Horror Novels

The supermarket shouldn't have been shut - it wasn't normal for Else to quit early. But then it wasn't normal for a meat cleaver to fly through the air by itself. Or for the guard dog locked in overnight to end up like hamburger meat. Or for Elsie herself to feature on the butcher's slab, neatly wrapped and jointed...There's weird things happening in the town of Oasis, and Lacey Allen had better... BEWARE!

No, no, no, no...bad Laymon. Baaaaaad. Okay, this isn't the worst book I've ever read, but for a Laymon book, it's distinctly horrible, in extremely bad taste, and too dull in too many sections to give it that zap! and zing! I've come to expect from him. The late Richard Laymon is always my go-to guy for a pulpy, sometimes sleazy, never politically correct but always satisfying horror romp. There's just something so delightfully wicked and deranged about his straightforward, shoot from the hip, slice like a razor blade prose that puts you right into the action and hardly ever relents until the last page is turned. Once upon a time, Stephen King referred to his own work as the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries. Not a chance Mr. King; even on your worst day you offer up something rich and tasty with complex flavor profiles that linger long in the memory luring readers back over and over again for repeated tastings. Laymon's books, however (and I love them for this) are a cheeseburger and fries that you wolf down and perhaps groan in pleasure while doing so, then lie back for a satiated moment of stoned out bliss. You'd never want to subsist entirely on a diet of Laymon books, but Jesus, who doesn't get a craving every now and then for an injection of grease and carbs?But god help you if you get a bad burger and spend the night in the john or grasping that bottle of Pepto Bismol in your weak and shaky hands (I'm definitely taking this metaphor too far, but seriously, I feel like I just ate a bad burger, and I'm not happy about it). The indigestion is leaving me a little pissy and put out. This book has its moments that salvage it from the garbage heap completely -- the last section in the Funhouse is pretty messed up and unfolds nicely with Laymon's characteristic cinematic style. Why more of his books have not been made into movies is beyond me. They are the perfect fodder for the slasher crowd. But for the most part, this book is too slow to really get started. The characters are mostly terrible and so dislikable it kept making me curl my lip in distaste. I've pretty much gotten used to Laymon's standard sex-obsessed male adolescent who ogles all the female characters and thinks nasty, inappropriate things about them in his mind. Doesn't matter if death is breathing down your neck or some monster is crawling up out of the floor, if there's any chance of getting laid, these male characters will never pass up an opportunity to cop a feel or make out. This time the level of inappropriate hormone-driven angst is ridiculous, and insulting. The comments made about the girls drove me bananas! Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit. All I know is my tolerance for blatant male chauvinism bordering on misogyny has whittled down to zero. Laymon tries to balance this with "strong" female leads who are the heroes of the story, but it wasn't enough to tip the scales for me. Furthermore, there are huge, long, meandering sections supposedly reserved for "character development" but do much more to bog the story down than enrich it in any way. Sorry Laymon my man. Rest in peace and all, but this one is a real miss for me.

Mordock's Cave is one of the spectacular wonders of the world, a place where thousands of sightseers every year take an awe-inspiring boat trip on a lake deep beneath the earth's surface to marvel at Nature's handiwork. But the darkness is also the home of things Nature never intended - things violent, bestial, and obscenely evil. When a sudden power failure incapacitates the elevator to the surface, a group of tourists is trapped in the underground depths. Cold and scared, without lights or food, their only hope is to find an escape route through the sealed-off end of the cavern. But their explorations uncover a nest of horrors that has lain hidden for generations, and their idyllic underground journey becomes a nightmare trip through hell, as they find themselves battling for survival against the creatures of the abyss....

For some inexplicable reason I'm repeatedly drawn back to Laymon's work, every year or two, even though I'm batting way below the Mendoza line* as far as the hit/miss ratio. I think I like the idea of Laymon more than I enjoy reading him, much of the time. The idea of reading brainless, B slasher movies in novel form, filled with hopelessly stupid (and hopelessly horny) teens who get offed one by one seems fun as hell. But the actual reading of them can sometimes be a chore, as the characters are usually so moronic that you can't help but root for them to die, which is fine when watching a movie, but reading a novel requires -- at least for me -- some sort of connection with/sympathy for the characters, especially in a horror novel.This one's an early work of his, and you can tell because it's short and moves fast -- one of the only things I liked about it. There aren't nearly as many wasted pages compared with his 90s work, where he'd stretch out a 200-page story to near-epic length. I think his writing skills did improve over the years, but he also learned to pad the hell out of his novels, as became the norm in horror in general.The basic story is that there are new films being shown at the Haunted Palace movie theater, but these aren't your typical horror films -- they're quick little bursts of terror and violence, and very realistic. Almost like snuff films. These shorts are very popular among the younger crowd, until some of them become potential fodder for the next "movie." Brit thinks she recognizes an old friend in one of the films, a friend she suddenly can't get a hold of. Of course this friend was "killed" in the movie, and Brit wonders if maybe it was real, so she decides to investigate..This is definitely lower-tier Laymon -- not offensively bad, but not good either, imo. It's just sorta there, in the typical "making it up as he goes along" Laymon way, throwing anything and everything at the wall to see what sticks. The characterization is paper thin compared to his later novels, but I'd actually take that over 500 pages of the depraved thoughts of virtually every (male) Laymon character ever. It's also pretty light, not nearly as sadistic and gross as some of his other work. But I usually find that, compared with similar authors like Jack Ketchum or Bryan Smith, I'm never actually disturbed or unsettled when reading his work, as it's all so silly and over-the-top in its depiction of violence.** And there's nothing wrong with a light, fun horror read. Hell, I've read enough of them, so I must enjoy them at least some. But this one's a little too light, and even though I just read it, it's already fading from memory, just like my last few Laymon reads. So I think I'm officially done with him, finally.Until next time.2.0 Stars*That's a baseball reference that means a batting average that's very, very bad, named after a Pirates shortstop from the 70s who was very, very bad and should feel bad. In case any of you reading this are non baseball-loving heathens.**All this makes it sound as if I hate all of Laymon's work, which isn't the case. I especially enjoy his late 80s novels, before they became too bloated, such as his books under the name Richard Kelly -- Midnight's Lair and Tread Softly (i.e. Dark Mountain) -- as well as Flesh and The Stake (from 1990, which is about the time when his tendency to pad started to rear its ugly head). But those were all earlier reads in my Laymon past, and I sometimes wonder if I'd have liked them as much if I'd read them later on, once I had gotten used to his schtick.

