Mother's Day

Friday The 13th, Camp Crystal Lake #1

by Eric Morse

With Mother's Day just around the corner, Billy Boone and his friends set out on a camping expedition to Crystal Lake, unaware that Jason's mother continues her quest for revenge and that a hunter is stalking the teenagers at the camp.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Thriller, Media Tie In, Collections, Fiction

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Schizanthus Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one comes out here. Ever.

So, here we are again at Camp Crystal Lake for another fun game of Who’s Going to Survive This Massacre? The first of five Friday the 13th young adult novels, we appear to begin our killing spree somewhere after Jason Goes to Hell in the Voorhees-verse timeline, with our mate Jason safely tucked away in Hell, a great place for slasher movie villains to hang out, have a barbecue and plan their next outing.

After all, there was safety in numbers.

Our victims contestants in this Mother’s Day special are:

* Carly - good girl, tragic background, overprotective mother, token virgin.

* Suzanne - friend of Carly, hippie tie dye meditative type, one half of Kyleandsuzanne (one word).

* Kyle - drives a dented Volkswagon van, hippie tie dye meditative type, other half of Kyleandsuzanne (one word).

* Billy Boone - known for wild parties and drinking, older brother of Kelly, bad boy with a motorbike.

* Kelly Boone - captain of the varsity basketball team, Carly’s friend since she joined the team, younger sister of token bad boy.

* Monique - transfer student from Paris, has a talent for making guys drool, token tease / is she or isn’t she going to sleep with every guy she meets?

* Paul Sexton - winner of the Most Appropriate Surname award, brings a different girl back to the dorm at Brown each night, tanned, athletic, no one could ever love him as much as he loves himself. The girls love him almost as much though, as evidenced by the following quote:

He was so handsome, it was hard to look at him directly. It was as if he were this bright light and you had to shield your eyes.

* Albert - loveable nerd who appears to live his life in the friend zone, Paul’s unfortunate roommate who’s designated to the couch whenever Paul is entertaining the ladies (so always), token fat kid who is bullied for his weight (I seriously have no idea why this kid is at this weekend away when he could have been enjoying some quality alone time while he packed his stuff and changed dorm rooms).

Our contestants are so white they may glow in the dark (well, except maybe Paul who probably does glow in the dark, but from his tan instead) and they’re all hormone laden heterosexuals. So where’s the diversity? My thoughts are that everyone from the LGBTQIA community and those who don’t glow in the dark, along with every other human who doesn’t fit our stereotypical cast, were all too smart to apply to be contestants in this blood bath.

“The only time you’re safe - really safe - is when you’re dead.”

So who has a chance of surviving?

* Carly - As the token virgin she should be a shoo-in, except she did drink some beer which lowers her chances significantly.

* Suzanne - As one half of Kyleandsuzanne (one word) she has sex with Kyle so she’s a goner.

* Kyle - As the other half of Kyleandsuzanne (one word) he has sex with Suzanne so he’s also toast.

* Billy Boone - Bad Boy. Enough said. Start digging his grave now.

* Kelly Boone - She’s at home sick so doesn’t venture anywhere near Camp Crystal Lake … until the second book which I haven’t read yet. As she appears to play the lead in the second book I guess we’ll assume she will survive this one.

* Monique - Considering how much of a tease she is, how much she whinges and how readily the guys fall into a drooling mess at her feet, we can be fairly confident she won’t make it. However, as she’s of the ‘is she or isn’t she going to sleep with every guy she meets’ variety, there is the question of whether she’ll be having sex or not when she meets her maker.

* Paul Sexton - Sorry, buddy. You’ve had too much sex and love yourself too much to have a hope of surviving this game.

* Albert - If anyone other than the main character is going to survive, my bet’s on nerdy, loveable, overweight, friend zoned Albert. He’s adorable. The only thing standing in his way of survival is his ability to whinge.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t an enemy hiding behind every tree.”

