A Different Kind of Evil Clown Story

Clown in a Cornfield is a slasher about a newcomer in a small town. The main character is Quinn, a teen girl who recently moved to tiny Kettle Springs from Philadelphia. Her father, a doctor, has accepted a job in town.

Quinn is still reeling from the death of her mother, who struggled with a drug problem. She and her dad are trying to start fresh. The town has a clown mascot named Frendo who is prominently featured at its annual Founder’s Day parade.

Quinn quickly gets the creeps from the clown, and I can’t blame her. There’s a painting of Frendo on a building that faces her new house. Frendo looks like he’s staring straight into her bedroom. Yeech!

Quinn meets many of the other teens in town. There’s Cole, the football star, Ronnie, the pretty blond bombshell, and Rust, the rugged hunter. There is festering resentment among the town’s older generation because the teens don’t share their conservative values. Someone has decided that the teens need to be dealt with – for good!

The book portrays the adults as the villains and the teens as the good guys. The political undertones aren’t exactly subtle, although I’ve heard that they’re much more overt in the sequels (which I haven’t read yet).

In the middle of the story, Quinn and her classmates are partying in a cornfield. A clown brandishing a crossbow appears and all hell breaks loose. As “Frendo” turns Kettle Springs into a teenage wasteland, Quinn and her surviving friends must figure out who they can trust before it’s too late.

This is a YA novel, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s tame. The only thing that’s young adult about it is the age of the main characters and the simplistic writing style. The gore and profanity are very much R-rated.

Other than its political subtext, there isn’t a whole lot of depth here. Quinn is a typical slasher final girl, and the rural townsfolk are the caricatures that you always see in stories like this.

This book is entertaining and easy to read. Clown in A Cornfield has some great twists. I guessed some of them, but others caught me off guard. Cesare has fun pulling out the rug from under the reader and diverting from some of the typical slasher tropes.

Is It Worth Reading?

This is a “love it or hate it” type of book, so I’ve listed my recommendations below.

Read if you want:

-an entertaining, fast-paced story written in short sentences and basic vocabulary

-gloriously gory evil clown action and some brutally disturbing deaths

-huge plot twists

-political subtext mixed into the slasher formula

Don’t read if you want:

-complex characters

-a logical and realistic storyline

-a story that doesn’t have a political message

Rating

This is the type of novel that polarizes people, but it mostly worked for me. Clown In A Cornfield is a fun romp that is more innovative and twisty than the typical evil clown slasher.

Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 7.5

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