Campy and Fun but a little cliche

Hot Fuzz meets It, Clown in a Cornfield is like a B-movie slasher in book form. It's a little cheesy and the characters are a little generic, but it was fun.

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Fractured America Meets Teen Slasher.

When the Maybrooks arrived in Kettle Springs,
it looks like they are in for the quiet life,after
a personal trauma in the city.
However, their new home is a microcosm of modern America, violent and divided. So after
the town mascot "Frendo The Clown" goes on a
murder spree, the Maybrooks and the lives of the
"good people" of Kettle Springs will never be the same again.
Enjoyable slasher with well developed characters that you care for, with some good twists in the tale.Marketed as a teen novel, but suitable for a more mature readership. Well narrated by Jesse Vilinsky and I look forward to Adam Cesare's next book.

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great ya thriller

I am not the target audience but if I had listened to this as a kid I would have loved it so am basing my review on that :)

the story and dramatisation would have had me head over heals with this in my teens - reminded me of how I remember point horror but I think this is a more grown up story than that (they were what I read as a teen back in the 90s!)

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Gory fun slasher

Really enjoyed this book! The cast on the audiobook did a great job of keeping me interested! This is very much in the same field as 90s slasher movies like scream and I know what you did last summer! Super fast paced action packed and full of surprises! Please let someone make this a movie!

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Slasher-fest meets clowns meets cornfields

This was a pretty entertaining listen (I downloaded the audio book) with a ‘Hot Fuzz’ vibe. You know, ‘deranged small-towners pitched against the heroes of the story with a tense and bloody conclusion’ kind of storyline. The main character, a girl called Quinn Maybrook, has been uprooted from Philadelphia when her father, a medic, takes up practice as a doctor in the town of Kettle Springs. They are both escaping the fallout of her mother’s self-inflicted death as a result of a heroin OD, and hope to make a new start in a quiet backwater. Some hope. The older generation are exasperated with the youngsters of the town, resenting their addictions to social media and smartphones. They are seemingly out of control and need to be taken in hand. In addition, the son of the town’s leading businessman, Cole is living under a shadow too. He is seen as responsible for his younger sister’s untimely death in an unfortunate diving accident, as well as burning down his father’s corn syrup plant in a fit of grief. The plant is also the town’s main employer. Hence further resentment is stirred towards the kids as Cole’s antics seem to exemplify all that is wrong with this ‘younger generation.’ But does this warrant the venting of fury that is the slash-fest befalling these youngsters when they attend an illicit party organised in a barn bordering a cornfield?
Frendo the clown seems to think so. He is the mascot of the aforementioned corn syrup plant and proceeds to dole out his particularly bloody brand of justice with crossbows and a circular saw.
The author is great at creating tension in a number of scenes, even as early as the opener. The characters are also well drawn and original. I felt Cesare didn’t fall too heavily into the typical teenage-angst-high-school-coming-of-age tropes and the storyline flowed nicely. That said, the plot didn’t really break new ground and there was nothing too surprising about the premise, other than that it mixed slasher with cornfields with clowns in an unusual combination. I also felt the additional theme of the younger misunderstood woke generation with an environmental consciousness was a bit shoe-horned at times. Still, the deft characterisation and scene description made up for this.
As regards the narration, Jess Vilinsky did a good job, injecting emotion into the scenes and the characters. Her diction was good and the style suited the horror genre. My only gripes were that she maintained a shocked/traumatised wobble with the narrator’s voice throughout the suspense scenes and I thought she should have confined this to the character’s voices for greater effect. Also she had a habit of leaving a brief pause when a dialogue tag was spoken which was slightly irritating. But, as I said, the overall impact was good and I looked forward to each session I had listening to this story.

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1 person found this helpful

such a fun campy horror book!

Such a fun campy horror book! But the narrator was not my favorite. Would read again tho

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one of my favourites

this story (and it's sequel) fast became my favourite book upon their release, so having access to the audio version is amazing! Performance was wonderful, and I'd fully recommend this for anyone wanting a lil horror boost!

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Passable cliche time

Don’t go into it expecting a mystery or whodunit, it’s very obvious what’s happening but mercifully reveals it to the characters promptly at least.

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Great story well told

Adam Cesare continues grow as a writer and with this book he produces his best yet! In Clown in a Cornfield Cesare takes the time to create a world that feels real and peoples it with characters you actually care about. As a life long fan of the genre I have read a LOT of stuff by many many writers and so often the people are just there for things to happen to, not here, here you feel they have lives that are happening when they are not on the page and so when things start to go wrong you feel for these characters you have gotten to know and in some cases, care about. I read this just after reading the master's latest "If It Bleeds" and I'm sure Adam Cesare will be slightly chuffed that I enjoyed his latest outing much more! I look forward to see where he takes us next!

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A fun and thrilling slasher

I really love this book and it’s sequel! I think the main 3 are great and have great chemistry. The action is written perfectly and the story is full of twists and turns, a very enjoyable read in my opinion.

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