Unfortunately Jason doesn’t even get a cameo in this book but his hockey mask and its supposed power (which comes from who knows where) plays a starring role, complete with thick white worms crawling out of the eyeholes when we first see it. Our psycho killer is a hunter who makes the poor decision to hunt when it’s not hunting season (hasn’t he ever seen Bugs Bunny?) and ends up finding a soggy cardboard box that contains the head of Mrs Voorhees, who proceeds to direct him and he does as he’s told. Would you dare say “no” to Mrs Voorhees’ animated head, especially when Friday the 13th is two days before Mother’s Day?

This turned out to be one of those guilty pleasure books for me. As a young adult book from the 90’s there was kissing (but not enough to be nauseating), sex (but off the page) and violence (but not drawn out and graphic like a Saw movie). It reminded me of maybe a step up from a young adult trashy romance novel combined with what I remember of the Point Horror books I used to devour (and probably should reread as I bought a whole pile of them while doing some nostalgic op shopping a few years ago).

They had done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve this brutal horror.

That is, except for applying to be a contestant in a slasher novel. I did have a few disappointing moments while reading in addition to Jason’s no show.

* It failed Horror 101 by having a character say, “Be right back” and then returning alive.

* After the initial slaughter I had to wait around 100 pages for more bloodshed.

* I can’t imagine Jason ever wanting to use a gun to kill people but our hunter does.

* My biggest disappointment was a scene that could have easily been mistaken for having taken place in Psycho-world rather than the Voorhees-verse. I’m not specifically calling it plagiarism but if you’ve got a grown man talking to the corpse of his mother it can’t bring to mind anything other than the Bates family.

This book was never going to be a literary masterpiece but it was a lot of fun and I look forward to reading the rest of the young adult series. When I started reading I thought I’d aim to read the second book on the next Friday the 13th but because of the guilty pleasure I felt with this short, kinda trashy read (I mean that with no disrespect), I want to keep reading.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I've got a little secret for you. The only time you're safe―really safe―is when you're dead."

―Paul Sexton, Mother's Day, P. 107

This book presents some intriguing chronological considerations. While the events of Mother's Day can't be pinpointed for certain on the Friday the 13th timeline, when Boone is relating the legend of Jason Voorhees to his friends at what used to be Camp Crystal Lake, his telling of the story seems to suggest this book takes place following shortly after the ninth film in the franchise, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Boone says the most recent time Jason was resurrected and eventually destroyed, he was dragged down at last into Hell, never to return. Though the "never to return" idea may not have proved true, Boone's story lines up with the end sequence of Jason Goes to Hell, when another infamous killer appears to take control of Jason into the netherworld. The fact that Jason Goes to Hell was released in 1993 and Mother's Day was first published in 1994 is another indicator the timeline I've suggested may be accurate.

So, with Jason effectively neutralized before Mother's Day even begins, what more can happen on the grounds of notorious Camp Blood? Plenty, as becomes clear when one delves into the book. Jason has murdered, been killed and then come back to life a number of times, wiping out new batches of camp counselors and backwoods oddballs over and over again, but despite the overexposure of his story to the public, there is still more truth to be uncovered. Carly and her group of friends are just the newest congregation of happy teenagers lined up for slaughter as they go for a casual stay at the former site of Camp Crystal Lake to hang out for the weekend. Carly is hoping that this trip is going to be big for her; her friend Boone has invited Paul, a guy from school, to come along on the outing, and Carly has definite interest in him as a potential boyfriend. Being out with Paul by the lake without her mother's supervision, with cozy outdoor fires and cool nights spent together in their cabins, who knows where the next few days might lead?

What Carly also doesn't know is that a force more powerful even than death is at work in the shadows of the camp. A mother's love for her child never dies, and the love of Jason's mother for her son who met his tragic end partly due to the negligence of a group of teenagers―camp counselors who were supposed to be keeping an eye on him, but were instead too busy having a good time together―has survived even beyond the grave. Now, the pursuit of revenge will push yet another group of innocent teenagers to the brink of grizzly, horrifying death...and there may be nothing any of them can do to prevent it.

