Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > I Was a Teenage Slasher

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a horror film?

I Was a Teenage Slasher is a campy, satirical take on the slasher genre of horror novels, set in the dry and flat landscape of West Texas in 1989. This was the year that Jason took Manhattan, Michael Myers got revenge, and Freddy had a dream child. It was also the year Motley Crue visited Dr. Feelgood.

Instead of approaching the slasher story from the POV of the Final Girl, as is genre convention, IWaTS tells the story from the slasher’s POV in an autobiographical manner. This narrative structure is a great twist on the genre, but it also directly insinuates our narrator is unreliable. That’s doubly true for Tolly Driver, who shows signs early in the story of having a habit of shifting blame. There’s some great subtext in this book about whether or not Tolly becoming a slasher was because of trauma, infection, or both, which I thought was very deftly woven in, given how trauma usually does have something to do with violence in teenagers and how violence can be contagious.

The premise, campiness, satire, and interpersonal scenes in this book were all great. I also really enjoyed whenever Tully became the slasher. It was the rest of the book where I ran into a problem. The rambling and tangents definitely made sense for the structure and purpose of the story and informed some of the plot, but I was bored. I honestly kept wanting to skim those parts. Sometimes stream of consciousness works for me and sometimes it doesn’t.

The last 10% of this book was fantastic and the ending blew me away. In the end it was a very uneven read for me. I know this book has gottens fantastic review from a great deal of my mutuals, so I have a feeling this might only be me.

I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review is rated three stars or below, so it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.

File Under: Horror