An extremely well written, truly horrific book, "A Special Place" is compelling enough (and short enough) to be read in one sitting, but the disturbing after-images will linger for much longer.Though this book is filled with violence -- physical, sexual, and psychological -- the majority of it is...
There's disturbing and then there is this book. More like a novella. Just amazed how in so few pages the author manages to leave his story deeply imprinted in my mind and with such a bad aftertaste. This is the story of how a serial killer is born. A deeply disturbed, sick and crazy killer. Keith...
Poppy Z. Brite, Are You Loathsome Tonight? (Gauntlet, 1998)I've read some of Poppy Z. Brite's novels over the course of the last ten years, but have somehow not read any of her short stories until now. Perhaps, judging by the reviews, this wasn't the best place to start. If so, I can't wait to ge...
Mrs. GodBy Peter StraubPublisher: Pegasus CrimePublished In: New York, New YorkDate: 1990Pgs: 185Summary:On a lonely estate home in England, the Seneschal family, historic patrons of the literary arts, one-time hosts of D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Elliot, Ford Madox Ford, and Henry James among others, a ...
Mark Underhill is a typical 15-year-old boy living with his mom and dad in a typical Midwest middle-class neighborhood. His dad is an emotionally distant public school vice principal and his enduring mom works the complaints desk at the gas company. Mark likes music, skateboarding, and hanging ou...
About 20 pages into "In The Night Room," Peter Straub reveals that his previous book, "lost boy lost girl," was a bit of a put-on, a fictional novel written by Straub's fictional alter ego, Timothy Underhill. That seems kind of a dirty trick to play on readers who invested their time and suspensi...
Julia is my first Peter Straub read in over a decade. I came across a bulk lot of his books on Ebay, all of his novels in paperback for less than eight bucks, and couldn't help myself. I'd previously read Ghost Story and Koko, and loved both, but I find myself in a dark gray area with Julia.What ...
***1/2A solid short story collection with only one dud, 'Hunger: an Introduction,' which is an unfocused rambling glimpse of a man's becoming a ghost.This collection of 7 stories offers a series of portraits of either murderers 'in-the-making' or seasoned and happily practicing their alternative ...
"So what's it like to kill someone?" "I can't tell you." - Unnamed Cabbie and Michael Poole Koko is brutal. It is, perhaps, the most disturbing and uncomfortable book I have ever had the "pleasure" of reading. I phrase it that way because I can acknow...
Hey, if they’ll publish it more than once, it’s gotta be good, right? This 1977 book was just re-released and I was sufficiently intrigued by the premise, Mr. King’s quote, and the wildly variant reviews on Goodreads to give it a try. First, I’d like to take a look at the re-designed cover. Not t...
When I was a kid, I had a long list of fears. A short summary would include: tornadoes; big dogs; bullies; the basement; fire; music class; swimming lessons; spiders; cat burglars; and girls. As I got a bit older, say around middle school and high school, that list changed. Some items remained (g...
The Throat is an often brilliant thriller that is concerned with big questions about identity, the past and our memory of it, the demons that shape us and the demons we carry with us. It is intricately structured, densely layered, full of eerie and haunting dreams and flashbacks, and is impressiv...
A government experiment goes awry and a deadly gas is released over the affluent suburb of Hampstead, Connecticut. Meanwhile, the decendants of the town's original founders return toHampstead for the firts time in over 100 years, igniting a firestorm of events that are the continuation of an ongo...
Of the many admiring reviews Bram Stoker’s Dracula received when it first appeared in 1897, the most astute praise came from the author's mother, who wrote her son: 'It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror....
The BasicsNora lives in an upscale suburb where it just so happens a serial killer is on the loose. The latest disappearance of a woman who leaves a blood-drenched bedroom behind has Nora more embroiled in these killings than she ever wanted to be. And it makes her a new target.My ThoughtsThat’s ...
Ballard asked. They had reached the steaming, humid end of November. “We got fucking lunch yesterday,” replied the naked woman splayed on the long table: knees bent, one hip elevated, one boneless-looking arm draped along the curves of her body, which despite its hidden scars appeared to be at le...
No, not quite the image. The bird whose image he had varnished onto his ceiling was an eagle, but the bird which had troubled his sleep was . . . He did not know, but not an eagle. It had been outside the window, battering at the frame with its wings. It had been trying to come in, ordering him t...
X 3 HOW I NEARLY WAS KILLED 30 Neither Nettie nor Clark had seemed heartbroken when I told them not to expect me for dinner. Clark had spent the afternoon sulking over having been kept from checking his traps, and Nettie had not forgiven me for the crime of squandering far too much money on a cof...
It may not have been beautiful, but it certainly was no mere hideout. A tilting walkway of cracked pavement led to three wooden steps and a long front porch in need of a sanding, some screening, and several new coats of paint. The entire house, once a nice, leafy shade of green, now looked a bit ...
X 4 HOW I FOUND MY SHADOW AT LAST, AND WHAT IT DID 41 “Under the bed is not a new concept,” said Lieutenant Rowley. “But you pushed that sucker way back there. Were you afraid someone would steal your winnings?” Lieutenant Rowley raised his rust-colored eyebrows toward his crinkly, rust...