Have You Read This? Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith

There are those that love the sea for the same reasons that many fear it, and many have written stories about it: the sheer expanse of it as well as the accompanying mystery. There might be joy found riding jet skis atop its surface and beauty seen only by diving down beneath its surface, but there are plenty of places that sunlight doesn’t touch. And that’s not even getting to what happens when you're left out at sea with no solid, familiar ground to be seen. That intrinsic terror one feels is what drives Amy Goldsmith’s young adult horror debut Those We Drown.

 

The story is told through the eyes of Liv, a girl who is going to spend a semester at sea with her best friend Will. The trip starts going wrong when Liv and Will have a big fight, and then Will suddenly disappears. Most of the other kids are not interested in Liv and the crew of the ship isn’t talking. Soon more people start disappearing and Liv not only has to find her best friend but to get help from someone not possibly involved in making sure those people stay lost.

The premise of this novel is intriguing because there’s a lot of horror to be squeezed out of isolation and Goldsmith does a great job of making Liv seem isolated. Not only because many of the people on the cruise don’t believe her wild stories but because she feels so out of place among kids whose parents are in a totally different tax bracket than hers. Liv is a whirlwind of emotions, flitting from reassured to panicked to self-conscious, but it doesn’t make her unlikable; it just makes her a more relatable heroine. There are many undersea horrors, along with the secrets the ships’ crew are keeping, but Goldsmith has created a story for young adults that’s perfect to devour while sitting in a deck chair on a presumably safe cruise ship.

Have You Read This? Clown in a Cornfield by Adame Cesare

 

As a librarian, I am exposed to a lot of books. As a scary librarian, I am exposed to a lot of scary books, mainly, I’ll admit, because I choose to. But even a scary librarian cannot abide by just adult horror, and I thought it high time I broaden my horizons. That necessity to escape my typical reading choices, as well as the particular time of year, is why I’m looking at a young adult horror novel that should be scary for people of any age, Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare. And while the weather outside is turning colder, and the leaves crunching underfoot give way to frosted and frozen earth, this book is still a great read for any fan, young or old, who is a fan of the slasher genre.

The story takes place in the town of Kettle Springs, Missouri, which is all about traditional American values and Frendo, the mascot of the town and of the factory that used to be the town’s lifeblood. Quinn Maybrook and her father Glen move to scenic Kettle Springs with its miles of corn fields, a widening rift between the town’s teens and their parents, and a homicidal clown that wants to crash a teen party out in the cornfield. It was a fun party until Frendo came . . . and started killing. What begins as a teen party full of dancing and alcohol becomes a war between the younger and older generations of the town.

What initially drew me to this book was the plot, a throwback to the slasher movies of the ‘80s sprinkled with modern sensibilities. The kids that populate this world, however, aren’t as throwaway as many of the teens in those slasher flicks and that is to Cesare’s benefit. It would be very easy to merely narrate a slasher walking around and exterminating teens too stupid to know that being alone was a terrible idea. But Cesare doesn’t go for the simple homage; he creates an interesting story that’s full of teen angst but also gory fun. Those who might think that a young adult novel would mean it has less teeth than, say, a Stephen Graham Jones slasher, but Cesare doesn’t skimp on the brutality of the deaths. There are no convenient cutaways from the deaths to spare readers the gory details. Both teens and adults are dispatched in gruesome and creative ways. For my first foray into Young Adult fiction, I was glad to meet this killer clown, and I look forward to seeing where Frendo ends up next.