[Book Review] Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

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Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones is an unnerving story of prank gone very, very wrong.

I snagged a copy of this from The Tattered Cover Book Store when I was out in Denver, Colorado, and I’m so happy that I was able to give it a read this month.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

When Sawyer and his friends pull out an old mannequin that they used to play with for one last hurrah, they decide to do a prank on their friend who is working at a local theater. The prank is planned out thoughtfully, but when the big day comes, things don’t go as expected. From Sawyer’s perspective, the mannequin, held together with wooden dowels and duct tape, gets up and walks out of the theater.

From there, Sawyer finds himself on a very slippery slope.

Throughout the book, Sawyer was constantly searching for the logic behind what was going on, but he never stopped to really ask himself if his thoughts were actually logical or just excuses to get him through…

My Favorite Passages from Night of the Mannequins

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. 

I’d read Frankenstein in AP English, so I knew you don’t just walk away from your creations. Not without consequences.

Sometimes you just know what you’re doing is the only thing to be doing. That the world is conspiring all around you to make it happen, like, not just giving you permission, but herding you the direction you need to go, giving you secret nods and obvious hand signals, and getting everything out of the way so you have the clearest path possible. 

My Final Thoughts on Night of the Mannequins

While I was interested in the plot overall, the repetition of the teenagers thoughts kept pulling me out of the read. As always, that’s just my personal irk with content; the repetition worked perfectly for this story, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

However, I am already looking forward to returning to this one again at a later date! I’d also kill to see this on the big screen!

This is a must read for fans of horror that will make you want to grab and shake the main character to make them see sense in a dire time! It’s dark, it’s brutal, and it certainly makes you question things! But the biggest question of all you’ll be asking yourself is, can I trust my friends?

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Thanks for reading!