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Friday the 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat
On the run from the FBI, respectable-looking serial killers Norwood and Penelope Thawn head to Crystal Lake in an attempt to contact Jason Vorhees, whom they feel shares their mission to rid America of sin, but they soon find that Jason likes to work alone. Original.
- GenresHorrorMedia Tie In
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 25, 2005
1 person is currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
Jason Arnopp
34 books659 followersJason Arnopp is the author of the chiller-thriller novels Ghoster (2019) and The Last Days Of Jack Sparks (2016). He is also the co-author of Inside Black Mirror with Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones.
Arnopp wrote the Lionsgate horror feature film Stormhouse, the New Line Cinema novel Friday The 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat, various official Doctor Who works of fiction (including the BBC audiobook Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion) and script-edited the 2012 Peter Mullan film The Man Inside.
Arnopp has also written 2012's Beast In The Basement, a horror novella available at Amazon, and experimental ghost story A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home.
He is the author of non-fiction ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else. He is on Twitter here, and is represented by literary agent Oli Munson at The AM Heath Agency. He is also represented for film and TV by Lawrence Mattis at Circle Of Confusion.
He runs a private cult - sorry, that should have read CLUB - at Patreon, where members enjoy various perks.
Arnopp wrote the Lionsgate horror feature film Stormhouse, the New Line Cinema novel Friday The 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat, various official Doctor Who works of fiction (including the BBC audiobook Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion) and script-edited the 2012 Peter Mullan film The Man Inside.
Arnopp has also written 2012's Beast In The Basement, a horror novella available at Amazon, and experimental ghost story A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home.
He is the author of non-fiction ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else. He is on Twitter here, and is represented by literary agent Oli Munson at The AM Heath Agency. He is also represented for film and TV by Lawrence Mattis at Circle Of Confusion.
He runs a private cult - sorry, that should have read CLUB - at Patreon, where members enjoy various perks.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 29, 2008
From 2005 to 2006, the British imprint Black Flame published a number of media tie-ins with New Line Cinema, including five "further adventures" of Jason Voorhees (the guy with the hockey mask from the Friday the 13th films) and a novelization and four "further adventures" of Jason X (the guy with the hockey mask from the Friday the 13th films 450 years in the future). Hate-Kill-Repeat, by British slasher movie fan and first-time novelist Jason Arnopp (whose previous books include a biography of the band Slipknot), is the third Friday the 13th novel published by Black Flame, but it's the first I’ve read. I checked out a number of reviews on Amazon.com, and Hate-Kill-Repeat seems to be one of the more positively received of the Friday the 13th novels. The only reason for this that I can see is that die-hard Friday the 13th fans appreciate Arnopp's devotion to the series and his attempt to tie this book into the canonical history of the series (Hate-Kill-Repeat takes place immediately after the events of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and ends by setting up the events of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday ... I guess Arnopp didn’t care for Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan).
I, on the other hand, found this book a real chore to get through for several reasons. First and foremost, at more than 400 pages it's far too long to sustain interest given its rather limited subject matter. I really don't think it should take longer than a couple of hours to read a Friday the 13th novel, so 200 pages should be the maximum allowable length. I find most of the movies in the series modestly entertaining, largely because they're over in an hour and a half. If they took days to get through like this book did, no one would go near them.
Since all of Black Flame's Friday the 13th novels are roughly this length, I assume it's a requirement they have for their authors. So should we let Arnopp off the hook? Well, no. Given the size of the novel he had to produce he really should have focused on creating at least a few characters who were three-dimensional enough to involve the reader. Also, there's never any sense of suspense or dread at any point. In short, nothing that I normally look for in a horror novel. One could argue that Arnopp was merely following the conventions of the Friday the 13th films by introducing one character after another, only to have them killed by Jason, but with 400 pages to play around with, why not at least try to do something else? Or at least create a sense of terror instead of mind-numbing boredom after the first few kills? The only "something else" that this novel contains is a husband and wife pair of moral-majority serial killers who believe Jason shares their raison d'être, but they're a pretty uninteresting creation, and ultimately don't add much to this novel.
