Rich’s Take: Backstabbers by Eliza Jabore
The weather in Central New York is notoriously fickle. Only a few weeks ago I was writing that the damp cold and gray skies of winter were keeping spring at bay and now here we are in June, finally transitioning straight into summer with bright, sunny skies and warm weather. While autumn gets all the hype for all things spooky, don’t sleep on summer as an underrated season for horror. So much classic horror media starts off with people venturing into the great outdoors desperate for fun and adventure only to find themselves firmly in the crosshairs of deadly wildlife, unpredictable storms, or - how did I almost forget?! - completely unhinged killers.
Those are just a few of the scenarios friends Jade, Stef, and Zoe must survive throughout the course of Eliza Jabore’s Backstabbers. They’ve known each other since middle school and made a pact that every year they would travel somewhere new together. Past trips included backpacking across Europe, touring the ancient ruins of Southeast Asia, and other exotic locales. But this year they stick a little closer to home and visit a locale with a much more macabre history - Bones Hollow Trail, located in Olympic National Park in Washington.
The trail gained notoriety as the hunting ground of the Bones Hollow Hunter, a killer responsible for the deaths of at least nine women. All of them - except for Florence Marsh - were found naked and pinned to the tree with an arrow through their heart, a single tooth claimed as a trophy by the killer. The Bones Hollow Hunter was never caught and even though the murders stopped, speculation about them continued. Now, the true-crime obsessed Zoe leads her friends right into the heart of the unsolved murders with the documentary podcast from Laurie Wolff a constant presence.
In search of a picturesque hidden waterfall, Stef suffers a serious ankle injury and is unable to walk without support. Three days deep into the wilderness and completely lost thanks to a little white lie from Zoe, their only hope for help is the intimidating Jeremiah who eagerly invites them into his ramshackle cabin they stumble upon. As the women’s suspicions kick into overdrive, they realize they must rely on each other if they want to make it back to civilization. Though that's easier said than done when it becomes clear that maybe they didn’t know each other as well as they thought.
Listen, just based on the premise of a group of friends entering the old hunting grounds of a seemingly dormant serial killer, you probably already know what to expect from Backstabbers. It’s practically guaranteed they’re going to run across if not the Bones Hollow Hunter himself, someone equally dangerous. Even with that knowledge - and even if you guess some of the other twists - the tension and fear Jabore cultivates throughout the entirety of the novel will keep you glued to the pages anyway. It makes me think of one of my favorite discussion topics with other horror fans - whether it’s more important for a story to go against established tropes and expectations or to use them to your advantage and let the writer's skill be what sets it apart. Backstabbers is one of the rare books that falls into both categories.
There are so many moments throughout the novel that evoke the fun of vintage horror movies where you’re constantly screaming at the main characters. The first of many is when they stumble upon the run-down cabin in the woods. It screams “THIS IS A MURDER HOUSE” from the moment they see the exterior and don’t even get me started on the interior decorating. Jade and her friends notice all of this, but their situation forces them to stay even though the reader is thinking, “Yeaaaaaah I’ll just take my chances with the mountain lions and bears, thanks”. Then there’s Jeremiah. He tries to show Jade and her friends hospitality, but he keeps saying things that make him seem a little bit off. So what does the fearless leader of the friend group, Zoe, do? She tries to humiliate him and constantly pushes his buttons during their interactions. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure I said outloud to myself, “ARE YOU INSANE?!” It’s in these moments that Jabore’s skills really shine, because Backstabbers is a novel of escalating tension and there’s barely a moment to catch your breath once the action kicks into gear.
The biggest surprise of Backstabbers is that while it’s a very entertaining slasher novel that gives fans of the genre everything they could possibly want, it also digs deeper by exploring the dynamics of friendship and how they evolve over time. The three have been friends for decades and they have seemed to settle into familiar roles over the course of their friendship - Zoe is the adventurous, free spirit leader, Stef is the prototypical follower, and Jade is the pragmatist. These roles served them well as girls as Zoe and Jade would balance each other out, but as soon as things start falling apart in the wilderness and they face very real consequences, fractures start to appear as their personalities clash. It’s an interesting storyline and it could be argued that it’s the main storyline, with the slasher elements serving as the mechanism that forces them to confront their issues. I don’t want to spoil too much of the “how” or “why”, but Jabore does an excellent job depicting the ways friendships can change and how you can outgrow people as you get older and become a more self-realized version of yourself.
I also loved the commentary woven throughout on the complicated discourse that surrounds the True Crime genre and the communities within it. Most of it centers around the fictional Serial Killers USA: The Bones Hollow Hunter podcast hosted by Laurie Wolff, which the friends listen to throughout their hike. Jade finds the show disrespectful to the victims and cringey. She specifically calls out the choice to have “I Think We’re Alone Now” serve as the outro music and how Wolff creates a fandom around misery by calling her fans “Little Savages”. Zoe is firmly on the other side of the debate and chose the vacation destination solely because of its history. No judgement about those who enjoy True Crime, but I feel like there is an important conversation to be had around placing the focus on the victims and not making a spectacle of tragedy and Jabore does a great job of exploring this from Jade’s perspective.
Although, there are elements of the podcast being utilized within the narrative that did impact my enjoyment of the story slightly. Throughout the novel, Jade hears the voice of Laurie Wolff narrating the events going on around her or Jade's own internal monologue during periods of stress. I think this device could have added some interesting elements to the story - and it did at times - but there were moments where it was utilized a little too heavily and got to be distracting. That being said, I did enjoy the way actual recorded moments from the podcast were used to punch up the unnerving elements of the story and give the reader more insight into the crimes.
Backstabbers is an impressive debut and if you’re looking for a novel that’s more “0 to 100” than “slow burn”, this is the novel for you!
Vibes: 4/5
