Before I picked up a single book in this series based on the popular Friday the 13th films, I was told that most of them were bad beyond belief, with The Jason Strain among the worst, along with half of the Jason X series. But I took my chances (and my money) and plunked down the cash to get them anyway. I enjoyed the novelizations of Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason, so I had high hopes for the other books. And after reading Christa Faust's original novel The Jason Strain, I still do, but they've been brought down significantly.
My love for Christa Faust is split. I loved her novelization for Final Destination 3, but didn't care too much Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamspawn. This book did nothing to sway me one way or another, which is, I guess, a good thing.
The Jason Strain's plot is relatively straight forward. A twisted television producer creates the twisted television show Xtreme Elimination, which takes death row convicts, tosses them together on an island, and lets them have at each other. Last one alive has their sentence reduced to life in a cushy federal pennetentiary. But this year, the executives decide to shove Jason Voorhees on the island, just to shake things up.
The drawback of having death row cons as your characters: ALL of them are instantly unlikeable, save for Buth, the "Butcher," who may or may not be guilty of the crime for which he will fry. And being death row inmates, nearly nobody can relate to them properly.
Also, Jason seems to have been added as an afterthought. Its like Faust an original story and was told to add Jason Voorhees to make the story marketable. Also, theres a weak subplot about scientists wanting Jason's DNA to use in research for diseases. Fortunately, Jason never quite feels forced into the narrative, but neither, too, did he feel like a natural element of the story.
I really wanted to enjoy this book, and for the most part, I did but not as much as I would have liked. The kills are fun, and the narrative is solid. But its no literary masterpiece. I recommend only hardcore fans of the series (or horror, in general) seek this out.