Night of the Mannequins

This one has grown on me since finishing it - a good sign for an intelligent horror book. [[Stephen Graham Jones]] is his typically brief self here with this one, describing one young person's terrifying descent into madness. A group of ne'er-do-wells play a practical joke on their friend who works at a movie theater. They've been tossed from he establishment by their friend's milquetoast boss for acting up during movies. So, they dress up a mannequin, smuggle him into the theater through a back door, put him in a seat, and start shenanigans anew. As practical jokes go, it's somewhat anti-climactic. Soon after, though, each one of the friends gets picked off in some horrible way. Our hero, anti-hero is more accurate, believes that the show more mannequin has achieved homicidal sentience, and decides he must kill his friends before the mannequin gets to them. Why, you ask? Well, let's not get bogged down in rational thought, as our anti-hero is all out of that kind of thinking.

What's grown on me since finishing the book, is Jones' recount of the main character's distorted perspectives and fall into madness. It's quite provocative. Most might just toss recycle the book for its pulp content, but there's more going on here than a sentient and homicidal mannequin - how does one go mad? What does that look like?

Recommended!!!!
4 bones!!!! show less

"It seems so obvious when you're the one with blood on your hands right? Like everyone's watching you. Like everybody's waiting".

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones was one wild ride. It had my heart racing from the very beginning and it felt like my mind was literally playing tricks on me. It had all the campy, slasher vibes that gave me all the nostalgic feels and had me fighting with myself late at night wondering if I should continue reading and risk the nightmare or just wait it out until the next day.

I still don't think I know if the monster was real or just a figment of Sawyer Grimes', the protagonist's imagination or a reflection of his innermost psyche. Sawyer was the perfect psycho and I loved how the author show more tells the story through Sawyer's thoughts. This POV really made the story come to life and you got to experience all the creepy and horrific action in real time. You don't know if you want to look away or keep watching. The fact that it is all taking place while a slasher film plays in the background gives it that extra dose of mystery and irony. The author does a great job of laying out each scene but tricking you at the same time.

Even though this was a horror novella, I could not help but almost feel sorry for our teen killer. He thinks he is killing his friends to prevent others from dying. But I can't help but see how his character was a metaphor for teen angst. It wasn't until the very last two pages that I got the full picture of what he was going through inside his own mind. He felt out of place in his own friend group, pined away for his female best friend, longed for the feeling of family within his peer group, coveted their family lives and wore a mask so people couldn't see who he actually was. He tried to be the superhero. It was very reminiscent of some of my favorite slasher films.

This short gem embodied everything I love about slasher films. I am a SGJ fan for life. I cannot wait to read through his entire body of work now. My bookdragon rating is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 show less

This was one wild and weird novella and I absolutely loved it. Remember that Doctor Who episode "Rose" where Rose and the Doctor were chased by mannequins and how creepy that was? Now imagine if those mannequins were murders hell bent on killing you and your friends. What would you do? This is the position Sawyer Grimes finds himself in at the start of Night of the Mannequins.

Sawyer Grimes is one of five bored teens who decide to pose a discarded store mannequin as though it’s a real patron in a movie theater in a suburb of Dallas, Tex. They all think it’s a funny prank—until Sawyer sees the mannequin walk out of the theater at the movie’s end. When one of the friends is killed, along with her entire family, in a freak accident show more shortly thereafter, Sawyer becomes convinced that the mannequin’s to blame. Believing “Manny” has morphed into a Frankenstein-style monster bent on offing its creators with no regard for who else gets hurt in the process, Sawyer decides that it’s his responsibility to kill his fellow pranksters before Manny can get to them, and thus lessen the collateral damage for their families. As the story unfolds the border between the supernatural and psychological blends. Sawyer's innocence unravels before us as he weighs his options and plans and justifies his kills, trying to stay one step ahead of Manny. is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both? Did Sawyer Grimes really see the Mannequin walk out of the theater on that fateful night? Stephen Graham Jones never provides a clear answer. The reader is left to answer this question on their own.

Night of the Mannequins is a twisted, wild ride about the loss of innocence, the metamorphosis of the teenage psyche, and the pain of growing up. It is also a tender story about friendship and protecting others. You can tell Jones had a blast writing this novel, cared about his characters, and really enjoyed employing and messing with the tropes found within the horror genre. I'm eager to read more of his work and highly recommend this novella.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the arc. show less

Title: Night of the Mannequins
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Format: eAudiobook via Hoopla Digital App

Quick Take: A contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

Thoughts: What the entire heck was this book!? And I mean that in the best way possible. This novella was unique and creepy as hell and I loved it! The only reason I couldn't give this book a five star rating is because I was slightly repulsed by the lead character but other than that, holy balls! I wasn't sure what to expect but it wasn't that! Recommended for horror lovers and its a quick read/listen.

