The final book club book of the year! Totally coincidentally, one of my other projects of the year has been to watch a whole bunch of John Carpenter movies for the first time, in order to listen to a podcast I enjoy. As a result, I had so much more context for everything that this book is based around, and I'm so grateful for that.
The protagonist of this book is a 17-year-old girl named Jade, but she is very clear from the beginning that she's not a Final Girl. But she does quickly begin to believe that her town is in the middle of a slasher movie, and she should know - she's made a study of the entire genre for the past five years. She's half-Native American and lives in a small community on Indian Lake, which is quickly becoming gentrified by a number of rich people who want a lovely place to retreat to, and when bodies start appearing, Jade is convinced she alone knows what needs to happen next.
The story is both a meta commentary on slasher films (complete with essays she's written to her English teacher throughout her high school) and a horror novel itself, with a whole lot of other stuff thrown in there for good measure. I loved Jade's voice, and while it was at times an emotionally tough read, I'm really glad I read it.
Grade: A
