This is book 2 in the Lake Witch Trilogy and after reading My Heart is a Chainsaw, I couldn’t wait for this one to come out.
I found out from the author himself that Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colorado has a whole section of signed SGJ books. As soon as I could, I Pre-ordered and counted the days till it was released. One little bummer I didn’t know about, I was going to have to wait until Mr. Jones did the signing there before it would ship. That’s on me for thinking I would have it on my front step on release day.
I was already reading a book at the time this arrived, and I wanted to finish the other first so It didn’t matter I had to wait. I was just being selfish. By the time I got to this I was in a bit of a reading funk so this took me a lot longer to finish than I would like to admit. Let me be clear, it took so long because of me, my reading funk, busy schedule, and general laziness. Not at all due to the story itself.
Ok, so let’s get to it. If you haven’t read the first book (shame on you) you might want to end the review here because I will reference the end of the last book.
This book jumps in time ahead 4 years to 2019. The events at the lake are a horrible memory and the town is attempting to recover. Jade, now going by her given name jennifer, has been in prison blamed for all the killings at the lake. It’s been a long 4 years of investigations and trials that all took place between the books and we get bits and pieces as we go. I didn’t realize this book was still in the past. I really thought based on when this was published we would be in present time. Does this mean we will catch up to the present with Book 3 “The Angel of Indian Lake”? I cheated; the book blurb says the next book jumps 4 years also so that would put it present day.
Back to the synopsis. Jennifer has been cleared of the charges through the trial and is on her way back to Proofrock. Returning to a home that’s empty, and a town that hates her while blaming her for everything. To make this even more intense, a serial killer has escaped a transport and is headed to Proofrock as well. It’s killing season and Jenifer is right in the path… Again. The story takes place over 2 days and racks up a decent body count to end on none other than Friday the 13th.
If you are looking for a blast of a Slasher in book form look no further. My teenager is in a reading funk of his own and not reading anything. His one request when my wife and I were on a date at Barnes & Noble was he wants a slasher. It is really hard to find books slasher focused so I was excited to point him to this trilogy. He still isn’t reading but there is hope. Maybe he is holding out for the 3rd book so he doesn’t have to wait like the rest of us. 🤷🏻♂️
Review time: Well, My Heart is a Chainsaw is one of my top 5 all time favorite books and I have read it 3 times. I’d love to tell you this was the same but alas the curse of a sequel has struck on this one. This wasn’t as good as the first one.
Here is why the 1 star deduction. Simply, I really missed the Slasher 101 chapters. Sure I knew a lot of it, and I mean a lot of it, but it was so much fun to read these horror facts and how they related to the current events in the story. Jennifer is also different. When she returns she has put the punk rock horror chick to bed and is “rehabilitated”. She is denying who shew really is. I know this is intentional. SGJ has a gift for characters and I feel this was a natural progression in her coming to terms with her truth. It was just a bummer. Instead we get Letha who has gone way off the deep end trying to catch up to where “Jade” was. Letha is now living her life like a final girl. The last little bit that I wasn’t wild about was this book takes us through the point of view of many characters.
What I really love about this book was the homages/easter eggs that are sprinkled throughout. The blizzard like setting takes me to the Overlook or Antarctic Research Facility. The bus crash that allows Dark Mill South to escape could have easily been Michael Meyers own transport bus. Many great other references for the rabid horror fan to enjoy. I’ll let you take at stab at finding them.
So as for my rating: I give this a solid 🥃🥃🥃🥃. Can’t wait for the next installment. My dog also really enjoyed it. On July 4th we went out side to watch fireworks and i was maybe outside for 5-10 minuets only to walk back into gut wrenching destruction. My signed 1st edition hardcover was destroyed (mostly) and the last 35 pages of the book were gone.
Heartbroken and desperate to read the end of the book, I returned to the Book Store (Boulder Bookstore) again and bought another Signed Hardcover. Thankfully I got another First Edition so I’m happy. Now I have a copy I can lend out. Let them figure out how it ends 😈.
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