Review: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Rating: 8.25/10

Synopsis

Read it before you see it! Now a major motion picture from the teams behind Smile and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

In Adam Cesare’s terrifying young adult debut, Quinn Maybrook finds herself caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress—that just may cost her life.

Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half.

On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee

Review

I grabbed this on audio in the hopes of getting this one in before the movie premiered. As it so often happens, I was not successful. It did however, remind me of the days when I was a young reader, before social media, where I would find out movies were based on books after seeing them in theaters with my mom. She would walk the length of the mall with me and let me get the mass market paperbacks from Borders (which I’m not sure exists at all anymore). Reminding me of gems like Jumper and I am Legend.

As I did see the movie first, and it is a rather faithful adaptation, it didn’t leave too much to be discovered. Luckily, I did expect that, and that made it no less fun for me. The opening with kids at a party in a location forbidden felt like slashers of old. The small-town feel also delivering on that. The city girl moving to a new place and stumbling upon a deadly plot after just happening into the wrong crowd, still allowed for some welcomed twists.

The audio by Jesse Vilinsky was well done overall, and definitely delivered on a good Quinn. I did find the choice of voice done for the dad to be a little too sitcom-caricature-y making him feel less like a real character, but that also may be based on decisions made with the film’s version of dad. Just like I thought the movie’s Sheriff role was seriously overacted, it ultimately made sense when seeing his description throughout the novel. And while I admit I’m finding it hard to separate the two, I think they were really similar in one particular positive—neither the book, geared toward a YA audience, nor the movie, pulled any punches. It’s horror, and it is gruesome and dark and gritty. And while I did expect that of Shudder, I am pleasantly surprised to see the book itself take a few chances on some things that were definitely (typically) outside the age range.

I do think the novel edges the movie out in just the slightest. It’s the original, it’s the source, and there is something endearing and unique about it that was super enjoyable. Maybe it’s the “final-crew” rather than just a final girl, or maybe it’s because of the perseverance of the teens, and yeah, I think there’s something to be said about how it may be due to the author’s understanding of the time when it was written. It’s on the nose, with an extrapolation of MAGA that is (sadly) more believable than I wish it was. And while the teens did do some inadvisable things, I think it rings true that they really do just think the older generation is so stupid. My niece is soon to be 20, and literally had to go through part of high school during covid, and now sees back to back decisions that aren’t making things better for anyone…this novel felt like it got that.

And of course, there are clowns in the cornfield… which is cool, and scary, and kind of gross.