麻豆官网

The Angel of Indian Lake, book three of CU 麻豆官网 Professor Stephen Graham Jones鈥� Indian Lake Trilogy, comes out Tuesday.

Stephen Graham Jones is no stranger to fear. The Ineva Baldwin Professor of English at the 麻豆官网 has been dishing the stuff out for decades, with prize-winning rippers like , and .

But while writing his latest novel, , which will be published Tuesday, he became acquainted with a fear even he hadn鈥檛 imagined: the 鈥渁bject terror鈥� of finishing the third book in a trilogy鈥攖he Indian Lake Trilogy, to be exact.

The trilogy follows horror-flick superfan Jennifer 鈥淛ade鈥� Daniels as she fights to stop the real-life slashers wreaking havoc in her home of Proofrock, Idaho, a small mountain town snuggled up against the cold, ominous waters of Indian Lake. 听

Jones assumed writing The Angel of Indian Lake would be just like writing any other book: 鈥淗ave fun and see what happens. Maybe we鈥檒l break everything, maybe we won鈥檛.鈥� But he quickly learned otherwise. It wasn鈥檛 like writing any other book. It posed a distinct set of challenges.

One had to do with how he treated his protagonist, whom readers had grown to love in and , books one and two of the trilogy.

鈥淚 suddenly had a responsibility to both handle Jade Daniels with a certain amount of care but also put her through the meatgrinder,鈥� says Jones. 鈥淚 had to be mean to her, but do it in a way where the audience didn鈥檛 feel betrayed.鈥�

Another challenge was tying up loose ends.

鈥淚 had to answer all the questions I鈥檇 been intentionally not answering in book one and book two, and I had to do it in a way that didn鈥檛 feel mechanical. Man, it was tricky.鈥�

A change of plans

Jones admits that he never intended to write a trilogy. My Heart Is a Chainsaw was meant to be a standalone novel. But a meeting with his editor, , changed that.

鈥淲hat if everybody didn鈥檛 die at the end?鈥� Monti asked him after reading an early draft of the book.

Jones laughed. He couldn鈥檛 believe what he was hearing. Not everyone dying at the end? In a slasher? Was he serious? 鈥淐ome on,鈥� he told Monti. 鈥淭his is Hamlet. They鈥檙e all dead on the floor.鈥�

Jones then opened a file on his computer and cobbled together an ending where not everyone died, just to prove to Monti how ridiculous the idea was. The result knocked him for six.

鈥淚 was completely floored,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ecause it absolutely worked.鈥�

And thus, a trilogy was born.

But that didn鈥檛 mean Jones knew exactly how the next two books would unravel. The ending of Don鈥檛 Fear the Reaper surprised him as much as it would his readers. And although he had a vague idea of where The Angel of Indian Lake would go, it was only a vague one, like driving to Chicago without knowing the cardinal directions.

鈥淚 just put my tires on the road and thought, 鈥榃ell, I鈥檒l go really fast, and eventually Chicago will appear on the horizon.鈥欌��

Reflections and ripples

Jones has said that horror 鈥渇unctions as a funhouse mirror that distorts the anxieties of the time back at us, partially so we can process them. 鈥� We're screaming, we're laughing, we're having fun, and our defenses are down, and that鈥檚 when we can accidentally think of something that we need to be talking about with the world.鈥�

One talking point dredged up in Indian Lake is gentrification, which Jones calls colonization at the neighborhood or city scale.

The depiction of Terra Nova, for example鈥攁 shiny new development of ticky-tacky houses carved out of the National Forest of Indian Lake by Proofrock鈥檚 uber-rich鈥攃alls to mind the exploits of a certain Italian explorer.

鈥淭hat feels very much like Christopher Columbus seeing this pretty place across the water and saying, 鈥楬ey, that鈥檚 mine,鈥欌�� Jones says.

Another issue all three novels raise is trauma鈥攕omething the slasher rarely addresses but that Jones takes seriously. No one, not even Jade Daniels, can live through a slasher and then carry on as if nothing鈥檚 happened. The experience, says Jones, will have lasting emotional and psychological effects, and those effects will ripple outward, from the individual to the community to the whole world.

A final girl like no other

For Jones, one positive ripple effect of writing the trilogy has been a deeper, fuller understanding of the final girl, a trope common to the slasher genre.

The final girl, Jones explains, is the survivor girl. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the one who makes it through the night of violence and comes face to face with the slasher and puts him down. She鈥檚 the antidote to the cycle of violence, and she can teach us how to push back against our bullies.鈥�

Most final girl arcs, Jones adds, follow a pattern of retreat and renewal. 鈥淭hrough all the terror and violence, the final girl withdraws into a cocoon or chrysalis from which she鈥檚 reborn into a warrior princess, scholar, athlete, supermodel鈥攅verything good.鈥�

Yet this goodness can present a problem, particularly for the reader, Jones believes: The more perfect the final girl becomes, the more difficult she is to emulate.

That鈥檚 why Jones wanted Jade Daniels鈥斺�渢he town reject,鈥� as she calls herself鈥攖o be different. 鈥淚 wanted to make someone who was decidedly imperfect and resistant to her own good attributes,鈥� he says. 鈥淛ade thinks she doesn鈥檛 have what it takes to be a final girl, because she doesn鈥檛 resemble the final girls she sees on screen.鈥�

But what Jade slowly learns over the course of the trilogy is that, although she may not resemble the final girls from her favorite movies on the outside, she鈥檚 without a doubt a final girl on the inside.

Sure, she may be abrasive at times, says Jones. She may back you into a corner and give you a six-minute lecture on Jamie Lee Curtis. You may not always like her or find her easy to be around. 鈥淏ut when the chips are down and there鈥檚 someone in the room with a blade, that鈥檚 when you want Jade Daniels.鈥�

The Angel of Indian Lake will be available in print, e-book and audiobook (a selection of which is narrated by ) on Tuesday.

Did you enjoy this article?听听Passionate about English?听Show your support.

听