‘Clown in a Cornfield’ review: Adam Cesare pushes the limits of YA fiction with his brutal horror novel

Prolific horror author Adam Cesare (Video Night, The Con Season) makes his YA debut with Clown in a Cornfield, a brutal slasher novel that also serves as a metaphor for the insidious “Make __ Great Again” groupthink.

High school senior Quinn Maybrook is upended from her life in Philadelphia when her father accepts a job in Kettle Springs, Missouri, a remote town surrounded by cornfields and small-town thinking. She quickly falls in with a gang of outsiders led by Cole Hill, whose father owns the Baypen corn syrup factory next to her home. Baypen is adorned with the faded image of its mascot, Frendo the Clown, on one of its walls, who also serves as the town’s mascot. Quinn quickly notices a simmering tension between Cole’s gang of friends and many of the town’s older residents — their high school teacher is outright antagonistic towards them, and the town’s sheriff keeps a close watch on them.

After a seemingly harmless park during the town’s annual parade goes awry, Quinn is invited to a huge party on the outskirts of town in the middle of a secluded cornfield. Totally cut off from the rest of the town, the partygoers begin being killed off by an attacker dressed up like Frendo the Clown. Quinn and her new friends then have to band together to try and escape the onslaught and make their way back home while a murderous clown stalks them through the darkness.

Cesare’s novel has plenty of allusions to ’80s horror films, but this is very much a story about the real-life fears today’s teens have to contend with. One of the most frightening things about Clown in a Cornfield is how quickly the teens react to an active shooter situation, even in the midst of a secluded farm. These kids have grown up with the awareness of school shootings and react accordingly, a sad but realistic look at the dangers today’s teenagers are growing up with. Without delving into spoilers, it becomes apparent early on that the massacre is part of a larger conspiracy against the town’s “bad” teenagers with the goal of making “Kettle Springs Great Again,” a notion that should frighten anyone that has to contend with hordes of red hats on a daily basis.

Despite the YA categorization, Cesare holds nothing back here — this is a brutal horror novel that just happens to feature a group of teens as the protagonists. Clown in a Cornfield perfectly encapsulates the generational and ideological divide currently shaping today’s politics, while offering up a compelling page-turner that should appeal equally to today’s teens and those who spent their nights watching stacks of low-budget slashers on VHS.

Clown in a Cornfield is out now via Harper Collins.