nick_borrelli's review
3.0
Here's the thing about Richard Laymon. He writes AMAZING horror stories. Where he loses me though is in the weird, creepy, and borderline pornographic sex scenes that he injects throughout these amazing horror stories. I would enjoy his books ten times more if the perversion wasn't so pervasive. This had all of the makings of an incredibly entertaining read...a group of adults stumble upon an abandoned hotel while exploring a local ghost town. Inside the hotel they discover a human body with a stake driven into its heart. Is it a vampire? A murder victim? What the hell happened there? Do they remove the stake from the body and if so, what will happen? I was totally into this book and then Richard's weird fascination with sex showed up. And showed up again. And again. And my enjoyment quickly changed to annoyance. Ultimately the story was satisfying and at times was brilliant in the horror aspects. I just couldn't get past the other nonsense though and for that reason, this only gets an average rating for me.
dboorn23's review
3.0
My first Laymon and probably not my last. Not the best book I’ve ever read but not a complete train wreck either.
But my God, I would not want to meet Laymon in a dark alley if I was a young girl. Dude is obsessed with long, detailed and creepy sex references. Every character in the book wanders around with a massive rock on, eyeing up everyone’s “rumps”, “breasts” and “panties” like they’re at a weird butchers sizing up pork loins.
Reading other reviews it seems the sex thing is just Laymon’s thing. The gore fares better. Ridiculously, gratuitous violence is fine with me. Stakes through eyes, flapping skin and sliced up necks are all good.
I can actually pull together a strange parallel with “My Datk Vanessa” which also deals with rape and sex and sexual violence as a central theme and see how both can be extremely hard to read but one is just done better (MDV) and handled with care.
Most people probably go into this knowing what they’re getting (not Dracula) so if this has landed in your lap it’s probably not because Danielle Steel is your favourite author.
3/5 for breezy, gore-soaked, escapism.
But my God, I would not want to meet Laymon in a dark alley if I was a young girl. Dude is obsessed with long, detailed and creepy sex references. Every character in the book wanders around with a massive rock on, eyeing up everyone’s “rumps”, “breasts” and “panties” like they’re at a weird butchers sizing up pork loins.
Reading other reviews it seems the sex thing is just Laymon’s thing. The gore fares better. Ridiculously, gratuitous violence is fine with me. Stakes through eyes, flapping skin and sliced up necks are all good.
I can actually pull together a strange parallel with “My Datk Vanessa” which also deals with rape and sex and sexual violence as a central theme and see how both can be extremely hard to read but one is just done better (MDV) and handled with care.
Most people probably go into this knowing what they’re getting (not Dracula) so if this has landed in your lap it’s probably not because Danielle Steel is your favourite author.
3/5 for breezy, gore-soaked, escapism.
More...