There are some continuity elements between the Friday the 13th film franchise and this book that had me slightly confused. For instance, why is Jason's mask suddenly so powerful, like some kind of magic talisman? It was nothing but an ordinary hockey mask when he first picked it up from a teen he murdered in Friday the 13th Part III. Could the mask's sudden power have something to do with the lightning strike that reanimated Jason's corpse at the beginning of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, or the underwater electrical surge that brought him back yet again at the start of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan? I'm not sure how that could be, but I can't think of any other explanations. Another bit of continuity confusion surrounds the part that Pamela Voorhees's head plays in Mother's Day. In Friday the 13th Part II, it was totally lifeless, a long-dead limb that Jason kept around only because he didn't understand the concept of death, and wanted to have his mother with him. I'm not sure what accounts for the head's changes between that second movie and this book.

Overall, however, I was really pleasantly surprised by Mother's Day. As a horror story it is much like the Friday the 13th films, a time capsule of teen culture from the year the book is set. As the decades go by, the time-capsule effect grows increasingly obvious, but that's not a bad thing. I think it gives the stories extra flavor, and reminds us of tiny pieces of the past that we might not be aware of if we weren't around to experience them firsthand. Additionally, there are some perceptive bits of writing in this book. I like the description of Carly's reaction to her first kiss with Paul, that it was "as if her body were thanking her for finally giving it what it had always wanted." Very well said. I also like Carly's thoughts about why the best-looking people are often not the nicest: "In real life, people who were as good-looking as Paul got constant attention. They never learned how to be decent human beings." I've observed this reality quite often, and author Eric Morse does a good job of putting the idea into words.

Compared to the Halloween young-adult book series by Kelly O'Rourke, Mother's Day definitely represents a step up in quality, in my opinion, though I did like the Halloween books. Eric Morse is a talented writer who shows a lot of promise in this novel, utilizing a good variety of descriptive language and engaging readers well with humor and clever lines along the way. He also makes the horror of the story come alive, using enough violence to make it scary without being inappropriate for young-adult readers. I liked Mother's Day more than I expected to, and I would even consider giving it two and a half stars. For big fans of the continuing Friday the 13th film saga, of course, this book is a must.

[☆Angel☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take a group of teenagers, a weekend of camping at Crystal Lake, ice cold beer and throw in a creepy old man and a hunter possessed by the spirit of Jason Voorhees (along with the severed head of Pamela Voorhees) and you have a classic Friday the 13th storyline. Which is exactly what this book did. It reminded me very much of the 80's horror movies I love. Eric Morse got the creepiness down pat for this novel. My only complaint is the shotgun...Jason is way more creative than that, but I still loved it. It was a quick read and anyone who is a fan of the movies will like it. I'm sure of it.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like a cheesy slasher movie. But a lot of fun. I loved the head in a box.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly better than I thought it would be?

I remember coming across the YA Friday the 13th books when they first came out at a local K-Mart. I was intrigued but the other part of preteen me looked at them and scoffed. I’m done with these kind of kids’ books. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨. I read grownup books.

Fast forward decades and long out of print and costing about as much as a down payment on a house, I somehow came across one at a used bookstore and immediately snatched it up. (No homeownership for me)

You know the slasher setup: teens head to Camp Crystal Lake, mayhem ensues. All the usual stereotypes: the somewhat mousey final girl, the dude bros, the nerd, a couple hippie kids, and a French exchange student that the dude bros are totally lusting after. It has all the feels of your typical 80s slasher film but with an added 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰 subplot.

Definitely in the vein of the Fear Street series and other YA horror of the time, though, in my mind, a bit more gnarly in its kills maybe?

A fun afternoon read on a rainy afternoon for sure.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Camp Crystal Lake novels came out at the weirdest possible time.

This first one, Mother's Day, came out in 1994, one year after Jason Goes To Hell, which was the sequel that put Jason in the grave...at least for 9 years or so, at which point it was decided the way to revive Jason was to put him in space.

They say that in space, nobody can hear you scream, but I'm pretty sure the screams of investors in that one were audible, defying the laws of physics, but somehow it felt right.

Jason Goes To Hell tried to change the Jason mythos a little, making it so that the Jason mantle was passed from person to person. It may have been that this idea was not well-received, but I think it's more likely that the slasher's time had faded, waiting to be revived by the likes of Scream and the self-aware, slick horror movies for Gen X'ers (who would later be millenials, but we don't need to fight about this here and now).

