2.5 Stars

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this book but I was interested to read it.

I for the most part thought the story was interesting as a psychological horror until about the 70% mark where I felt it kind of got a bit less interesting. The main protagonist, carrying out his plan and then it just kind of fell flat and left me with unanswered questions and a feeling of being unsatisfied. 😬

Night of the Mannequins is a hilarious, outrageous, horrific take on the “prank gone wrong” concept blended with an “is it real or all in his mind” psychological thriller and culminating in an over-the-top, total destruction denouement. A good YA crossover for fans of dark humor and horror spoofs.

Great book full of twists and turns! It’s hard to give a synopsis without spoiling things, but it’s about a group of friends who find a mannequin one summer and teenage pranks ensue. Eventually, things take a darker turn. Jones is great at building suspense in every book and this one is no different. Highly suggest it!

So without spoilers and in what is hopefully true Stephen King fashion, here’s the short of it. Sawyer and his friends have decided to play one last prank with Manny the Mannequin, but when the prank falls short, Sawyer’s friends start getting picked off one by one. Sawyer just knows Manny is the source of all this death, but no one else seems to be connecting the dots, leaving Sawyer all alone to outsmart and outmaneuver the killer.

As it’s a novella, and therefore requires little investment, I’ll say that if you’re a fan of horror and Graham Jones to go ahead and give this one a read. Otherwise, this one is likely not your type.

Dark and droll humored, Night of the Mannequins is written as a sort of stream of consciousness from a bored, seemingly unremarkable teenage boy. If you’re not a fan of the style, it can make for an awfully bumpy ride. For the initiated, the casual tone is a genius foil for the madness and murder that ensues. As with The Only Good Indians, Graham Jones pulls you along for a journey that will only get more strange and more horrible the further you go. A cool slasher twist on what should have been an all too familiar coming of age story, Night of the Mannequins, overall, manages to be an original and enjoyably horrific tale.

This was one of those books that I really wanted to like. The first half of the book goes along well with a good story line and character building. The author does a great job of making “Manny” into a character. The ending seemed to run up on you out of no where. It was a sudden ending that seemed quickly thought out rather than planned. Bottom line if you are looking for a quick horror read this is one to check out. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC to review.

Happy reading!

Sawyer is losing his friends one by one. He thinks it’s a mannequin coming after them, yep you heard that right! Manny the mannequin is on the loose and wanting blood. It all starts with a prank which leads to an accident where one of his friends dies and then his imagination just takes over. See, in his mind, Sawyer is just being a hero. He’s protecting his friend’s families.

This novella was such a fun time. I absolutely love stories being told from a teenager’s perspective, it really gives it such a special feel. Following Sawyer along in his thought process was not only frustrating at times, it was also interesting. I guess we all cope with loss differently, and Sawyer definitely takes the cake when it comes to coping.

If you’re looking for a fun slasher / coming of age story then look no further.

3.5⭐

I'm going to be upfront and say that I was not sure about Night of the Mannequins for the first 30% or 40% of the book. I kept going, and I'm so glad that I did. I'm not going to say much else about it because you should just read it. I wasn't a huge fan of the narration style, but I enjoyed the story overall. This book made me really miss the movie theater. If you're looking for horror novellas, this is one to add to your list!

Stephen Graham Jones’ Night of the Mannequins is an homage, a “love letter” as he calls it, to slasher horror movies of the past – and present. It starts with a group of teenagers one of who works at a cinema. Sawyer is the protagonist and our narrator. The group regularly manages to sneak into movies for free thanks to Shanna, their friend working there. But soon they are discovered and blacklisted by those running the venue and Shanna gets into trouble for letting them in.

It is a brilliant idea then, when Sawyer and the rest of the group decide to pull a last prank on Shanna, you know as a thank you for letting them watch movies for free a bunch of times. They pay for tickets this time, and sneak into the cinema an old mannequin they found years ago while playing. They call him, among other things, Manny (yes, the brilliant ideas don’t stop there). Manny has been with them since they were children and Sawyer reminisces countless pranks on people in which Manny is left fully clothes on someone’s yard only to be found by a bemused owner the next day. Sawyer looks fondly back to those memories and suggests that they bring Manny in the theatre and assemble him, dress him and see the look on the face of the manager when he does the ticket control in the dark. It definitely feels like a prank on them in return when not only the ticket control goes without any issues but at the end of the movie Manny gets up and exits the theatre along with rest of the attendees.


