A review by jgbradbury
Funland by Richard Laymon

3.0

Reading Richard Laymon is like binging on fast food. You know it’s not the highest quality stuff but damn if you don’t really enjoy it. But there were moments during this read where I began to suspect Laymon’s grease trap hadn’t been cleaned. Like the proverbial rollercoaster this book has its ups and downs. The satisfying climax saves it in the end but along the way there’s a lot of fumbling around. His characters are interesting though, blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist. Virtuous characters don’t really exist in this world and their struggles with doing the right thing I find much more compelling than having straight up heroes and villains. But as it goes, the villains have no depth, they’re just there to maim and murder and the bulk of the characters we follow are unlikable assholes (which again is kind of interesting) but my main issue revolves around Jeremy. I like that Laymon devotes so much time to a character who’s essentially a sidekick in a bully’s gang but the backstory and setup (which is the Laymon staple of average, horny teenage boy) doesn’t jive with the some of the more depraved acts he ends up committing. Maybe if there was more buildup I could believe it but in the end that character feels way undercooked. Also gross is the depiction of homeless people. Surely you’d think that Laymon wouldn’t make a blanket statement saying that the homeless are inhuman monsters out to rape and murder but that’s what we’ve got here. Pretty much all the characters see them as despicable. The blanket is raised a bit with a redemptive moment toward the end but even then the homeless “troll” cops an unwanted feel during his act of kindness haha. But at the end of the day this kind of political incorrectness is why I read this author. It’s like a breath of fresh air to me these days.