Review Summaries

• It is praised for sharply capturing the collapse of a teenage prank in a compact form. The result is slasher horror with a lingering sense of change and unstable friendship.

Reviews

• Estuvo bien, no es lo que esperaba, pero si tiene unas partes muy buenas. Aunque tiene una buena analogia sobre desprenderse del pasado.

• Rating: 4/5 stars Would I read it again? Probably not. I don’t think I’d gain any more insight reading it again, and it wasn’t something I’d be dying to revisit in the years to come, but it was enjoyable and short enough that if a friend asked me to reread it, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Would I recommend it? Yes. I would definitely recommend it. It’s fun, it’s not too long; it was the perfect vacation read for me. This was my first read by Stephen Graham Jones and I’ve gotta say I’m impressed. Night of the Living Mannequin was a fun, easy read and perfect for fans who like both serious and humorous psychological horror. I’ll definitely be picking up more of Stephen’s work in the near future. *SPOILERS BELOW* First, I’ll get into what I liked. I don’t know if it was supposed to be implied that the narrator and main character of the novel, Sawyer, had ADHD, but as someone with ADHD myself I found his tone of voice incredibly relatable. The way he spoke in run-on sentences and went off on unrelated tangents was almost like reading a transcript of the way my own brain thinks, and the diction Sawyer used was very accurate for his age; I never felt like the writing was an adult-writing-a-teenager, it felt more like listening to my own teenage-self rambling away. Stephen did an amazing job writing a protagonist/antagonist that was both relatable and likeable to the point that you almost didn’t hate him for the things he was doing. Like, yea he was killing all his friends one by one, but he was sincere and at times funny and really believed he was doing it for a good cause. Stephen managed to write a teenage serial killer you couldn’t hate, so hats off to him for that. Now, inevitably onto the things I wasn’t thrilled about. First and foremost, this book wasn’t what I thought it would be going into it based on the cover and description- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means that it could benefit from a clearer description or perhaps even a more apt title. Going in, I thought it would be reminiscent of the 1979 film Tourist Trap, a fun horror piece about a group of teenagers trapped and picked off over the course of the night seemingly by the mannequins around them. That is not what this novella was, which again: not a bad thing, it just left me a little disappointed that it wasn’t what I thought it’d be. Also, there’s a part near the very end where a character thought to be dead reappears, and her reappearance doesn’t really make sense to me. When she showed up I wasn’t sure if she was real, or a part of Sawyer’s imagination, or whatever else, but it definitely took me out of the climax for a moment, and so close to the end. This last point is just a personal pet peeve and has no reflection on the quality of the writing itself, but the ending was very vague and open ended, which is my absolute least favorite kind of ending cause I like to know what happens. Was Sawyer caught? Was giant Manny actually real? What was Shanna talking about when she wanted to show Sawyer something? None of these questions are answered in the end and I found that to be incredibly frustrating. The ending itself was wonderfully written at least, so I can’t say I hate it, but man do I just have so many questions left!!

• I'd heard good things about this novella. I thought it would be a good way to fill an afternoon, but it took me much longer to read it than I thought. Why? I couldn't handle it. I read a lot of horror but this after a certain point had me filled with anxiety. Very few books have that effect on me. In other words, this is very good horror.

• The writing, the characters, I loved it. I don’t want to give away the plot too much here. Suffice to say that it’s an experience living in the mind of the main character as thinks through the happenings and comes up with his own twisted logic...

• I really want to like Stephen Graham Jones. I’ve read some fantastic reviews on his work but I just really cannot get into his novels. I persevered with this one as it’s only a short read but I found it to be a let down and a little incoherent. The man is clearly very imaginative and talented which he deserves credit but his writing style is not for me sadly.

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