I have to start by saying that I am absolutely in love with the way this book is written and how the story is presented. I am always a sucker for a unique storytelling and I thought that this was funny (for horror) and a fresh take on a slasher genre in general. We get the story from the slasher's, Tolly’s, point of view in sort of a diary entry/autobiography/stream of consciousness form. I enjoyed getting his intrusive thoughts and funny quips. I also got some Dexter vibes.

The supernatural element was perfection for me. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop in the first scene where it is introduced. I was for sure thinking that it was in Tolly’s mind, but the fact that it was actually part of the story just really worked for me.

The gore and how it was written was one of my favorite parts. Very descriptive and cringe (in the best possible way) inducing.

Jones really mastered the craft of getting his audience to root for the villain. You will definitely will find yourself sympathizing with Tolly.

The relationship between Tolly and Amber was interesting and I enjoyed that element getting woven into the plot. I feel like it is unusual to get this type of relationship development in the slasher genre, but it added to the unique feel of this book for me.

On a side note - My little high school, diesel VW driving heart loved the rabbit references so much.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

One thing you need to know about this book is, it takes place in Lamesa, Texas. The book will not let you forget this. I will always remember Lamesa, Texas.

This is an interesting take for a novel, one I have not read before. The story unfolds from a past point of view without hiding it, and it is told like a massive letter to Tolly's friend Amber, as well as his parents. We spend a lot of time going back and forth from past to present as Tolly relays that summer of 1989 where he was a teenage slasher. What is interesting is how it all unfolds, which I won't share for the sake of not spoiling, but it was something that in hindsight was so obvious but I didn't make connections to. In particular with Amber and what was happening to her. It was a pleasant surprise to see where it went and that I was actually surprised, as not a lot of books can trick me like that anymore. Stephen Graham Jones is certainly good at taking a story and twisting it on you and leading you in a different direction the whole time so beautifully. You may think you know but more times than not, you don't.

I don't think this one holds up as well as The Only Good Indians or the Jade Daniels trilogy, but I think this does character to specific types of readers who will probably enjoy this over those books. It has the right amount of touch of final girl action, gore, and horror, without being overwhelmingly horrifying. Overall, I did like it. It wasn't my favorite but something definitely worth recommending.

Rep: Native SC, MC with peanut allergy.

🔪I was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones🔪

Thank you so much @sagapress for this ARC. @stephengrahamjones … you made me cry.

Pages: 384
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Book Goal 2024: 81/100

✨Have you ever cried from a horror film or Book?✨

I don’t even know where to start with this one. Jones has a very unique writing style that sometimes can take some getting used to. The first quarter of this book felt like I was on the outside of someone’s fever dream looking in. I couldn’t tell at first if I was into it but I’m so glad I gave Tolly a chance!

Then slowly his story started to piece together into the masterpiece that it is. I can’t remember ever crying from a horror book due to.. sentimental vibes? I don’t even know how to explain it but this book just nailed all the feelings. A coming to age story in the most unexpected way…

I also absolutely LOVED that the characters talked through slasher film quirks/characters and that they related it back to Tolly’s story.

Ghost face, Micheal Myers, Freddy, Jason, Hannibal, all of the classics… share a bit of common ground with “I was a Teenage Slasher” and you’ll catch a glimpse of each throughout the book.

After reading “I was a teenage slasher”, I really understand why sometimes people have sympathy for the villain.

One of my favorites of 2024….

Tolly lives in a small town in Texas. It’s 1989 and things are about to get very real, quickly. Tolly describes everything that happened that faithful summer. It is so hard to review this book without entering slasher, I mean, spoiler territory. If you have any love for the slasher films from the 80s, I think you will enjoy this story. That is all I am going to say except I really really am hooked on the author’s writing style. Another great read and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Imagine it- Peter Parker (a la Toby MacGuire of course), plucked out of NYC and dropped in 1989 rural Texas, and instead of becoming a reluctant superhero, he transforms into a Jekyll/Hyde murder machine in a classic slasher movie format.

