Stephen Graham Jones - The Angel Of Indian Lake

„Wohl wissend, dass ich es besser nicht tun sollte, fummle ich noch eine Tablette aus dem Bund meiner Shorts, zerdrücke sie zu Pulver und ziehe sie hoch in die dunkle Höhle hinter meinen Augen.“ Zitat S. 46

Alle Illustrationen von Vincent Chong

Referate, Vergleiche, Untersuchungsberichte, E-Mails, sowie Zitate und Anekdoten aus diversen Horrorfilmen, sind erneut Aufhänger der unkonventionellen Slasher-Thematik, die in Stephen Graham Jones vielschichtige, makabere, bisweilen gar labyrinthische und schwarzhumorige Erzählkunst einfließen. Daraus ergibt sich eine ganz spezielle, nonkonforme, eigenständige und berauschende Lesart, als wäre man ein Teil des Geschehens. Die metaphorisch verschachtelte, linguistische Synapsenakrobatik, des 1972 in Midland, Texas geborenen, registrierten Stammesmitglieds des Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, steckt voller Poesie, ist stets gefühl-, sowie gedankenprononciert und daher auch nicht gerade leicht zu verdauen. Sie verlangt der potenziellen Leserschaft ein äußerst konzentriertes Absorbieren ab. Daher sollte die anspruchsvolle Trilogie, die im zweiten, wie auch im dritten Band immer wieder Rückblicke in die vergangenen Geschehnisse einschiebt, auch auf gar keinen Fall mit einem anderen, als dem ersten Teil begonnen werden. Jade "JD" Daniels spielt selbstredend auch in dem tiefgehenden, atmosphärisch dichten und immersiven "The Angel Of Indian Lake" wieder mit um die Ecke gedachten, cineastischen Betrachtungen und Imaginationen aus dem Horror- und Slasher-Kino. Eine tiefe Verbeugung des Professors für Englisch an der Universität von Boulder, Colorado und seiner Romanfiguren vor Fulci, Raimi, Carpenter, Spielberg, Cunningham, Barker, Craven und Co. 

„Weil man leicht vergessen kann, wie tief man in sie eintaucht, und es erst bemerkt, wenn man Samara auf dem Grund eines pharmazeutischen Brunnens ist und zu einem entfernten Lichtring hochblickt.“ Zitat S. 136/137

Das meint LACK OF LIES zum jeweils besprochenen Band der Cemetery Dance Germany Reihe:

English version:

- third and final part of The Indian Lake Trilogy –

Proofrock, Idaho, October 2023. After the Independence Day massacre on July 4th, 2015 and the reunification tour on December 12th, 2019, the town of Proofrock, which has a population of 3,000, is severely traumatized and decimated by 40 souls. Four years after Dark Mill South and Cinnamon Baker's massacre of the local adolescence , the badly decomposed remains of Deputy Francie and Sheriff Rex Allen are found in the vast Caribou-Targhee forest area. When even more badly mauled bodies are discovered on site, a large part of the national park suddenly goes up in flames and a shocking incident occurs in front of Henderson High School, these terrible events inevitably bring back memories of the horrific events of the past few years. While snow and cold hold the fictional town, 2,500 meters above sea level, firmly in their grip on Halloween evening, the "headless" fate takes its course and Proofrock once again becomes the scene of a brutal massacre.

With the third part "The Angel Of Indian Lake", the Indian Lake trilogy by the American writer Stephen Graham Jones enters the third and final round. Due to her provocative and striking look, her ethnic and cultural affiliation, her non-conformist behavior, which is also reinforced by various suicide attempts and prison stays, Jennifer Elaine "Jade" Daniels is not considered socially acceptable, at least in this part of the world. Thank you too! Nevertheless, the now 25-year-old half-indigenous woman, despite multiple diagnosis of PTSD, prescribed tablet cocktails and weekly sessions with psychologist Dr. Sharona Watts - as part of her court probation - is a history teacher at her former high school. When Jade is once again confronted with an increasing number of body discoveries and a forest fire endangers entire streets of Proofrock, she is once again forced to actively support her best friend's husband, Sheriff Banner Tompkins.

“Knowing full well that I better shouldn't do it, I fumble another pill from the waistband of my shorts, crush it into powder and pull it up into the dark socket behind my eyes.” Quote p. 46

Presentations, comparisons, investigation reports, emails, as well as quotes and anecdotes from various horror films, are once again the hook for the unconventional slasher theme, which flows into Stephen Graham Jones' complex, macabre, sometimes even labyrinthine and darkly humorous narrative art. This results in a very special, non-conformist, independent and intoxicating reading, as if you were part of the event. The metaphorically nested, linguistic synaptic acrobatics of the registered tribal member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, who was born in Midland, Texas in 1972, is full of poetry, is always pronounced in feelings and thoughts and is therefore not exactly easy to digest. It demands extremely concentrated absorption from the potential readership. Therefore, the demanding trilogy, which repeatedly includes flashbacks to past events in the second and third volumes, should under no circumstances be started with any part other than the first. Jade "JD" Daniels of course also plays in the deep, atmospherically dense and immersive "The Angel Of Indian Lake" with outside-the-box, cinematic observations and imaginations from horror and slasher cinema. A deep bow from the professor of English at the University of Boulder, Colorado and his fictional characters to Fulci, Raimi, Carpenter, Spielberg, Cunningham, Barker, Craven and Co.

"Because it's easy to forget how deeply you're immersed in it and not realize it until you're Samara at the bottom of a pharmaceutical fountain, looking up at a distant ring of light." Quote p. 136/137

With empathetic finesse, Stephen Graham Jones breathes realistic vitality into his actors, creating a strong emotional bond with them that offers absolutely no alternative for the consumer. The coloring of the local setting blends into the events at hand as if casually, with the detailed, realist illustrations by the British illustrator and designer Vincent Chong doing the rest to immeasurably potentiate the disturbing, authentic and wonderfully evil essences of "violence, gore and murder". Partly from the introverted introspection of the main character, so written in the first person singular, the 536-page horror scenario, which was also published in the American original in 2024, is immersed in Jade's expansive, ADHD-reflected flood of thoughts. That's why the engaging closing agony "The Angel Of Indian Lake" takes a while to really get going. Then Stephen Graham Jones' potential readership is rewarded with an intense, also infamous splatter festival, complete with mystical elements, which culminates in a highly complex massacre of unbridled rage, torn off heads, chainsaws, axes, pickaxes, slashers, living dead, deranged serial killers, wild animals, bitten out chunks of flesh, bones snapping like sticks and spurting fountains of blood, under the indifferent aegis of the Grim Reaper. Like a sneaky uppercut directly under the chin, Stephen Graham Jones's exceptional mental work has an impact on one's own meaning of life! Damn hard stuff... damn brilliantly implemented!!!

(Janko)