thehorrordude's review
4.0
Ketchums novel about a Vietnam vet who returns home suffering from PTSD is an engaging and fast paced thriller/horror story. It follows Lee the vet who returns home from the war and lives in the woods with his dog suffers nightmares and torment from all he did and saw whilst tending to his crop of cannabis plants. We meet a group of highly successful people who go to the woods for a weekend retreat and stumple across Lee and his plants. Lees doesnt see this group as the harmless people they are and is transformed back to Vietnam. The hunting commences.
This was very good, you feel sorry for Lee and also hate him for what occurs in this along with the group on the weekend away who are not just one dimensional as we learn their backgrounds and history as the story progresses. Its violent but not overly so, one chapter about some war crimes committed against a village was pretty hard to read but other than that its an action packed story of cat and mouse where in the end nobody is a winner.
This was very good, you feel sorry for Lee and also hate him for what occurs in this along with the group on the weekend away who are not just one dimensional as we learn their backgrounds and history as the story progresses. Its violent but not overly so, one chapter about some war crimes committed against a village was pretty hard to read but other than that its an action packed story of cat and mouse where in the end nobody is a winner.
drakaina16's review
3.0
Not as good as I've come to expect from Ketchum, but I get that this is one of his earlier novels.
kmk182's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this one. Not horror like most Ketchum, but a tale about a Vietnam vet who lives in the woods farming marijuana plants. When some weekend campers come into his turf for some fun, he goes on the hunt.
verkisto's review against another edition
4.0
Jack Ketchum was one of those authors I read back in the '90s, in my horror boom. He was considered to be one of the best, so I read a handful of his books. They didn't make a huge impression on me, but I enjoyed his lean style. I read Cover, and remembered some of the details of the book, but not the story itself. I'm really pleased that I'm re-reading his stuff (and didn't give up on him after Off Season), because I'm finding that he really is one of the best.
Like Hide and Seek, Ketchum takes about half of the novel to build up the characters before subjecting them to the horrors of the second half of the book. Also like Hide and Seek, there's nothing supernatural about this story; it's more a thriller than a horror novel, but Off Season tagged Ketchum as a horror writer, so that's how casual readers who know him would think of his work. But in actuality, Ketchum's fiction goes deeper than that.
This is the second novel of his that goes beyond the typical slasher story, making it more about the characters and their complexities than about the killings. It was pretty easy to determine from the start of the book who was going to survive the ordeal in the woods, namely because of the way Ketchum established his different characters, but that's okay. The story was really about Kelsey, Caroline, and Michelle and the unusual relationship they shared.
In addition, Ketchum takes the time to develop Lee, his antagonist, just as well. Ketchum doesn't take the easy way out, making him some random psycho; he gives him a fully-developed background, developing his character as much as he does his protagonists, going so far as to make him a sympathetic character. He takes the time to develop Lee as a battle-scarred veteran, one whose emotional stability is hostage to his memories of Vietnam. He's removed himself from society because he recognizes that he's a danger to others, and when this group enters his territory, it triggers those memories. Ketchum doesn't paint Lee to be a character who can be forgiven for his actions, but we can at least empathize with the events that led him there. It also makes for an unexpected ending that seems to break the rules of storytelling. Instead, it forces the reader to re-examine who the antagonist and protagonist of the story are, and realize that Cover follows those rules better than they realized.
Ketchum makes an effort to create a good reason for the group of campers to encounter the antagonist, but it felt a little forced, a little clumsy. I'm sure groups of famous people go camping, but there was something about how the trip was squeezed in among all of their busy schedules that made it feel out of place to me. The story isn't about how they got together, but what happened once they were, so it's a minor quibble, but it did stand out to me.
Cover has a lot of violence, but it doesn't strike me as gratuitous or splatterpunk-ish. It does have a good story of survival, and I'd recommend it to readers who like horror, thrillers, or survival stories. I would hesitantly recommend it to people who like character-driven stories; it definitely shines in its characterization, but it's probably more extreme than the usual character-driven fare.
Like Hide and Seek, Ketchum takes about half of the novel to build up the characters before subjecting them to the horrors of the second half of the book. Also like Hide and Seek, there's nothing supernatural about this story; it's more a thriller than a horror novel, but Off Season tagged Ketchum as a horror writer, so that's how casual readers who know him would think of his work. But in actuality, Ketchum's fiction goes deeper than that.
