Another Netgalley book that took me too long to read I even got a printed copy, and I'm so glad I bought it.
I thing that slasher is a genre that is really hard to translate into a book, so I'm always amazed by Stephen Graham Jones books.
It was so good to revisit the places of the first book and see how the characters grew. Jade is amazing and I can't wait to read the last one in this trilogy.

Jones grabs the reader with his wonderfully unique writing style and pulls them headfirst into the story. Jade Daniels truly is the ultimate final girl.

I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw, but I think I loved this second installment even more! Jade/Jennifer is a wonderful character and the progression she has made here from book one is astounding. Similarly Letha has a fascinating arc and I am eager to see where these characters end up at the end of the series. The action starts with a bang and doesn't let up throughout the narrative, which is very much in keeping with this being a sequel. The body count is higher and the deaths are gorier and the addition of the winter storm and the isolation this brings was a genius choice. Overall, I absolutely adored this book and I cannot wait for the concluding part.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Another gem from SGJ! I don’t want to say too much about this, but you need to read ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ first. We continue following our horror-loving protagonist, and it’s a real joy to do so. Looking forward to the next book already, as I’ve no idea how this will turn out!

A thrilling sequel that doesn't disappoint. Well written, perfectly paced and a story that leaves you wanting more.

A sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw; if you loved the first you'll love this and if you like slasher, horror novels with an original author's voice you need to try something from Stephen Graham Jones. Nothing else to say but this was slasher-ific and 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the first book in this series, but this one didn’t quite hit those heights for me. Let’s look at the positives first. Dark Mill South is an excellent villain, right out of the classic Jason or Michael mould. There are some really inventive slayings and set pieces here as well, and Proofrock feels like a real place. But at the same time, it feels a little bloated. It’s nearly 500 pages long, which is too much for the genre - a great slasher movie should be a tight 90 minutes in and out, not some latter day Scorsese three hour epic! One of the best things about the first book for me was the focus on Jade and her journey from troubled teen to some kind of understanding and (whisper it) redemption. This one doesn’t have that same kind of emotional throughline, and it’s poorer as a result. I’d guess these are just middle volume blues - let’s hope there’s a barnstorming conclusion to come to Jade and Letha’s story!

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Don't Fear the Reaper’ by Stephen Graham Jones.

This is Book 2 in The Indian Lake Trilogy. Due to this novel being part of a trilogy, it is important for the books to be read in order for both plot and character continuity.

The plot revolves around Jade Daniels, who four years after her tumultuous senior year has returned to Proofrock, Idaho. Her conviction has been overturned and she has been released from prison. Yet life beyond bars quickly takes a dangerous turn.

During a blizzard serial killer Dark Mill South manages to escape from his prison transport just outside Proofrock and begins a killing spree. The date is Thursday, December 12, 2019. …

Stephen Graham Jones became a must read author for me after I read ‘The Only Good Indians’. His style of horror fiction is undoubtedly gory yet blends in a ton of pop culture references to the horror genre with a degree of dark humour. In addition, he incorporates various social issues into the narrative.

In his acknowledgments Stephen Graham Jones provides background on various characters as well as his development as a writer. It’s always fun to read his thoughts.

Overall, I found ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ intelligent, well written, and multilayered. A novel that I would class as literary horror yet one that is very readable and remains true to its horror genre roots throughout. I will be looking forward to the final book in the trilogy.

Highly recommended.

There is a scene roughly halfway through Don't Fear the Reaper where two young women are sheltering in a deserted, burned out house, isolated in a winter storm. Jennifer has just returned to town after four years' absence caused by 'legal difficulties' - she's been on trial for murder. Letha, her friend, was badly injured in the events that caused Jennifer's problems - The Independence Day Massacre/ The Lake Witch Massacre (it's complicated) - and is still going through surgery to reconstruct her face.

