive snowstorm, and a veritable army of possible final girls and victims. A very satisfying sequel to the first book. Particularly recommended for fans of B movie horror and slasher films.

Highly recommended!

OMFG this book was amazeballs. I loved it and cannot wait for the next one.
Even the acknowledgements were beautiful, a love story to books and movies and teachers.
Yes, it's horror, but it's also survival.
Full disclosure, apparently I got this book from NG but never downloadedit so i actually read on KU.

This book was hard to keep up with what was going on. I was not crazy about how it was written. I honestly could not even give you a preview of what this book was about because it was hard for even me to understand.

Stephen Graham Jones is sometimes one of those authors you have to focus hard while reading not miss all of the hidden meanings and words. This is no exception.
Although over the top at times, Jones is able to pull back and tie everything together, giving satisfaction to slasher fans everywhere.

This is book 2 in the Indian Lake Trilogy series. Four years later, Jade Daniels is released from prison when her conviction is overturned. Life outside turn dangerous when she returns home, when a serial killer seeks revenge. Can she stay alive?

I felt got off the ground a lot faster than My Heart is A Chainsaw. I was hooked from the beginning and it used multiple POV’s to tell the story and I enjoyed that more. But I felt this one started to drag at the tail end.

Overall, Stephen Graham Jones has a really unique voice and I enjoy his horror. This makes three books I’ve read of his and probably not my last. He is extremely descriptive and while that helps the creepy suspense factor in his books it still tends to lose me a little too. I still like reading his books

The second book in the Indian Lake Trilogy did not disappoint. In fact, I think I enjoyed this read better than the first.

Jade Daniels, now going by Jennifer, returns to Proofrock after spending the past 4 years in prison due to the infamous events that people call the 4th of July massacre. Right when she returns, a convicted serial kill named Dark Mill South escapes his prison transfer convoy right near Proofrock during an intense blizzard. Jade (or Jennifer) is thrown right back into the world of slashers and will have to use her vast knowledge of horror movies that she's tried to forget to save her and the others in this town. But as before, Proofrock and Indian Lake are never quite what they seem.

First, I want to say that if you are a fan of horror movies, especially slashers, at the very least you'll appreciate the vast knowledge Stephen Graham Jones includes in this series. It's a dream for horror aficionados - I even wrote quite a view titles down that I wasn't familiar with.

While I enjoyed the first book, it was exhausting being inside Jade's head the whole time. Sometimes it was hard figuring out what was fact and what was just in Jade's head. I very much enjoyed how this book jumped between narrators. While it may seem confusing (and could be at times) I felt like I had a better understanding of what was going on. It also really allowed me to get a sense of just how impactful the Lake Killings of 4 years prior were to the town and people in it as a whole. The amount of characters are a lot, however, each one serves an important purpose and helped the many moving parts of this book to come together. This book also solidified my love for both Jade and Letha.

Overall, I highly recommend this horror series. To fully appreciate Don't Fear the Reaper I recommend reading the first book My Heart is a Chainsaw first.

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER follows in the bloody footsteps of MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW. 4-1/2 stars

I have heard talk that the first book was so darned good. The publisher, like almost everyone who read it, wanted more. Stephen Graham Jones had a killer on his hands that would not die—his book about THE last girl, Jade Daniels. Unlike so many sequels ordered up after a successful stand alone, REAPER shines brighter than the first, and that is a good thing because this book is cold, dark, and brutal. That’s not surprising as this book, like its predecessor, MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, is an homage to the slasher, particularly of the 1980s-90s, the Crimson Age of Slashers.

REAPER picks up four years after the first book with an escaped serial killer on the loose. Jade, now fresh out of prison, is back in Proofrock. No longer obsessed with horror movies, she wants normalcy, but that’s not how things work with final girls. The town has been cut off by a blizzard. The serial killer, Dark Mill South, has escaped and has begun killing once again in Proofrock. Or has he? Is he more than human? Is it something else? Something is definitely going on here. The town’s senior class is being picked off in theatrical slasher form. And we are off and running.

There is a LOT going on in this book. At times, I felt like I was the one lost in a blinding snowstorm—one I couldn’t get out of because I had a hard time putting this book down. The writing of Stephen Graham Jones is intelligent, if not downright nerdy in the way he drills down into the characters. And he brings each of those those characters to life. Flesh and blood. Lots of blood.

Two down. One left.

