This book is crazy in all the best ways! Honestly I was expecting a bit more of a traditional slasher style horror book but what I got instead was a welcome surprise. Chopping Spree is the story of Penny, a girl who works in an 80s mall. She has a weird encounter with a man in a wolf mask, followed by a weirder encounter with her work colleagues. The blurb of this book implies that what follows is a standard slasher set in a mall but the story takes quite a different turn. Instead it is more focused on an anti-capitalism, cult-type story.
I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The writing is fantastic and the usual problems of the genre (weird sexualisation elements and bad characterisation) are completely absent here. I'm not even a huge fan of cult stories but I was completely absorbed by the plot and I finished it in two sittings. I really liked the unique vibe it had and I couldn't predict where the story was going which was really nice. As with the other Rewind or Die book I read, this genuinely brings something new to the horror table and it's a welcome breath of fresh air.
Having said that, I don't want to give you the wrong impression. This book isn't ground-breaking and it still has a lot of staples of horror that you would expect and enjoy as a horror fan. There is some semblance of the slasher elements and there are a lot of 80s references which give it that classic touch. This isn't a criticism from me, I just want to make it clear that there are both traditional and new features which blend well to create a really solid horror book.
Overall, I think this book and others from the series are definitely worth a try if you are a horror fan. So long as you don't expect a full-on slasher, there is a lot to like about this book and it's so short that you can't really go wrong.
Overall Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment