THE ANGEL OF INDIAN LAKE by Stephen Graham Jones – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
Series: The Indian Lake Trilogy #3
Published by Saga Press on March 26 2024
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 464
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Jade Daniel’s story comes to an end in this emotional and bloody series finale.

“There’s final girls everywhere, aren’t there? I used to think they were the rarest breed, the finest vintage. But everyone who’s got something to fight for, they’ll fight for it, never mind if it’s a fight they should win. Should doesn’t always matter. What does is that you run screaming into this thing, and don’t stop until it’s over.”

Note: Some spoilers ahead for My Heart Is a Chainsaw and Don’t Fear the Reaper.

Stephen Graham Jones’ epic slasher trilogy has come to an end, and what an ending it was. I’m exhausted after blowing through 450+ plus pages in about four days (a lot for me!), but it’s a good kind of exhaustion, and I’m so happy I stuck around for this wild ride. The trilogy succeeds for many reasons, not the least of which is the final girl herself, Jade Daniels. To be honest, I’ve had my ups and downs with Jade. Her inner voice is manic and often unfocused, and being inside her head for over 1,300 pages was a heady, exasperating and oftentimes painful experience. But wow, I’m in awe of Jade’s character growth over the course of three books and eight years. Jones has poured his own love of the slasher genre into this series, and Jade has been his enthusiastic conduit. 

Because this is book three in the series, I won’t go into the plot too much, other than to set the stage. The story takes place four years after the horrific events of 2019, when serial killer Dark Mill South terrorized the small mountain town of Proofrock, Idaho. Despite the death toll, Jade and her best friend Letha both escaped, although Letha was severely injured and four years later is still recovering.

Cut to 2023, and Jade has become the new high school history teacher, following in the footsteps of her old (and dead) history teacher, Mr. Holmes, who you will remember from My Heart is a Chainsaw. But normalcy was never in the cards for Jade, and despite her attempts to put the slasher events of Proofrock behind her, Proofrock isn’t done with Jade. As Halloween approaches, Jade finds herself once again fighting for her life—and the lives of those she loves.

This was such an emotional read! I’ve been invested in Jade and her friends from the very beginning, and I’m not going to lie, some of the scenes in this book are tough to read. Not everyone makes it to the end (of course I’m not going to name names), and while I know this is a slasher and the death count is supposed to be high, some events still came as a shock. And while there is plenty of action, I also loved the quieter scenes where the relationships between the characters are on full display. Jones includes some epistolary chapters, just as he has in the previous books, including a few heartfelt letters that made me tear up. One letter was written by Jade to the parole board right before her release from prison, a very personal letter as she’s trying to explain the state of her mental health, and this was such a soul crushing, raw bit of writing. And I can’t forget Jade’s teacher Mr. Holmes, who she still “talks” to on a regular basis. Clearly he’s still providing some kind of comfort to her, even though he’s been dead for a while.

The entire story takes place over a couple of days, leading up to Halloween, so there’s a nice urgency to the pacing. However, like the first two books in the series, the cinematic action scenes are punctuated by Jade’s inner commentary, so it’s almost as if the story pauses at times while Jade deals with her demons, comparing everything she’s going through to her beloved slasher films. She also tends to have in depth conversations with other characters, just as the killer is about to strike, and sometimes these long introspective passages were a little too much. Still, I can’t help loving Jade anyway. She’s such a unique character, having done a stint in prison (for a crime she didn’t commit), she emerged on the other side, mostly intact.

And fear not, Jade is just as obsessed with slashers as she ever was. On almost every page is mention of Halloween or Scream or Nightmare on Elm Street, as Jade’s life seems to be playing out just like a movie, at least that’s her impression. She and Letha have some fun conversations about their favorite movies, since they both love slashers with their whole hearts, and really, every scene with them together is a good one.

Jones brings back elements from the first two books, which I loved. He really is a master at tying his whole series together, reminding us of events that we may have forgotten but that need to be given a proper resolution. One of these involves an elk head, and that’s all I’m going to say, but it was such a brilliant and poignant nod to this particular side story.

In the end, we’re so lucky to have had all these stories revolving around Proofrock and its terrible history, with Jade at the center to make sure we understand their importance. I won’t ever forget “the girl with the chainsaw heart,” who will surely go down in horror history as one of fiction’s most memorable characters.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.