Frendo lives

This sequel to Cesare's 2020 Bram Stoker Award--winning slasher novel takes up the action one year after the Kettle Springs Massacre. Quinn Maybrook has moved to Philadelphia for college. Rust and Cole, now a couple, remain in their Missouri hometown. As survivors, they are always looking over their shoulders. Quinn carries a combat baton and Rust keeps guns in his pickup, while Cole trusts his generous town-rebuilding activities to keep him safe. They have become celebrities, as well as targets of a conspiracy theory that flips the script, making them into the murderers and celebrating Sheriff Dunne as a fallen hero. Days before Halloween, Quinn's father is attacked, so Quinn returns to Kettle Springs, where a popular Haunted Hayride and Scream Park operates on the site of the massacre and a parade of clown-masked true believers takes to the streets with the goal of bringing "the Three" to justice. The mayhem is less sharply focused and gleeful this time around, but equally cinematic and blood soaked. The guns and misinformation fueling the vengeful crowd add effective social relevance.

Picking up after the massacre that left a rural town reeling, survivors fight another battle against the town mascot gone rogue and its increasingly violent gang of fanatical followers. College student Quinn joins her friend Cole and his boyfriend, Rust, to face the threatening believers of a fake documentary called The Baypen Hoax who think the trio committed and capitalized on vile misdeeds and must pay for their crimes. The book opens slowly while the plot is set in place and the background is established for those new to the series, but the kills soon kick in, and the plot truly launches once the trio is reunited in Kettle Springs, Missouri, the small town where the boys grew up and Quinn moved in high school. Wealthy businessman Eli Duvall exploits murder tourism in Kettle Springs, but new hostilities brew in the wake of the town tragedy, leading to a new nightmare. In this fun, frenetic sequel, Cesare tackles mob mentality and misinformation, and the return of Frendo oozes with old wounds and angry conspiracy-fueled grudges. With the rising body count and nonstop action, the pace will feel familiar to slasher fans as it delivers satisfying fight and death scenes. This entry includes enough background information that readers new to the series will find it accessible. Characters default to White. Enjoyable clown town terrors. (Horror. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.