Jennifer and Letha are catching up, despite the possibility that a killer is stalking them, and Stephen Graham Jones has them do this through a discussion couched in the grammar of the slasher movie, a genre key to this book and its predecessor, My Heart is a Chainsaw. (If you haven't read that I'd advice you to do first). I will confess at once that my knowledge of these films is not sufficient to follow all the twists and turns of this conversation, and indeed many of the references throughout this book. I think that will be true for many readers, even those who know more about slashers than I do - the tropes, actors' careers, plot points and then minutiae of the films (shots, music, lighting, costumes) cited are many and I take off my hat to Stephen Graham Jones for his grasp of it all.

That doesn't, however, make this book (or for that matter My Heart...) inaccessible. Far from it. It serves, I think, all the more to highlight that behind the references in this and other conversation, a connection exists between these two women who are from very different social strata (one the daughter of the town drunk, probably abused as a child - though this is never stated outright - recently incarcerated and pretty much homeless) and the other an heiress, married to a sheriff's deputy, with a baby daughter... though Black and an incomer to this remote tight knit community). That conversation, and its sense of geeky joy and a shared fandom, shows how close Letha and Jennifer are, underlining that they ca and will trust each other and fight for each other in what will soon be dire circumstances. It explores and highlights what they have in common, what they have lost, and especially the shared experience of that awful night four years ago which, of course, is directly one point in a discussions of slashers.

It is a brilliant scene, one of those apparently shallow, but really deep, conversations between old friends where stuff doesn't have to be said, the most obscure allusions unlocking experiences and trains of thought so that the speech almost appears like code. We see this sharing, which goes right back to the events of My Heart is a Chainsaw, and we see how deep, how vital, is this friendship. It is triumphantly, almost gleefully, done, the nuances and hints all there in filmic references. This is I think the heart of the book and it is beautiful.

Around that interlude, this story is though very dark indeed. A notorious serial killer (why do wealways add 'notorious' in that phrase?) being transported in a convoy in the depths of winter (what can possibly go wrong) may have escaped, but nobody knows for sure because due to the weather comms are down. The town is therefore cut off, and of course victims, mainly high school students, are turning up horribly tortured. Added to that, the town sheriff and his most trusted deputies are absent and only Letha's husband, a probationer whom nobody rates, remains to hold the fort.

What we have, then, are the attempts of the townsfolk to defend themselves from Dark Mill South, in less than ideal circumstances, and efforts by of Jennifer, Letha and some of the others who understand how these episodes unfold, to work out what is going on. Plus there's a whole town mythology involving drowned girls that may or may not play a part.

We also get some of the thoughts and actions of the escapee.

The story is told through various voices, some of which aren't identified until near the end, and include, as did My Heart, a student writing papers for her history teacher (in the previous book it was Jennifer, then called Jade). Those papers are being done some months after the main events of the book, and add a little perspective and some information not clear at the time.

While the premise might seem simple, there is a lot going on in this book and Stephen Graham Jones plays some games with viewpoints - as well as allowing red herrings to swim in the waters. (Or perhaps not red herrings, but things that will only be explained in the upcoming third book of the trilogy). The centre though is not the twists ands turns of the slasher horror but the relationships that it casts light on in. Indeed, the author rather knowingly mocks the fascination with every last detail of what is, ultimately, a fictional genre. Encountering a character who is if anything even more obsessed with slashers than she is/ was, Jennifer/ Jade is aghast and asks herself whether this is what she was like four years before.

A great book, and a wonderful followup to My Heart but I repeat, you really do need to read that first. This is not a standalone.

The audio is very impressive in what must have been a difficult book to translate to spoken word, not least because of the need to make clear where parts are from different perspectives but without giving too much away about some of the protagonists. The solution - to use several different voices - gives this version a little more of the sense of an audio drama rather than the reading of a book, but creates an involving and vital result which does make a number of points clearer, but avoids spoiling anything.

Horror sequels are not unknown be they the recent return of Ghostface and the many returns of Jason and Freddy. The slasher can never die. Less often seen though in print form. Can a book resurrect monsters and characters? In Don’t Fear The Reaper Stephen Graham Jones has written an excellent sequel to the memorable My Heart Is A Chainsaw where once again Jade returns to her hometown of Proofrock a vicious killer in a snow swept town causes mayhem. It is a glorious read; impressively written and is definitely not a simple re-tread of past glories.