Granted, were this to happen to me, I would be reeling as well, but Sawyer – to put it mildly – starts losing it. Just like in many popular slasher movies, the book doesn’t take itself seriously and does not try to pull something more than just entertain and tip the hat to the genre of horror Jones’ is so fond of. As Sawyer spirals out of control and his mind is taken over by delusions that guide his hand, the reader is in on the joke. This is just a short, fun, way-over-the-top novella that is more amusing than scary. The thing is, reading is a more solitary activity. Nonsense, over-exaggerated movies of this kind can be very much entertaining when watched with fun company under the influence of some alcohol. But a book of the slasher genre can only serve the purpose of a pallate cleanser from more serious works. Jones knows that and it is obvious, even among the – again – exaggerated rumblings and speech of a teenager, by well-put sentences that clearly show the intellect of the author:

And, for a while, we were so perfect for him. We were verything to him, weren’t we? He was the perfect toy, until he wasn’t. Until we started groaning when one of us had dressed him up in some hilarious outfit, left him on somebody else’s lawn.

So I think it’s safe to say that me and this author just don’t mesh and I will not be trying any more of his book ( I also didn’t like The Only Good Indian) 🙁

This sounded so good and I think part of my let down was the fact that I had envisioned something totally different than what I got.

Since it’s a novella it’s really hard to talk about it without giving away something that might spoil things so this will be brief. It’s told in the POV of a teen boy (whose name escapes me) and how he wished they never played the prank with the mannequin because of what happened afterwards.

So a group of teens found a mannequin one summer and use to use it to play all sorts of pranks but then as time went on they grew tired of it so it just got stored away until they decide to play one more prank on a friend who was working at a movie theater.

It started out pretty cool and then once I figured out what was going on it went downhill pretty quick and I just don’t jive with this author’s writing style. Some of the sentence structure was so weird it took me out of the story and for a novella it felt like it would never get over. I can’t really say more about why I didn’t like it because it would spoil but yeah I expected something different and so didn’t like it.

Stephen Graham Jones is literally the most prolific horror author of a generation and NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS is just another terrific and horrific story by him. I wasn't sure where he was going to take us with this little tale of murder and madness, but every minute of this had me whispering "what the...."

Maybe ok for a younger audience, but this reads like a teen slasher film and is just too sadistic to be fun.

Thanks to NetGalley and my fav folx over at Macmillian/Tor-Forge for the galley.

Things I learned reading this book, I do not know how to spell Mannequins. I am sure it’s mispelled on my Insta, but you know what, Imma leave it, because it’s 2020 and no one cares, haha! Know what else I learned reading this book? I continue to be here for Stephen Graham Jones’ books. This is my second, and it won’t be my last. If you haven’t read The Only Good Indians, I highly recommend that as well.

This book isn’t for everyone, but it was definitely for me. This one is for all of you weirdos who like your horror strange and trippy. It’s got murder, mannequins who come to life, and an unreliable narrator. Cue, “These are a few of my favorite things.”

Sawyer, our narrator, spent an amazing childhood with his best friends, toting around a Mannequin they found in the creek. They played pranks with it, and it was almost like another member of their gang. Ever since Shanna got a job at the local movie theater and they’ve been in high school, things haven’t been quite the same as they used to be. So, the gang has an amazing idea for a prank. Sneak “Manny” into the theater, buy him a seat, and watch Shanna and her coworkers’ faces when they clean the theater after the end of the film. But when they get busted without tickets, and Manny gets up and walks out of the theater with the rest of the crowd, things start to get weird, and then horrifying when Shanna and her family are killed in a freak accident. It’s clear that Manny is out for blood, and it won’t stop until all the friends are dead. Sawyer makes it his mission to mitigate this horrible situation any way he can.

This book is so weird, and like The Only Good Indians, I loved every minute. I love horror that doesn’t feel the need to explain itself. It’s horror simply for its own sake, and if everything doesn’t quite line up, well it doesn’t matter, because horror is weird, and as a reflection of its times, nothing makes any sense to us right now, anyway. I’ve always used horror to examine my own fears and insecurities in a safe space, and I had a blast doing that with this book. It’s short. I finished it in like 24 hours, and it’s a wild, fast-moving ride through the mind of Sawyer and the crazy happenings in his town.

If you don’t want to wait for this one, good news, it’s out now! So grab a copy from your fav local, indie bookstore or request thorugh your library. It’s the witching season, after all, the perfect time for all things creepy.

