Stephen Graham Jones has written another New York Times bestselling book that takes place in Lamesa, Texas and Tolly Driver who is looking back on the summer of 1989 when he was seventeen. Tolly's dad had died a year before in a car accident. He only has his mother who owns a hardware store and his best friend from school, Amber Dennison, the only Native living in town`. Amber drives a Rabbit truck that runs on diesel. The two are very close but not in a romantic way. They are not in the marching band or the Future Farmers of America which puts them on the outside looking in.
Tolly likes to go to parties and get drunk, throw up and make a fool of himself. For the most part the other students ignore him because he no longer has a father. Stace Goodkin is one of those people who gets great grades and follows the rules. One night, the In Crowd decides to show Justin Joss a lesson in why he would never be a part of their crowd by taking him to a oil pump horse, one of those machines that bobs up and down like a bronco horse. They convinced him to climb on top and ride. Justin ended up mutilated by the machine. Stace tried to help him, but only managed to distract Justin into causing more damage to himself.
The In Crowd throws a party one night and Tolly, as usual, is plastered. He got the brilliant idea to do a cannonball in the pool getting everyone nearby soaking wet. One of them was a baton twirler in the marching band named Shannon who is sitting at a table flirting with a cute older guy. Tolly has a severe allergy to peanuts, so Shannon's date who puts peanuts in his Coke makes Tolly drink it. He has a major reaction and his EpiPen is in Amber's car. The band members take their belts off their uniforms and tie Tolly to a lounge chair. He starts throwing up to try to get rid of the peanuts.
Amber and Stace are talking inside the house when Stace sees into the backyard Tolly convulsing on the lounge chair. Stace, a gymnast, vaults into action to get his EpiPen to him. She injects him and her and Amber start trying to get him out of the restraints. Suddenly, the dead Justin Joss appears with a chainsaw and begins to kill those at the party who were responsible for his death. Even Stace is included in this because she was there. He doesn't kill her, but hurts her really bad. Stace had called her doctor father to help Tolly so he's coming and the police likely are too. There's also Justin to contend with so, everyone runs off.
Unfortunately, Tolly gets a splash of Justin's blood on his forehead. When he wipes it away, it goes into an open wound on his forehead. This will cause Tolly to go psycho and start his own killing spree. And while the Tolly looking back hasn't killed anyone since, he's recounting this to explain how he became a psycho for a while. This is a sharp book that nails high school life and living in West Texas on the head. Its also the perfect book for today, Halloween.
Quotes
Amber...leaned against the steering wheel to shove her own hand down under the front of he seat, closing her eyes to let her fingers see better. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p7)
You think big thoughts when you're seventeen. Big stupid thoughts. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p9)
My kind don't exactly do funerals. I know. We're the reason for the funeral. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p25)
Make enough of an ass of yourself, you get noticed, right? (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p22)
Still? I'd just lost my dada year ago, hadn't I? This--me being an idiot--was probably some stage of grief. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p28)
Someone not necessarily full of promise, but full of promises. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p66)
His two big sayings that year, both of which applied that night, were that nothing good happens after midnight, and that the grass really wasn't that much greener on the other side of fifty-five miles per hour. Though it could get bloodier real damn fast. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p64-5)
Its less about survival, more about who you're holding when that big irradiated shock wave blows you to ash. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p66)
The world's so much simpler when you've got a chainsaw in your hand, isn't it? A chainsaw, or a machete or an axe, that's the elegant solution to every problem. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p67)
You always want your mom when you're hurt. When you call you're dad is when you've done something he can maybe be proud of. For pain, though, it's moms all the way. Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher (p128)
We all want to hide, don't we? To not have to be constantly navigating between our true selves and people's expectations twenty-four seven. (Stephen Graham Jones I Was a Teenage Slasher p136)