Formerly friendly neighbors turn to crazed maniacs. A stranger at a gas station shoves a nozzle down a customer's throat and pulls the trigger. A soaking-wet line of movie-goers smashes its way into a theater to slaughter the people inside. A loving wife attacks her husband, still beating his head against the floor long after he's dead. As the rain falls, blood flows in the gutters -- and terror runs through the streets.

Laymon's restored version of his 1992 horror novel that tells of a group of former college friends who hold a reunion at a deserted resort lodge only to find they're sharing it with a maniac. — They meet for one week every year, five young women, best friends since college, in search of fun and thrills. Each year they choose a different place for their reunion. This year it's Helen's choice, and she chose the Totem Pole Lodge. Bad choice. The Totem Pole Lodge is a deserted resort hotel deep in the woods with a gory, shocking past Helen has a macabre streak and she can't wait to tell her friends all about what happened at the lodge and why it's now abandoned. But Helen and the others are in for a nasty surprise. The resort isn't quite as deserted as they think. And not all the gruesome events at the Totem Pole Lodge are in its past. The worst are still to come....

'If you've missed Laymon, you've missed a treat' Stephen King.Twenty minutes before the quake hit, Stanley was ogling Sheila through his living-room window. Now he may be able to do more than just ogle ... Sheila's trapped in her ruined house and her husband and daughter are stranded on the other side of the city. The power's down, the emergency services can't cope and the lawless are combing the ruins. Sheila's fate depends on who can get to her first...

I am a huge Richard Laymon fan. This was one of the few novels he wrote that I hadn't yet read, so I dived in. I thought the story was weak. The author has writing talent and a few plot twists to carry it, but maybe I was expecting too much. This is the same author that has produced several books I could not put down.In any case, this reads sort of like a mystery with a few weird characters and a bit of a plot twist. I felt it lacked the characteristic mood and atmosphere that mark the author's better works. Reading it felt like work sometimes.Not bad, just not really good either.

It started as a game. Six college kids at a party. Then someone suggested they try the Ouija board. The board that Corie had hidden in the back of her closet and sworn never to touch again. Not after what happened last time. Not after Jake's death...They were only playing around, but the Ouija board worked all right. Maybe too well. A spirit who called himself Butler began to send them messages - and make demands. Butler promised them a hidden treasure if only they would follow his directions and head off to a secluded spot in the mountains... a wild, isolated spot where anything could be waiting for them. Treasure or death. Or Butler himself.

I love camping, and have loved it since I was kid. everything about it: walking in nature, splashing in water, setting up camp, the conversations around the fire and the cooking and the early mornings waking up to the music of birds and insects, the nights spent in a tent or under the stars. Richard Laymon loves camping too: he spends nearly the first 200 pages describing a camping trip before bothering to get to the horror. the attack on the campers felt almost like an afterthought. I didn't mind the lazy pacing because it was really pleasant reading about this trip. characterization may not be the author's forte in general, but the characters here felt absolutely real. reading the various perspectives of child, teen, and adult took me right back to various camping trips throughout my life. Laymon gets all of the details right. and there's a genuine generosity of spirit displayed in this novel that makes it feel like something he wrote out of love for camping with a big group rather than just to bring in some money.I was pleased to see Laymon control his sleazier traits. nearly every character is a horny character, but unlike past novels, I didn't get the sense that he was salivating while writing about his characters' sexuality. rape - a Laymon hallmark - unfortunately is present, but he restrains himself there too. although I could have done without it entirely, I did appreciate that he showed an unusual sensitivity this time. and there is a teen romance that is surprisingly tender and charming. Laymon even shows some compassion for the novel's antagonist - an old woman trying to survive in the wilderness despite being saddled with a brutally violent rapist of a son.so overall this was an atypical novel for this author. sweet-tempered in tone, more concerned with the details of a trip than creating a tight and focused narrative. I liked that a lot. it also involved the supernatural, which is unusual for Laymon. the last quarter is definitely gripping. plus it includes zombies, because why not.