Four years ago the quiet town of Proofrock suffered a serious of mysterious deaths leading to one summer night an event that would be known as the Lake Witch Slayings when many of the great and powerful plus their children lost their lives due to an unexplained event. Jade was the slasher movie obsessed young town loner and while suspected of killing her father was instead often on trial for damage to public property. Now calling herself Jennifer she arrives one snowy evening in Proofrock to start parole and only a few know she was the hero.

However, a few miles away an infamous serial killer known for his inventive and cruel ways of killing his victims now calling himself Dark Mill South was being transported to prison. An avalanche arrives and very soon Proofrock finds itself being terrorised. In thirty-six hours another twenty people will lose their lives and Jennifer may once again be at the heart of events and in a great deal of danger.

If My Heart Is A Chainsaw is very much Jade’s story and how we get to know Proofrock I think Don’t Fear The Reaper is this time Proofrock’s turn to shine. Jones creates an ambitious and confident tale that weaves multiple stories together in a fast-paced; intelligent and often gruesome tale where by the end you’re standing with he surviving characters but now fully aware of the place’s history and reputation. Proofrock is definitely not a safe place to live especially if you’re in high school!

One really impressive piece of storytelling is Jones has many mini stories within the tale and plays with narration and style. In some cases its third person but with a wry smile of dark humour as young high schoolers often seeking sex find out in true horror movie style a killer has different plans for them. Jones sets the scene; makes us know and care about he characters and then disaster strikes and just as in the movie we may find yourself peeping (and things do get…messy). That Jones builds up narration and character (something some sequels forget to do) means we get invested and as the reign of terror continues, we realise that no one is safe and people can die in many many horrible ways. This is horror and good people simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time will sadly die.

Now if that was just what Reaper was about then this would just be a great slasher movie in book form but for me the benefit of the book is Jones gets to play with time and geography in many ways. We often get an unnamed narrator who tells us the history of Proofrock’s many strange incidents with death involved and a glorious terrifying chapter of telling us what Dark Mill South has done. The big bad is in this section made into something mythic; unexplainable and standing over six and a half feet tall with a hook for a hand he is already a slasher monster in the making. Now Proofrock offers the next stage in his evolution. Indeed, as the story progresses Jennifer (and we) realise homages to famous movie deaths are taking place which start to both unnerve us as to our new killer’s intentions and from Jennifer’s perspective is challenging her desire to turn a new leaf and leave her love of horror behind. All these little vignettes and mini stories though make Proofrock both more knowable to us that we can see and taste this small town but also we become aware that strange things happening in Proofrock has being going on a long time and in the woods and the very deep town lake lie powers and mysteries only just starting to come to light. Jones cleverly mixes serial killers; folk horror and american towns to create a unique sense of place.

Lastly lets return to Jennifer (who in our hearts will always be Jade) no longer wearing her janitor coverall; heavy mascara and multiple hair dyes she is now a young woman trying to be normal. She wants to reconnect with her few friends (the elderly ex-sheriff and her one school friend Letha who alone knows Jade is a hero). Jennifer is out hero who has hung up their costume but now with everyone’s lives on the line is battling a desire to step into the breach and quote movies again – her movie knowledge may indeed be the one thing keeping everyone alive. It’s a hero journey that will put her in extreme danger and by the end in a spectacular full on finale battle on the snowy streets mean that Jennifer has to both decide who she is; what she stands for and take on the menace destroying her home no matter what. That finale is a beautiful set piece where we feel each blow; moment of terror and pain at those we lose in the battle.

By the end I am very interested what the final book in this series will have to tell us. What though I can say for now is that Don’t Fear the Reaper is already a horror highpoint of the year and cements Jones’ reputation as one of the most interesting horror authors around. We will feel like we too have survived these 36 hours but the trip we were on is bloody, enticing, dangerous and whisper it quietly a hell of a lot of fun. Strongly recommended!

An excellent sequel to My Heart Is A Chainsaw. Great characters especially Jade Daniels. The novel moved along nicely. Stephen Graham Jones is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.
I received this book from Titan Books and Netgalley for a review.

