Payback Week: The Story of a Killer Clown

by Ashley R. Lister

At the end of each summer season, the staff at the Fun Park enjoy a private ritual called Payback Week. Every customer who ever upset them, every boss who ever crossed their path, every person responsible for a grievance becomes eligible for payback. This year, Payback Week will be special because there's a homicidal killer clown with a meat cleaver patrolling the Fun Park and a lot of debts have come due.

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2013

About the author

This author is also published under the pen name Ashley Lister.

Reviews

[Jim Ody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ashley R Lister - Payback Week ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Who doesn't love a good clown horror, right? This was a great novel with all the elements of a fun, and entertaining book.

What I love about Ashley's books are how he mixes up the most grotesque scenes with real rib-tickling humour. It's the perfect juxtaposition that contrasts beautifully in a horror book.

At the end of summer, the employees of an amusement park decide to have a little fun at the expense of customers, and other colleagues tgat have annoyed them all season. It's the highjinx tomfoolery that teenagers are quite accustomed to. And so is born Payback Week...

It's all fun and games until someone looses a limb. Or two. And that's what happens when one of the employees decides to take revenge on his colleagues for being bullied. Dressed as a clown, he picks them off one by one.

If Richard Laymon was alive and given the task of writing a book that mixes up elements of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Funhouse & Clown then this is what you'd get. It's fun, it has teenage angst, sex, and some really imaginative deaths. What more could you want?

Ashley Lister doesn't know how to write a bad book, and this is a fine example of that. It bewilders me how come he's not bigger than he is. Buy his books or else he'sgoing dress up as a clown and get you!

[Lisa Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh, where to even begin with this one. Ashley Lister’s Payback Week: The Story of a Killer Clown has everything you expect and want from a killer clown story, but it’s also much more than that.

There’s all the twisted slasher story elements, complete with body-clenching suspense, gruesome violence, and insolent characters as well as likeable ones. There’s the wicked killer clown in the killer clown outfit and makeup doing the insane and nasty killer clown things. But by golly, there’s also an underlying sophistication to the story. Seriously.

The first act, the prelude if you will, is an expertly crafted story all on its own, evocative and compelling and gruesome, a chilling tale with an impactful depth. And then it gets really intense. Then comes the hardcore, sophisticated, and visceral slashy killer clown story full of suspense and mystery and twists and blood and gore and violence and weirdly powerful subtext that sucker punches you out of nowhere. It’s fantastic.

There’s a lot more to this story than the ominous cover and synopsis allude to. I am not the most hardcore fan of slasher or killer clown stories, but I wanted to read it because Ashley Lister wrote it and his storytelling is stellar. And it does not disappoint on any level. Payback Week is a solid and complex story as well as a slasher killer clown tale. It’s maddening and impactful and disturbing. The climax is a surprising twist; the ending, brilliant.

This is a fantastic read you don’t want to miss, but extreme horror and splatterpunk fans only, please.

A Bibliophilia Templum Review
https://bibliophiliatemplum.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/payback-week-the-story-of-a-killer-clown/


Updated Cover Art

[PAR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ashley Lister is one of those authors that gives the reader a full experience! The setting of this novel is an amusement park. The focus is on the employees. Working in an amusement park leaves a lot to be desired. The employees have to deal with all kinds of people. Some are nice but it seems like a whole lot of them are nasty. And that is just the parents, now think about a whole tribe of vile, disgusting children. They tolerate it pretty well because they take out their frustrations on the janitor. They call him toilet and bully him beyond any type of humanity. At the end of each summer season, the employees participate in a private ritual called Payback Week. Every customer who ever upset, mistreated them or were downright mean to them, every boss who ever dissed them, every person responsible for a grievance earns the chance to participate in Payback Week. This year, Payback Week will be even better than all the rest. This year’s Payback Week will include a new participant. This year the janitor intends to play a role. This is the janitor they called Toilet. This is the janitor they bullied. This is the guy they see patrolling the grounds dressed as a clown with a meat cleaver. This is the guy who is a homicidal maniac and a lot of debts that have come due.

[Sea Caummisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intro to this book was so great. Kids sitting around funning each other, but like kids typically do, they took the fun a bit too far. They pull another kid's leg and fill his head with ideas, pushing that kid too far over an edge.
What's not to love about a killer clown chopping people into pieces in an amusement park? And when I thought I had it all figured out, I was only partially correct. 4 solid stars for this one

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap this book is scary! The action ramps up to incredible levels and doesn't let up until the very end. The killer is seriously twisted and you just can't believe what's happening. It is an insanely good, scary read, and what makes it so good is the plausibility of the entire thing.
The gore is almost gratuitous and I don't usually like super gory books, but it adds so much to the story that I can't be upset about it.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrifying, suspenseful, and gripping read
I love the setting inside an amusement park with a killer clown. It was well written, and the characters fleshed out perfectly. The ending is well executed

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great character development and great killer clown slasher. Great mystery keeps you guessing.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it. Who doesn’t love a killer clown?!