 A teenage prank involving a mannequin opens the strangest of doors in stunning novella Stephen Graham Jones has written some terrific short stories and novellas, with Night of the Mannequins sitting comfortably alongside his best work. It is hard to say much about the plot without spilling spoilers, so I will be relatively cryptic and refer to certain proceedings out of context. Rest assured, this beautifully constructed novella is incredibly dark, very funny, slightly twisted and arguably an upside down coming-of-age tale. It also had a strong whiff of YA and older teenagers may find much to enjoy, equally so with his excellent werewolf novel Mongrels. Night of the Mannequins features a classic unreliable narrator, Sawyer Grimes, who completely steals the show with the unburdening of his bizarre tale. Hell, I was so engrossed I felt I was sitting in the same room as the teenager casually dropped his bombs. I love an unreliable narrator and Sawyer ranks amongst the best fiction has to offer, mixing with Frank (my all-time favourite) from The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks), Alex from A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) and Tyler Durden from Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk). He tells his story with a convincing and informal teenage voice which will take you right back to the angst of your own formative years. Absorb what he reveals very closely, try to catch what he implies between the lines, as with all unreliable narrators he has his own agenda riddled with half-truths. Tread with caution; just because he is ‘unreliable’, this fact does not necessarily mean he is a liar. Simply put, Sawyer Grimes is an outstanding literary creation. The opening paragraph reveals that one of Sawyer’s best friends, Shanna, lands a new job in a movie theatre and that the others in their close friendship group decide to pay a prank on her. The five teenagers decide to pose a discarded store mannequin as though it is a real patron in her cinema, even providing ‘’Manny’ with a ticket, whilst they sit elsewhere and enjoy what they presume will lead to much hilarity. According to Frank this prank goes horribly wrong and the deaths which follow can be traced back to this misguided attempt at humour. Here is the opening paragraph: “So Shanna got a new job at the movie theatre, we thought we’d play fun on her, and now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all.” How can a prank involving a mannequin’s dummy lead to the tragic loss of life? That is all part of the wild journey our young friend Sawyer takes the reader on. This is one of those novellas in which the quality is so high you are going to speed through it in no time. The only factor higher than the quality, is the originality. As well as Shanna, the other friends are Danielle, Tim and JR and the kids are all huge cinema freaks, who love nothing more than sneaking in for free and often watch the same superhero films on multiple occasions. Amusingly, there is a film at the core of the story the kids watch several times, but the author enigmatically never reveals what it was. The story has a vibe which is both lovingly cinematic and nostalgic to the slasher films of yesteryear, with a pivotal scene near the end taking place at a local drive-in theatre. Like most teenagers, much of the time they are bored, and Night of the Mannequins convincingly portrays the lifestyles of suburban kids with too much time on their hands, but too lazy to find something new to do. I adored the very droll sense of humour which Sawyer’s narrative injects into Night of the Mannequins which masterfully balances making a villain out of ‘Manny’ the dummy with the obviously troubled psyche of the teenager narrator who has more problems that he realises, or is willing to reveal. As Manny begins to play a bigger part of proceedings the novella just got odder and I was fascinated in discovering how events were going to play out. Stephen Graham Jones kept me on the hook all the way to the enigmatic ending. The author obviously had a lot of fun messing around with the tropes normally found within the horror genre, particularly the slasher film, and the result was a superb blend of absurdity, thriller, and horror. Night of the Mannequins was funny but treaded the tightrope perfectly and never descended into stupidity, taking in other themes including loss of innocence, friendship, and madness. If you have never tried Stephen Graham Jones this quirky novella is a perfect introduction with a great author at his most playful. 5/5 Review by Tony Jones  Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, 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? Praise for Night of the Mannequins “Reading Stephen Graham Jones is like sitting in the corner of a bar with an old friend, and everyone quiets down the moment they start telling a story. Night of the Mannequins is dark and twisted, funny, a little crazy, and unsettling as hell. The opening setup gets way under your skin, and then Jones takes the story somewhere much darker than you imagined. If there’s an heir apparent to the kind of no-rules, wild imagination, down home storytelling perfected by Joe R. Lansdale, it’s this guy right here. Read him.”—Christopher Golden "Sly, surprising psychic sleight-of-hand, in a tale of teenage madness where the next plastic face might be your own."—John Skipp "Wicked and wry, this is a terrific story by one of my favorite writers, Stephen Graham Jones. Tip-top with a twist of dead. The narrator's first person delivery is the most notable aspect of this surprising and creepy tale that nods to popular stalker-killer films of the past, but is so much better than the bulk of those films, and what an ending. You definitely need this."—Joe R. Lansdale "Stephen Graham Jones' has one of the most gripping, stream-of-consciousness voices in horror fiction. Night of the Mannequins is propulsive and poignant, capturing the mundane terror of adolescence, and adding that ever-so-essential dab of killer mannequin. You won't put it down." —Sarah Langan "That, my friends, is talent." —Blu Gilliand, Cemetery Dance   THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR REVIEW WEBSITES Comments are closed.
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