when, by fluke or fate, a drop of slasher blood splashes onto tolly's fresh forehead gash during a teenage party massacre and spidermans a transformation within him that his best friend (and horror connoisseur) amber, bless her heart, believes she may be able to coach him through and outsmart, the two run through a series of experiments and plan various methods of safeguarding the world from tolly, but a slasher heart wants what it wants..
uuuuugh, i loved this so fucking much. this shit was simultaneously heartbreaking and a balm on my soul. it was fun and funny, wonderfully violent and i had a great time with it, which i could tell was going to be the case as soon as i started reading. what i was NOT expecting was to be an openly weeping emotional wreck at the end of the book. that shit kinda took me by surprise. holy shit lmao. the relationship between tolly and amber is so beautifully written - a ride or die lifelong friendship with such an obvious base of pure love, but also, you know, they're idiot kids in the 80s who give each other shit and fuck around and aren't unrealistically precious with one another. to be able to portray that kind of deep care and affection while maintaining real as hell teenage dipshittery and never crossing into corny territory is so rare, and sgj did that shit exquisitely.
i was also so delighted by the detailed exploration of the onset of tolly's slasher symptoms - the uncanny little superpowers all slashers seem to have - it was wonderfully compelling and fresh to read (and think) about those pieces from the pov of a brand new baby slasher who is simply trying to comprehend his new limitations, or lack thereof. idk i could keep going on for quite some time about how utterly cool and heartening and devastating and direly necessary i found this, but i will stop while i'm ahead and leave you with this: oof.
absolutely recommend - 🦷🦷🦷🦷🦷
big ol enormous pile of thanks to savannah at saga press for sending me a review copy.
🥜i was a teenage slasher will be available on july 16 via saga press🥜