Another thing that really ruined this book for me was the fact that Arnopp clearly knows nothing about the United States (which is where this novel takes place), and didn't take any time to research the country beyond, perhaps, watching American slasher movies, or even step outside of himself and consider "Does this make sense in the context in which I am writing?"
For instance, an American businessman character in the novel thinks to himself how "American hotels" usually have no thirteenth floor. Why does this ring so false? Because the character is an American. He'd think of "American hotels" merely as "hotels," wouldn't he?
There are inaccuracies on nearly every page. Cocaine is not a "Class A" drug in the United States, it's a "Schedule II" drug. Someone in the sheriff's department wouldn't be resentful that the man who is currently sheriff "leapfrogged ahead of him" to get the position, since in the United States, sheriff is nearly always an elected position. Sure, he could be resentful if he lost an election to a younger, less experienced person, but that's not how Arnopp chose to describe it. This would be an easy fix if Arnopp had a good editor, but clearly he did not.
Arnopp's ignorance of the United States is probably most irritating, however, in the chapters that feature his group of redneck characters who take to the woods for a fun weekend of drinking beer and getting killed by Jason. The average American redneck wouldn't know what a "fortnight" or the "bonnet" of his car was if a gun was to his head, and he most certainly would not brag about how the British SAS kill people; he'd brag about US Special Forces or something similar. Seriously, even someone who's never set foot in the United States should realize this. I'm sure there are a number of things about life in the U.K. that I don't know about, but were I to write a cheap horror novel that took place in, oh, let’s say, Croydon, I most certainly would not have the characters putting their beer in the "trunk" of their car or calling their mates their "friends." And I would definitely have one of my British friends read over my manuscript for things that didn't seem right to them.
Arnopp! Make some friends across the pond before you write your next "rednecks and machetes" novel. Please...
I, on the other hand, found this book a real chore to get through for several reasons. First and foremost, at more than 400 pages it's far too long to sustain interest given its rather limited subject matter. I really don't think it should take longer than a couple of hours to read a Friday the 13th novel, so 200 pages should be the maximum allowable length. I find most of the movies in the series modestly entertaining, largely because they're over in an hour and a half. If they took days to get through like this book did, no one would go near them.
Since all of Black Flame's Friday the 13th novels are roughly this length, I assume it's a requirement they have for their authors. So should we let Arnopp off the hook? Well, no. Given the size of the novel he had to produce he really should have focused on creating at least a few characters who were three-dimensional enough to involve the reader. Also, there's never any sense of suspense or dread at any point. In short, nothing that I normally look for in a horror novel. One could argue that Arnopp was merely following the conventions of the Friday the 13th films by introducing one character after another, only to have them killed by Jason, but with 400 pages to play around with, why not at least try to do something else? Or at least create a sense of terror instead of mind-numbing boredom after the first few kills? The only "something else" that this novel contains is a husband and wife pair of moral-majority serial killers who believe Jason shares their raison d'être, but they're a pretty uninteresting creation, and ultimately don't add much to this novel.
Another thing that really ruined this book for me was the fact that Arnopp clearly knows nothing about the United States (which is where this novel takes place), and didn't take any time to research the country beyond, perhaps, watching American slasher movies, or even step outside of himself and consider "Does this make sense in the context in which I am writing?"
For instance, an American businessman character in the novel thinks to himself how "American hotels" usually have no thirteenth floor. Why does this ring so false? Because the character is an American. He'd think of "American hotels" merely as "hotels," wouldn't he?
There are inaccuracies on nearly every page. Cocaine is not a "Class A" drug in the United States, it's a "Schedule II" drug. Someone in the sheriff's department wouldn't be resentful that the man who is currently sheriff "leapfrogged ahead of him" to get the position, since in the United States, sheriff is nearly always an elected position. Sure, he could be resentful if he lost an election to a younger, less experienced person, but that's not how Arnopp chose to describe it. This would be an easy fix if Arnopp had a good editor, but clearly he did not.
