Though in her seventies, Rose DuBois is still full of life, surrounded by her small group of friends in the Autumn Springs Retirement Home and connected with her daughter and grandson. However, as active and involved that she is within the community, she finds it hard to committing herself to any deeper or passion-filled relationship like so many of her fellow residents seem to pursue. She’s not looking for a new partner, but is content with the freedom of possibilities she can enjoy in late life while still appreciating the friendships she’s established, particularly with Beauregard Mason Miller (just plain Miller).
When one of the residents appears to die from a fall and injury, no one at Autumn Springs is particularly surprised. And when her partner soon follows her in an apparent suicide, there is some heightened shock, but nothing that cannot be explained or understood. But then the deaths keep coming. Rose and Miller consider some of the true crime stories they enjoy to talk about and begin to suspect that something similar may be happening here: A killer seems to be loose in Autumn Springs. But who is it? Could it be the crazy conspiracy theorist down the hall, or could those three odd sisters that everyone whispers about being witches somehow be involved?
A police detective slowly begins to pay closer attention, but the escalating fear and chaos within the walls of the retirement community may make it too late for Rose and her friends to enjoy the last moments of existence they have left.
In The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, Philip Fracassi takes the core of slasher tropes and transfers it from an isolated community of hormone-driven, substance-imbibin’ teens (like a camp) to an equally horny and drug-saturated group of septua- and octa-genarians. The formula fits perfectly while making the entire thing seem completely fresh and interesting.
The novel is already mentioned on several ‘best of the year’ lists, certainly for horror, but also more generally. The accolades are completely understandable, because the novel is hugely entertaining, and a compelling read that breezes by even at 400-some pages. The slasher plot and graphic descriptions of kills certainly put the book into the horror genre, but the overall structure and pull of the story results in it being more accurately called a mystery novel, albeit one with horror tropes and no shying away from the violence. A large part of why I enjoyed the novel so much is likely because it is not just a take on the slasher, or an homage to that sub-genre, but also offers that compelling whodunnit drive. And there’s even a dash of the (possibly) supernatural thrown into the mix.
Fracassi’s other success for the novel lies in the characters, from the awesome “final girl” of Rose to the secondary characters. There’s room in the story for readers to get to meet and learn a bit about the eccentricities of each character. The idea of an older ‘final girl’ for a slasher actually isn’t entirely new, given Jamie Lee Curtis’ repeated turns as Laurie Strode up through the Blumverse Halloween trilogy. So there is still some familiarity to a character like Rose for genre fans.
But what is a pretty unique take (as far as I know) would be in making (most) all of the characters equally older as well. [Editor’s note: Trish Matson recommends The Thursday Murder Club, etc., by Richard Osman.] Society has a way of dehumanizing and marginalizing the elderly. Certainly society in the United States, if not other parts of the world. Fracassi plays with this idea throughout the novel, in terms of the expectation that people in an old-age home will die and it wouldn’t necessarily be suspicious, but also in the relative lack of concern or sense of tragedy that accompanies the deaths compared to if someone younger had been the victim.
In the broadest of strokes horror is about facing mortality; where else but in a retirement community would that specter be met so acutely? Fracassi uses that fact to really delve into themes of life, death, fulfillment, regrets, loneliness, companionship, etc with his characters: victims, killers, and onlooking bystanders who are younger (like the staff or police.)
I wouldn’t say there’s anything profound within the pages of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, but it is certainly intelligent. Even more importantly, it’s a page turner that should keep mystery and horror fans on the edge of their seats.