Now, why someone decided that the failing Friday the 13th franchise should be made into novels is unclear to me, but my best guess is that the answer starts with cha and ends with ching.

I can definitely see someone saying, "Look, we shit out some of these, kids who are too old for Goosebumps and Scary Avenue or whatever move onto these, we make some money, and maybe we remind a younger generation about Jason, and we can bring him back. IN SPACE."

And it's not the worst idea. The Young Adult book market was pretty nonexistent in 1994. The concept of the teenager may have been invented in the 50's, but the invention of the book market for teenagers took another 50 years to smack publishers in the face. You'd have The Outsiders, and...that was it. Ponyboy was really holding the line for an entire genre for a good long while.

Buuuut here's the problem with Camp Crystal Lake. Here's a list of problems:

1. Because they came out after Jason Goes to Hell, they follow that formula. Meaning they're following the formula of the least successful movie in the series, this whole thing where different people become Jason. Imagine you're JJ Abrams, you're relaunching Star Wars. Are you going to be like, "Why remake the wheel, Attack of the Clones is right there"?

2. Mother's Day is, weirdly, more PG than any of the movies. That makes no sense to me because you can get away with ANYTHING in a book. You can do horrific shit in a book that'd never pass the MPAA. But it seems like they really pulled back. My guess is this was an attempt to please parents of the target audience, but I think parents are either going to let their kid read one of these, just thanking christ they're reading SOMETHING, or they'll see what it is on the cover and be like, "Uh, hell no." In other words, I can't imagine a parent actually pre-reading this whole thing in order to determine that it is, in fact, pretty tame, and not super inappropriate for a kid who's, I don't know, 14, and therefore it's pointless to skimp on the gruesomeness, which would've improved this book quite a bit. The kills are not spectacular, and there just aren't many of them. I'm sorry, but that's what we come to Friday the 13th for. I want Jason to pick up someone in their sleeping bag and smash them against a tree (Part VII), or someone to be "bludgeoned to death with an electric guitar" (Part VIII). I wanna see "Groin stabbed with a spear gun" (The Final Chapter). Yes, I'm that sicko, but I pose that so is anyone who picks this up.

3. Okay, in a typical Friday the 13th movie, we go through stages. Stage 1: kids arrive at the lake, don't believe in Jason. Stage 2: mildly creepy things start happening. Stage 3: a couple kills, but most of the kids aren't aware what's happening. Stage 4: The killing really starts, the kids make some attempt to not die. Stage 5: final confrontation between Jason and the final girl.
Mother's Day is 185 pages long. It does have an opening with some creepy nonsense, and then we get our next kill on page 124! About 70% of the way in. Meaning we read 70% of this book where almost nothing happens. On page 157, the killing begins in earnest. That's 85%. Point being, it's WAY too long waiting for Jason to show up, especially because we're not really getting a lot of other creepy stuff along the way, so it's just sort of...kids hanging out on a dock and having a good time for 157 pages.

Now, I'm not entirely sure this is different from the way the movies work, but watching a movie is easier and more passive than reading a book.

4. Jump scares DO NOT work in a book. At all.

5. The missed opportunity is to do something different.
You could give me characters that I care about, which isn't the norm in slashers. You could give me some insight into the killer, which would be different. You could skip straight to the mayhem within the first 10%.

The beauty of a book like this is that it's cheap as shit, so you don't have to please a movie studio or make something that's palatable for massive audiences. You can go for broke. Do whatever. Make it fun. Make it gross. Make it wacky. Do SOMETHING.

[Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my least favorite of the series as a kid (well, this or part 4) and the problems are all still there 30 years later or whatever, but it's a fun little story and in these trying times with no new Jason movies, these books are a real life saver.

Oh, there's also some lore stuff in here that I think bummed me out as a kid but that I actually like now. Like the Crystal Lake cemetery just has straight up undead skeletons, the camp has weird worms that seem to give you weird dreams while they suck your blood ... AND there just happens to be a Norman Bates dude with a dead mom he cares for in town. All these things get MAYBE one single page of explanation but that's why they're fun.

