Don't Fear the Reaper

March 1, 2022

In Dean's big, intriguingly premised debut, Devon is part of a venerable clan belonging to The Book Eaters--instead of food, they munch thrillers, romance, and, when they misbehave, dusty dictionaries--and she's terrified to learn that her son is born hungering not for paper, printing, and binding but human minds (150,000-copy first printing). In The Women Could Fly, a dystopian work from Rumpus features editor Giddings, the mother of a young Black woman named Josephine is long vanished--was she a witch? Was she murdered?--and if Josephine doesn't marry soon, she will be forced to enroll in a registry that will effectively blot out her freedom (75,000-copy first printing). In Harris's The Serpent in Heaven, a sequel to The Russian Cage, Felicia is set upon by her estranged family of Mexican wizards and discovers that she is the most powerful witch of her generation (75,000-copy first printing). In Don't Fear the Reaper, Jones's follow-up to the LJ best-booked My Heart Is a Chainsaw, an exonerated Jade Daniels returns home from prison just as convicted serial killer Dark Mill South arrives to avenge 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862 (100,000-copy first printing). In this latest from the multi-award-nominated Kuang, a Chinese boy orphaned in 1828 Canton (now Guangzhou) is brought to London and eventually enters Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation--called Babel--which doubles as a center for magic and compels him to work in support of Britain's imperial ambitions in China (125,000-copy first printing). Modesitt continues his newly launched "Grand Illusion" series with Steffan Dekkard joining the Council of Sixty-Six as Councilor--the first to be an Isolate, which makes him impervious to emotional manipulation but could lead to his assassination (100,000-copy first printing). Author of the Slate best-booked Quick, Owens has Kate planning to hold her wedding at a church called Small Angels in the town where she once found shelter with the Gonne sisters, little realizing that they've been tasked with keeping a marauding ghost from invading the village--and they're falling down on the job. Winner of a BCALA Self-Publishing EBook Award for Song of Blood and Stone, one ofTime's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, Penelope returns with The Monsters We Defy, whose heroine pays off a debt to the Empress ruling the spirit world by agreeing to steal a wealthy woman's ring in 1925 Washington, DC (25,000-copy first printing). From Valdes, author of the LJ best-booked Chilling Effects, Fault Tolerance brings back Capt. Eva Innocente and the raucous crew of La Sirena Negra to counter an anonymous threat that could lead to the death of billions (50,000-copy first printing). Dragon/Nebula finalist Virdi launches a new series with The First Binding, featuring an Immortal disguised as a storyteller--and he's here to relate how he unleashed the First Evil on the world (175,000-copy first printing). The MMU Novella Award-winning West goes full length with Face, set in a genetically engineered society where the perfect profile buys fame, wealth, and power but not happiness for Schuyler and Madeleine Burroughs (60,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 24, 2022
Jade Daniels and her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films return for another blood-soaked romp in Jones’s superb sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw. It’s been four years since Jade—now going by Jennifer—survived the Independence Day Massacre that devastated her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho. Jennifer is trying to put her traumatic past behind her when Dark Mill South, a legendary hook-handed serial killer, escapes captivity on the outskirts of Proofrock during a once-in-a-century winter storm. When gruesomely gutted bodies pile up around town, Jennifer’s reflexes and genre savvy kick in and she must once again rally her friends and the local authorities, while using her familiarity with cinematic slaughter to save them all from victimhood. The only problem, as she deduces from the killer’s unstoppable onslaught, is that “he knows all the same movies we do.” Jones expertly blends snappy graveyard humor with nail-biting suspense, and he gives his characters distinctive personalities that distinguish them from the underdeveloped body fodder common to most slasher scenarios. This characteristically clever gore-fest proves Jennifer to be a horror heroine worthy of many more adventures. Agent: B.J. Robbins, BJ Robbins Literary.

Starred review from July 1, 2022

In the long-awaited sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw (best-selling author Jones's first novel to feature protagonist Jade Daniels), Jade has to contend with serial killer Dark Mill South, who has escaped from his prison transfer just outside of Proofrock, ID. It's a delicate balance to portray a serial killer like Dark Mill, something that Jones does with great aplomb. This villain has been known by many different names, including the Ninety-Eye Slasher and Bowman Butcher. He claims to want to avenge 38 Dakota men, who were hanged in 1862 in his home state of Minnesota in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Told through alternating points of view, including Dark Mill South's, the novel takes its time building up steam until readers can reunite with Jade, but in the meantime, the narrative is full of pulse-pounding scares and epic slasher scenes that build intensity as the chapters go on. VERDICT Adrenaline-filled with plenty of shocking moments, the latest from master of horror Jones is an intense, highly entertaining, and deeply personal novel.--Anita Siraki

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2022
December 12, 2019, four years after the massacre at Indian Lake, Jade Daniels returns in the midst of a blizzard just as serial killer Dark Mills South murders his armed transport team and escapes. For the next 36 hours, the town of Proofrock, Idaho, will be forced to relive its trauma as killers out for revenge go on a bloody rampage. Armed with her slasher-movie knowledge, indefatigable spirit, and strong moral center, Jade will need to embrace her final-girl status if there is any hope of making it to Friday the thirteenth. Building off My Heart Is a Chainsaw (2021), Jones gets right into the terrifyingly gory action, a pace that only sporadically allows for gulps of air. A multitude of voices get a chance to be heard and ultimately set the stage for Jade's return. More than the slasher it presents itself as, this is a contemplation of the allure of the genre itself, a novel that acknowledges the well-trod ground upon which it stands while ingeniously burrowing new tunnels straight into readers' nightmares. A superior example of twenty-first-century horror with a strong, emotionally heartfelt core where every detail matters, delivered by an author at the top of his game.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.