That's this book, and it exceeded all of my expectations. I'll be honest here- I read a lot of books and after a while, a lot of them start to sound the same. Sorry! But when I read The Only Good Indians earlier this year, I found that for me, Jones has a distinct writing style that puts him head and shoulders above the rest. His first person POVs have such an authentic voice to them, that you'd think these are cursed memoirs. His books are dark and not for the faint of heart (though I did find this book easier to stomach than TOGI), but if you've the stomach for it, they are well worth it.

This book had it all- late-eighties, scorching summer in a small town vibes for miles, a clever unpacking of the "slasher" movie genre formula spelled out in real time, a hapless but generally well-meaning anti-hero of all anti-heroes, with a gut-punch ending that wrapped this package up in a perfect bow. Normally, I cannot always get behind media that glorifies crime and violence from the perspective of the offender, but I have no qualms about recommending this book to genre readers. THANK YOU to Saga Press for the ARC of I Was a Teenage Slasher, which is available now.

I own several SGJ books, but this is my second that I've read. I started the Indian Lake trilogy, but haven't finished book 1. I grew up watching horror films. I'm pretty sure I was 5 watching Freddy. It takes a certain kind of special to scare me. That being said, this book wasn't scary to me. It is however, unique. You are getting the perspective of the villian. It's a train of thought kind of tale exploring his life history. If anything bothered me, it was the squirreling from one topic or time period to another. That's ok though, because my brain works like that too. Around halfway, it lagged for me. I think this is some kind of "fantasy horror" in that you have a "magic system" if you will. And laying the details for that, dragged a bit for someone who appreciates the first Scream movie for pointing it all out. By the time it got to the twist, I had already figured it out. It was still good, going through it with the characters. I love a villian story or villian orgin story and it gets 5 stars for that. I just deducted one for the slog parts. For an inexperienced Slasher connoisseur, you might not notice that. It's the rambling that might get you. All in all, great story from a new POV. I received a free e-arc in exchange for and honest review for Netgalley.

I am so grateful to get an arc for one of my most anticipated reads of the summer. To be fair I thoroughly enjoyed this more than some. It follows our MC as he talks about the summer where he murdered six people. It has all of your classic SGJ moments in it that we love. My huge take away however is the first twenty percent, and the last twenty percent. Everything in the middle worked, but there was just something so shocking about the ending, and how there was not about the ending.

I would recommend broadly even if I liked other works of SGJ that I think does it better.

3.75⭐'s

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am calling it - this author just isn't for me. After reading My Heart Is A Chainsaw and now I Was a Teenage Slasher, I have decided that I appreciate this author for his concepts, love of all things horror movies, and creativeness - but overall, I find myself not enjoying his books.

For me, his writing style just doesn't seem to work for me and I find myself not really being invested in his characters - not because they are unlikeable or not well-written, but I just don't connect with them for some reason.

I do believe that if this is your style of writing - and this author has worked for you in the past - then you will love this book. It has an interesting concept and so many references to horror & slasher films which is fun. It was slightly more depressing than I expected it to be - but definitely had the gore that you expect from one of his novels.

I see this author compared to Grady Hendrix - and that is another author who just doesn't seem to work for me - so I truly think this is just a case of an author not being right for me - but one that will be right and successful for a LOT of readers! So, reader know thyself and try this if it is your style - and skip if it's not.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 384 / Genre: Horror
Audiobook Narrator: Michael Crouch
Duration: 10 hours 52 minutes

Tolly Driver tells us his tale of how he became a slasher like in the horror films. And following the rules of the genre, he has preternatural speed and strength, he instinctually has to kill everyone who wronged him, and he can’t be killed except by a final girl. And unlike the movies, his story is told in the first person, so we get insights into what a slasher is thinking when he does the things he does. Sounds good, right? Well…

For a book that should’ve been full of exciting killing and gore, the lead up to how Tolly became a slasher was so infuriatingly slow and boring. He’ll start explaining what happened and then get sidetracked on some other tiresome tangent, taking forever to get to his original point. Or he’d do something that didn’t make any sense and then explain it later when you’ve already given up trying to figure out what’s going on. And then when he finally got to the action, he described it so dispassionately the slashing wasn’t even scary.

The only horror in the book was getting through it. Luckily I was able to get this on my trusty @LibbyApp and Michael Crouch did an admirable job narrating this mess and I was able to speed through it at 1.4x speed.

