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Clown in a Cornfield

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Clown in a Cornfield

By: Adam Cesare
Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
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About this listen

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

©2020 Adam Cesare (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Horror Literature & Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Thrillers & Suspense Scary Exciting

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All stars
Most relevant  
Hot Fuzz meets It, Clown in a Cornfield is like a B-movie slasher in book form. It's a little cheesy and the characters are a little generic, but it was fun.

Campy and Fun but a little cliche

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When the Maybrooks arrived in Kettle Springs,
it looks like they are in for the quiet life,after
a personal trauma in the city.
However, their new home is a microcosm of modern America, violent and divided. So after
the town mascot "Frendo The Clown" goes on a
murder spree, the Maybrooks and the lives of the
"good people" of Kettle Springs will never be the same again.
Enjoyable slasher with well developed characters that you care for, with some good twists in the tale.Marketed as a teen novel, but suitable for a more mature readership. Well narrated by Jesse Vilinsky and I look forward to Adam Cesare's next book.

Fractured America Meets Teen Slasher.

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Really enjoyed this book! The cast on the audiobook did a great job of keeping me interested! This is very much in the same field as 90s slasher movies like scream and I know what you did last summer! Super fast paced action packed and full of surprises! Please let someone make this a movie!

Gory fun slasher

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This was a pretty entertaining listen (I downloaded the audio book) with a ‘Hot Fuzz’ vibe. You know, ‘deranged small-towners pitched against the heroes of the story with a tense and bloody conclusion’ kind of storyline. The main character, a girl called Quinn Maybrook, has been uprooted from Philadelphia when her father, a medic, takes up practice as a doctor in the town of Kettle Springs. They are both escaping the fallout of her mother’s self-inflicted death as a result of a heroin OD, and hope to make a new start in a quiet backwater. Some hope. The older generation are exasperated with the youngsters of the town, resenting their addictions to social media and smartphones. They are seemingly out of control and need to be taken in hand. In addition, the son of the town’s leading businessman, Cole is living under a shadow too. He is seen as responsible for his younger sister’s untimely death in an unfortunate diving accident, as well as burning down his father’s corn syrup plant in a fit of grief. The plant is also the town’s main employer. Hence further resentment is stirred towards the kids as Cole’s antics seem to exemplify all that is wrong with this ‘younger generation.’ But does this warrant the venting of fury that is the slash-fest befalling these youngsters when they attend an illicit party organised in a barn bordering a cornfield?
Frendo the clown seems to think so. He is the mascot of the aforementioned corn syrup plant and proceeds to dole out his particularly bloody brand of justice with crossbows and a circular saw.
The author is great at creating tension in a number of scenes, even as early as the opener. The characters are also well drawn and original. I felt Cesare didn’t fall too heavily into the typical teenage-angst-high-school-coming-of-age tropes and the storyline flowed nicely. That said, the plot didn’t really break new ground and there was nothing too surprising about the premise, other than that it mixed slasher with cornfields with clowns in an unusual combination. I also felt the additional theme of the younger misunderstood woke generation with an environmental consciousness was a bit shoe-horned at times. Still, the deft characterisation and scene description made up for this.
As regards the narration, Jess Vilinsky did a good job, injecting emotion into the scenes and the characters. Her diction was good and the style suited the horror genre. My only gripes were that she maintained a shocked/traumatised wobble with the narrator’s voice throughout the suspense scenes and I thought she should have confined this to the character’s voices for greater effect. Also she had a habit of leaving a brief pause when a dialogue tag was spoken which was slightly irritating. But, as I said, the overall impact was good and I looked forward to each session I had listening to this story.

Slasher-fest meets clowns meets cornfields

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I am not the target audience but if I had listened to this as a kid I would have loved it so am basing my review on that :)

the story and dramatisation would have had me head over heals with this in my teens - reminded me of how I remember point horror but I think this is a more grown up story than that (they were what I read as a teen back in the 90s!)

great ya thriller

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I had serious FOMO with this, so I needed to finish it asap!

I have it in paperback but chose to download it from audible instead…I kinda wish I’d of stuck to reading rather than listening. The narrator made the females sound whiney & spoilt through out the full book which was a bit off putting 🫣 however…

It was a good book! I did enjoy the plot of it, the twists, the fact of who’s behind the clowns ect and considering it’s meant to be for YA readers there was quite a lot of gore, but I didn’t rate it as highly as I thought I would! A lot of the characters are so unlikeable, I think I only actually liked one character until the end 😬

This is MY opinion only, what I don’t like others do. I am looking forward to the movie coming out though! I can imagine it will be amazing!! Overall I’d give it 3⭐️

Terrible narration

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Such a fun campy horror book! But the narrator was not my favorite. Would read again tho

such a fun campy horror book!

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this story (and it's sequel) fast became my favourite book upon their release, so having access to the audio version is amazing! Performance was wonderful, and I'd fully recommend this for anyone wanting a lil horror boost!

one of my favourites

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Don’t go into it expecting a mystery or whodunit, it’s very obvious what’s happening but mercifully reveals it to the characters promptly at least.

Passable cliche time

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this is the quickest I've ever finished a book! fun, fast paced and gory. all the good stuff.

Absolute banger!

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