“Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it until graduation. She might not make it to morning. Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.”
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Content Warning: graphic gore, murder, violence, moderate death of parent, addiction, alcohol
23 Books In 2023 – Book 4 of 23
This year I wanted to read more books in the slasher genre, and as this is one of the first of the year, I only see them getting better. Clown in a Cornfield holds the typical genre conventions that I adore; a new girl in town, murder start, all hell breaks loose, yada yada yada. I love it! Slashers are my favourite film genre, so why shouldn’t that move over to the books I read too?
Adam Cesare (he/him) tells the story of Quinn Maybrook, Kettle Springs’ new girl, and, as expected, she falls in with a crowd that she maybe shouldn’t, and murder ensues. Our villain in the story being Frendo, the not so friendly clown who also happens to be the town mascot. With the majority of this book being set in a cornfield, I always expected something bad to happen even when it was too early for bad things to take place; I just think cornfields are creepy as they are, even more when they’re the setting of any form of horror.
I enjoyed how this story was told, and with the ocassional switch in point of view, we get to know about more than our main character, we also learn about her dad and the past of those she has fallen into a friend group with. The story’s prologue takes place a while before the rest of the story, and I always thought it would come back around and play a really important part in the end, but it only seemed to be there to start the story off with strong suspense. Not necessarily a bad thing, I just thought it would play a part.
I never expected to want to read the sequel to this one, but after speeding through this one, and also with how it ended, I think I might have to pick it up in the future sometime. Adam is definitely an author I wish I’d read earlier than I did, and I look forward to reading more from him in the future!
All the love,
Jade x
Tea Stains and Book Spines 