With the masters of horror literature, King, Barker, and Rice, all rapidly approaching elderly age the question flying through the book stacks is, who will rise to take the throne? A leading contender is horror scribe Adam Cesare, whose work over the last decade has been heralded by heavyweights such as Bloody Disgusting and Rue Morgue. Cesare takes a bloody stab at the YA (young adult) horror genre with his newest release “Clown in a Cornfield.”
Quinn Maybrook and her fathers attempt to start over in the seemingly quaint Midwest town of Kettle Springs. While the father and daughter try to escape their demons of the past, Kettle Springs is on the brink of heading to a dark future. The teens of the town are out of control and their antics have led to death and destruction. Along with economic hardships and the young adults out of control behavior the adults Kettle Springs begin to rally and form the P.T.A from hell. It all starts to come to a head after the town’s yearly festival is ruined and the town’s creepy clown mascot, Frendo, appears to put an end to the antics and reset the natural order in Kettle Springs with chainsaws and crossbows instead of squirting flowers and balloons.
A very slick cover with a clown faced cornfield in red and a quote from the legend Clive Barker would have any horror hound snapping their paws to pick up this piece. Under the mask of the YA category and one-hundred pages in, most fans drooling for a modern monster mash will be grimacing until the action kicks in. Cesare does a good job with his introductory chapters and gives a great descriptive narrative leading the reader into the darkness behind Kettle Springs but really delivers the goods once the killing hits the corn. Cesare writes the kill scenes with reckless abandon and visual style that allows the reader to watch the dramatic third act play out before their eyes. It is said that a great work of fiction does represent the current social structure of modern times without influencing the tale. Cesare does this to perfection. A far-right point of view from the elders of the town versus the teen tech aged rebels from the left. Neither willing to meet in the middle and come together for the greater good thus leading to catastrophe. Publishers Harper Collins may have got away with one here. “Clown in a Cornfield” is listed and shelved in the Young Adult category but teeters on the edge of hard-core horror literature. What turns into a glorious gore fest at times may just exceed what could be considered young adult and it appears they have gotten away with this in regard to marketing to a wider audience. “Clown in a Cornfield” begs to be turned into a cinematic adaptation, but one would have to imagine a more PG-13 version for economic purposes while the horror nation would beg for a more brutal rendition to fully quench our bloodlust. With this fantastic novel, Cesare may have taken a final step into the cornfield to capture that elusive literary horror crown.
Scream Score: 9/10