I could not put this down once I started reading it, I'm still trying to parse how I'm feeling about it. It can be read as an unreliable narrator's story, or everything is happening exactly as it is written. An all-around excellent read.

We follow a group of high school friends: Sawyer, Shanna, Danielle, JR and Tim, who, after a prank, they woke up a long lost friend, a mannequin they used to play with when they were younger. Now Manny, the mannequin, is killing innocent people for the sake of revenge.

This is the first coming of age horror novella I read and I'm not disappointed! The premise of the prank gone wrong hooked me from the very frist moment. And from that, from the synopsis, I was expecting this to be some type of doll horror but it was much more than that. It escalated very quickly to a slasher and psychological horror story making the story more darker and gorier.

I really enjoyed the narrating style of this author. It was funny but in a satire way, it was witty and dark; it made the voice of Sawyer so real. And he portrayed the darkest part of Sawyer's mind so perfectly! I've never read any of his works before but I'll definitely read more from him.

Towards the ending thought, there were some scenes were I felt completely lost. There were a few parts that were confunsing to follow. But, overall, I believe the ending was perfect for this type of stories.

I would highly recommend this coming of age horror novella to any horror fans looking for a quick read for Halloween!

Remember what it's like to be in a movie theater?

Honestly, I could vaguely remember until reading this book.

In this novella, our narrator Sawyer is an immature, tall-tale telling, teenager who isn't quite ready to grow up. It's clear by his fixation with a mannequin he and his friends found in the swamp when they were kids, that Sawyer is still fixated by childlike things and with his childhood group of friends. After a final prank with said mannequin goes awry and one of his friends dies in a freak accident, something shifts in Sawyer.

Sawyer starts to believe that the mannequin came to life. He believes that the mannequin, that he calls Manny, got up from the movie theater at the scene of the prank and walked away. After all, they couldn't find him. And the night of the prank one of his friends died and a bunch of mulch is mysteriously "eaten" in the middle of the night. The most logical explanation for Sawyer is that Manny has come to life and is getting his revenge on the gang. The mannequin has no remorse and will kill the family and friends who get in his way.

After watching one too many superhero movies, Sawyer decides to become the anti-hero in this horror novella. What happens in this book is so strange and bizarre and horrific that it has to be experienced. This is a unique horror novella that will be perfect for the upcoming Halloween season!

Because

If you read the first chapter of this book and think you know the direction it’s going, you’re wrong.

Courtesy of the young protagonist’s flippant voice, Night of Mannequins presents itself as a campy love note to classic teen horror flicks. What it becomes is something much deeper and far more disturbing. While the voice remains authentic to a immature teenager on the cusp of his final summer with childhood friends before college, the content tackles mature themes through the use of unsettling violence. Weaving these two ends of the spectrum requires delicate balance that Stephen Graham Jones mastered.

Sawyer and his cluster of life-long friends are about to go to college. They decide to play one last epic prank with the help of Manny, an old discarded mannequin they found in the woods. Something goes wrong, and now they are all in danger. The plot moves quickly from tragedy to tragedy keeping the tension dialed up and the reader flipping the pages with anticipation. The motives of Sawyer, our protagonist, are a bit strange, which add realism to the unreliable narrator troupe used in this book.

I’m left with knots in my stomach after reading this book. It’s an odd blend of B-horror and psychopathic tragedies wrapped in a coming-of-age story that pulls at your heart strings. It’s something different and fresh, with undertones of all the things we love in horror stories. Give it a try!

’Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones returns with NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?’

The first person perspective gave this quick horror story the best creepy vibe any slasher movie fan could hope for.

That opening sentence hooked me right in—Perfection!

Did NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS tick off all the boxes for me? No, but having read this book and THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, I’m familiar enough with Jones’ writing to say, ’More, Please!’

Unless another book by Jones pops up on my radar anytime soon, MONGRELS is up next.

Thank you, NetGalley and TOR Books, for loaning me an eGalley of NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS in exchange for an honest review.

About the book: A contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

What I Liked: An interesting idea, a lot packed into novella, the cover.

What I Didn't Like: Too many run on sentences, throwaway sentences that lead no where, too short to understand side characters.