This was another stellar action packed rollercoaster from Stephen Graham Jones, an author first introduced to me by Booktiber BooksandLala.

Before going into this book you need to read My Heart Is A Chainsaw, the events of book one are recounted heavily, (Thankyou SGJ! No way I'd have remembered the detail) but you'll need character histories and town layout to keep track.
You also had better be an expert or not afraid of spoilers because, as in book one, every horror movie killer from the 70s up to 2020 is fair game for analysis and comparison.

I surprised myself by requesting this ARC as I wasn't bowled over by MHIAC and I really disliked Jade. However, this novel despite being an almost direct continuation, was a winner for me.

Jade gets some real character development and I was totally invested this time around. She even acknowledges the things about herself that annoyed me to no end previously.
Her relationships with Hardy and Letha have new meaning and there's a strength to Jade that I really needed to see in book one.

The plot is a little everywhere, although we have the main thread of escaped slasher, there are odes to many other fictional horrors including the reprisal of book one myths. I did find this slightly disorientating and atleast one of them seemed to fade into the background incomplete.

Revisiting Proofrock in the winter season was a treat, SJG heightens the tension easily with the additional threat of snow storms, blackouts and isolation. The wreckage of Terra Nova and resounding impact of The Independence Day Massacre on the community gives us an excellent set up for this sequel.

Written in third from multiple character perspectives across a 72 hour present day time frame, Don't Fear The Reaper is an absolute whirlwind of terror, violence and trickery worthy of its own horror movie adaptation.

As someone who goes into a book blind, I didn't know that this one was a sequel, and since I haven't yet read the first book, I was fairly disappointed in this story. I'm now also sad that I won't be able to enjoy the first book any more.

My Love is Chainsaw was love at first page. Not my first Graham-Jones but the one that made me fell hard for this author.
Don’t Fear the Reaper is the book that confirm my love and that kept me reading even when it’s totally out of my comfort zone and there’s a lot of gore, blood, and death in this book.
I could stop but I don’t do it because I want to know what will be next.
Graham-Jones is the king of slasher horror but his style of writing and the storytelling make everything he writes gripping and riveting.
I love Jade Daniels, the ultimate final girl, and rooted for her.
Graham-Jones stories are always very fast paced and there’s a sort of strange energy that keeps you turning pages and reading very fast.
This an excellent horror book, I cant wait for the next.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Don’t Fear the Reaper is the slasher smash-hit I needed in my life.

For me, this was a particularly interesting reading period. Jones’ work is something I have been fascinated by for years and is currently forming about half of my dissertation. Coming from that intense research, it was so enjoyable to be able to delve into his latest work.

My Heart is a Chainsaw was another home-run from a horror mastermind. He expertly weaved truly terrifying moments with a socially conscious and fiercely intelligent tale that you won’t be able to forget. Jade Daniels was an instant icon for me, a Final Girl like no other. I was so, so excited to continue her story in Don’t Fear the Reaper and boy, Jones does not hold back. This is an even more blood drenched, gory, madcap mess of a book. The mayhem is sky-high and so is the body count. This is horror at its best, with the gore and the blood and the guts on full display.

At the same time, Jones is also exploring the fallout from the “Independence Day Massacre”, as the previous book is being dubbed. There is a sense of the long term ramifications and collective trauma running through the entire town. Trauma is a central theme of the series, obscuring and shaping Jade’s narrative entirely, but also showing more facets that are not rooted in that past. This is a more collective experience of trauma, keenly felt losses both physical and emotional from the slaughter of the previous book. The horror is dialled up, but so is that intimate emotional core.

Don’t Fear the Reaper took it up a notch and Jones is sure to wreck even more havoc in the third and final book of the trilogy.

Every now and then a character comes along and sweeps you off your feet. Friends, I give you: Jade Daniels.

I'm reviewing this book from a slightly unusual place because I still haven't reviewed My Heart Is a Chainsaw despite reading it and loving it last year, but we can mostly blame that on 2022 being a generally slumpy year in which I found it hard to screw my reviewing head on. In fact I think I'm going to re-read Chainsaw before I review it and will probably give the audiobook a try this time around because I love to re-read via audio.

