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I Was a Teenage Slasher

Stephen Graham Jones

Start date: October 1, 2025

Finish date: October 14, 2025

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What Members Thought

Jul 21, 2024 julia ☆ [owls reads] rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror

A little bit convoluted to start, but damn was it good. As usual, a love letter to the Slasher genre. I also did not expect for me ending to hit me so hard.

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Aug 14, 2024 Karen ⚜Mess⚜ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: spooky, standalone, my-eyes-leaked

Stephen Graham Jones has different type of prose. I really loved the way he told a story. Not a scream type of thriller, but a more personal one. I could relate to the characters and the era of the story. 1989 man! Great times. The story starts off with a lyric from Mötley Crüe, and the song "Home Sweet Home" stuck in my head the whole time. It gave it a great atmosphere from the get go.

I mostly read the story, but I did listen to some audio on Spotify. The chapters are very long so it was diffi ...more

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Jan 13, 2025 Caitlin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: purchased-2025, owned-librofm, owned-bookshelf, fic-horror, arc-netgalley, favorites, arcs-2024, challenge-horror-bingo-2024, favorite-authors

As someone who never really got the appeal of slashers and only occasionally watched ones like Scream, I had put off reading this book even though I already knew that Stephen Graham Jones was an auto-buy author for me. There's just a humor and a really character-driven quality to his horror that I've loved since I picked up The Only Good Indians. And honestly, I Was a Teenage Slasher might be one of my favorites from him because of those strengths.

I Was a Teenage Slasher follows Tolly Driver wh As someone who never really got the appeal of slashers and only occasionally watched ones like Scream, I had put off reading this book even though I already knew that Stephen Graham Jones was an auto-buy author for me. There's just a humor and a really character-driven quality to his horror that I've loved since I picked up The Only Good Indians. And honestly, I Was a Teenage Slasher might be one of my favorites from him because of those strengths.

I Was a Teenage Slasher follows Tolly Driver who is essentially cursed to kill for revenge after the events of a wild party that goes horribly wrong. And Tolly is very much an anti-hero character, a kind of loser kid who knows he's not always doing the right thing (like say, killing people) but is somehow still deeply sympathetic. Part of what makes him so compelling is the friendship with his classmate Amber. I honestly loved the relationship between them, how they're constantly giving each other crap but supporting each other to the best of their ability. I Was a Teenage Slasher has all of the coming of age and childhood friendship vibes that I absolutely love and it feels deeply embedded in West Texas. My family is more from the Panhandle area, but the way Tolly talks about the town and the people felt almost nostalgic and like the stories I've heard growing up.

And I've seen complaints from folks about how rambly Tolly is as a narrator and the way that the story shifts timelines as Tolly tells you about this summer where things went so terribly and then shifts back to the present and then back to younger days when he's mentioning one friend or another. But the combination of that rambly perspective and the absolutely pitch perfect narration by the audiobook narrator, Michael Crouch, honestly just made it feel that much more real to me. Despite it being an over the top, sometimes gory slasher. It is very referential and honestly, I loved it for that even more because it gave me a respect for the subgenre and the tropes and rules of them.

Like I said, I didn't expect to love this as much as I did but it is confirmation of auto-buy status and I honestly can't wait for whatever's next from SGJ. I Was a Teenage Slasher made me feel all the emotions and will definitely be one I'm recommending widely to my horror reading friends.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for early access to the book, I'm just a scaredy cat and didn't read it until well after publication and after getting the audio so clearly, opinions are my own. ...more

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Aug 15, 2024 Heather rated it really liked it

Shelves: highly-recommend, 2024

This is not a genre I would normally pick up, but it was on so many lists that I had to try it. I am SO glad I read it. This book has such heart! Who'd a thunk I'd be rooting for the killer? ...more

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