Books like Night Show

Night Show was one of the only Laymon novels I had not read. That is no longer the case. Unfortunately, I'm left with a feeling that I should have ignored this one when I saw it on NetGalley. Alas, I requested a copy for review, and was provided one. So here we go...This book isn't very good. In fact, it's probably down there in the bottom five of Laymon's work. I am and always will be a huge fan of Dick's (may he rest in peace), but like every prolific author in existence, he produced several stinkers in his time. This is no Island, Night in the Lonesome October, In the Dark, or The Traveling Vampire Show. This one is more along the lines of the foolishness that is Darkness, Tell Us and Amara. There's two things going on in this book, and neither one of them is very plausible or interesting. You have Stalker McPanty-Sniffer who is invited in by the woman he is stalking in the attempt to make him go away (this is some of that old bullshit known as forced plot progression, where idiot characters react in idiotic ways for the sake of the storyline, because without them being idiots, the story would simply stall and die), while on the other hand we have a chick seeking revenge for someone making her piss herself. Okay, she got hit by a car too, but she seems far more concerned with the fact that someone made her yellow her panties. This isn't a huge affront, as Laymon does this kinda story often. But at least in his other books you have the nutso sex and violence to distract you.I think what pissed me off the most in this book was the lack of wow or ewww factor. You have all of the Laymon staples here: gratuitously-described sex, batshit crazy baddies, and terrific, realistic dialogue. But we're missing all the over-the-top blood and gore. This book felt nerfed. For those of you who are not familiar with the term "nerfed" here's the definition that came up when I used my incomparable Google prowess:"Nerf is a term that means to be rendered ineffective or less effective by a change in the rules or game system. The term nerf is based on Non-Expanding Recreational Foam, a substance used to make toy weapons. To nerf could be translated as "turn a real weapon into a toy weapon"."Got it? Well, that's what this book felt like - nerfed Laymon. Every time I felt something big coming, some amazing feat of debauchery or gory fuckery, Laymon pulled his punch. Every fucking time. The ending was the biggest culprit. What a fucking let down. Sigh...And finally, Laymon's sex scenes suck, and this one is packed full of them. They're laughable at best. There, I said it. The cat's out of the bag. I bet that bag feels empty now. It felt so full and complete when the cat was there. Whatever will that bag do without that cat inside her...In summation: There are far better Laymon books out there. I listed four of my favorites above, so check those out. For those of you looking for Laymon-Lite, this is the book you should read. Hardcore Laymon fans need not apply. Final Judgment: Like a Michael Bay movie without explosions.