Anyway, I digress.

I couldn't wait to dive into Don't Fear the Reaper when I was approved on NetGalley because I adore Jade Daniels with everything that I am. She is my favourite final girl, even if she doesn't think she is one.

Taking place four years after the shocking finale to My Heart is a Chainsaw, Don't Fear the Reaper opens on a stormy, snow-laden December in which Jade, now going by 'Jennifer,' returns to Proofrock, Idaho on the same day that serial killer Dark Mill South escapes from his prison transfer in the blizzard. Thirty-six hours of bloodshed ensue.

While it was safe for me to assume I'd enjoy Don't Fear the Reaper because of my love for Jade, this novel had several things going for it that made it so up my street. Firstly, being a sequel, it's also essentially an aftermath book. It may be four years since the Independence Day Massacre, but many of the characters who managed to survive the first book are still living with the consequences of what survival means and what that kind of trauma can do to a person, for better or worse.

Secondly, even though I did enjoy the slow-build of Chainsaw, particularly because we got to know Jade so well because of it, I'm a sucker for a horror story that takes place over a short period of time. It's why Part Two: 1978 is my favourite of the Fear Street films because everything takes place over one terrifying night at summer camp. Something about these 'survive the night' horrors is so intriguing to me because I love to see what different characters do when they're put under the worst amount of stress they could ever be put under, I love comparing how they are at the beginning and then at the end of the story to see just how much one twelve, or twenty-four or thirty-six hour period can change a person. That's the real fascination of the slasher for me--how lives can be upended and changed, or ended, forever in a split second of violence.

This is also why, for me, Jade is such a triumph of a character. Not only is it so refreshing to see a woman of colour at the helm of a horror series like this--two women of colour, with Jade's best friend Letha being another fantastic character--but the fact that she's a First Nations woman feels so right in a genre that has historically either ignored indigenous people entirely, or has borrowed from their theologies and mythologies and folklore and then populated those stories with a sea of white faces.

It's so secret that women of colour continue to be met with violence that is completely overlooked by the authorities and the press, so having a woman like Jade somewhat reluctantly waltz onto the page to defend the people she cares about, even though she knows she's not going to be able to get away with it the way Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott seem to be able to, is so powerful. She's not here to be pitied either, or to be a martyr, but she's definitely my final girl.

Now excuse me while I brush up on my slasher homework and eagerly await book three...

I chose to read a free eARC of Don't Fear the Reaper but that has in no way influenced my review.

One of the books I remember most from 2021 is Stephen Graham Jones's My Heart is a Chainsaw. A beautifully written literary horror novel and heartfelt homage to slashers of years gone by, featuring a kick-ass lead in Jennifer 'Jade' Daniels. Jade totally encapsulates the phrase 'strong female lead', more than any other character I can think of. Imagine my glee when I realised that Chainsaw wasn't actually the end. Chainsaw is in fact the first book in the Lake Witch Trilogy with Don't Fear the Reaper sitting happily in the middle, and the third and final book to follow at a later date. It put a big smile on my face knowing I was going to return to Proofrock, Idaho, and that I would get to spend time with the legendary final girl that is Jade Daniels once again!

After years of trying to prove her innocence, Jennifer Daniels returns to Proofrock a changed woman. She's Jennifer now, not Jade. She's done with Jade and her dumb eyeliner for good! And her obsession with horror movies and final girls is no more. She's over it. It's understandable really seeing as she has lived, breathed and fought her way out of a real life horror movie on Independence Day four years earlier! Despite the devastation of that night and with a number of familiar faces absent, Proofrock hasn't changed much. Coinciding with Jennifer's return to her hometown, a prison convoy is making slow progress to its final destination. Until the incoming blizzard wreaks havoc and the prisoner escapes. Now notorious serial killer Dark Mill South is heading to Proofrock and he's on a murderous mission to cause as much hurt and devastation as possible. Thirty six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it will end...