Thank you @NetGalley and @SagaPressBooks for my gifted copies of this book. #SagaSaysCrew #freegift

Loved the perspective on this one. Really great for a summer horror slasher book pick. Very similar in how we find ourselves rooting for a killer (re: Norman Bates), a perspective we don’t see often. But a very compelling one!

Stephen Graham Jones is a gift to us all. His books are incredibly unique and I end up falling in love with several of the characters. This book is no exception.

Loved that this book was from the POV of the killer. It was a fresh take on the genre that I really enjoyed. I added this to my new book recommendation to customers in my online shop.

DNF'd. I believe this is purely a personal issue since it's written in a stream-of-consciousness style that frequently goes off-topic. The writing style made it impossible for me to become engrossed or follow along.

However, I love slasher storylines so if this became a show or movie I would definitely be into it.

First of all, thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free e-copy of I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones for review. I Was A Teenage Slasher is an incredible companion to the Indian Lake Trilogy that pushes the slasher genre even further by deconstructing genre tropes and playing with perspective. Narrated entirely from the point of view of Tolly, the teenage killer, I loved how the plot educates the reader into slasher lore along with Tolly. Veering from playful to tense and violent, the novel is an absolute must for fans of horror and slashers in particular.

💀 Horrifically Wicked & Bloody Brilliant! 💀

Holy smokes!!! What an absolute ode to slasher films and the man behind the mask!! As someone who grew up watching every slasher film she could get her hands on - I knew I was going to 100% love this! Just like Stephen Graham Jones’s Indian Lake Trilogy, I Was A Teenage Slasher is a love letter to the classic horror films of the 80s & 90s. It’s thrilling, captivating and of course - very bloody! This was such a unique spin getting to see the story play out from the Slasher’s perspective!! 10/10 recommend!!

🔪 Slasher Vibes
🪦 Paranormal
🩸Gore
📼 80s/90s Horror

Method Read: 📖

Thank you so much Saga Press for sending me a copy

Ah! First of all, thank you @sagapressbooks for sending me an eARC and physical copy. I had been wanting to read this and was so happy when they reached out offering it to me!
Secondly, this was such a fun thriller. So different than anything I ever expected. I love going into books blindly and this was a perfect example why. The way Tolly is "cursed" to be a slasher is nothing like how I would have imagined this book would turn out.
I loved how descriptive the action was and felt like it was the perfect amount of gore. They say in the book description that you'll find yourself rooting for the slasher... and they're right. 🫣

Thanks again to @sagapressbooks and @netgalley for the arc and physical copy.

thank you to the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!!!

as usual, stephen graham jones wrote scenes that won’t leave my mind for days, weeks, months, years. i was worried about this one at first, as it seemed slow. the pacing and writing style threw me off and made me trudge through it. but once it hits, it HITS. i was gripped. wonderful, amazing, thrilling!! don’t read while you eat dinner because i learned that the hard way <3

Review on the Chinook Indian Nation blog: https://chinooknation.org/review-of-i-was-a-teenage-slasher/

4.8 stars

“The crowd I do run with are...well. We’re the ones with black hearts and red hands. Masks and machetes.”

I may or may not be writing this review while listening to the I Was a Teenage Slasher soundtrack (go listen to it if you like 80s rock).

When I first started reading this book, I didn’t have any idea of how much I would come to care for the characters. After all, it’s kind of hard to have sympathy for a slasher. At least that’s what I thought. Then here comes Stephen Graham Jones to make readers feel for a kid named Tolly Driver and his best friend Amber Dennison. Cue Cinderella’s “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone.” I feel like that song speaks to the theme of the book really well.

I went into this expecting I don’t know what, a teenage slasher with a twist maybe, but this was so much more than that. It’s someone reminiscing about the past and it’s tinged with sadness throughout. It’s about looking back at childhood and not realizing how the good times are fleeting. This books fits into the “hurts so good category” for sure. Especially that ending. SGJ got me. Again.

I Was A Teenage Slasher is full of slasher goodness (by goodness I mean gore and tragedy). We go into the rules and the roles people play in the slasher. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, dissecting the slasher is always a good time for me. This time SGJ explores the flip side of the slasher coin. This book almost acts as a companion to the Indian Lake Trilogy. I’d recommend both for die hard fans of horror.

