BOOK REVIEW | HEADS WILL ROLL | JOSH WINNING
Today sees the release of Josh Winning’s new book, Heads will Roll. I enjoyed this book immensely. Here’s my review
Summary
A former sitcom star, she’s been publicly shamed on the internet after posting something she really shouldn’t have.
She checks in to Camp Castaway, an adults-only retreat based at an old campground in the woods.
It’s the first night and the campers gather round the fire and decide to tell some ghost stories. That’s when Willow hears the tale of Knock Knock Nancy. A local urban legend about a witch, brutally beheaded in this very woodland.
They say her restless spirit knocks on doors late at night. If you answer, she’ll take your head.
Willow doesn’t believe in ghosts, after all, they’re just stories. But the next day, a camper has vanished under mysterious circumstances. And then that evening, in her cabin, Willow hears it…
Knock, Knock, Knock.
REVIEW
Due to an insensitive tweet, Willow has caused a bit of a stir in the Online community. However, the furore that she causes has a massive fallout. She loses her role as the star of the sitcom Our Girl Willow, she loses the hunky fiancée., she loses her money and she loses her dignity.
In an attempt to get herself back on track, she packs her bags to go to Camp Castaway, a woodland retreat where you can get back to yourself by throwing away the trappings of modern life and embracing nature. Meeting the other campers, Willow soon sets into the routine of the idyllic lifestyle of Camp Castaway.
Things soon start to turn strange as Willow finds a stranger in her wardrobe, weird little dolls heads keep turning up and a couple of the happy campers have gone missing. On top of that, Willow’s idol Juniper Brown is at the camp as well as a mysterious killer known only as Knock Knock Nancy.
Mixing Nine Perfect Strangers with an ode to those slasher movies from the eighties, Josh Winning’s Head Will Roll is a campy slasher movie flick.
Anybody expecting an all out Michael Myers goreathon need to be aware that this is not one of those kinds of slasher stories. For the first part of the story, the book sets the story as we learn more about the camp, its leader and the mysteries surrounding the camp itself. The plot does take some time to build and for a while events seem to be happening in the background while Willow gets to grip with both the camp, its inhabitants and most importantly herself.
Whilst carefully laying the foundations of the main arc, Winning interjects some social commentary about cancel culture and being true to yourself, not the version that others imagine that you should be. There are some comments about LGBTQ+ rights. However, these are woven into the story and Winning does not hit the reader over the head with them as primarily this is a slasher book and it’s all about the monster hiding in the shadows.
When the final act of the story comes into play, Winning kicks the pace up two fold and it positively flies as the book moves from a character piece to a fight for survival against a killer that will not stop.
Throughout the book, Winning references lots of horror and popular culture. It was fun to spot what he would reference, using the tropes from these films imaginatively and intelligently to keep the story fun and light.
I have to say that I enjoyed this book. I liked the way that Winning carefully moves the plot along,but tries not to let the slasher aspect of the story overtake the other aspects of the book. He carefully hides the things that you would expect to see from this type of story behind the backdrop of camp life and domesticity until the point that they need to be brought into the spotlight. In addition to this, similarly to Stephen King, he gives us glimpses of the outside world by different mediums, such as text messages or tweets to provide a background to what has actually happened to get us to this point. Is it perfect, unfortunately not, but there is a lot to like in this book, and is a welcome addition to the slasher camp.
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