Night Of The Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

It feels weird to pretend that this horror novella is about the supernatural more than it is ultimately about the unraveling of an adolescent mind. I actually forgot in the lead up to writing this review that the title has mannequins in the plural as, if you go into this book without reading anything about it — which might actually be the best way to do it, so you can stop reading right here if you want absolutely zero spoilers, even tho pretty much everything I’m going to discuss is laid out in the first few pages of the novella — you might think this is about department store figures coming to life and terrorizing a bunch of people.

And there is a mannequin here, discovered by the narrator Sawyer and his friends as they’re growing up in small town Texas, in a creek that’s more mud than water behind JR’s house. They rescue the figure’s parts and use them for any number of games and pranks over the years.

But things are changing. The kids are getting older and taking on real responsibilities. Accidents happen and Shanna has to get a real job (well, as real as anyone still in high school can get) at the local movie theater. That’s when things get weird.

As a revenge prank against Shanna’s bosses, Sawyer, Danielle, Tim and JR decide to dress up the mannequin — which they’ve christened Manny — and prop him up in one of the theater seats during a movie. They’ll then call in management to handle a “disruptive” patron, hoping to jump scare whichever of the upper-level employees comes out and discovers Manny. But Sawyer, who’s watching while the assistant manager uses a discreet flashlight to methodically check everyone’s tickets, is surprised to get absolutely no reaction when the guy asks for and examines Manny’s ticket. Worse, at the end of the movie, the figure in Manny’s seat gets up and walks out of the theater.

There’s never really an explanation given for that in the book, but it probably doesn’t matter. Sawyer grows increasingly convinced and fearful that Manny has come to life a la Frankenstein’s monster and is now out for revenge against the five kids who were responsible for his awakening. And so Sawyer comes up with a disturbing plan to protect as many people as he can, in atonement for not taking better care of the creature they’ve unwittingly unleashed.

But really, this story is an extended metaphor for the fear of growing up and outgrowing — or being outgrown by — the friends who once meant everything to you. While I was totally on-board for the examination of how a need to protect can sometimes slip over into destruction, I wasn’t super convinced by Sawyer’s moral compass. The premise of a teenager reacting badly to a weird storm of circumstances never felt like it had a solid underpinning in character. While the first person narrative helps us get into his head through the inciting events and onwards, I was never convinced that there was a reason for him to do any of this beyond the author thinking that it sounds like a cool story.

And that’s fine, for certain types of entertainment. I think that after reading Stephen Graham Jones’ superior Mapping The Interior (and even My Heart Is A Chainsaw,) I expected a little more depth tho. Fun idea, uneven execution: good for fans of this author and of slashers in general.

Night Of The Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones was reissued February 24 2026 by Tor Nightfire and is available from all good booksellers, including