JOEL VS SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE

Joel wonders if Clay McLeod Chapman has lost his religion in Texarkana with SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE…

Shiny Happy People

Clay Mcleod Chapman

368 pages

Hardback $12.38 on Amazon

Welcome back fellow horror junkies! Today I’m diving into Clay Mcleod Chapman’s young adult novel, Shiny Happy People. Every bit as visceral and disturbing as Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, and just as hauntingly, horrifyingly heartbreaking as Ghost Eaters, the only thing “young” about this novel is the lack of swearing and the age of the main characters. Violent, bloody, and downright unsettling, this novel blends together themes that only a master storyteller such as Clay can.

The novel follows Kyra, a high schooler who is fleeing the trauma of being born to abusive and drug-addicted parents who abandoned her when she was a baby. Adopted by a loving family, she kept her nose down and worked hard to make sure she would never turn out like her mother. Things were going fine until one day everyone around her begins to change—to put on a happy face, and “shine.”

This story highlights the isolation the youth are facing as this social media driven lifestyle pushes dangerous internet trends and substances that offer a mask of community, but only serve to further separate people from one another. Kyra, already feeling alone because of her abstinence from the party life that so many of her peers are suddenly into, finds herself further on the outs as she discovers the cause behind the shift in everyone she knows. A new drug called Spore.

In the small town where Kyra lives, a corporate pharmaceutical company has snaked its way into every facet of daily life, including sponsoring the public school. Clay presents a deep and meaningful look at how corporate greed has spurred on the opioid crisis in America, and how social media has only served to exasperate the problem. He manages to cast a light on the shadowy world of corporations and how they manage to consolidate power and influence in small communities.

The only small issue that I found while reading this one was the pacing. I felt like it drug at times and we could have rode the momentum of previous scenes a little further. Fortunately, the characters were so completely fledged out and the world Clay built was as immersive as they come; I honestly didn’t mind that I wound up getting to spend that extra time with Kyra and Logan.

If you’re a fan of love letters to Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney with some big Philip K. Dick energy, this is a great book for horror lovers young and old. I’ve been a huge fan of Clay’s for a while and this book only affirms that he can make my skin crawl no matter the target audience. Like everything he plays with, he adds his own brand of body horror, real life terrors, and razor-sharp wit to create a horror smoothie that is sure to make you squirm in your seat.

Pick up Shiny Happy People wherever books are sold and find Clay at https://www.claymcleodchapman.com/

Joel Austin is a lifelong horror fan living in Lawrence, Kansas. Growing up reading King and Palahniuk far earlier than was probably appropriate, shaped his love of the genre from a young age. After the birth of his daughter, he rediscovered his love for writing, finding it to be a therapeutic way to cope with countless new anxieties and fears that accompany parenthood. When he isn’t reading or writing, he loves to cook and go on hikes with his family and their black lab, Loki.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.