And I’m glad I did, because once the party started, it really didn’t slow down until I turned the final page. Cesare kept the characters going, let the moments come in waves, making you think it was over before it picked up again and shocked you with even more. It was still believable, which made the story that much more horrifying.Ĭlown in a Cornfield starts off fairly slowly, to be frank, and I was a couple pages away from DNF-ing this masterpiece before I decided to give it one more chapter. Not only did he develop both sides very well, but even though I kept thinking how overly-exaggerated this was, I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t, really. Cesare took an issue that many small towns can relate to and developed a (hilariously over-exaggerated?) horror plot out of it.

I’m not saying that for every real life crime like this, there is going to be a reason, but i f you’re going to create a story around an event like this, you’re going to want to follow the general rule of thumb when it comes to crafting a story–conflict and resolution. Something like that can be easy to forget when you’re just making a cliche slasher book, where the primary entertainment value is in the various ways people are brutally killed. One of the things that bothers me about a lot of horror stories is that there is often an easy solution to the issue at hand or that there isn’t really a reason as to why there’s a homicidal maniac. What I wasn’t expecting was the phenomenal, expertly developed mystery that brought the clowns and their motive into the story, and how well Cesare went about bringing the hilariously stereotypical horror scenes to fruition. When you pick up a book about homicidal clowns, you’re of course expecting to get homicidal clowns, right? And not to confuse anyone, but you do get homicidal clowns in this book–you get more then a few. I was expecting a lot of things when I picked up Clown in a Cornfield, but to be honest, I was not expecting what I was given. Why this book?: I’m not good with slasher horror movies, but I wanted a scary book and a slasher horror BOOK sounded like exactly what I needed.ĬONTENT WARNING for the review: discussed/mentioned gore and violence. While getting to know her new peers, a masked intruder shows up, ready to get revenge on the high schoolers.

Quinn soon finds herself in the middle of the town’s war between the adults and teenagers, with the adults blaming the kids for everything that has gone wrong.

Quinn and her father just moved to Kettle Springs from Philadelphia after her mother’s death, wanting to make a fresh start.

Clown in a cornfield