I would like to thank the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this novel.

I loved the slower pace of My Heart is a Chainsaw, but this one was a bit more my style! It was still so fantastically interesting and gruesome, and the commentary and discussions were brilliant. All the stars, always!

At its most efficient horror is magical realism. You recognize the characters, the scenarios, maybe even the scenery as genuine and relatable—everything except that one pesky element, be it a demon or a vampire or a slasher there to throw a bloody spanner in the proverbial works. I can think of no better illustration of this than the final act of Stephen Graham Jones’ 2021 novel My Heart Is a Chainsaw.

Chainsaw‘s gory payoff takes place during sleepy Proofrock, Idaho’s annual Independence Day showing of Jaws. Here a waterfront viewing of the Spielberg classic devolves into an all-out slaughter at the hands of a horror film hat-trick; the supernatural Stacey Graves emerges to lay waste to the community that shunned her, land developer Theo Mondragon goes to monstrous lengths to cover up a series of all-too-mundane murders of his own, and protagonist Jade Daniels is able to dispatch her abusive father in the chaos.

Jones’ follow-up, Don’t Fear the Reaper, picks up four years after the Independence Day Massacre. Despite video evidence implicating her in the murder of Tab Daniels, Jade (now Jennifer) Daniels is found not guilty, and, having nowhere else to turn, makes her way back to Proofrock.

There she finds the town not quite as she left it. Sheriff Hardy—who along with murdered history teacher Mr. Holmes formed a sort of surrogate support system for Jennifer in the previous novel—has stepped down from his post, a literally diminished man after left-threatening injuries sustained during the massacre. Her friend and fellow final girl Letha Mondragon, now a wife and mother, also barely survived her encounter with the Lake Witch, and now carries all the requisite scars (physical and psychological) inherent in that post.

Despite the abandonment of the neighboring Terra Nova development, though, this Proofrock is a more bustling take on the one-horse town setting of My Heart Is a Chainsaw—due in no small part to an influx of families more than willing to ignore the slayings to take advantage of the free college tuition offered to Proofrock’s high school graduates.

If that sort of willful ignorance, that innately human ability to ignore barely buried trauma, was mostly hinted at in Chainsaw, it’s on full display in Reaper. Here the entire community is happy to hand-wave away all the unpleasantness of but four short years prior in the name of little more than self-preservation.

And, of course, like all good sequels, this book is more than happy to pile on new characters, new lore, and new threats. At first, these seem to take the form of Dark Mill South, a serial killer (the titular reaper) who conveniently escapes custody just as blizzard conditions further isolate the people of Proofrock from any outside assistance, but, Stephen Graham Jones being Stephen Graham Jones, there’s a certain amount of misdirection inherent in this larger-than-life madman.

Initially more than happy to shed her previous creepy girl persona and ignore the obvious horror movie references of the novel’s first few kills herself, Jennifer relies even more on Letha, who seems to have taken up the mantle of the town’s ever-vigilant slasher aficionado. Thankfully, by the second act, Jennifer is back to being the Jade we all know and love, her encyclopedic knowledge of VHS-error boogiemen still intact.

Like Chainsaw before it, Don’t Fear the Reaper trades not only in old-school slasher references but in the trappings of related media, like the lingering mystery of the classic whodunit and the eerie ambivalence of the Italian Giallo (whose gloved killers did a lot of the heavy lifting for the proto-slasher archetype). Returning characters/survivors like the Baker twins (Cinnamon and Ginger), Galatea Pangborne, and even former frenemy/current deputy Banner Tompkins help fill out the cast, but newcomers such as the aforementioned Dark Mill South more than hold their own against these known quantities.

Jones particularly uses newbie Mr. Armitage to great effect. Ostensibly the town’s replacement history teacher, he’s no Mr. Holmes, even though he entertains the same sort of extra credit assignments that brought the Mr. Holmes/Jade Daniels dynamic to the forefront of the previous novel. (Read: elaborate treatise on horrors both fictional and functional.)

This time the “Horror 102” content is explored through the lens of Gal Pangborne, one of the massacre’s youngest survivors looking to make a little sense of all that senseless slaughter. However, given that Armitage is, a) a horror nut drawn specifically to the town’s dark history, and, b) an unseemly predator of a different type, these asides come across as more clinical, robbed of much of the underlying warmth of Jade’s previous missives.

