Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive into my latest review — Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare, a bloody, fast-paced slasher that proves the killer clown trope still has plenty of bite.
There’s a strong chance you’ve seen the trailer for the movie adaptation of this book. You might well have seen the movie. Again, this is an instance where I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. I put in the request to borrow it from my library, but the book only came my way recently. By which point, the movie had been in and out of cinemas months ago.
Quinn Maybrook is forced to move from her home in Philadelphia to the tiny town of Kettle Springs, Missouri, when her father takes up the job of town doctor. They’re both haunted by the death of her mother. While her father sees it as a chance at a fresh start, Quinn thinks she only has to survive the one year of high school before she’s free to leave for college.
Kettle Springs is a bit of a one-horse town. There’s little to see or do. The town is famous for the production of Baypen Corn Syrup, which has a creepy mascot known as Frendo the Clown. The factory burnt down shortly before Quinn moved to the town. Believed to be an arson attempt by a group of juvenile teenagers.
Quinn ends up making friends with the same group of teenagers, and she finds them to be misunderstood. The longer she stays in the town, the more she comes to realise there is a clear divide between the adults who reside there and the teenagers. The adults are largely conservative with a longing for “the good old days”, while the youth are merely bored with so little to do and have taken to making dumb prank videos for YouTube.
Things take a turn when Quinn is invited to the annual Founder’s Day event with her new friends. What should be a fun day of parades and hot dogs turns into a bloodbath. You see, somebody is out there dressed as Frendo. But this clown isn’t the silly mascot from the bottles of corn syrup. This Frendo has a taste for blood, and he has the group of teenagers in his sights. He wants to kill them all one by one.
This is a highly enjoyable read. One which I found myself flying through at quite the pace. It’s listed as a YA, which I suppose made it slightly easier to read. Although it has to be at the upper end of the scale, as the characters in this book throw the F-bomb around quite liberally. I also had visions and references from the film in my head. And it’s worth mentioning that I think the film is more of a traditional slasher film. I never imagined it aimed at a YA audience when I was in the cinema. But the good news is you don’t need to choose between the book and the film. If you’re anything like me, you will probably love both.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
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