Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher: Tor.com
Released: September 1^st, 2020
Received: NetGalley
Warnings: Animal death, strangulation
Rating:

I received a copy of Night of the Mannequins in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Stephen Graham Jones is one of the most unpredictable horror authors out there – there’s just no telling what he’s going to come up with next. His latest novella, Night of the Mannequins once again brings with it plenty of surprises.

It all started as a prank. Harmless, right? Well, perhaps not. The body count is stacking up, and there’s some real concern about whether or not the origin is supernatural. It’s a most disturbing case of whodunnit.

“So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we’d play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all.”

Warning: Night of the Mannequins is, at its core, a horror novella. It isn’t afraid to get graphic, using both explicit and implicit means to tell a story. There’s mention of animal death, graphic details about death, as well as scenes depicting strangulation.

Night of the Mannequins is every bit as dark and disturbing as I ever could have hoped for. You just know that when a horror novel brings mannequins into the mix, things are going to get pretty twisted before the end.

This novella did not disappoint. It’s one of those novels that tells you the truth upfront, in regards to the death count, at any rate. Everything else feels obfuscated, and with intention. It creates a distressing swirl of events, making it difficult to be sure if the narrative can be trusted.

On that note, there’s no doubt that this horror story took advantage of the concept of the unreliable narrator. I personally loved that. It seemed like every chapter gave reason to flip the perspective once again, and with it, opinions and theories about what was truly going on.

This is a psychological horror through and through, one that relishes in its own brutal nature. This here is a book that is unafraid of what it is, and that is a tale of classic horror and psychological doubt.