I read this around the time it came out. I recall it being uneven, but that there were no bad stories, and a number of really good ones. King is a masI read this around the time it came out. I recall it being uneven, but that there were no bad stories, and a number of really good ones. King is a master of the short form, and you'll find solid proof of that in this collection....more
I remember really liking this one. I'm no expert on the Bachman books, but be it King or Bachman, this one is superior. Pulpy fun. I remember really liking this one. I'm no expert on the Bachman books, but be it King or Bachman, this one is superior. Pulpy fun. ...more
Probably more like 3 1/2 stars, but I'm rounding up because I really enjoyed "Joyland." "Joyland" is part of the Hard Case Crime series, and there is Probably more like 3 1/2 stars, but I'm rounding up because I really enjoyed "Joyland." "Joyland" is part of the Hard Case Crime series, and there is crime (murders most foul), but there is more than a whiff of the supernatural. A haunted amusement park (the Horror one, natch), along with some fortune telling and second sight. As Horror stuff goes, it's pretty mild, but nevertheless "Joyland" makes for a very satisfying summer read. Reading this book is the way to go.
The story is somewhat shakily framed by the reflections by 60 something writer named Devin Jones on memorable summer in his life. Roll things back 40 years to the summer of 1973, when still-a-virgin college student Devin Jones is pining for a girlfriend that never really was. He takes a custodial (and other duties as assigned) job at a seaside North Carolina amusement park. What follows for Devin (who is genuinely a good guy) is some growing up as well as the making of some lifelong friends and memories. But there is a killer lurking in the background, and you just know King will know what do with that problem when the moment (which is really well "executed") arises. For some reason this confrontation left me recalling Tom and Becky and Injun Joe in the Cave, or even Scout and Jem being attacked in the woods ("To Kill a Mockingbird"). King (again) tapping into something as old and dark as American Lit. itself. The older Devin says it best:
The last good time always comes, and when you see the darkness creeping toward you, you hold on to what was bright and good. You hold on for your dear life.
Damn, that's good. That said, looking back at the novel as whole, the killer part of the story seems secondary, because the story, Devin's story, is considerably larger than the Dark Moment. Essentially "Joyland" is at its heart, like so many of King's better books, really about friends and memories, and in this case, the comforting and timeless sounds of the always nearby sea....more
The book opens, in a sort of Prologue, in a 1931 theater (The Styx) that features second-run films. Tonight's feature, "Frankenstein" starring "?" HerThe book opens, in a sort of Prologue, in a 1931 theater (The Styx) that features second-run films. Tonight's feature, "Frankenstein" starring "?" Here we meet a drunken Raymond Chandler, sipping on a bag of "peanuts" (prohibition) ruminating over his so far messy life. When the film begins to roll, he soon realizes he's watching his old school chum Billy Pratt a/k/a Boris Karloff. Small world!
Jump forward 7 or 8 years, and Chandler ("R.T.") gets an early morning call from Karloff, asking him to meet him at the Malibu Pier. It turns out a mutual friend (and part of the crime busting trio), Joh Devlin, a former city investigator and now private eye, seems to have blown him head off while driving his car off the pier. Even curiouser, once the car is pulled from the waters, an exotic woman with one red eye, very much alive, tumbles out of the trunk. Both Chandler and Karloff know who she is.
The above are probably the most normal events in the book. What follows is entirely wild mash-up of Horror and Noir that will defeat your expectations on the nearly every page. I also suspect that the book, despite its Hollywood setting, is something of a contemporary satire, aimed in part all things fascist, and in particular in the character of one bloated shrimp of a loud movie mogul.
