Audiobook review: Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

  Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc, Jane Levy, Alexis Floyd, Pete Simonelli, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning, Dan Bittner, Corey Brill, Matt Pittenger, Jesse Vilinsky, Migizi Pensoneau, Lee Osorio, Gail Shalan, Alejandro Antonio Ruiz,

Format Audible Audio Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins Length

Published February, 2023

 

For the record, since I listened to this on audiobook the review will not be as intense as I might have if I read it. The audiobook on my Libby app is not ideal for me, but the physical library book in San Diego had like sixty holds on 15 copies.  I have said many times I like to listen to franchise books when I am listening to audiobooks. If the choice is to wait forever or listen to it. I decided I was not waiting.  As an audiobook, it is an interesting one as the different POVS were recorded by different narrators. All were OK to great.

Stephen Graham Jones is one of the best things to horror in this century. I think Mongrels and The Only Good Indian are masterpieces. The latter I think is an all-timer that will be taught, talked about and remembered as one of the best horror novels ever. That said Stephen and I share a love for many things - basketball, Damian Lillard, and Philip K. Dick. I do not share his love of slashers. It is one of his favorite corners of horror, and it is not mine. That’s fine but it is the reason My Heart is a Chainsaw, and its slasher worship didn’t work for me as well as some.

Objectively I think Chainsaw is a great book. Jade Daniels is a great character. I can and often separate what I love and think is good. Don’t Fear the Reaper follows the sequel path of most slashers. Your Final girl survived and is older, and wiser. She is troubled with some PTSD and legal issues. She tried to change her name and move on. The high school reunion pulls her back into town.

She returns to  Profrock on Thursday, December 12, and is just in time for a Friday the 13th snowstorm and an escaped slasher. Dark Mill South, motivated by vengeance for thirty-eight Dakota men hung in 1862, he is such an interesting character that his escape from his prison just outside of Proofrock, Idaho takes this novel in fascinating directions.

I enjoyed this novel far more than My Heart is a Chainsaw, but the heart is not the killers of this trilogy but Jade Daniels. Her growth is a part of the genre and the important steps being a final girl in a slasher trilogy.

Don’t Fear the Reaper is what you want it to be. Better than the first book, and an escalation of the story. I really enjoyed this audiobook and the presentation. I might listen to the next on audio. Awesome.