A review by kyleofbooks
Midnight's Lair by Richard Kelly
1.0
Two 1-star reads in a row.
2020 is off to a pitiful start...
This is, I believe, my first foray into the “splatterpunk” sub genre of horror lit. I don’t know how—or why— it has taken me this long to discover it... horror holds a special dark place in my heart in all things cinema, literature, and television. I’m a certified gorehound! But this book let me down. I hope this doesn’t set a precedent for the ones to follow, because this book is trashy, and not in a fun way.
Midnight’s Lair was published in the late 1980’s, and it shows—it really felt like I was reading the novel equivalent to a campy, retro slasher film, which was fun... at first. We get a host of the usual suspects you’d find in an 80’s horror, as well as lots of topless women (a good percent of this book is devoted to women being ogled terribly), pervy men/teens, cheeky banter, and all the ill-advised sex and unrelenting violence.
The novel starts off quickly, with no time to develop a real sense of the characters. I thought to myself, “They’re trapped already? That was fast!”. As it progresses, though, we get multiple shifting POV’s, and the characterizations were almost enough to satisfy me (with the exception of Kyle—who I regret sharing my namesake with—because I really, truly loathed him!). A slower build-up of tension would’ve benefitted this book greatly, but it just wasn’t there. And then, the actual “cave dwellers” don’t pop up until about 2/3rds of the way through. Instead, the author chose to focus more on sex, objectifying women, and creepy lechers. I had to skim a lot of this, because it made me feel icky—all the unnecessary sexual violence against the women—it was absolutely abhorrent! Almost every page, there are descriptions of women’s breasts, panties, thighs, “rumps”—and all through the heavy “male gaze”— as well as numerous incidents of slut shaming and someone making off-color comments. If blatant misogyny and shitty horror are your thing, Richard Laymon is for you!
I was hoping to read something campy and fun, but this just left me feeling gross. I’m against censorship, so I don’t mind ultra-violence, gore, and artistic expression in the horror genre when it’s done for a reason and makes sense in the story. But here, it’s just played for shock, titillation, and schlocky exploitation—and I love exploitation films and literature, too—but not when it’s pointlessly crude and mean-spirited.
Also, there were just too many characters for me to focus on or try/care to remember (I believe the initial number started at 40). And while we get many POV’s, I think it would have been better served with a smaller batch of characters.
In the end, I really have nothing good to say about Midnight’s Lair. The author should be ashamed of himself for writing such trash! This book is a waste of time, money, and paper.
2020 is off to a pitiful start...
This is, I believe, my first foray into the “splatterpunk” sub genre of horror lit. I don’t know how—or why— it has taken me this long to discover it... horror holds a special dark place in my heart in all things cinema, literature, and television. I’m a certified gorehound! But this book let me down. I hope this doesn’t set a precedent for the ones to follow, because this book is trashy, and not in a fun way.
Midnight’s Lair was published in the late 1980’s, and it shows—it really felt like I was reading the novel equivalent to a campy, retro slasher film, which was fun... at first. We get a host of the usual suspects you’d find in an 80’s horror, as well as lots of topless women (a good percent of this book is devoted to women being ogled terribly), pervy men/teens, cheeky banter, and all the ill-advised sex and unrelenting violence.
The novel starts off quickly, with no time to develop a real sense of the characters. I thought to myself, “They’re trapped already? That was fast!”. As it progresses, though, we get multiple shifting POV’s, and the characterizations were almost enough to satisfy me (with the exception of Kyle—who I regret sharing my namesake with—because I really, truly loathed him!). A slower build-up of tension would’ve benefitted this book greatly, but it just wasn’t there. And then, the actual “cave dwellers” don’t pop up until about 2/3rds of the way through. Instead, the author chose to focus more on sex, objectifying women, and creepy lechers. I had to skim a lot of this, because it made me feel icky—all the unnecessary sexual violence against the women—it was absolutely abhorrent! Almost every page, there are descriptions of women’s breasts, panties, thighs, “rumps”—and all through the heavy “male gaze”— as well as numerous incidents of slut shaming and someone making off-color comments. If blatant misogyny and shitty horror are your thing, Richard Laymon is for you!
I was hoping to read something campy and fun, but this just left me feeling gross. I’m against censorship, so I don’t mind ultra-violence, gore, and artistic expression in the horror genre when it’s done for a reason and makes sense in the story. But here, it’s just played for shock, titillation, and schlocky exploitation—and I love exploitation films and literature, too—but not when it’s pointlessly crude and mean-spirited.
Also, there were just too many characters for me to focus on or try/care to remember (I believe the initial number started at 40). And while we get many POV’s, I think it would have been better served with a smaller batch of characters.
In the end, I really have nothing good to say about Midnight’s Lair. The author should be ashamed of himself for writing such trash! This book is a waste of time, money, and paper.