This is the second novel of his that goes beyond the typical slasher story, making it more about the characters and their complexities than about the killings. It was pretty easy to determine from the start of the book who was going to survive the ordeal in the woods, namely because of the way Ketchum established his different characters, but that's okay. The story was really about Kelsey, Caroline, and Michelle and the unusual relationship they shared.
In addition, Ketchum takes the time to develop Lee, his antagonist, just as well. Ketchum doesn't take the easy way out, making him some random psycho; he gives him a fully-developed background, developing his character as much as he does his protagonists, going so far as to make him a sympathetic character. He takes the time to develop Lee as a battle-scarred veteran, one whose emotional stability is hostage to his memories of Vietnam. He's removed himself from society because he recognizes that he's a danger to others, and when this group enters his territory, it triggers those memories. Ketchum doesn't paint Lee to be a character who can be forgiven for his actions, but we can at least empathize with the events that led him there. It also makes for an unexpected ending that seems to break the rules of storytelling. Instead, it forces the reader to re-examine who the antagonist and protagonist of the story are, and realize that Cover follows those rules better than they realized.
Ketchum makes an effort to create a good reason for the group of campers to encounter the antagonist, but it felt a little forced, a little clumsy. I'm sure groups of famous people go camping, but there was something about how the trip was squeezed in among all of their busy schedules that made it feel out of place to me. The story isn't about how they got together, but what happened once they were, so it's a minor quibble, but it did stand out to me.
Cover has a lot of violence, but it doesn't strike me as gratuitous or splatterpunk-ish. It does have a good story of survival, and I'd recommend it to readers who like horror, thrillers, or survival stories. I would hesitantly recommend it to people who like character-driven stories; it definitely shines in its characterization, but it's probably more extreme than the usual character-driven fare.
mikekaz's review
4.0
One common factor to all of the Ketchum books that I've read is that they are intense. Some of them dealt with sensitive topics and were almost too intense to read. Some of them have intense situations that grip you for a long time. And then some have intense characters which can be extremely real.
With regards to Cover, it is the characters, specifically Vietnam veteran Lee Moravian. Since returning to the states, Lee has had problems adjusting to society. So many problems that he has separated himself from it and lives in the forest on some local mountains, growing marijuana for his few necessary supplies. After a few years of this existence, his wife leaves him. Lee might have been fine except for an unlucky group of campers who stumble upon his plants and disturb Lee's sanctuary. Still dealing with the flashbacks and remnants of war, Lee wages war against his new "enemies."
Unfortunately for me, the novel wasn't quite as good as many of Ketchum's other novels. While the character Lee was great and very real, the other characters weren't quite interesting enough. I'm not sure if they were unrealistic or annoying or both but there was something that stopped me from connecting to them. And the one that I did like the most was the first one to die. The book is more mainstream than other Ketchum books so people might find that appealing. Personally I would recommend Red as an excellent starting point for Ketchum; that's his story that hooked me for good.
With regards to Cover, it is the characters, specifically Vietnam veteran Lee Moravian. Since returning to the states, Lee has had problems adjusting to society. So many problems that he has separated himself from it and lives in the forest on some local mountains, growing marijuana for his few necessary supplies. After a few years of this existence, his wife leaves him. Lee might have been fine except for an unlucky group of campers who stumble upon his plants and disturb Lee's sanctuary. Still dealing with the flashbacks and remnants of war, Lee wages war against his new "enemies."
Unfortunately for me, the novel wasn't quite as good as many of Ketchum's other novels. While the character Lee was great and very real, the other characters weren't quite interesting enough. I'm not sure if they were unrealistic or annoying or both but there was something that stopped me from connecting to them. And the one that I did like the most was the first one to die. The book is more mainstream than other Ketchum books so people might find that appealing. Personally I would recommend Red as an excellent starting point for Ketchum; that's his story that hooked me for good.
alanbaxter's review
5.0
I love Ketchum's taut prose and powerful turn of phrase and it's on fine form in this one. One of his most mainstream novels, perhaps, but undeniable a Ketchum book. Superb.
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