I thought this was really fun as well because it felt sort of like “Scream” where it’s all sort of ironic intentionally. Adam Cesare took your usual horror character stereotypes and made them fun! Quinn was your innocent, city girl who turns into a badass final girl (essentially), we have the popular/nice kid everyone wants to be around, the outcast, and even the rude jock and pretty/mean “it” girl. The characters were horror trope perfection, seriously. I am a little thrown off with the ending though because while everything is wrapped up neatly at the end it’s still open for a sequel. Overall I thought the story flowed well and it was hard to put down. She was fine for the most part but the judging someone for what they’re wearing and the way they speak right off the bat just rubbed me the wrong way especially when Rust is just the sweetest boy.Īnyways, I digress. Such as his manner of speaking and the clothes he wore but hey she was pretty thankful for the “redneck-ness/country boy” when he had hunting rifles in his truck when the crazy killer clown stuff started happening. Quinn is from Philadelphia so she’s not familiar with a lot of these things/customs, of course, and I actually thought she was being a bit rude and judgmental towards some some of the people especially her neighbor, Rust. I also, personally, really enjoyed the Midwestern US setting because a lot of the things were ridiculously relatable for me since I’m a fellow Midwesterner.

There were actually a ton of plot twists as well that I didn’t expect whatsoever and that made it even more of a fun read. I mean the violence and the gore were so perfectly written, I could feel my adrenaline kick in and I was terrified for the characters! And holy shit is there a kill count! Cornfield? Terrifying. Once we get to the cornfield party the action starts and the pacing really picks up, I could not put it down after that! It was just a lot of campy horror fun and I was kind of pleasantly surprised by how gory and brutal it was (it’s still YA), I haven’t read anything even remotely like this and I loved every page of it. We are mostly reading about Quinn meeting the local teens that become a central part of the story later and see that the adults loath them for their pranks and wanting to modernize the town. The first part of the story (maybe around 30%?) is actually pretty slow and I found it to be a little tedious. Quinn is then invited to a big party out in the middle of a cornfield and that’s when their town’s mascot, Frendo the clown, goes on a homicidal rampage.

As she starts school and starts meeting some of the local kids she notices that all is not right in Kettle Springs especially the tension between the teenagers and adults of the town. The story centers around Quinn, who has just moved with her father to the small Midwestern town of Kettle Springs, Missouri.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare