This was another monthly read winner on Goodreads’ Horror Aficionados – as I’ve previously mentioned in my Black River Orchard post. I’ve read a couple of Stephen Graham Jones’s books before, including My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Only Good Indians. Having enjoyed those, I was looking forward to checking this one out as well.
I’m not the kind of fool who’s going to sit here and claim to be an outright expert on the slasher genre. I’m just somebody who’s seen my fair share and, for the most part, quite enjoys them. Whether you prefer the classics like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street or maybe something more recent, like The Terrifier, either way, the slasher genre has rules. The killer themself is usually the silent and mysterious type. They decide their actions can say more than their words ever could. They go on a killing spree with each death more elaborate than the last. And there has to be a final girl. The sole survivor – usually beautiful – who lives to tell the tale.
I Was a Teenager Slasher is very much a love letter to the genre. Narrated by Tolly Driver at some point around the present day, he looks back on the summer of 1989, back when he was an ordinary teenager who accidentally becomes a serial killer. That’s not a spoiler. It’s literally in the title of the book.
Tolly is not a fan of the slasher genre, so initially, he has no idea what’s going on or why. All he knows is that he keeps blacking out, and when he comes to, he has these vivid recollections of murdering people. Fortunately for Tolly, his best friend is an expert of the slasher genre and is more than happy to help him. She knows all the rules, and she’s like Jiminy Cricket guiding him along the way. Not that she wants him to kill. If anything, she’ll do anything in her power to help him stop killing before it’s too late.
There’s a lot to like about this book. I love the idea, I love the nostalgia, and I love the platonic teenage friendship. The first-person POV adds a little something extra to this book. I know that films such as Black Christmas and Halloween had camera shots from the killer’s POV, but that’s not the same as being inside the character’s head and knowing exactly what they’re thinking. Tolly doesn’t want to be who he is and shows remorse for his actions.
With all that said, I was a little disappointed in this book. The chapters are quite long, and there were times I found the pace to be just plodding along a little. I also got the feeling that Tolly dwells on his thoughts a little too much. Then again, at the time he was a teenager, and teenagers traditionally are self-obsessed. While this was a middle-of-the-road read for me, I know that there are others who will outright love it.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)
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