[vk chompooming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. For a novelization of Friday the 13th, my expectations were low. This book surprised me. All the murders happened at the end of the book, but I think the lore is true to the movies. Was there a Friday the 13th that had Jason "possess' ppl? It feels like one of the many movies plot points. The book takes place after the movie Jason goes to Hell and if u r looking for a short read and a fan of the genre, give this one a shot.

[Tome Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good YA slasher! I found this book surprisingly, entertaining and very bloody! Most young adult thriller/horror novels are good, but not very much happens. Not the case with this one! The campers are getting heads blown off, chased by Norman Bates MFers… Easy five star read and I can’t believe I found this for a dollar!

[Christopher Fulbright · Rating 3 out of 5]

MOTHER'S DAY, the first in what ended up being a 4-book YA/Friday the 13th tie-in series by Eric Morse, is actually pretty good.

No really. It's better than you'd expect. In fact, I really had fun reading this book for one primary reason: it reminded me a lot of one of the original Friday the 13th movies. It felt like a Friday the 13th movie (with implied nudity and implied gore), I saw the story happening in my head just as if it were a lost F13 film, which played a little loose with what we know of Jason's story (which never seemed much of a concern with later filmmakers either), and followed all the rules of the slasher genre in general.

Not great literature, but certainly good entertainment for those who like this sort of thing. If you're a Friday the 13th fan, I recommend it.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conceit behind this series of books was to have a Friday the 13th story without Jason being in it. So, they took two routes: one, that Crystal Lake is so corrupted that the entire land is cursed and doomed and destroying everybody who wanders into it, and two, that the hockey mask worn by Jason allows for a sort of possession that allows this curse to have a face and a story so the victims can fight back instead of just escaping.

And it works really well: the book is definitely a YA but at points works on a few levels. Crystal Lake is driving its inhabitants crazy and we have stupid teenagers deciding to see if the legends are true by tempting fate and ending up hamburger. Plenty of gore done in a fairly satisfying way, and follows the movie's tropes to the letter with the added bonus of having an Evil Dead feel to the whole environment. Worth a read.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was like 15. I even remember where I was when I first read it. In the back of the car while we drove home from a summer trip to the ocean. Although it's a funny read, it is pretty reminiscent of a Friday the 13th movie. I liked the references that dated the book and made me laugh. Eric Morse is actually a decent author. He made the main character likable and the jerky characters very unlikable.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that I've seen every Friday the 13th movie (apart from the remake), I wouldn't call myself a fan of the series; it definitely rates well below Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street, as slasher franchises go. And as much affection as I have for '90s YA horror, the vast majority of those books are a C+ at best. Color me surprised to find that Mother's Day, a probably non-canonical YA continuation of F13 that would last for five books under the Camp Crystal Lake banner, is a case of two mediocre tastes tasting great together.

While the Friday the 13th movies typically center around teenagers, the version of teenagedom they depict is a sleazy and superficial one. The filmmakers aren't interested in giving depth and meaning to their characters' experiences; they're only setting up archetypal bowling pins over the course of the first two acts to knock them down in the third. Maybe this is a big part of why the franchise leaves me cold.

Mother's Day combats this--perhaps as a necessity of its medium--by allowing its teenage characters to relay some small amount of their perspectives. Yes, they are still archetypes, but in real life, teens tend to fall into archetypes as they figure themselves out. A gaggle of archetypes is a clique. I digress. Anyway, Morse seems interested in imparting some measure of humanity to his ensemble before lining them up for slaughter.

Carly is the basic all-American girl; somewhat dull, as Final Girls tend to be, but the fact that she has a complicated relationship with her mother makes her a bit more complex than the standard goody-goody. (While Friday the 13th has become the go-to reference for virginal heroines persevering, the individual movies don’t bear that out as often as the stereotype suggests.) Paul the jock and Boone the bad boy are believable creeps—they wind up arriving at the same destination (creepville) by different but authentic roads. For as often as the film franchise tackled teen horniness, I don’t recall it ever diving into issues of questionable consent; dunno if that was due to lack of awareness or a desire to keep the teens as empty-headed and distractable as possible. I was relieved that Carly immediately stops liking Paul when he tries to physically intimidate and gaslight her into having sex with him.

