This bite-sized novella took me right back to the streets of Derry, with the cast of IT if one of them had turned murderous and taken it upon himself to solve the trolley problem by taking out the friend group to save the town. In the aftermath of a failed prank, Sawyer believes the mannequin he and his friends had found several summers ago was bitter about being abandoned and came to life to enact his revenge.

I always love the relentless inevitability that underlies Stephen Graham Jones’ work. Even when the characters’ logic is flawed, he does such a good job of setting the stage for the events that unfold: it’s fated, there is only one way to go, and the end is inevitable. Resistance is futile, so might as well go along with it.

In my opinion, this is what makes his books so successful. It underscores the horror perfectly. I know this review is more about my love for the author and his body of work, but Night of the Mannequins embodies what I love about SGJ to a T.