Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that 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.
Clown in a Cornfield Book Review: Horror Book Review Blog
Father and daughter, Glen and Quinn Maybrook uproot from Philadelphia’s bustling city to the quaint Midwestern town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. It was supposed to be a fresh new start for the two leaving behind a recent family tragedy. Little did they know that they were headed right into a whole new set of problems.
Adam Cesare was on my radar for some time. I follow his YouTube channel, and I was pleased to discover similarities between our likes and dislikes with regard to his tastes as they pertain to film. His enthusiasm when he talks about horror and books and his quirky personality piqued my interest and enticed me to pick up two of his books: The Con Season and The Summer Job. Unfortunately, because my TBR (to-be-read) book list seems to be never-ending, his books fell deeper and deeper into the I’ll get to it (eventually) pile; this is partly because I can’t, for the life of me, stop buying books and said pile just keeps getting larger and larger. Then, a few months ago, Cesare announced that his latest book, Clown in a Cornfield, is up for pre-order and I snagged it up immediately. Being that it was a pre-order, I had to wait a few months before it showed up at my doorstep and the anticipation was killing me. Despite my owning two of his other works, Clown in a Cornfield will be the first book I read.
According to Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield is different from his other works in that Clown is a YA novel geared towards a younger audience. I am far from that targeted demographic, but he also promised that if you are a fan of 80s slashers, this will be right up my alley. I am a fan of horror and slasher films, so picking this book up before I read reviews, nor having read any of his prior work, was a no-brainer. Blind buying is always a risk, and sometimes it can pay off. Spoiler alert – there were no regrets with this purchase.
Quinn is the new girl in town and is trying to start on the right foot in Kettle Springs. Those plans are derailed when she can’t open her locker, gets to class late, gets reprimanded by the science teacher, and is banned from the Founder’s Day celebration, a long-standing town tradition on her first day of school. Needless to say, she wasn’t out to look for trouble, but trouble had a way of finding her. This series of events clumps her in with the popular/unpopular clique at school. She is invited to a party where a psychopath, dressed as the town mascot, Frendy, the seemingly friendly clown, wreaks havoc and goes on a killing spree. Quinn is caught in the crosshairs and has to fend for her life. So much for a fresh start!
Clown in a Cornfield is a fast-paced thriller that doesn’t let up until the very end. Cesare had me on my toes from the first chapter which sets the tone for the rest of the book. Having not read his previous works, I will admit that I was a bit skeptical in that, again, this is billed as a young-adult novel. A mistake on my part. Other than the fact that our main protagonists are teenagers on the brink of graduating high school, this book didn’t read like anything aimed at teeny-boppers. No, this book was brutal and savage at parts and kept shocking me with twists and turns with never a dull moment.
I will say that if you are well-versed in the horror and thriller genre, you may have an inkling as to where the narrative’s direction may go. And I did! That being said, there were a few twists that I didn’t see coming, which were pleasant and garnered the anticipated reaction from me. Clown in a Cornfield is an excellent, fun, harrowing, and thrilling read and a great throwback to the 80s horror slasher. Adam Cesare’s other books have just moved up from the bottom of my to-be-read list to the top!