My Heart is a Chainsaw was very much a love letter to slasher movies. I think I said that, pretty much word for word, in my review at the time. I was bowled over by the amount of research the author put into the book and how much his passion for slashers shone through. Don't Fear the Reaper has that same feel about it and it's really rather glorious! I thoroughly enjoyed this edgy sequel, perhaps a little more than the first book if truth be told. In Don't Fear the Reaper we hit the ground running with bloodshed and violence galore from the outset thanks to slasher extraordinaire, Dark Mill South. From there, it doesn't really let up for any significant period of time. There is always something going on and the impending sense of overhanging doom was a beautiful thing to behold.

The characters, Jade in particular, are magnificent. There are a sprinkling of returning characters from the first book, those who made it through the Independence Day Massacre (or the Lake Witch Slayings as Jade refers to it!). The grief and loss are palpable at times particularly with one character who always had Jade's back. The supporting characters are all multi-layered and the reader gets to know them well over the course of the book. So when the inevitable happens, you really do feel it. One character in particular stole my heart and I'm still suffering. I'll say no more.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. I thoroughly enjoyed Don't Fear the Reaper. The reader's attention is hooked from the opening pages and you just can't look away, no matter how much blood is spilt, no matter how stomach churning the scene, until the terrifying, heart-in-your-mouth conclusion. You're with Jade every step of the way and I loved it! Jade Daniels is pretty much everything, and I cannot wait for the third and final book to be published. If you haven't read My Heart is a Chainsaw yet then I would probably start there before picking Don't Fear the Reaper up. I'm sure it can be read as a standalone but you will get so much more out of it having read the first book in the trilogy first. All in all, a thoroughly gripping read with standout characters in the perfect setting. I feel a connection to these characters so I'm excited to see how it all ends for them. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of Don't Fear the Reaper. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Don't Fear the Reaper is the perfect, emotional and thrilling sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw. Jade Daniels' character growth not only continues, but improves upon the first book - a feat not always achieved with sequels. With perspectives from familiar and new characters alike, Reaper expands Jones' exploration of humanity and the remarkable ability to move on from horror while existing in its depths.

‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ is the second instalment to Stephen Graham Jones’s ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ trilogy. Jade Daniels returns to her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho, after having her conviction overturned. Prison has changed Jade, nonetheless, when serial killer Dark Mill South escapes during his prison transfer due to a blizzard, she must one again don her final girl cap and face the monster in the snow.

It appears to be a golden rule in reviewing that you should review book series as a whole and not as individual books, i.e. don’t say one is better than another. However, I am going to say this – ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ demonstrates the growth of Jade Daniels as a final girl and Stephen Graham Jones as a writer. SGJ’s writing is far superior in ‘Don’t fear the Reaper’ than in ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’, and as a result, the sequel is a far greater reading experience with bloodier murders and chest pounding fear.

SGJ doesn’t shy away from making his murder scenes brutal and gruesome, and one scene in particular had me squealing. If you’ve had the honour of reading this book you’ll understand when I say – the eyeball – those of you yet to read, good luck. If you have a weak stomach and a vivid imagination maybe sit this one out! SGJ could talk about a wilting flower and it could would be gruesome, terrifying and vile, that’s one of the reasons I adore his writing.

One of the key elements of this novel is our characters, with the return of some firm favourites from the first edition and, the addition of further characters who are fantastically terrifying and lovable. In this sequel, Jade and Letha have the best character developments within a series. They are young women with lives to lead yet murder seems to follow them at every turn. Now they are older they have new challenges to face yet they are side by side the whole way. Our serial killer is terrifying, a looming shadow over the whole of Proofrock, nobody is safe and everyone is a victim.

As a firm slasheroholic I loved, loved, every single movie reference throughout this book. SGJ demonstrates his love of slasher movies through iconic quotes and fabulous easter eggs that horror fans are going to eat alive!!

Although you can read these books as a standalone, you have a far better reading experience to read them as a series. You can truly experience the brilliance and development of SGJ’s writing. I highly recommend this book if you are a horror fan, a slasher nerd, or, simply someone who enjoys people facing their worst fears in the most horrific ways and terrifying circumstances.