Yes, I Was a Teenage Slasher is a slasher novel—it’s right there in the title. Yes, there’s an impressive body count, and some truly creative methods of dispatch. And if that was all you were looking for in a slasher novel, this would completely satisfy you. But, and it’s a big but, because this is Stephen Graham Jones, I Was a Teenage Slasher is so much more than that. How much more? Let me count the ways…

1. VOICE—Tolly Driver, the teenage slasher of the title, narrates the novel, and Jones nails Tolly’s voice with what seems like effortless ease but I know is impossibly hard. There are few authors working today who can inhabit a character so deeply. Tolly is a killer, he tells us that right from the start. And yet, he is such a goofy, likable fuckup, he is so relatable—we have all known a Tolly, although hopefully they weren’t serial killers—that we care for him and hope for the best, despite what he becomes.

That voice, that expert characterization, extends to all the characters in the novel, particularly Amber, Tolly’s ride-or-die. Jones knows these people, and it shows.

2. PLACE—Jones makes it clear in the afterward—and if you’re not in the habit of reading afterwards, I suggest you always read his, because he puts so much of himself into them—that there’s a lot of himself in Tolly (serial killer not withstanding). Jones grew up in Lamesa, Texas, the setting of the novel, and the sense of place he imbues into I Was a Teenage Slasher feels so authentic, so filled with specificity, that it grounds the novel. There are so many telling details here, I’m pretty sure I could drive down to Lamesa and make my way around town without getting lost.

3. SLASHER GENRE EXPERTISE—As Jones as proven again and again, particular with the Indian Lake trilogy, he has a deep, abiding knowledge of, and affection for, the slasher genre. What that allows him to do in I Was a Teenage Slasher is play with those conventions, tweak them, subversively bend them to his will. In fact, he makes up a few new ones here, and seems to have a helluva good time doing it.

4. HEART—Yes, heart. This novel is filled with heart, and the heartbreak that often accompanies it. The relationship Tolly has with Amber is as pure an expression of friendship and love as I have read in a long time. And I have to admit, I did not expect to find tears in my eyes at the end of a slasher novel, but here we are.

I Was a Teenage Slasher has a propulsive plot, and a ton of humor to balance out the ultraviolence. If you’re a fan of Jones, you already have this headed towards your TBR pile. If he’s new to you, this is as good a place as any to start. It releases July 16th, 2024, and is available for pre-order now.