The only criticism I have is the long chapters made the pace feel slow. In reality the action gets started pretty early on. Shorter chapters are just a personal preference. This book is also a bit of a slow burn so if you aren’t into that then this book might not be for you. The payoff was worth the build up throughout the book for me.

I really loved this book, so much so that it’s hard to put into words. This is one you really have to pay attention to. If you’re only half listening or are distracted, you’ll miss the little things. Character moments that add up. If you pick this one up, and I highly recommend you do, give it all of your attention.

Thank you to Netgalley, Saga Press, and Stephen Graham Jones for providing me with an ARC for review.

Strong storytelling has its origins in oral transmission. To share a story is a communal experience, and we have developed the desire for it so deep it's a need tied to our survival. Funny, then, that we should get so much enjoyment from being scared by a method meant to help us stay alive. The best slashers are structured as campfire tales, after all.

One of the strongest elements of Friday the 13th's lasting legacy is its continued hint of a frame story through which Jason is continually mythologized. To tell these stories this way not only ensures their continued life, but lends them an equal air of humanity and monstrosity alike. Humanity's tendency toward over-exaggeration lends itself to building these legends into larger-than-life entities, and yet we also want to be able to identify with the characters in the stories we consume, and so more often than not there is something added to make us empathize - at least a bit - with the slashers out for vengeance against a world that did them wrong - or so they think.

Recently there have been efforts to turn our typical interpretations of and ideas about slashers on their head. Most recently, in the film world, you have movies like In A Violent Nature, in which the perspective is dominated by the killer rather than the victims, with no skimping on the brutality. On the literary side of things, meanwhile, slasher lover extraordinaire Stephen Graham Jones is entering the arena in the way only he can. With his newest novel, I Was a Teenage Slasher, we're presented with a rather unique approach on both genre and characters.

Tolly Driver, our narrator, is begrudgingly a slasher villain. Following a near-death experience at a house party, bodies start to fall, and Tolly's memory can't fill in the blanks. With the help of his best friend, he begins to piece together the startling truth that he might be the one responsible for all the bloodshed around town lately. He enters a constant battle of resistance between grappling with his identity as a creature of revenge and maintaining a grasp on his sanity in the daylight, all while also reckoning with the recent death of his father.

Told in the conversational tone we have come to affectionately associate with Jones at his best, Teenage Slasher feels almost tailor made to be read out loud, individually or with a group around your favorite summer campfire. It is also yet another tender examination of humanity. Where the Indian Lake Trilogy gave us a Final Girl to root for, Teenage Slasher gives us a man-made monster continually at odds with his own monstrosity. Both deal heavily in the business of breaking toxic cycles, but where Jade was able to take ownership of her title, Tolly is constantly trying to prove himself stronger than the one unwillingly thrust upon him. He would rather spare and save the ones he loves than leave them a bloodied pulp for their mistakes.

The more familiar Tolly gets with the story structure his life is now blood-and-ink-bound to follow, the more he resists. The more he resists, the deeper into the meaty heart of what makes a great slasher we go.

Horror fans so often want the monster to win. We want to see the tormentors get what's coming, because so often in the real world this justice is not possible. Yet with Tolly Driver, Stephen Graham Jones gives us a new angle to cheer for - things beyond his control made Tolly into the blood and gore-soaked masked monster he becomes. But his active, continuous choice to break the cycle of violence and center those he loves instead are what make him worth celebrating, remembering, and telling.

SGJ's insistence of not just damning patterns of toxic masculinity but making space for genuine introspection and emotional development for as many of his characters as possible is part of what makes him one of the best in the business. The best, most impactful work - horror and otherwise - centers finding lights in the darkness and holding on to the best parts of what makes us human, even when it seems like all else may be lost. Jones just happens to prefer to shine this light in some of the more overlooked areas of culture and media. And we are all the better for it every time.

Tolly Driver is the campfire tale for lovers, friends, and family who believe there's a path worth carving out beyond any we may feel predestined to follow.



I Was a Teenage Slasher is available now wherever books are sold, from Saga Press.