This is the second book in The Lake Witch Trilogy and picks up 4 years after the events of the first book, My Heart is a Chainsaw. Jade Daniels returns to rural Proofrock at the same time as a blizzard and convicted serial killer Dark Mill South. Thirty six hours later, twenty people would be dead.
I loved the first book in the trilogy and was both excited but nervous to be back in Proofrock because I enjoyed the first book so much. However, this second book in the series really hits it out of the park. It is different enough from the first one to not just feel like a copy but similar enough in the themes and structure that it still feels very much connected to the first. It was fun to see the way some of the elements from the first book - such as the academic papers - were tweaked in order to fit seamlessly into this second book. I do wish I had re-read the first one before reading this as we don't get a whole lot of re-introduction into the town and these characters - we more so get plopped into the story and start running from there.
The tone and writing style of this I found a little less literary than the first one and feels like this one would have a more wide commercial appeal. I remember seeing a lot of folks reading My Heart is a Chainsaw when it first came out and some of them were expecting it to be much more of a slasher on-page and ended up a little disappointed. That first book starts off more slowly but really picks up by the end. In Don't Fear the Reaper, however, it read much more like a typical slasher story where we get bodies dropping early and often. There still is Jones's distinctive writing style but the story overall has more action and characters making active choices than the first one did. And if you thought there were a lot of horror movie references in the first one, just you wait. Again, it feels just different enough of a reading experience for this to feel new and exciting, but still similar enough that it feels we're in the same world as the first book.
The horror elements were spectacular and really squicked me out in the absolute best way. Jones goes 100% in on Dark Mill South's murder history and spares no details. For fans of Criminal Minds (like myself) South could 1000% be a character in that show and would probably have a whole season dedicated to catching him. I'd say this book leans 75% into the gore and physical horror while the other 25% is the supernatural side of things. I loved how Jones was able to keep the horror grounded as we get consistent reminders of the massacre from the first book as well as the aftermath and real impact on these characters. While a lot of the horror in this book initially feels very big and flashy, it is also specifically shown to be realistic in a particularly haunting way.
I thought Dark Mill South's trial and backstory were really well developed throughout the story. As a result, those sections felt very much like a true crime episode all the way down to multiple fan theories and lore about Dark Mill South being built up over time. We also get a few scenes from South's perspective which were one of my favorite parts. Jones does a fantastic job of really dialing in the creep factor to these scenes by giving the reader access to the pretty fucked up things South is thinking about. Dark Mill South is Native American and a lot of the lore around Dark Mill South centers on Native Americans being dangerous, bordering on supernaturally powerful. I loved the different theories that are presented in the academic paper portions in regards to where Dark Mill came from and what his motives could be. We do find out the most probable answer at the end and I really think that reveal tied together a lot of common threads that showed up in the theories presented.
Just like in the first, we get a ton of horror movie references, but this time we had more recent ones mixed in. Most of them were horror movies that I think were talked about so widely that most people would be at least vaguely familiar with them. And if not, Jones does a good job explaining the connection the characters are making to the current situation. Also, we get a good range of types of horror, not necessarily only slashers. We also have other characters besides Jade who are making these connections/comments so we get some fantastic horror movie trivia laden conversations that are just ping-ponging references back and forth. It also felt like there was more of a focus on the actors in these movies, not just the characters on screen. I think this mirrors the sort of blurring of the lines between fiction and reality that Jade and the other characters had to grapple with in the aftermath of the massacre from the first book. I love how Jones, in both books, doesn't just use these horror references to show off how knowledgeable he is in the genre, but how these conversations reflect the character development going on throughout the book.
Overall, this was a fantastic second book in the trilogy. Just like the first one, it isn't quite clear where the story will go from here but I'm very much looking forward to the next installment. This gave me everything I loved from the first one with more action and bodies falling consistently throughout the book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC
Expected publication date is February 7, 2023
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