Synopsis
Rose DuBois is not your average final girl.
Rose is in her late 70s, living out her golden years at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home.
When one of her friends dies alone in her apartment, Rose isn’t too concerned. Accidents happen, especially at this age!
Then another resident drops dead. And another. With bodies stacking up, Rose can’t help but wonder: are these accidents? Old age? Or something far more sinister?
Together with her best friend Miller, Rose begins to investigate. The further she digs, the more convinced she becomes: there’s a killer on the loose at Autumn Springs, and if she isn’t careful, Rose may be their next victim.
Review
The slasher genre is usually obsessed with the over-the-top murders and brutal slayings of young people. Whether it be high school students fighting off a ghost mask wearing knife wielder, college kids on an adventure in the woods being torn apart by a demonic entity, or a teen babysitter who is pursued by the voice actor for Shrek.
So, it’s oddly refreshing – and kinda funny – to read a slasher about a bunch of old folk getting off’ed in more and more creative ways!
In many ways, Autumn Springs is the mirror image of Fracassi’s fantastic 2022 novel Boys In The Valley. They share a similar isolating setting that feels fleshed out and full of living people. Fracassi is great at setting the scene, identifying the core cast, supporting them with larger-than-life side characters to give a true sense of community, and then letting things get wild. Both novels follow this tried-and-true formula to highly entertaining effect. And yet both books are on opposing sides. Where Boys In The Valley is dark and dread filled, cold and vicious in its depiction of young boys being tormented by a violent demon, Autumn Springs is humorous – in a black comedy way – and feels much more upbeat. Yes, it still involves the escalating murders of elderly people (which isn’t exactly fun for the characters involved), but it does so with a more playful manner. It’s also a truly heartfelt novel. Rose and her fellow inmates community members all have a desire to live out their twilight years in peace and embrace what they want from life. This isn’t to say Boys isn’t like this; Autumn Springs just does it in a brighter manner.
Our retired cast of characters are superb! Rose is tenacious, independent, caring of her friends and family, and she makes for a brilliant protagonist/final girl. Her best friend, Miller, is old-school charming, and the rest of the residents are all unique and feel real!
Overall, Autumn Springs is a fantastically gripping, fast-paced, page-turning slasher with a whole lot of heart, and it will keep you entertained from the very first page right until the end!
With thanks to Run For It and Orbit Books for the review copy!
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