The book is so layered with movie references and side jokes, it can be dizzying. Every gesture, every scene seems to have roots in popular culture. For every reference you get, you sense that you're probably missing many more. The whole thing is ridiculous as hell, but it's also great fun. It's as if Joe Lansdale and Thomas Pynchon got together for some Real Fun. Killer Clowns (the Sparx brothers), Frankenstein monster(s), cloned Nazi types named Bim, evil machines, evil clinic, killer hillbillies, thrilling escapes, a murder-bungalow in LA, it's a couple of hundred pages of genuine WTF. But you get the sense, no matter how outrageous, Newman is in total control. He's not just randomly throwing Famous Monsters of Movieland noodles against the wall. These is purpose, and a satisfying end with these two friends facing the Night together. With a drink. ...more
Probably more like 2 1/2, but I'm rounding up because SGJ can really write. But writing isn't necessarily pacing and plotting. I dunno. To some extentProbably more like 2 1/2, but I'm rounding up because SGJ can really write. But writing isn't necessarily pacing and plotting. I dunno. To some extent SGJ is probably following the sequel story arc of a dozen or more sequels, so maybe I'm missing something. That said, sequels are rarely as loved as much as the original (Halloween 2 gets a bum rap, and the exception of Evil Dear 2 stands on not being a sequel but something of a bigger budgeted retelling of ED 1). As many have noted, Jade Daniels, the hero from the freaking awesome My Heart Is a Chainsawis now "Jennifer" Daniels. Older, wiser, free from jail over a bullshit charge, she now finds herself again in Proofrock, Idaho, on the day of a huge snowstorm, and the escape from a prison convoy of the notorious serial killer Dark Mill South (what a name!) Much of what follows is often cluttered, confusing, and confounding. But it also contains plenty of soaring and imaginative writing that I've come to expect from SGJ. One of my favorite passages or chapters was where Jennifer (who has sort of, for the first time, revealed her inner-Jade (page 118)), confronts in her hospital room one of the survivors from the previous novel's massacre. Ginger Baker (yeah, I know). Ginger was left behind on the island, while the lucky few (including her twin sister), escaped to the mainland town of Proofrock. For three weeks Ginger lived the life of feral child, and it shows with loads of creepy attitude. The dark exchanges between Ginger and Jennifer-Jade are a wonder to read. A well-versed reader and watcher of Horror will pick up on Exorcist III, Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, and I'm sure others. This is all so smoothly done. A lesser writer would have turned this meeting into a clunky movie name-dropping yawner. But not SGJ. He always elevates and integrates through his language. Still, there are so many characters and so many points of view explored (in-depth) that you feel this could have been a leaner but still mean experience with a hundred fewer pages. Another quibble I have is that many of the slasher movies mentioned (and to some extent emulated in the novel), mostly occur at night. I found it impossible to not think the action in the novel was taking place at night, until reminded on this or that page it's like 2 in the afternoon or something. That created a kind of novel long drag for me. Whatever. As some have pointed out, this is the second book in a projected trilogy. A bridge novel. I still look forward to Book 3. Jade is a memorable character, and it's good to know that she will stay "Jade" now....more
Early on in Stephen Graham Jones' "My Heart is a Chainsaw" troubled Proofrock, Idaho high school senior Jade Daniels, a half Indian loner, and the actEarly on in Stephen Graham Jones' "My Heart is a Chainsaw" troubled Proofrock, Idaho high school senior Jade Daniels, a half Indian loner, and the actual hero (IMHO) of the novel says that "horror is her religion." The confession comes in one the numerous 2-page extra credit papers she writes for her tough but sympathetic (and soon to retire) history teacher, Mr. Holmes. All of these papers are titled "Slasher 101," which allow for Daniels to riff on all things Slasher, with a primary focus on the 70s and 80s slasher trains.
But Daniels isn't just a horror nerd. Her reliance on these movies, and her never ending analysis of them, is a form of psychological defense, a safe place (odd as it sounds) where formulas for life CAN be found. You may have to reshuffle things, events, characters, etc., but there are patterns where life offers none. The novel even opens with this brittle defense cracked, by her alcoholic, abusive father and his scummy friend, sending Jade into a manic spiral that results in a very real suicide attempt out on the nearby "Indian Lake." This lake has a dark history, which is revealed throughout the novel. Indian revenge, a mad preacher, a drowned town, a slasher worthy camp massacre, slaughtered elks, a combustable landscape that has smokers careful with their cigarettes, and now the looming and current threat of gentrification, as rich folks discover the beauty of the small town West.