Albert is the chubby nerd. Despite his loneliness, he never escalates to creep levels himself, which was refreshing, and I thought it was a nice bit of honesty that Carly looks at him at one point and, even after being practically assaulted by Paul, still thinks that she could never date somebody who looks like Albert, even knowing he would treat her better. There’s even an intimation that she might be willing to use Albert to make Paul jealous, though that thread never really develops. It’s not admirable behavior, but I liked that the protagonist isn’t a perfect human who always says and does the right thing.

Kyle and Suzanne are pretty much non-entities, hippy-dippy types who talk pretty much exclusively about their love for meditation. Monique is the requisite “pretty girl who’s too prissy for camping”, but rather than being painted as an annoying foil for the “not like other girls” heroine to judge, she’s actually somewhat sympathetic in that Boone lied to her about their destination, telling her they were going to a hotel. I’d be pissed, too. Boone sucks.

As a Friday the 13th story, I imagine hardcore fans would find this disappointing. Jason never makes an appearance; the conceit of the series is apparently going to be that Crystal Lake locals become possessed by the hockey mask and carry out Jason’s vendetta while the man himself is burning in hell. I wonder if New Line, who owned Jason at this point, issued a proclamation that Jason himself couldn’t appear in the books, lest they sabotage the timeline for future installments? Obviously, by the time Jason X rolled around, they decided they didn’t really care about narrative coherence. The saving grace for Mother’s Day might be that it doesn’t pull a New Beginning; it’s upfront about the fact that the man in the mask isn’t Jason from page one.

The other big bummer might be that the kills aren’t creative. There are some stabbings, slit throats, and shotgun blasts, and that’s it.

I liked Mrs. Voorhees’ increased role in the story—from what I remember, she’s pretty much forgotten between Part 3 and Freddy vs Jason, even though she was the catalyst for the entire series. I also liked the idea that the teens are going to Crystal Lake on their own for a thrill and a chill; in the movies, the camp reopens so many times you wonder if some adults are just really eager to get rid of their kids. The book presents it as a much more isolated setting, with the campground being completely deserted and the town itself harboring only a handful of colorful characters, which lends it a nice atmosphere.

Surprisingly, despite how gimmicky the concept is, I would rank this above most Fear Street books.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I had heard of these movie tie-in young adult novels before but I had no idea so many of them existed. The big 3 horror franchises of the 80s have them. Elm Street, Halloween and of course Friday the 13th. I found some digital copies of them as they are LONG LONG out of print and decided what the hell I'll give them a read. They are all about the size of a Goosebumps/Fear Street book so less than 200 pages. I didn't know what to expect but what I did not expect was for it to be more unhinged than some of the actual movies in the series.

The story begins with a poacher stumbling across a grave in the middle of the woods. With Jason being well known at this point he digs it up hoping to find something he can exploit for cash. Instead what he finds compels him to wander out to where Jason was dragged to hell at the end of "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday." He finds Jason's hockey mask there and is compelled to put it on. That's how Jason returns just in time for Carly and her friends to take a little camping trip.

I was completely caught off guard by this being a follow up to that silly movie and it set the tone for the rest of the book. This book goes places I would've never predicted in a million years. My main issue is when the book isn't being ridiculous it's pretty much a return to the status quo. Things do pick up though by the end with another twist I will not reveal here but had my mouth hanging open at the sheer audacity of it. It took an already silly concept with Jason possessing people and made it even more cartoony.

Overall a weird combination of your typical F13 story and JGTH that is a quick easy read that doesn't overstay it's welcome.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't one I'm sure how to review, short of saying that it's a very interesting and unusual take on adding to the lore of Friday the 13th. I'm not opposed to it at all, though it is certainly different and if fans were hoping for the actual Jason in this story, you're in for a bit of a disappointment.

That being said, I enjoyed it for what it was, and I did like it better than I thought I would. I never really got into a lot of these YA horror novel series from the late 80s into the 90s; while I was certainly of an age demographic to have read and comprehended them easily, they didn't ever really catch my interest. Add to that the fact that this book, similar to what I've seen in R.L. Stine's work, really relies a lot on fake-out scares and cliffhangers that aren't serious from chapter to chapter, and I think that genuinely would have annoyed me to no end when I was younger. That being said, this book still surprised me with the content it did give me, and it still felt very much in the vein of other Friday the 13th novels out there at the same time!

