Sehr unterhaltsam und spannend! Wer es blutig und actiongeladen mag, kommt hier voll auf seine Kosten. ( )

Yet one more thrill-a-minute, can't put down book by Laymon; he again proves that you can't go wrong reading one of his books. This time we follow Rick who is going camping with his girlfriend, Bert. Unfortunately Rick had a bad camping experience when he was a kid (to put it mildly) and this trip is causing him flashbacks. Meanwhile Gillian is also on vacation but her idea of fun is breaking into someone's house and living there for a few days. Her unfortunate luck leads her to picking the wrong house. Together we get a great story that blends the two stories together and gives us intense, scary fun with a healthy dose of sex. I'm glossing over the great characters and dialogue that fits perfectly because that is always present in a Laymon book. In fact, he makes it seem so normal for his books that you forget how other novels will often struggle with the same aspects. Once again, another Laymon novel that you won't want to miss. ( )

My second book by the author, the first being Island. It follows the same sort of style, plenty of blood, guts and rape…. Not for the easily offended.

The novel is almost split into two separate stories that come together near the close of the book. It is written in almost alternating chapters, and this works well at building up the suspense.

The first story follows Rick and his girlfriend Bert. He has agreed to go on a hiking holiday but failed to tell her about an incident in his past that increases his paranoia about bad things happening the further they get from civilisation. Along the way they encounter crazed preachers, a group of lads and lesbian campers…..

The second story follows Gillian. She likes to take her holidays by breaking into rich peoples houses while they are on vacation and using their facilities (in particular the bath). Unluckily for her the next person she does this to is a serial killer who likes taking his victims far out into the wilderness where he rapes and kills them.

A nice book where the pages just flew by, not recommended for everyone, but I can’t wait to check out more of Laymon’s works. ( )

After being referred this writer, the first book of his didn’t go down well, but ever open-minded (yes, I am!) I thought I would read another for balance.



Not bad...
The tale follows a couple hiking in the mountain forests somewhere in the US, and their paths cross with a rag-tag bunch of people including fellow hikers, lesbian students and rampaging, hormonal men and boys. Throw in a side story of a wealthy girl who gets kicks out of staying in stranger’s houses while they are away, it suddenly takes a turn when she inadvertently breaks into a serial killer’s house.

This book was considerably better than my last read, and as I approached the end I thought I had it figured out and would come to a seemingly predictable, nevertheless thrilling, finale. But then just short of the end he ruined the whole effort by throwing in an irrelevant character which not only appeared stupid, but unlikely, and then a small series of unlikely side stories were thrown in a amateurish attempt to bring the storylines back together. The ending, typically gruesome and graphic in his style was a good wrap, although I am again amazed at this writer’s deep seeded obsession with sex…and angry sex at that.

Overall not bad, but the crazed mountain man-come-preacher ruined the whole book, especially with his pet cougars and it is the only real part of the book that sticks to mind. But you know what? I am ready to read another…I am sure he has one real doozie in his collection somewhere and I will eke it out. Stephen King and Dean Koontz really rate him, but on what I haven’t found, yet. ( )

Not sure why I bother with Laymon books anymore. Maybe just because I still have a handful on my shelf and they aren't completely horrible, just repetitive. I've said it before, if you've read one Laymon novel, you've read them all. This is no different. Serial killer involved, chasing down his victims, victims typically not little angels themselves and everyone has a habit of being naked most of the time.

This novel was more of the same, though in this case, we almost had two complete novels in this book, intermixed with each other. They only came together in the next to last chapter and even then they came together in a forced, seemingly "I need to wrap this up" way. I'm actually inclined to believe that Laymon had two different stories here that just weren't good enough to make full novels out of, so he mixed the chapters together and tied them to one another late in the book and called it a day. Just not a good novel. It got two stars purely because in a base, animalistic way, I sort of enjoyed it....but not too much. Three more Laymon novels on the shelf, will read eventually, but in no hurry. ( )