This was not meant to be festive.

37. Slay Ride – Nick Baron

It’s the Nightmare Club, where Andrea Wanamaker can ask for the harassment and bullying to stop at school and get actual help in the 1990s, granted, that help involves humiliating her tormentors followed by murder, but it’s help…at first, mostly… It’s hard to get help with harassment and bullying now, in school or at work, and that has to be taken into consideration. Was the murderous approach justified in a society that won’t take the daily torture of Andrea seriously? The bystander effect is quite strong in all decades, which I believe is part of why Andrea’s “Guardian Angel” stays secretive and doesn’t let her know who he is, well, that and the murdery reasons. I think her Guardian Angel could have been more festive though, like Billy from Silent Night, Deadly Night or, really, Ricky from Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II – “Garbage Day” is a pretty apt slogan for the Guardian Angel’s approach in Slay Ride towards the awful Tom and his friends.

This was actually a pretty rough book to read because of the subject matter, especially if you’ve gone through being made fun of in a hurtful manner or much worse because of your name or just for existing in the same space as an insecure popular person and then told you “just can’t take a joke.” Andrea is not exaggerating and is pushed to her breaking point and yet she’s only being taken seriously by someone with homicidal tendencies. I honestly can’t say that’s not how it would happen now as well despite some theoretical level of progress. I’ve noticed that the less powerful on the receiving end of harassment and bullying tend to continue to get the most consequences of having existed. How dare they. Unexpectedly for a YA horror trade paperback, Slay Ride does come with information in the back about sexual harassment in school and how to get help, so they were trying to give 1990s youth something useful.

Danger Crumples fully supports the tactic of shouting, “Garbage Day!” at any bullies or harassers, but make sure you do it like Ricky from Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II so it is completely bewildering.