Rating: Four out of Five Stars

A night at the movies, a prank gone wrong and a town turned on its head. I never know what to expect from Stephen Graham Jones, and this novella is no exception!

Told in the first person, Sawyer explains how his group of friends found an old mannequin in the mud near the river and how they dug him out, dressed him up and put him in a bunch of different situations. They named him Manny. As teenagers often do, they quickly tired of him and now he, (it?), resides on top of Sawyer's dad's old motorcycle, parked in their garage. Manny is resurrected though, to play a prank on a movie theater manager. A prank that, tragically, goes wrong and now Sawyer has to right that wrong-and soon. Will he be successful? You'll have to read this to find show more out!

It's really hard to discuss this tale without spoilers, but, as usual, Stephen Graham Jones threw me a curveball. Everything I thought this story was about was wrong. What I thought was going to happen? I was wrong. What I thought Sawyer would do? He didn't. Why? I can't tell you, you'll just have to read it.

Easily read in an hour or two, I've often mentioned that I think the novella form is one of the best ways to present a horror story. Every word has to count, every action leads to the next. It's tight, it doesn't waste time, and when it's done well? It's a perfect little package of darkness that leaves you thinking for days. Bravo, once again to Stephen Graham Jones!

Highly recommended!

Available on September 1st, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/2XZTtdv

*Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the e-ARC of this novella in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!* show less

Oh my goodness! What did I just read? Certainly not what this novella promised (pretended?) to be, i.e. a horror story about murderous mannequins: most of the blurbs I read online spoke of “a teen prank going wrong and leading to mayhem”, but things turned out to be very different. The title itself is misleading since, for starters, there is just one mannequin involved, and then that solitary mannequin’s rampage never really happens - not outside of the unreliable narrator’s twisted imagination, that is.

When reviewing the books I read I always try to keep story details or spoilers to a minimum, but in this case I need to make an exception because otherwise I could not detail the reasons why this novella did not work for me - and show more anyway the author himself spoils everything in the very first sentence when Sawyer, the narrator, shares the fact that “now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all”.

Sawyer and his friends - Tim, JR, Shanna and Danielle - have known each other since kindergarten or thereabouts, quite inseparable and prone to more or less successful practical jokes. Many of those involve a male mannequin - named Manny in an underwhelming show of inventiveness - that they dressed in their parents’ discarded clothes and displayed in various poses all around their neighborhood. When they decide to use Manny for a last prank in the movie theater where Shanna works part-time, posing him as a moviegoer to scare the theater’s assistant manager, something does not work as planned and what’s more, Manny seems to have disappeared as if he walked out on his own power.

Sawyer’s terrified consideration that Manny might have acquired independence, together with that newfound mobility, takes on further strength when a few days later a freak accident kills Shanna and her family: he’s now convinced that Manny is out for vengeance and will target them all, together with their loved ones. Moreover, Sawyer is certain - given the recent theft of fertilizer pellets all over town - that Manny has grown all out of proportion and that he must be able to stomp them like insects, so he decides to kill all his surviving friends himself, to spare the life of their families.

To call his reasoning - and therefore the development of this story - preposterous feels to me like the understatement of the year: should I consider Sawyer’s actions the workings of a deranged mind that pieces unrelated happenings into an insane puzzle? In that case the story lacks any connection to mental troubles, because there is no prior indication of them, even taking into account the unreliability of the narrator himself. Or is Sawyer’s killing spree something he always had in mind, so he used the excuse of Rampaging Manny to justify his actions? Again, there is no indication of that: one moment he sounds like your typical teenager, then he turns into a serial killer hiding behind the twisted logic of saving a greater number of lives by taking those of his friends.

The absurdity of the story goes hand in hand with a tone that probably wants to be humorous, but fails to achieve this goal for me, just as it fails to create any suspense because it’s clear from the start that there will be no murderous mannequin roaming the streets, since it’s all a product of Sawyer’s mind…

This story did not scare, did not amuse and in the end only managed to annoy me - its only redeeming quality being that it was mercifully short. show less

A few summers ago, Sawyer and his group of friends discovered a discarded mannequin in a creek. Naming it Manny, they dressed it up and pranked each other all summer. When they outgrew Manny he was left in Sawyer's garage. Now that they're in high school a couple of them decide to use Manny again to prank Shanna at her new job at the movie theater. What was supposed to be harmless fun turns into something else when Manny gets up at the end of the movie and walks out on his own. Making things worse, Sawyer decides that Manny must be angry and vengeful, and Sawyer doesn't blame him.
A short book that begins looking like it will be one type of horror, then changes to another kind. Because it's written in the voice of a high schooler show more sometimes the cadence can seem confusing or backwards. show less