Don't Fear the Reaper is a 2023 horror novel written by Stephen Graham Jones. It is the second novel in the The Indian Lake Trilogy, following the 2021 novel My Heart is a Chainsaw.^[1][2]

Synopsis

Per the publisher's synopsis:^[3]

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.

Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.

Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.

Development

For the novel's setting Stephen Graham Jones chose to set the story in Proofrock, Idaho, as he wanted to show that "there’s not a single American Indian story" and that it does not have to be limited to areas he's lived or on reservations or to one specific idea of what it was like to be Native American. He also wanted the setting to feel like an authentic, genuine small town and drew upon his own experiences living in small towns while writing. In an interview with Barnes & Noble's Poured Over podcast Graham Jones stated that the trilogy as a whole will cover the process of Jade "coming of age" as he views the term as being "really kind of like a ritual that you go through to go to your next stage of maturation or just your next place. It doesn’t even have to be higher just to the next place."^[4]

Release

Don't Fear the Reaper was first released in hardback and e-book in the United States on February 7, 2023, through Gallery/Saga Press.^[3] A paperback edition will be released on September 26 of the same year, also through Gallery/Saga Press.^[5]

The audiobook has received a full cast recording and features Isabella Star LaBlanc as Jade Daniels; the character was previously voiced by Cara Gee for My Heart is a Chainsaw.^[6] The rest of the cast is made up of Jane Levy, Alexis Floyd, Pete Simonelli, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning, Dan Bittner, Corey Brill, Matt Pittenger, Jesse Vilinsky, Migizi Pensoneau, Lee Osorio, Gail Shalan, and Alejandro Antonio Ruiz.^[7]

Reception

Critical reception for Don't Fear the Reaper has been favorable, as the work has received praise from outlets such as Cemetery Dance and Tor.com.^[8][9] The Los Angeles Review of Books also reviewed the work, writing that "You don’t need to have read Jones’s previous works to enjoy Don’t Fear the Reaper, but it helps. Reading Jones’s works sheds light on the deep, palimpsestuous connections running throughout his career: popular culture and lowbrow slashers teaching strong, complex young women the skills and the How to Survive Male Predators mindset better than any traditional self-defense course."^[10]Audiofile praised the cast adaptation of the novel, highlighting LaBlanc's performance and stating "For what is essentially a slasher story about a hook-handed killer, the performances are filled with surprising heart."^[7]

References