Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones is about a group of teens who decide to pull a prank involving a mannequin. Shauna is the girl who the prank is being pulled on, and Sawyer is the one who decides to pull the prank.
I now have to figure out what to say about this book without giving away too much.
After the prank, Sawyer realizes that things are not going they way they should. Not only is Shauna in trouble and fired from her job, but at least one other member of the group gets grounded. This isn't the first time the group has gotten Shauna in trouble, but this is the final time for her assistant manager and manager. After Shauna is killed in a freak accident, Sawyer realizes and believes that the mannequin, who he has named Manny, may now be torturing and killing the teens.
So, that is about as much as I can say without giving anything away. Let me move onto the characters.
This is a short book, so the reader doesn't get much time to get to know any of the characters, so, when characters start dying off it really doesn't matter very much. I didn't get to know any of the characters enough to care when people started dying. The most interesting thing about the deaths is who is killing them, in the end. The reason for the deaths is actually more interesting than the deaths themselves.
The plot was a little bit thin and the characters were all pretty annoying. There wasn't one character that I liked, at all. The dialogue and inner dialogue was what really bothered me. It was all very all over the place, and after the first couple of pages especially, I really wanted the narrator to shut up and give the story over to someone else. Even as the narrator, I didn't get to know enough about the character to care about what happened.
The ending of the book was not at all satisfactory, and again it was one more thing that left me annoyed. I wanted more for so much of this and I am beginning to wonder if maybe Stephen Graham Jones is not really for me as this is the second book of his I have read. The other book I am still considering and have not written a review for. It could just be that this specific book was not for me.
The only thing that really was enjoyable about this book was that it was short, which made it a fast read. So, I can't recommend this book, but I am not going to say don't read it because maybe this kind of writing is exactly what you are looking for.
I now have to figure out what to say about this book without giving away too much.
After the prank, Sawyer realizes that things are not going they way they should. Not only is Shauna in trouble and fired from her job, but at least one other member of the group gets grounded. This isn't the first time the group has gotten Shauna in trouble, but this is the final time for her assistant manager and manager. After Shauna is killed in a freak accident, Sawyer realizes and believes that the mannequin, who he has named Manny, may now be torturing and killing the teens.
So, that is about as much as I can say without giving anything away. Let me move onto the characters.
This is a short book, so the reader doesn't get much time to get to know any of the characters, so, when characters start dying off it really doesn't matter very much. I didn't get to know any of the characters enough to care when people started dying. The most interesting thing about the deaths is who is killing them, in the end. The reason for the deaths is actually more interesting than the deaths themselves.
The plot was a little bit thin and the characters were all pretty annoying. There wasn't one character that I liked, at all. The dialogue and inner dialogue was what really bothered me. It was all very all over the place, and after the first couple of pages especially, I really wanted the narrator to shut up and give the story over to someone else. Even as the narrator, I didn't get to know enough about the character to care about what happened.
The ending of the book was not at all satisfactory, and again it was one more thing that left me annoyed. I wanted more for so much of this and I am beginning to wonder if maybe Stephen Graham Jones is not really for me as this is the second book of his I have read. The other book I am still considering and have not written a review for. It could just be that this specific book was not for me.
The only thing that really was enjoyable about this book was that it was short, which made it a fast read. So, I can't recommend this book, but I am not going to say don't read it because maybe this kind of writing is exactly what you are looking for.
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