Arnopp's ignorance of the United States is probably most irritating, however, in the chapters that feature his group of redneck characters who take to the woods for a fun weekend of drinking beer and getting killed by Jason. The average American redneck wouldn't know what a "fortnight" or the "bonnet" of his car was if a gun was to his head, and he most certainly would not brag about how the British SAS kill people; he'd brag about US Special Forces or something similar. Seriously, even someone who's never set foot in the United States should realize this. I'm sure there are a number of things about life in the U.K. that I don't know about, but were I to write a cheap horror novel that took place in, oh, let’s say, Croydon, I most certainly would not have the characters putting their beer in the "trunk" of their car or calling their mates their "friends." And I would definitely have one of my British friends read over my manuscript for things that didn't seem right to them.
Arnopp! Make some friends across the pond before you write your next "rednecks and machetes" novel. Please...
March 2, 2016
Once again, the novel is better than the movies. They should really use these books as the basis for scripts if they ever go back to the franchise.
This novel is unrelated to the prior two, and instead picks up right after the end of the 7th film. Tina Sheppard, the girl with the telepathic powers from the film is even mentioned in the story, although never truly appears. So Jason is once again trapped at the bottom of Crystal Lake when the story stars.
The plot is complex for this type of horror novel, but there's a cult called the Redeemers involved as well. They basically kill anyone they see as sinners. The story focuses on a particular married couple who are members of the cult. They see Jason as a kindred spirit, and attempt to basically recruit him for the cult. (Yeah, great idea, right?) Throw in some rednecks, a fancy hotel and some FBI agents and you have quite the story. The body count is very high in this one, even for a Jason story. There's also a huge twist I won't ruin here, but it came out of nowhere.
It's actually very ambitious for a Friday the 13th story, but I think it worked. If you are a fan of the series but maybe think it can go a little further than just hack and slash, this is definitely the book for you. (But there's still PLENTY of hack and slash, too.)
This novel is unrelated to the prior two, and instead picks up right after the end of the 7th film. Tina Sheppard, the girl with the telepathic powers from the film is even mentioned in the story, although never truly appears. So Jason is once again trapped at the bottom of Crystal Lake when the story stars.
The plot is complex for this type of horror novel, but there's a cult called the Redeemers involved as well. They basically kill anyone they see as sinners. The story focuses on a particular married couple who are members of the cult. They see Jason as a kindred spirit, and attempt to basically recruit him for the cult. (Yeah, great idea, right?) Throw in some rednecks, a fancy hotel and some FBI agents and you have quite the story. The body count is very high in this one, even for a Jason story. There's also a huge twist I won't ruin here, but it came out of nowhere.
It's actually very ambitious for a Friday the 13th story, but I think it worked. If you are a fan of the series but maybe think it can go a little further than just hack and slash, this is definitely the book for you. (But there's still PLENTY of hack and slash, too.)
November 12, 2021
Reading this made it seem that they relocated Crystal Lake to somewhere in England. I know this was published by an English publisher, it is still good old American Jason. So when the author speaks of coming home from the surgery by the female lead. She was coming back from the Doctors office after finding out she's pregnant. Also, many references to a torch, when a flashlight is in use. A bonnet of a car. Hood. And finally, when a prime piece of redneck trailer trash refers to the English SAS taking people out with little effort, shouldn't he have picked one of his countries special forces to do the job? Not a big deal, but I can't see Jack The Ripper wearing a ten gallon hat eating pork rinds and picking up his victims in a bar and grill.
All that said, this is not a bad book. It's just to damn redundant. Jason comes at you. Kills you. Some one shoots him, burns him, throws him off a building and he gets up and come at you. Kills you, ad nauseam. At over 400 pages, it gets a bit thin. I do have to say, there was a very clever plot twist in here that I never saw coming and helps the story out immensely. Besides that, it's Jason Voorhees so you know he won't die. He kills tons of people. There will be another book.