Despite threats from all sides and red herrings galore, Don’t Fear the Reaper keeps its horrors rooted firmly in reality until pretty late in the game. Just as the late-chapter reveal of the Lake Witch served to ratchet up the impact of her story, Reaper‘s supernatural twist also punches above its weight class. It’s a nice callback to some established Proofrock history that blends seamlessly with the author’s brand of eerie folk horror.

In the end, Don’t Fear the Reaper didn’t displace My Heart Is a Chainsaw as my favorite Stephen Graham Jones book, but it’s a creepy companion piece that, like any slasher sequel worth its salt, knows when to lean into its established tropes and when to swing for the fences. There are, for example, the requisite awkward adolescent sexuality and clueless adults, but when the former weaves in canonical queer representation and the latter has the outright gall to paint last season’s final girl as this season’s self-deluded grownup, you’re reminded why the genre (in written or visual form) always manages to endure.

Like The Empire Strikes Back before it, Don’t Fear the Reaper is a grim and challenging middle chapter. By its conclusion, when all the dirty laundry has been aired and all those narrative twists pounded flat, we’re again left with Jade getting far less than what she rightly deserves. But what else could we expect?

As a woman, as a Native American, as an abuse survivor, as just another daughter of the impoverished middle-of-nowhere that this Idaho town represents, Jade Daniels is everyone who’s ever been left behind. And yet we hold out hope because, if you’ve ever ticked any related outsider boxes yourself, Jade’s success, no matter how minor or transitory, is your success—it’s a win for the whole damn team.

I can’t imagine what the final volume of the Indian Lake Trilogy will hold for our luckless protagonist, but just as Jade’s own mother, a woman previously defined by her outright inability to support and protect her only daughter, earns a modicum of redemption in Reaper‘s bloody resolution, I’m holding out hope that Jade or Jennifer or whoever she has become by the story’s end will, at last, be accepted as the hero we readers already know she is.

Access to an uncorrected reader’s proof of Don’t Fear the Reaper was provided for the purposes of this review. This post contains affiliate links. The saw is family!

Thoughts.

While I did like the first one, I think this one was better. It was really great. As with the first it is perfect for anyone who loves slasher films. They are referenced throughout in order to figure out how to defeat the slasher in this book.

But like a true horror buff Jones knows that horror is more about the surface. So there is social commentary as well. As it does talk about the residential schools that Native children were subjected to.

If you are a horror movie fan I definitely recommend this series.

I was really excited to revisit Proofrock in <i>Don't Fear the Reaper</i>. The first book in this trilogy, <i>My Heart is a Chainshaw</i>, was a wild ride—such a deep dive into the mind of a character that is absolutely obsessed with the slasher genre. Unfortunately, <i>Don't Fear the Reaper</i> was missing some of the magic of the first book.

This book switches up perspectives, following different characters' experiences in each chapter. This approach left me feeling less connected than in the first book, where I was 100% invested in Jade's train of thought and motivation.

I also had difficulty following the plot at times. The plot felt meandering and perhaps overly long. When combined with Stephen Graham Jones' writing style that often requires the reader to fill in the blanks, leaving things unsaid though implied, I found myself rereading paragraphs and pages to try to understand what was happening. I, personally, have to either entirely let go or <i>really</i> concentrate for this writing style to land.

While <i>Don't Fear the Reaper</i> was maybe a miss for me, you know I'm picking up the third in this trilogy. Can't miss out on the exciting conclusion! 💀

Note: This is the second volume of “The Indian Lake Trilogy.” If you have not read the first volume, I suggest reading
It — “My Heart is a Chainsaw.”

Jade Daniels has gone back to her name Jennifer Daniels. She is no longer Jade. Returning to Proofrock from prison, she meets a friend former Sheriff Hardy. It’s an awkward moment but then it’s okay. Hardy calls for his ride home and has Jennifer go back with him to Proofrock.. Banner driving to get Hardy can’t believe Jade/Jennifer is with him. He drops her off in Proofrock where she goes to see Letha. Jennifer is trying to put her past behind her but Dark Mill South, serial killer has escaped and has started fis killings again. While bodies pile up again Jennifer savvy kicks in. She must once again get her friends and authorities again using her familiarity with cinematic slaughter to save them all from dying. Even though she knows the movies (with slaughter) so does the killer. Will Jennifer be successful in saving the community of Proofrock?

