A review by dboorn23
The Stake by Richard Laymon
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.