All that said, this is not a bad book. It's just to damn redundant. Jason comes at you. Kills you. Some one shoots him, burns him, throws him off a building and he gets up and come at you. Kills you, ad nauseam. At over 400 pages, it gets a bit thin. I do have to say, there was a very clever plot twist in here that I never saw coming and helps the story out immensely. Besides that, it's Jason Voorhees so you know he won't die. He kills tons of people. There will be another book.
May 29, 2024
Jason Vorhees is back and on a rampage of terror around Camp Crystal Lake. A new hotel is hosting a business event, kids are camping around the lake and Jason isn’t the only killer on the hunt. Hate-Kill-Repeat is a lot of fun for a fan of the Friday the 13th films.
3.5 💀
3.5 💀
August 26, 2023
There are others here on GoodReads who have reviewed this well enough to have covered the same issues and highlights I've got with this book.
I'm mostly here to say that I owe another thanks to the 80s Slasher Librarian on YouTube for the fanmade audiobook he made for this novel, because it's how I was able to read this one and enjoy it. I say it all the time whenever I review a book he's made an audiobook adaptation for, but you really should check out his channel if you're curious and want to go through some of these out-of-print slasher books yourself.
I'm mostly here to say that I owe another thanks to the 80s Slasher Librarian on YouTube for the fanmade audiobook he made for this novel, because it's how I was able to read this one and enjoy it. I say it all the time whenever I review a book he's made an audiobook adaptation for, but you really should check out his channel if you're curious and want to go through some of these out-of-print slasher books yourself.
May 21, 2023
Serial killers on a pilgrimage to find and meet Jason? Apparently so! Buried deep amid the blood and carnage are themes regarding morality and people who want to impose their own morality on others who may not see life like they do. There's no heavy-handed preaching here but, I feel that the F13 fans who are familiar with the idea that slashers are puritan-inspired morality tales will find this one very interesting.
September 12, 2017
After reading the first and second books of the Friday the 13th Black Flame series, I have to say this is by far the best one so far.
If another movie is ever made, I hope it would be based on this book.
The author Jason Arnopp wrote the legendary Jason Voorhees character very well.
The story starts off shortly after Friday the 13th Part 7 movie ends. Tina the girl with Telepathic powers is briefly mentioned and Jason starts off at the bottom of Crystal Lake as he should.
Two psychopaths are killing those they believe are not living right from a religious sense and they are hoping to find Jason to join their crew. Take this story along with heroine Hayley "Halo" Harlan's series of unfortunate life events that lead her to Crystal Lake and the author gives us a new Jason story that truly pays homage to the roots of what the Friday the 13th movies are all about.
If another movie is ever made, I hope it would be based on this book.
The author Jason Arnopp wrote the legendary Jason Voorhees character very well.
The story starts off shortly after Friday the 13th Part 7 movie ends. Tina the girl with Telepathic powers is briefly mentioned and Jason starts off at the bottom of Crystal Lake as he should.
Two psychopaths are killing those they believe are not living right from a religious sense and they are hoping to find Jason to join their crew. Take this story along with heroine Hayley "Halo" Harlan's series of unfortunate life events that lead her to Crystal Lake and the author gives us a new Jason story that truly pays homage to the roots of what the Friday the 13th movies are all about.
September 30, 2025
Certainly much better than Hell Lake but not the best of the Black Flame series. I will say I appreciate the tie in to what happened between The New Blood and lead in to Jason Goes To Hell.
Anything that ignores Jason Takes Manhattan is good in my books.
Anything that ignores Jason Takes Manhattan is good in my books.
July 3, 2022
Satisfying read for Friday the 13th fans; plenty of gore (almost to the point of excess) and neat connections to some of the movies. Easily the best of the Black Flame Friday the 13th books
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews