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: Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

Title: Be Not Far From Me

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publishing Date: March 3rd, 2020

Pages: 240
Audio Length: 5 Hours and 28 Minutes

Genre: YA Survival 
TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

The world is not tame.
Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she's alone - and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive despite the red streak of infection creeping up her leg

This is the third book I've read by Mindy and it definitely wasn't my favorite. Something I've noticed is that her books see to be just average. This one wasn't bad per say, but it wasn't great either. There was nothing that made it stand out in my mind, and it's not one I'm going to think about years from now. 

The cover is just kind of meh. I feel like it could have been something so much more, but it's just too minimalist for me. 



The story itself was a good one. The idea of getting lost in the middle of the woods, hurt... it's terrifying. It's easily one of my biggest fears. Being lost alone is awful. And it definitely makes for a good story that gives you the heeby jeebies and this one is definitely good for that. All of the things that Ashley goes through is something that can give anyone nightmares. 

The part I have a problem with is with her old friend who she loved who disappeared. It felt like such an awkward part of the book and I didn't even know if what she found was real or what. I feel like that part could have been kept out of things.



For a survival book I feel like this one was a bit slow. Even as things were happening I still felt like it was kind of slow. 



The writing is just so so. It's not terrible but it's not amazing either. This invoked terror sure, but I think it was more the thought of being stranded, lost, alone, hurt, etc.  As opposed to anything that was ACTUALLY happening in the book.

Not to mention I was quite confused about what was really happening through half the book, and I suppose that kind of makes sense, because she's hurt and feverish and has an infection. But it was almost too much because I kind of still wanted to know what was really happening. 

I loved her book Not a Drop to Drink, and the writing was great there, but it just fell flat here. 



Let met start with Ashley. She was an okay main character. She was very one sided and I felt like there wasn't much to her. She was very shallow and didn't think about anything except her camping and her old friend who she was in love with.

Her boyfriend. Oh my gosh. I hated him so much. Again talk about shallow. I hated him from the moment he came into the picture. And then a slightly hotter girl comes around and he just cheats? Just like that.

I guess I should just say that all the characters were shallow. They lacked depth. There wasn't anything special about them and I kind of hated them all, there wasn't any character growth and very little development.

The only good thing I can say about Ashley is that she was persistent. She knew she wanted to survive and she knew how. I don't really know how I would have reacted in her situation, but I'm sure I would have given up rather quickly.



I feel like there could have been some more description in this book. Something like this relies heavily on being able to picture where you're at, and I just couldn't here. I mean besides forest. I'm not a writer so I can't really say how it could have been better. Lol. 



The ending was just kind of meh to me. I don't know why and again I can't tell you how it could have been better. There's just something about it that just didn't sit right with me. 





Overall it wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't a super great read either. 

“If you’re quiet in the woods long enough, you’ll hear something die.”
― Mindy McGinnis, Be Not Far From Me

Mindy McGinnis is an Edgar Award-winning novelist who writes across multiple genres, including post-apocalyptic, historical, thriller, contemporary, mystery, and fantasy.


While her settings may change, you can always count on Mindy’s books to deliver grit, truth, and an unflinching look at humanity and the world around us.