Wheeeee! Fun Land! More Laymon mayhem that gives ominous meaning to Under the Boardwalk. Not the best Laymon I've read, but perhaps more interesting tWheeeee! Fun Land! More Laymon mayhem that gives ominous meaning to Under the Boardwalk. Not the best Laymon I've read, but perhaps more interesting than most, since there actually seems to be a few things going on beneath the surface. Peer pressure and teens, homeless people, revenge, all come into play, but with Laymon's spin that includes a giant spider, punk rockers, murderous freaks & geeks, a banjo playing heroine, and a FunHouse battle that reminded me of the end of Them. Some reviewers have dinged this one for being long and padded. It is long (500 pages), but with Laymon the pages tend to fly by. So I'm OK with that. I actually think Laymon spent the extra pages to establish the boardwalk/beach atmosphere. And on that front, I think the novel succeeds.
The story line is fairly simple, with teen age vigilantes ("trollers") terrorizing crazy homeless people ("trolls") who are hanging around the amusement park at the board walk in Boleta Bay. But there's more to it than that since people have been disappearing around Boleta Bay -- for years. The leader of the teen age gang, Tanya, is one mean psycho who seems to be losing it, and quickly. But there's a reason for that, and by book's end she's a tragic figure trapped in revenge mode. One of the cool things about this book is that Laymon cuts against your expectations. Yes, some of the trolls are just mentally ill, but some are also really bad, as a crusading newspaper writer finds out. One thing missing, or not as prevalent as I've found in other Laymon novels, is the humor. There are funny moments, but not as many. There's more real sadness to this effort, despite the Fun Land glitter and lights....more
Ah, Laymon. I'm really torn as to how to rate this. I tend to rate within genre. So, as a successful Horror read, I'm thinking 3 1/2 to 4 stars. As I'Ah, Laymon. I'm really torn as to how to rate this. I tend to rate within genre. So, as a successful Horror read, I'm thinking 3 1/2 to 4 stars. As I've said before, when it comes to Laymon, I feel I'm reading one of the most (gleefully) manipulative writers I've ever encountered. If you're a fan of cheesy 70s & 80s horror flicks, then Laymon is your man. He is the perfect distillation of what those movies were trying to achieve (and, let's face it, where few succeeded). Laymon's novels are often set at or near a university. So you're going to have very horny teenagers (often English majors (yeah!)) getting into trouble (but just about everyone in a Laymon novel is horny) right from the get-go. And you'll also have extreme, often shocking violence (and I have set Laymon novels down for a while (including this one) over some violent scenes that just freaked me out). But to counter that savagery, Laymon always offers up pretty funny dialogue and wacky characters. You can laugh, even though you're covering your eyes. That is the Laymon formula.
I have dinged Laymon in the past for his excesses, but have now come to realize that's what he's selling. Excess. You either buy into it -- or you walk away. I've also come to respect his writing ability. There are some that think he was a hack writer, and to some extent that is true. This guy worked for a living, and he knew what sold. And what he liked to write. But he also had an M.A. in English from Loyola University. In a number of novels, it's not unusual to find references to Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Hemingway. Oh, it's done lightly enough, but you get the sense that Laymon actually knows these writers, has read them. As far as his own writing style goes, no Horror writer writes cleaner sentences. It's like eating potato chips. On the down side, you get the sense that he wrote quickly, with pages of unnecessary padding in some novels (not so much in this one however).
Flesh is all of the above. A snake (or perhaps, more accurately, a tape worm) kind of thing invades a town. Once it gets in you, you want to kill and then eat your victim. It probably took Laymon 5 minutes to come up with the plot. But the fun is really with all the characters, and how they interact, the tongue in cheek dialogue that can be both horrific -- and then funny as hell:
"Here's the interesting part: the body had been eaten. Quite a lot of the skin had been torn off, portions of muscle devoured." The cigar in Steve's hand was shaking. "She had bite marks all over her body. Some were just enough to break her skin, others took great chunks out of her. Her torso had been ripped open. Her heart had been torn out and partly eaten. Her head . . . she had been scalped. Her skull had been caved in with a blunt instrument, possibly a rock. Her brain was missing."
"Holy fuckin' mayonnaise," Barney muttered.
I don't think it's an accident that a character named "Barney" is the chief of police. The above scene reads like it came right out of Tarantino's Grindhouse/Planet Terror. What follows are various murderous escapades, and a bit of clunky plotting that was obviously aimed for a result you can see a mile away (and I almost dinged this book a star because of that). What saved the novel for me is its outrageousness. I was totally on board with the novel when a character showed up, dressed in tight leather pants, gasoline, and a machete. This is when Laymon introduced Aztecs and Cortez into the novel. That inspired WTF! moment got that star back pronto....more
It's got some padding in it (like all Laymon books), but it's never boring like it often is in King's books,and the pages fly by. Laymon's teenagers aIt's got some padding in it (like all Laymon books), but it's never boring like it often is in King's books,and the pages fly by. Laymon's teenagers are among the very best in Horror Lit. They have one thing in mind: SEX. Outrageous, insane, but also fun. Let's see: a crazy ass dog that looks like a cousin of the one in The Road Warrior, a traveling vampire show that recalls Bradbury's Something Wicked, but with horny teenagers and nude wrestling. Even some Lovecraftian weirdness at the end. Probably the best Laymon I've read....more
Toby Bones is a great, disgusting character. Laymon? What can you say? It's outrageous, but with Laymon that's just a calculation that you either acceToby Bones is a great, disgusting character. Laymon? What can you say? It's outrageous, but with Laymon that's just a calculation that you either accept, or not. If you don't, you probably won't even finish the book. A 4 star book that gets dinged a star because it's probably 50 pages (or more) too long. ...more
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