And once again, I was able to go through this book thanks to the YouTube channel The 80s Slasher Librarian. They have done fan-recorded audiobooks of a lot of these old slasher novels as a means of archiving them and making them more affordably accessible to fans everywhere who don't have an entire mint to drop on getting the physical books. I highly recommend you check them out (though if you're not interested in an audiobook and would rather read it yourself, I do believe you can find a PDF file of this book somewhere on Archive.org!)

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheesy, nostalgic charm. I used to own print publications of some of this series but alas, they are gone and not always easy to replace. I found they have some pdf scans on Internet Archive to read online, so of course I'm going to.

This was a fun revisit to the first book - not sure if I read it before or not but believe so. It wasn't Jason per se but set in Camp Crystal Lake and paid tribute to of course Jason's fanatical mother-bond obsession that he shares somewhat with Norman Bates (these boys and their mothers!), but ties in that two of the main characters also have close-bonds with overbearing and protective mother hens.

Tributes is paid to the original series with some catchy explanations of the "there's a local legend 'round here", swimming at the lake, the "box", "kill her mantra". There's even a crazy Ralph type, although more articulate and less eccentric.

A fun YA romp in a series that never really made sense in movie form either, but that fans never cared about all that silly logic stuff.

[DeSean Blackwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a mid '90s YA novel, Eric Morse's MOTHER'S DAY manages to pack in all the things we expect to see from a Friday The 13th tale. Partying teenagers, creepy locals speaking prophecies of doom, and a hockey-masked madman killing our cast of unlucky souls one by one.

The is the first in a series of five novels that are set post-Jason Goes To Hell. Jason may be in hell, but he left behind his cursed mask. An unlucky hunter puts it on and starts wreaking havoc as a batch of young party goers arrive at the long-abandoned Camp Crystal Lake.

Mother's Day is a lean and brisk read that reads more like a screenplay which is perfect as it feels like you're watching a lost Friday sequel from the '90s. I read it in a day. For a YA novel, the kills are pretty nifty, and the body count is plentiful! About 10 kills!

The ending was highly satisfying, and I loved all the references and tie-ins to the lore of the films. You can tell Eric Morse had done his homework. I was also impressed with how well the writing has held up nearly 30 years later. I can't wait to finish this series!

[Kasey Loftis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I would get to read these books and I am so excited to be reading them. They are crazy hard to find. I love love love a group of teenagers go off camping/to a summer camp and a psycho maniac stalks them. This was a very short book and not much happens as far as scariness or kills until well over half way, and then its like bam bam bam, very quick succession kills. I noticed that the author's writing style reminded me so much of RL Stine's Fear Street where a chapter will end on a major cliffhanger, just to have it be nothing at the beginning of the next chapter. I personally liked the book and am excited to start the second. I have noticed that a lot of the bad reviews are from people trying to tie the books too closely to the movies. If you can read the books with just the basic idea of Jason and his mother and not try to fit this part to that part, and what part of this timeline, etc., I think it will be enjoyed much more.

[Andrew Wodzianski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm an unabashed fan of the F13th franchise. With a dash of maturity, I approached this title with lowered expectations. I find that sensibility best for a horror series that is more often rubbish than not. Color me blood red with surprise, this story was better than a third of the cinematic releases.

It seems to fall into the timeline after 'Jason Goes to Hell.' A few clever lines to address the consequences of that film, and 'Mother's Day' marches onwards.

It's silly, impossible, and far fetched. There are a few red herrings, some peculiar sub plots left hanging, and rushed ending. In other words; it reads like a script from most of the movies.

And for a YA novel, this little yarn is surprisingly violent!

If I can track down the second volume, which appears to be a direct sequel - I'll read it.

