Clown in a Cornfield

Clown in a Cornfield (2020) is a young adult horror novel by American author Adam Cesare. The novel follows Quinn Maybrook, a teenager who moves to the town of Kettle Springs with her widower father, Dr. Glenn Maybrook. As Quinn begins fitting in with her high school peers, she learns about the town’s traditions, which are tied to an industrial mascot called Frendo the Clown. At her first party, a killer dressed up as Frendo arrives and turns the celebration into a massacre. Quinn and her friends must survive the night while uncovering the Frendo killer’s devious intentions.

Cesare is a prolific horror novelist who has published a wide range of texts in the horror genre, beginning with his 2014 novella Tribesmen. Clown in a Cornfield is Cesare’s first foray into the young adult genre. Shortly after publication, the novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Young Adult Novel. It was adapted for film in 2025 by director Eli Craig and starred Katie Douglas as Quinn Maybrook, Carson MacCormac as Cole Hill, and Will Sasso as Sheriff George Dunne.

This study guide refers to the first paperback edition of the novel, published by HarperTeen in 2021.

Content Warning: The source material and study guide feature depictions of child death, bullying, racism, addiction, suicidal ideation, cursing, animal death, graphic violence, and death.

Plot Summary

The novel begins at a party organized by a group of teen live streamers at the Kettle Springs Reservoir. One of the live streamers, Cole Hill, performs stunt dives to encourage everyone to swim. The party abruptly ends when Victoria, Cole’s younger sister, experiences a head injury that causes her death.

One year later, Dr. Glenn Maybrook and his teenage daughter, Quinn, arrive in Kettle Springs, where they hope to cope with the death of Quinn’s mother, Samantha, who experienced a drug overdose at one of Quinn’s volleyball games. Quinn is reluctant to move and is eager to return to Philadelphia for college. She soon meets several teens in town—her neighbor, an enigmatic outsider named Ruston “Rust” Vance, and Cole Hill, who was recently accused of setting his family’s corn syrup factory on fire.

Quinn gets into trouble on her first day at school when her teacher, Mr. Vern, ropes her in with a group of teenagers who disrupt his class. Mr. Vern bans the teens from attending the Founder’s Day celebration that weekend. The teens scoff at the idea, knowing that his authority can’t extend to a public event. In detention, Quinn introduces herself to her new friends—Cole and the other live streamers, Janet Murray, Tucker Lee, and Ronnie Queen. They invite Quinn to a party they are throwing at Tillerson’s barn the night after the Founder’s Day parade.

The Founder’s Day parade prominently features the image of the factory mascot, a clown named Frendo, whom the town has co-opted as their cultural icon. During the parade, Tucker, Ronnie, Janet, and their friend Matt Trent pull off a prank that goes wrong and causes a three-car pileup. Sheriff George Dunne quickly blames Cole, citing the factory fire as precedent. The parade incident prompts an emergency town meeting, during which Dunne seizes authority from Town Mayor Harlan Jaffers. Soon after Harlan is ejected from the meeting, he is killed by a person dressed as Frendo. Frendo then kills Tucker.

Quinn goes to the party with Cole and Janet, crossing paths with Matt and Ronnie, who wear Frendo costumes. Quinn is surprised to see Rust at the party, especially as he and Cole were childhood friends who drifted apart when Cole started playing football. Cole teases Rust for hunting as a hobby. Quinn is shocked by Rust’s gun ownership. Back at the Maybrook residence, Glenn is kidnapped and placed in a cell with the corpse of the previous town doctor.

A person in a Frendo costume arrives at the party and starts shooting teenagers with a crossbow. This disperses the partygoers, separating Quinn and Janet from Cole, Ronnie, and Matt. While the latter three take shelter in a silo, Quinn and Janet make for the cornfield. Though they escape, Janet is shot in the shoulder. They soon encounter Rust, who has recovered his guns from his truck. Armed, Rust and Quinn fight back against the Frendo killer, who has set the barn on fire to pick off the remaining teenagers. After Quinn shoots the Frendo killer, she unmasks him, revealing Mr. Vern underneath.

Janet warns the teens of more Frendo killers and is soon beheaded. Rust and Quinn join their friends in the silo. Though they manage to fight back the new Frendo killers, they know they cannot stay inside forever. Rust hatches a plan to destroy the silo with explosives, an act of self-sacrifice that will give the others time to escape. The other teens make it to the road, where they come across Sheriff Dunne. Dunne accuses Cole of starting trouble. While trapped in the backseat of Dunne’s cruiser, Cole realizes that Dunne is working with the Frendo killers. Ronnie and Matt are in on the massacre plot as well. The three collaborators incapacitate Quinn.

It becomes clear to both Quinn and Cole that the Frendo killers are planning to frame them and Rust for the massacre. Dunne sees Cole and his generation as a “blighted crop” that needs to be destroyed in order to restore Kettle Springs. Dunne planned this massacre with the help of Cole’s father, Arthur, who blames Cole for Victoria’s death.

Quinn escapes after killing Matt and Ronnie. She follows Dunne and Cole to the ruined corn syrup factory, where Dunne and Arthur are preparing to stage Cole’s death by suicide. Quinn interrupts the execution by holding Arthur at gunpoint. This leads to a gunfight between Quinn and the remaining Frendo killers. Dunne throws Cole off the hanging platform, but Cole is saved by Rust, who arrives just in time with his truck. Quinn kills Dunne and reunites with Glenn, who was being held prisoner under the factory. Cole and Rust reconcile with a kiss.

Two months later, Glenn runs unopposed for town mayor, promising major reforms. The economy is revitalized by the influx of tourists drawn by news of the massacre. Quinn chooses to remain in Kettle Springs, convinced that leaving would prove the Frendo killers’ point that she didn’t belong in town. Cole and Rust become boyfriends. Cole reinvests his father’s fortune to redevelop the town. An epilogue reveals that Arthur Hill, though legally dead, escaped to Cuba and is plotting his return to Kettle Springs as the Frendo killer to take revenge on Cole.