August Book Club Pick: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare (2020)

8 Oct

Clown in a Cornfield is a fun small town ride that takes on the weirdness of growing up through the angsty and pubescent teenager years – trying to follow your own path and ambition, but the powers at be want it their way. 

Book cover for Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare. The black and red cover shows a dark rural cornfield at night, with a farmhouse, silo, and glowing moon in the background. Large red text reads “CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD,” with “ADAM CESARE”. The tagline at the bottom reads, “The kids are not all right.”

This young adult novel follows Quinn Maybrook as she and her father relocate to Kettle Springs, Missouri. Right from the get go, the title fulfills its genre’s promise, by exploring Quinn’s navigation through high school, her encounters with cliques and the popular kids, and the collective banding against the evil science teacher, Mr. Vern.

With the adults suspicious and with gratuitous malice towards the children of Kettle Springs can you blame the kids for exercising daily revolts? The cycle is endless…until one night Frendo, the town’s clown mascot, takes havoc into his own hands one crossbow shot, ax swing, and fireball launch at a time.

It’s a quick read, even at 330+ pages, but the narrative flows easily with a simple event after event. A fast reader can get this done in a week if not sooner. 

Quinn is quickly engaged in her own gaggle of mischievous kids, bent on using the town’s run-down buildings and abandoned plots of land for their own use…but Frendo is always watching and they don’t approve. 

The internal monologue and overthinking was a bit much, but I recognize that that too is a trait of the young adult genre. The action really picks up around the 200 page mark, and from there is 130+ pages of fiery roller-coaster mayhem with fun deaths, psycho chases through corn, a few fun call backs to a new generation handling older technology, and more.

In the end, it’s a summer slasher founded in teenage angst, romantic curiosity, and rallying against a killing spree to keep a town in the past.  

Once you’ve had a read, you can follow it up with the movie.

Have you read Clown in a Cornfield, seen the movie, or both? Comment below.

You can reserve the book in the BCCLS system here. Audiobook also available on eLibraryNJ/Libby and Hoopla. Hoopla also has the sequel Frendo Lives.

You can reserve the movie in the BCCLS system here.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Literary Travel: Haunts of New Orleans

6 Oct

New Orleans’ dark underbelly, supernatural superstition and witching practices are well documented, so in preparation for spooky season and perhaps as you choose something to read, perhaps with a beignet and chicory coffee, you might consider opening one of these titles that explore the city’s devilish dark history – from fires to fever mistreatment, and spiritual tradition mixed with paranormal presences. 

Beyond the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, Frenchman Street, the swamp lands surrounding, Café du Monde, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, and even a cemetery tour by day, New Orleans offers another bloodline to explore, one that continues to haunt and inspire today.

Once you venture off the touristy paths, you realize that New Orleans has much more intrigue behind hidden doors, windows shut and bolted from the outside, secret messages, and taboo rituals. So, if you find yourself there, these books could help you understand what ghoul is walking among you, what legend is pulling you in, or what spirit or occult practice is summoning your energy.  

Non-Fiction

Haunted New Orleans by Bonnye Stuart: A tour through the city’s most reputedly haunted addresses, from Garden District mansions to French Quarter courtyards – told through ghost stories from locals. In BCCLS catalog

Haunted New Orleans by Troy Taylor: ghost-lore historian Troy Taylor walks us through the fires, plagues, and violence behind the city’s most famous haunted sites, including the French Quarter, the cemeteries or “Cities of the Dead” History weaves with ghost story. Audiobook on Hoopla.

New Orleans Vampires by Marita Crandle: Written by the owner of the French Quarter’s Boutique du Vampyre, this traces how New Orleans became America’s vampire capital, from fiction works to folklore and real historical studies. It’s the origin story behind the city’s most successful piece of self-mythologizing. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla.

The Magic of Marie Laveau by Denise Alvarado: A hands-on spiritual guide built around the real Marie Laveau’s legacy, offering prayers, rituals, and practices drawn from the Voodoo Queen’s tradition rather than just her legend. Written for practitioners, not tourists. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla. Audiobook in Hoopla.

Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints by Denise Alvarado: A broader guidebook to New Orleans’ occult landscape, including its Voodoo queens, Hoodoo saints, and resident spirits. The title maps the city’s magical practices back to their cultural roots and tradition. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla. Audiobook in Hoopla

The Axeman of New Orleans by Miriam C. Davis: The true story of the early 1900’s axe murderer who terrorized the city’s Italian immigrant community and mailed a letter to the newspaper claiming to be the devil himself. This is a true-crime account of a case that was never solved. In BCCLS catalog.  

Fiction:

The Originals (TV): The Original vampire family – Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah Mikaelson – return to New Orleans to reclaim their faction of the city they built centuries ago, but witches, werewolves, rival vampires await along with an unborn child prophecy. The Originals is a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries. In BCCLS catalog

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice: Louis de Pointe du Lac recounts two centuries of his life to a modern-day reporter, starting with his transformation into a vampire on a Louisiana plantation by the seductive, Lestat. Their toxic bond results in their vampire-child Claudia. This novel begins Rice’s fictional landscape of New Orleans as the birthplace of American vampire fiction. In the BCCLS catalog.

(Movie and AMC series also available in the BCCLS catalog and Hoopla.)

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice: Neurosurgeon Rowan Mayfair discovers she’s the latest in a centuries-long line of New Orleans witches bound to Lasher, a spirit who has shaped her family since the 1600s. In BCCLS catalog.

(AMC series also available on Hoopla.)

Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson: Told as one long letter from Constanta to the ancient vampire, Dracula, who saved and then possessively remade her. It’s a gothic retelling that follows her from a peasant girl to an immortal realizing her “savior” is also her captor. In BCCLS catalog. Audiobook on Hoopla.

Hit subscribe to get weekly updates on posts from the Hoboken Public Library!

Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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