The author cleverly blends graveyard humor with unnerving suspense. He gives the characters in the novel distinctive personalities. I love the suspenseful horror novel — it kept me on the edge of my seat. His horror heroine
is terrific. The author has become my favorite horror writer. I look forward to reading the third volume and other novels he writes.

Let me just preface this by saying that I tend to have a terrible memory when it comes to books in a series. And since I read My Heart is a Chainsaw a few years ago, I don’t remember a lot from it.

Did I reread it before I read this book? No, I did not. Instead I just used context clues to try to figure out what was happening. Did it work? I mean, kind of? I should’ve reread My Heart is a Chainsaw but it’s fine.

I did love this book regardless. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year and, y’all, it DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!!

This book made my horror loving heart so happy!!! It was essentially a love letter to classic horror films, particularly slashers, and that’s something I always love to see! There were so many film and character references. This was an absolute horror pop culture DREAM!

I loved the characters. The twists were EXCELLENT! The snowy setting was just perfect (but made me wish I had read this earlier in the week when I was actually snowed in). And the horror was on point!!

Stephen Graham Jones does it again!! I cannot get enough of his books and I am already eagerly awaiting the last book in this series. Though I will definitely be rereading this book and My Heart is a Chainsaw before that release! (I’ll have to pick up physical copies of both!)

If you’re also a horror fan, please check out this series! It is EXCELLENT! And I think I liked this one even more than the first? (But also terrible memory?) They are both amazing!!! Definitely worth the read!!!

And thank you to NetGalley & Gallery Books for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

(4.5 stars rounded up to 5)

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones is a literary horror thriller and the second book in the Lake Witch trilogy.

I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at a little over fifteen hours and is narrated by a full cast including Isabella Star LaBlanc and fifteen others. While the first book in the series has a singular point-of-view, this installment is heavily multi-POV.

Jade--now going by her birth name Jennifer--Daniels has returned to her hometown of Proofrock after her murder conviction was overturned. Convicted serial killer Dark Mill South has also found himself in town, after escaping from his prison transfer during a blizzard. Over the next day and a half, many bodies hit the floor and Jade and her friends must figure out what is happening.

Please read the first book in this trilogy, My Heart is a Chainsaw before picking this one up. Jones mentions in his Acknowledgements that he looked to The Two Towers and The Empire Strikes Back to figure out how to craft the middle part of a trilogy and I think he landed that pretty well.

SGJ is an amazing observational writer. He has such a way with descriptions that I feel I can nearly see a perfect image in my head while I am reading. I was pleased that this book also contains interludes with essays written by a student to their history teacher, a lovely reference to a similar plot device in the first book.

And boy oh boy, the themes in this book. There's a focus on trauma, and how differently people process it (or specifically do not process it and just ignore it). There's the usual examples of humans also being monsters, and a hefty dose of trope subversion.

The only downsides to this one is that in part due to the many POVs the plot was a little confusing to me at times. The first book in the series meandered a bit, but was a great character study of Jade, especially when it picked up in the back half of the novel. Similarly, the back half of this one also picks up the thread a bit more, with an almost manic dash to the end that keeps up.

If you're a fan of the slasher genre, you might like this series!

Tropes in this book include: slashers, local legends, revenge plot, isolation in blizzard

CW: blood, gore, murder, firearms, implied abuse, body horror, body fluids

Just finished this one and OH. MY. GAWD! DONT FEAR THE REAPER was just perfection in every sense of the word. Jade is complex and bada**. The supporting characters were so exceptionally written and the story was just *chefs kiss* Can’t wait for the 3rd book in this series. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jade is back! My Heart is a Chainsaw was so much fun, a crash course in horror icons, tropes, and movies. I was really excited for the sequel. In Don't Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones continues his master class on horror, seamlessly weaving it in with Jade sharp, humorous observations. Jade and Letha together were excellent.

Stephen Graham Jones continues his legacy of writing beautiful slashers. I'm a librarian who is an advocate for the horror genre. I booktalk it as a countercultural movement that takes the same emotional, thematic, and heavy messages we get in capital-L Literature and packages them in a way that says "this is for everyone." Stephen Graham Jones makes my job easy. His books are fun and entertaining, and they will absolutely twist your soul with their powerful themes. I recommend his work often, and I can't wait for those library patrons who enjoyed My Heart is a Chainsaw to come in and pick this up, so we can chat about it at the service desk.