These kids have grown up with the awareness of school shootings and react accordingly, a sad but realistic look at the dangers today’s teenagers are growing up with. One of the most frightening things about Clown in a Cornfield is how quickly the teens react to an active shooter situation, even in the midst of a secluded farm. Quinn and her new friends then have to band together to try and escape the onslaught and make their way back home while a murderous clown stalks them through the darkness.Ĭesare’s novel has plenty of allusions to ’80s horror films, but this is very much a story about the real-life fears today’s teens have to contend with. Totally cut off from the rest of the town, the partygoers begin being killed off by an attacker dressed up like Frendo the Clown. Quinn quickly notices a simmering tension between Cole’s gang of friends and many of the town’s older residents - their high school teacher is outright antagonistic towards them, and the town’s sheriff keeps a close watch on them.Īfter a seemingly harmless park during the town’s annual parade goes awry, Quinn is invited to a huge party on the outskirts of town in the middle of a secluded cornfield. Baypen is adorned with the faded image of its mascot, Frendo the Clown, on one of its walls, who also serves as the town’s mascot. She quickly falls in with a gang of outsiders led by Cole Hill, whose father owns the Baypen corn syrup factory next to her home. High school senior Quinn Maybrook is upended from her life in Philadelphia when her father accepts a job in Kettle Springs, Missouri, a remote town surrounded by cornfields and small-town thinking. Prolific horror author Adam Cesare ( Video Night, The Con Season) makes his YA debut with Clown in a Cornfield, a brutal slasher novel that also serves as a metaphor for the insidious “Make _ Great Again” groupthink.

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