Ms. Hen reviews Night of the Mannequins

 

Night of the Mannequins

Stephen Graham Jones

Tor.com Books

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she wanted to read a Halloween book that she had never read before. She read about the book, and was interested in a killer mannequin. She loves horror movies and books, but she has to be in the right mood.

The novel is about a group of friends who found a mannequin a couple of years before the present time, and they had dressed it up, and had fun with it. The friends forgot about the mannequin. They decide to play a joke on Shanna, who works at a movie theater. Sawyer and the others put the mannequin in the front row, and they meant to scare the people that work there. But the prank doesn't turn out the way they plan.

Sawyer gets upset when Shanna is killed with her family. He thinks Manny, the mannequin did it, and Sawyer decides to kill his friends to protect their families. He kills Tim, and Danielle with her boyfriend Steve, and JR. This is where the book gets strange.

Ms. Hen was expecting a book about a killer mannequin that goes on a spree, murdering the town. But the story didn't turn out that way. It's about Sawyer killing his friends, and even though it's funny, it's a very, very dark type of humor. Ms. Hen prepared herself for it. This book might not be for everyone, but Ms. Hen appreciates dark humor when it's done well.

Sawyer is a strange character, and he has ideas that Manny is stealing things, " ' Mim lost a whole chicken,' my mom said then, like the most delicious neighborhood gossip, and I kind of heard it on delay, clawing up out of my own head, back to the dinner table." Ms. Hen likes that Sawyer thinks that Manny stole the chicken. Ms. Hen doesn't think mannequins eat chickens, but she does think that Sawyer imagines things.

This novel is great to read during Halloween. Even though it's not as scary as Ms. Hen would have liked, it's gross and bloody, which is almost as good. Ms. Hen enjoys some humor blended with her blood and guts, she thinks it's important to laugh as much as we can, because life is hard enough, and if we don't laugh, we could end up crying.