Night of the Mannequins: A Tor.com Original

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?

We thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead.

One last laugh for the summer as it winds down. One last prank just to scare a friend. Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right? Until it wakes up. Until it starts killing.

Luckily, Sawyer has a plan. He'll be a hero. He'll save everyone to the best of his ability. He'll do whatever he needs to so he can save the day. That's the thing about heroes--sometimes you have to become a monster first.

Suffused with questions about the nature of change and friendship, "Night of the Mannequins" is a fairy tale of impermanence showcasing Graham Jones's signature style of smart, irreverent horror. --The New York Times

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144 pages

Average rating: 5.3

20 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Anonymous
May 13, 2023
8/10 stars
I read The Only Good Indians by this author & didn’t really enjoy it, so I was a little hesitant about this novella. However, I was hooked immediately. I loved this story and the friendship between the group of teenagers. It was so interesting to be in Sawyer’s mind & seeing how a simple prank went wrong. He was definitely my favorite character, since I got to know him the most. I didn’t like the adults in the story (the ones at the movie theaters). I’m so glad I picked this one up, it was a perfect read for the fall season.
Anonymous
Apr 26, 2023
6/10 stars
...but still, it wasn't a total loss. We had the story of what almost was, didn't we? That's worth nearly as much, if you tell it right.

This was a little strange and sad and creepy. It had one of my favorite type of narrators. It was the perfect length for the story it was telling. It's really impossible to talk about it without spoiling something, so I'll just say I liked it and leave it at that.

3 Stars

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