Overall Thoughts: When I was a child I loved a movie called Mannequin. It's about a mannequin that comes alive at night when the store closes. A man finds out she's alive and then begins a love story. It is seriously magical. So imagine my surprise and excitement that there was a horror book surrounding a mannequin. Sign me up! It started out rough for me. The writing is hard because there were so many run on sentences. Plus add in that the author would be talking about one thing and side think something else almost every sentence, then jump back with "oh nevermind that doesn't matter." A few times I can see but it happened more then a few times. Once the story started moving though I was swept away in having to know the how's, why's, and what's. Who is Manny? How is he "alive" when he was just a mannequin? This story takes so many turns that you get dizzy. Like I'm now vomiting, great! There are points here the writing is coherent and times when I'm like "what is this dude talking about?" At times it read like he was writing in his own private journal. The idea of the movie playing was confusing to me.

Final Thoughts: I liked it for certain parts. The ending wasn't that good.. Ehh. Very soap opera moment. I'll read more from his author to test out his tones and stories. One of them I might love.

Night of the Mannequins is a horror novella by Stephen Graham Jones and follows Sawyer and his group of friends as they plan one last prank with Manny, a mannequin they found a few years prior. Things do not go according to plan and the prank leads to some serious consequences. Going with Sawyer on this journey was a wild and campy ride and quite enjoyable. It is fast paced and the writing style feels like Sawyer is talking right to the audience and readers will definitely be sucked in to the story. I liked the story but the writing style does take some getting used to as Sawyer is talking directly to you but once I adjusted to the style this view point really added to the terror of the story. I don't want to give too many spoilers but it was a scary journey to take with Sawyer and getting a first hand look in to his rationalizations was definitely the scariest part.

This book will be popular with horror fans and those looking for a quick and fast paced read. This is only my second book by Stephen Graham Jones but he will definitely be an author I continue to read in the future. His writing style and take on horror seems more fresh and contemporary than other horror novels and I think that will appeal to many different types of readers, not just those who like to read horror.

I went into this expecting a creepy tale that had something to do with mannequins. You know, uncanny valley and all that. What I got, was the ultimate morally grey character who may potentially be having some kind of psychotic break and taking those closest down with him. The way that Jones was able to describe these horrifying murders in such detail was incredible. I thought the characters felt very realistic as well. They felt like the perfect encapsulation of troublesome teenagers, from their actions all the way down to their speech patterns. Jones did an amazing job with them. I was seriously impressed with the writing the whole way through. The "twist" wasn't just slapped on at the end. It was present throughout the narrative. It made for a really intelligent horror/thriller. The whole time you know that something isn't right, but given the circumstances, you aren't sure what to believe. You want to believe in what the protagonist is telling you, but there's this nagging feeling that maybe you shouldn't. I can't even really begin to explain how well-crafted I found this story to be.

Once this story starts, it holds you. I didn't want to put the book down. Partially because Jones is great at making you question if you're really sure what's going on. Of course I was pretty sure that it was an overactive imagination, but I wasn't sure. This is how you portray a mentally-ill character in a way that really does them justice. We didn't just see a normal person that just suddenly snapped, or that was acting nefariously the entire time. What we got, was an inside peek at the mind of a person who is at his center, just morally grey. We get little suggestions now and then that he may be mentally ill, but not enough that it's obvious. You still have to connect some dots along the way. I can see how he could be seen as just a villain, but he read morally grey to me. Of course he's doing awful things, but he thinks that he's doing it to save the lives of many other people. Even though his actions are wholly bad, it's for a completely justified cause (well, its justified if he's correct; I won't go into more detail than that, spoilers and all). I thought it was very cleverly written.

My only complaint isn't a very big thing, and I think it's more personal than anything. It turns out that I'm not very fond of stream-of-consciousness narration. If you don't like it, be warned that this is how the whole story is written. This means that the story would ramble off in weird directions constantly. I mean, I think it is a good way to capture the wandering mind of a teenage boy. It is also fitting given the true nature of the story. But, it was super difficult to follow sometimes. I would have to go back and reread sentences constantly because I didn't quite understand what was going on. Turns out, the narrator had just skipped a tangent and it didn't really matter what he was talking about. But I can't even be too mad at it. Given the context of the story and the portrayal of the main character. I think that stream-of-consciousnes narration was the most fitting for the plot. But I can't reasonably give it a solid 10/10 if I didn't love every aspect.

This is the only book I've ever read by Stephen Graham Jones, but I'm certainly interested in reading more. If his other books are anywhere as clever as this one, then I think I'll love them as well. I've seen good reviews for The Only Good Indians, so maybe I'll look into reading it sometime soon. I'm serious about how great I thought this novella was though. Please read it if you have the chance. If you like the idea of a perfectly portrayed mentally ill character who thinks he's a hero, when he may in fact be the villain, this story depicts that perfectly.