Hell is a city. Forget the old-fashioned sulphurous pit you may have read about. Over the millennia, Hell has evolved into a bustling metropolis with looming skyscrapers, crowded streets, systemized evil, and atrocity as the status quo.Cassie thought she knew all about Hell. But when her twin sister, Lissa, committed suicide, Cassie found that she was able to travel to the real thing—the city itself. Now, even though she's still alive, Cassie is heading straight to Hell to find Lissa. And the sights she sees as she walks among the damned will never be in any tourist guidebook.

When Ed receives word from his college girlfriend that she's in love with someone else, Ed's world changes in a second. Heartbroken and half-mad, Ed goes for a nighttime walk, but on this lonesome October night, he is not alone. There are others roaming the streets, waiting to show Ed just how different his world can be. Some are enticing, some disturbing--and some are deadly, in search of prey.

It's a hot, hot night. Too hot to be making love unless your romance is young, like Sherry and Duane's. It's their first time but there's just one problem - they have no condoms. Of course they could wait until tomorrow... Duane remembers the all-night Speed-D-Mart. In the usual circumstances, it's not a place anyone would want to visit at night. But these aren't usual circumstances. Duane throws on his clothes - the store is just ten minutes down the block. Now Sherry is waiting. Ten minutes has gone, so has twenty. She's not worried - what's another few minutes? Then she hears the noise from down the street. It might be a door slamming. It might be the backfire of a car. But Sherry thinks it sounds mostly like a gunshot...

Also published as Amara — An ancient beauty . . . — Amara was once the Princess of Egypt, the beautiful wife of Mentuhotep the First. Now, 4000 years later, she and her coffin are merely prized exhibits of the Charles Ward museum. Her lovely face and strong, young body are no more. If you were to look at her today you would see only a brittle bundle of bones and dried skin. But looks can be very deceiving. . . .A missing mummy . . .Barney, the museum’s night watchman, is the first to make the shocking discovery that the mummy’s coffin has been broken open. He immediately assumes it’s the work of grave-robbers who care nothing about the sanctity of the dead. But Barney doesn’t have a chance to do anything about it. Then two security guards come upon the open coffin and they too believe that the mummy has been stolen. What else could sane men think? By the time they realize the unbelievable truth, it’s far too late for them to do anything . . . ever again.The walking dead!Now Amara is once again freed from the cramped confines of her coffin, free to walk the earth, free to stalk her prey. Free to kill. Nothing can satisfy her deadly bloodlust. And no one can stop her. You cannot kill what is already dead.

Rick would do anything for his girlfriend, Bert. He'd even spend his vacation in the wilderness with her, hiking the trails around Fern Lake, even though it's the last place on Earth he wants to be. But Rick would follow Bert to hell and back - which is just what he's about to do.Gillian is on vacation too, but her pastimes are decidedly weirder than Rick and Bert's. She likes to break into people's homes and live there while they're away. Too bad for her she picked the home of a serial killer - a particularly nasty one who likes to take his victims out to the wilds of Fern Lake so he can have his fun without being interrupted. Rick and Bert have no idea how wild the wilderness can be. But they're about to find out.

Melvin was definitely the biggest creep in Ellsworth High, and the other kids mercilessly taunted him for his odd looks and weird behaviours. Vicki was the only one to stand up for him but even she had to admit he'd gone too far when he dug up a body and attempted to bring it back to life with the aid of a car battery. — Years later Vicki still has nightmares about Melvin's "joke" and now that she's back in Ellsworth, she knows she'll have to see him again. Recently released from a mental institution, Melvin is acting stranger than ever. His experiments with the dead have progressed and as soon as he can get Vicki - or rather her body - where he wants her, he can realize his most chilling dream of all...

Neal has been carrying a gun in his car lately - just to be safe. And it looks like it's a good thing he has. When he spots a woman tied naked to a tree and a man ready to kill her, he has no choice but to shoot the attacker. As a reward, the woman gives Neal something unimaginable. Neal's reward is a bracelet. A very special bracelet. It enables its wearer to step inside other people, to see through their eyes, to feel whatever they feel. To take "body rides". But Neal has a big problem. The man he shot isn't dead. And he wants revenge. First he's going to finish what he started with the woman. Then he's going after Neal...

Alice has quite a story to tell you. That's not her real name, of course. she couldn't give her real name, not after all the things she reveals about herself in this book. All of her... adventures. And all that killing. She wouldn't want the police to find her, now would she? — It started out so nice. Alice was house-sitting for her friend, enjoying having the whole place to herself, with the sunken bathtub and big-screen television. But everything went wrong that first night, when she looked out the window and saw a strange man jumping naked into the swimming pool. Alice just knew he would be coming to get her, like all those other men before. But she would never be a victim again. Not after she remembered the old Civil War saber hanging in the living room...