STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES - Don't Fear The Reaper

Alle Illustrationen von Vincent Chong

Wie ein Phantom, wie ein unsichtbarer Slasher auf der Flucht vor der Staatsgewalt schlägt, schlitzt, hackt, sticht und schneidet sich der Stammesangehörige der Ojibwe aus Minnesota durch Proofrocks Adoleszenten, um endlich die ausgleichende Anzahl an Opfern von 38 zu erreichen. Hierbei schlägt der flüchtige Serienmörder an den verschiedensten Schauplätzen Proofrocks zu und erhält dabei "Unterstützung" von unerwarteter Seite. In der Sporthalle der Henderson High, im hiesigen Seniorenheim "Pleasant Valley Assisted Living", im abgebrannten Terra Nova, in der Polizeistation, in der Videothek und natürlich auf dem zugefrorenen Massengrab des Indian Lakes, dem Zuhause der Seehexe Stacey Graves. Die wenigen Polizeibeamten Proofrocks restlos überfordert, werden abermals, zumeist junge Bewohner des fiktiven Örtchens, Leidtragende eines Massakers. Also setzen Jennifer Daniels, Deputy Sheriff Banner Tompkins und seine Frau Letha Mondragon-Tompkins alles daran, den ins Rollen geratenen Gewaltexzess, durch Dark Mill Souths Abschlacht-Tour, bei klirrender Kälte, nachhaltig einzudämmen. Die beiden jungen Frauen Jennifer Daniels und Letha Mondragon-Tompkins wissen sich durchaus zur Wehr zu setzen, was  Dark Mill South als bittere Realität anerkennen muss. Doch plötzlich überschlagen sich die Ereignisse, die Leichen und sämtliche ihrer Teile.

English Version:

- sophisticated, brutal and unorthodox slasher - 

The complex works of the American writer Stephen Graham Jones are consistently sophisticated fare. The author of indigenous descent cultivates an idiosyncratic, sophisticated and overlaid with thoughts writing style. It is a kind of metaphorically underlined language of meaning, whose path already marks the destination and which is not always easy to understand or to grasp in its entirety straight away. Jones dramatizes in such an honest and profound way that the reader is emotionally drawn into a whirlpool of pity, horror and anxiety. Not least for this reason, the second volume of the Indian Lake trilogy "Don't Fear The Reaper", which was published at the end of 2023 in the Cemetery Dance Germany series by Buchheim Verlag and was published in the American original under the same title a year earlier, should definitely not be  read as standalone. In order to fully understand causal relationships, it is essential to first read the first part of the series "My Heart Is A Chainsaw". Stephen Graham Jones' texts are thought through down to the smallest detail and are deeply embedded in the minds of his readers. The 496-page "Don't Fear The Reaper", which of course continues the cinematic slasher and horror theme of the first part, has become a multi-faceted and multi-layered horror opus, whose train of thoughts, embedded in metaphors, colors the approaching disaster deep black and continually encourage the reader to read carefully.

December 12th, 2019, Proofrock, Idaho. The teenager Jennifer "Jade" Daniels, from the first part of the Indian Lake series "My Heart Is A Chainsaw", has now grown into a young woman. Rehabilitated but still traumatized, the 22-year-old half-Indian returns to her hometown after a four-year prison stay in Boise, Idaho. Jennifer's friend Letha Mondragon-Tompkins also had to go through a lot. Severely harassed by the Independence Day massacre and its versatile consequences, Letha had to deal with the loss of her father, her facial and jaw reconstruction, physical and psychotherapy, pregnancy, taking and stopping pills over the last four years. Just at this time, the serial killer Dark Mill South, on the so-called "reunification tour" with his victims, seizes the opportunity of a once-in-a-century whiteout and flees from the heavily armed officers who are supposed to accompany and guard him in Proofrock, Idaho . The 198 cm giant, who wears a pointed and extremely sharp hook on the stump of his right arm, wanted to avenge the largest mass execution in US history in 1862 (also known as the Sioux Uprising), in which 38 Dakota tribesmen were hanged. Dark Mill South's goal was to indiscriminately torture 38 people to death in Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, all the way across to Colorado, to balance for the 38 hanged souls of the Dakota, bringing that number up until his own Arrest in Idaho, much to his chagrin, didn't quite happen. Like a phantom, like an invisible slasher on the run from state power, the Ojibwe tribesman from Minnesota punches, slashes, hacks, stabs and cuts his way through Proofrock's adolescents in order to finally reach the equal number of victims of 38. The fugitive serial killer strikes at a variety of locations in Proofrock and receives "support" from unexpected quarters. In the sports hall of Henderson High, in the local retirement home "Pleasant Valley Assisted Living", in the burnt down Terra Nova, in the police station, in the video store and of course on the frozen mass grave of Indian Lake, the home of the sea witch Stacey Graves. The few police officers in Proofrock are completely overwhelmed and mostly young residents of the fictional town are once again the victims of a massacre, . So Jennifer Daniels, Deputy Sheriff Banner Tompkins and his wife Letha Mondragon-Tompkins do everything they can to sustainably contain the excessive violence that has begun to roll through Dark Mill South's slaughter tour in the bitter cold. The two young women Jennifer Daniels and Letha Mondragon-Tompkins certainly know how to defend themselves, which Dark Mill South has to recognize as a bitter reality. But suddenly events, the corpses and all their parts start to rollover.

"Don't Fear The Reaper" is a demanding, brutal and unorthodox slasher that seems a lot more vital, authentic and extreme than its predecessor. The story develops its very own sound, is written in a captivating way, is filled with macabre humor and is damned bloody. Described so realistically and true to life, it's as if you were there. Stephen Graham Jones empathically empathizes with his protagonists. He sketches and dissects each of his characters individually. While he makes them suffer, the reader feels the cold, the threatening atmosphere, the acute danger and the excitement of the actors, which is integrated into the wintry ambience of Idaho. The detailed, appealing to threatening, yet always realistic and extremely expressive illustrations by Vincent Chong support these atmospheric images masterfully. For me, Chong is one of the best artists in the CDG series anyway. With a delicate touch of supernaturalism, "Don't Fear The Reaper" develops its very own "cozy" slasher flair that you experience anew every time you pick up the book. As with its predecessor, the actual story is repeatedly ensnared by reports about Dark Mill South, the events that led to the Independence Day Massacre, Jade's trial, the older history of Pleasant Valley, as well as various treatises and discussions about slashers. "Don't Fear The Reaper" is a slightly different, multi-layered and challenging reading experience that immediately grew on me and means huge cinema for me personally!

(Janko)