[Jacob Braswell-Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say five stars to all five books in the series yes there's five the fifth one can be read PDF I spoke with Eric over messenger and he told me the original rough drafts were a little different more of a body count and there was suppose to be two or three more to the series but hey he still did fabulous the only thing is I wished (SPOILER ALERT) The killer was Jason in the books not just his spirit possessing whoever puts on his mask. butttt I loved that concept cause I'm a fan of possession and that's a better way to go about it than Jason goes to hell I wished they would've used this idea in Jason goes to hell instead of eating his heart 🤔 love this series I wish more would come out yes I love that the video game is out I'm not greedy just want more Jason

[Stephane Beaulne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this book got so many positive reviews here. It reads like bad fan fiction. It's part Psycho, a big part The Mask (starring Jim Carrey), and just enough Friday The 13th so they can use the name. Jason isn't even in it, but his mask is. And the mask is possessed so whoever wears it gets Jason's powers and murderous rage. And the kicker is that Pamela Voorhees' decapitated head is alive in a box and controlling the mask. Aside from that the book is in desperate need of an editor and a proofreader because it's filled with typos and grammatical errors. Definitely avoid this one if you're a Friday The 13th fan.

[Lucifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book especially the first half but I wish the kills had been more descriptive. It felt very sudden and blunt, very much like there was no build up or tensions just they were running and then the next second they were dead and the book moved on. Maybe that was done purposely to show the efficiency of the killer and the lack of emotion in the kills, but I would have preferred more build up and description of the bodies other than basically “they were dead”. I did find the ending and the last character very unexpected though and it did make up for it with a very evoking last couple of chapters!

[Danell DeBacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I work in a library and as I was reading the YA shelves I found this book squeezed in with all of the angsty, teen, romance/sci-fi/coming of age books. I grabbed and it checked it out simply to show my brothers as a joke. The tagline on the cover and the description on the back were more than I could handle.

This book was all that I had hoped it would be. Quick, enjoyable read. Predictable. There was a random twist I did not see coming that did not really affect the plot and was obviously stolen from another horror classic but it did not detract from the story.

[DJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay.....in regards to the good it actually felt like a Friday the 13th movie with the cliched teenagers and dialogue. The atmosphere was well written and a good deal of people actually died which is rare in a young adult novel. But, in the world of the series (which I assume takes place after "Jason Goes to Hell" based on dialogue) makes absolutely no sense. The Friday the 13th series always had a bit of supernatural about them (after the 1st one) but things that happen in this book took the supernatural to the extreme which makes no sense. But, the book was okay for what it was.

[Citizen.742 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't let the rating fool you. This book is crazy. It has to be read to be believed. What should have been a straight forward teen slasher is instead a jumble of disturbed people doing interesting things with knives. There's uncomfortable sex scenes, a canoe, lots of walking, more graves than you'd expect in the woods, multiple killers, and even a skeleton.

Enjoy a Mother's Day like no other while the cool water of Crystal Lake invites you to take a load off and celebrate reckless youth.

[Mathew Bonta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a perfectly adequate young adult horror novel that serves as a psuedo sequel to the Friday the 13th film: Jason Goes to Hell.

A group of teens head out to camp Crystal lake to go camping. With designs on romantic liaisons they end up getting stalked by a hunter possessed by Jason Voorhees after finding his masked buried in the woods.

[Russell Holbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this entire series I only wish that there were hundreds more of these stories. This book kicks it off in true Friday the 13th fashion, although with a much more supernatural angle. I thought this book was really well written and tons of fun as well. A great beginning to a wonderful series!

[E. D. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book. It definitely felt like a Friday the 13th novel, at least more of a traditional slasher than most of the Halloween YA books did.
It did have a different angle than the others which was nice, but there was one little aspect I wasn't crazy about that was just a little off-putting, for me anyway. Otherwise not bad.

[Paul Lê · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd bump this up to 2.5 stars, if possible. The problem here is this took too long to get to the carnage. But when it does happen, at least it's explosive and non-stop. It just didn't help that all the characters weren't interesting. Still, it's a tolerable distillation of a typical F13 movie, albeit now with a blatantly supernatural quality rather than an implied one.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than I expected, but the the buildup and suspense is a bit lethargic. Morse’s treatment of “Jason Goes to Hell”-one of the weakest entries in the franchise-is far more worthy in its literary form. Pamela Voorhees’ telepathic presence is also an immediate plus.