Review: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Title: Clown in a Cornfield

Author: Adam Cesare

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: August 25th, 2020

Pages: 352 
Audio Length: 7 Hours and 45 Minutes

Genre: YA Horror
TW: Murdering of kids

Series: Standalone

Source: ARC provided by the publisher

 

Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it until graduation. She might not make it to morning.
Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.
Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

I am terrified TERRIFIED of clowns. And I love being terrified and I love creepy and I love horror. So of course I had to pick this book up. I did think it was going to be more 80's b list horror instead of... slasher horror? But either way it was terrifying. 



That cover is certainly creepy and matches the book well. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to check it out.



Oh the story. Where do I start with this story? It's creepy. It's scary. It's downright terrifying. As I said I'm terrified of clowns and so the fact that this mass murder happens not only BY clowns but also in a cornfield, which is another thing I'm completely creeped out by.

The only thing that i had a problem with is that I was expecting the "who"and the "why" to be a bit different. It's not necessarily a bad thing that it wasn't what I was expecting, just... different. 



This one does start out a little bit slow. I think it took to about 40% by the time it really started going. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it built up to the "why" the clowns are attacking. And then once they start attacking it's not slow anymore and I found myself not wanting to stop reading, I just had to know what was going on and what was going to happen.



I think I've mentioned a few times in this review how creepy of a book it is. I think the author did a really good job in writing a very well done and horrifying book. It's creepy to even just think of something like in this book happening and then the author took it and made it feel real. 



I literally only cared about like 3 characters in this book. Quinn was okay, I like Cole, but Rust is my favorite by far. 

Other than that every last one of them got on my nerves and I did not care even a little if they died. 

I did feel like they were written well though, they all had personality and felt as if they were real people.



Let me tell you I could picture the corn maze and being lost in it and I was not okay with that. I mean I was but, I wasn't. Because it made the book and the scary of it that much more real.



Maybe the author was trying to set up for a book 2? I don't know, but the ending was kind of just meh. 



This was definitely a creepy scary read that had me not wanting to put it down.

“Quinn looked to the horizon as the cornstalks swayed with the breeze. The corn itself could have been waving hello, or it could have been breathing.
― Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield

Adam Cesare is a New Yorker who lives in Philadelphia. His books include Clown in a Cornfield, Video Night, The Summer Job, and Zero Lives Remaining. He’s an avid fan of horror cinema and runs Project: Black T-Shirt, a YouTube review show where he takes horror films and pairs them with reading suggestions

Review: Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart

Title: Eat, Brains, Love

Author: Jeff Hart

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: October 1st, 2013

Pages: 352
Audio Length: N/A

Genre: YA Horror
TW: Zombie violence. Duh.

Series: Eat Brains Love book 1

Source: E-book

 

Two teenage zombies search for brains, love, and answers in this surprisingly romantic and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel with guts.
Jake Stephens was always an average, fly-under-the-radar guy. The kind of guy who would never catch the attention of an insanely popular girl like Amanda Blake-or a psychic teenage government agent like Cass. But one day during lunch, Jake's whole life changed. He and Amanda suddenly locked eyes across the cafeteria, and at the exact same instant, they turned into zombies and devoured half their senior class.
Now Jake definitely has Amanda's attention-as well as Cass's, since she's been sent on a top-secret mission to hunt them down. As Jake and Amanda deal with the existential guilt of eating their best friends, Cass struggles with a growing psychic dilemma of her own-one that will lead the three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

Anyone who knows me knows my love of all things B-list. Especially horror. So as soon as I saw that Jenn had gotten it on Edelweiss I knew I needed to read it. The title is what immediately made me think B-list horror movie, I love the play on the title, I'm sure you've all already figured out that it's a play on Eat, Pray, Love. And I love all things zombie so I knew this one would be right up my aisle. 

I decided to go ahead and buy it on Amazon and I finished it in about a day and a half. Then I decided to buy the second one, because I needed to know what happened. 

Here are my thoughts on Eat, Brains, Love. 

That cover though! I love how it looks like a tray and how the word "brains" looks like ketchup/blood. For some reason that part really caught my eye. 



This is a very interesting take on zombies. How they're still mostly human until they get hungry and then they become... well... blood thirsty- brain thirsty- zombies. 

I also really liked the fact that the government was covering up zombies, because I love reading conspiracy theories and this one is kind of awesome. Obviously the thought of zombies really isn't awesome, but anyone who reads/watches/plays games with zombies secretly wishes it would happen. 

This isn't your typical zombie apocalypse book, and I think I really liked that part of it. It wasn't really horror, it was almost like a teenage Shaun of the Dead/Zombieland type of thing. Where it's more comedy with zombies, than it is actual scary zombies. And as much as I love a good horror, sometimes I need something.... light to break up the dark. 

The only weird part was that this virus was spread by STD, and that to me is just a little weird. I watched a movie where they became zombies because of an STD and it was weird even then. I feel like this is not the way to go when writing a zombie book.



The pace is done well, yes there are a few moments where it's a tiny bit slow, but it's more of a build up than actually being slow. 
Other than that it was a constant go go go the whole book, from when they turn into zombies and eat their classmates up until the end. 



The writing does seem a bit juvenile at times, like this is almost meant for a younger audience, even with the subject being about blood thirty zombies. It was written very... simple. I haven't read any other books by this author, so that might just be his writing style. 
But that made it a very quick, brainless (pun intended), read, which I did enjoy. 



Oh how I love these characters. 

Jake was incredibly lovable, even with being a lazy stoner. He made everything funny and relaxed. I feel like if I was in their situation that being around him would make me feel safe, like everything would be okay. He was incredibly sweet and I actually kind of maybe fell for him a little bit while reading this.

I also really liked Cass's friend, who's name completely escaped my brain right now. He really cared for Cass and was incredibly sweet and kind of funny. 

I liked Cass well enough, she was really awkward and I related to that. I also don't know how to talk to people my own age lol.

Amanda is okay. She grows on me but I feel like Jake is too good for her. She's snarky but not in a good way and I feel like even as she grows closer to Jake that she still feels like she's too good for him. 

I also very much feel like the "romance" in this book is a little ridiculous. It feels forced and I could have done without it to be honest. 



The author did a good job in making sure that you knew where they were and what was around them. It was just our world but you know, with zombies. 



The ending of this book was great, it was kind of a cliff hanger, which I didn't care for. But because I read this book way after it came out I was able to immediately go to the second one.
Obviously it did a good job in making me want to read more. 




This is a fast paced, quick, and fun read. I highly suggest for anyone who likes zombies and dark comedy. 

And that’s where I saw my first real, live zombie. He was naked. That’s what I noticed first, which I know is stupid, but I hadn’t been expecting to see a nude middle-aged man that afternoon.
- Jeff Hart, Eat, Brains, Love

Jeff Hart is originally from Rochester, New York, and now lives in Brooklyn. He is also the author of Eat, Brains, Love.