Jones juggles all of this with Pynchon-like prose that is allusive, smart and fast-moving, sometimes forcing me to go back and reread pages to see if had missed something (I had). That said, I'm not sure I've ever cared about Pynchon's characters as I have Jones' Slasher cast, which includes the good and the bad (all subjected to the Horror Apocalypse of the closing pages). The damaged Jade, who doesn't think of herself as a good person, is in fact a good person. Brave, often selfless, failed by her surrounding community and family in so many ways, she is still able to rise, earn the Slasher tag of The Final Girl, but she's so much more than the nostalgic Horror movie scaffolding she has relied on. Her seeming awareness of deeper -- if heartbreaking -- truths left me with the sense of a character transformed. "My Heart is Chainsaw" is volume one of projected trilogy. I look forward to the future volumes in the series. Jones' imagination seems limitless....more
Very unusual collection of stories. Arguably the first story isn't even a story but interconnected collection of facts, though it does a dark arc. In Very unusual collection of stories. Arguably the first story isn't even a story but interconnected collection of facts, though it does a dark arc. In fact that dark arc can be found in each of these stories, which follows the careers of several of the 20th Century's great physicists, with Einstein, though largely offstage, being the center of things, or perhaps better, the moral anchor among these various odd geniuses. Limning things are the various horrors of the 20th Century, nuclear bombs, Zyklon-B, etc. It interesting how several of these characters have such fevered encounters with their abstract worlds that they can't quite remember how they even got to their final stop-point. I know that sounds abstract, and it is, but you as a reader, without being knowledgeable in these scientific areas, do sense that many characters are approaching the boundaries of what is knowable. Any reader of cosmic horror will recognize this dark edge as a dangerous place. Labatut, late in the collection, perhaps tips his hand by briefly introducing a demonic character at a bar. I was reminded a bit of Melville's Confidence Man or something from a Russian story somewhere. The character is obviously both a warning and a guide for those who insist on proceeding up to and beyond what can be known. ...more
Really dark, but easily the best Andrew Vachss novel I've read so far. For some reason the Burke series, at least the ones I've read, have never reallReally dark, but easily the best Andrew Vachss novel I've read so far. For some reason the Burke series, at least the ones I've read, have never really clicked with me. "Shella" is something different, darker. (So much so that I also added it to my Horror shelf.) It's a 200 plus page distillation of every creepy concern (child abuse, prostitution, perversion, fascists, etc.) Vachss has ever addressed in his other novels, but stripped of Burke's goofy over-the-top voice, and poured into an autistic-like killing machine known only as "John" or "Ghost." It's not so much that John likes what he does, it's just that he's good at it. Really good. Given the dark world he resides in, opportunities arise. Tradeoffs for work done are beneficial in a momentary way, but John is also fine just watching tv with the sound off. The "Shella" of the title is another damaged soul, a dancer who refuses to go into prostitution, at least not in the regular sense. John feels a strong loyalty or even attraction to her. Shella is also probably the weakest part of the novel, and there were times I wondered if she was even real, a necessary figment of John's own damaged imagination. But she is real as it turns out, and finding her is the constant thread that runs though the novel. I really liked the way Vachss closed the John-Shella circle. In between the Shella bookends, John is used by others for missions of account settling and vengeance. In these post-Charlottesville days, the relevance of John's undercover work at a White Power compound, and the creatures there, seems prescient....more
Very solid outing by King for the Hard Case crime line. As Jamie Conklin, the main character tells us early on, the story is really a Horror story. TrVery solid outing by King for the Hard Case crime line. As Jamie Conklin, the main character tells us early on, the story is really a Horror story. True that, but there are enough crime elements in the novel to make the Hard Case editors sleep well without violating their Pulp Principles to the Big Author. The novel starts out with a young Jamie seeing the dead wife of a neighbor right after her passing due to a stroke. His mother, a single mom and literary agent, doesn't believe him at first (Jamie can also talk to the dead), but when the question of the wife's missing rings comes up, Jamie tells his mother where they can be found.
Once this special ability is established, Jamie is enlisted in a later foray to secure a popular author's last manuscript, which only the author knows since he hasn't committed it to paper yet -- and who is dead as a door nail. The deceased author outlines to Jamie, in detail the plot, and Jamie's mother is able to cobble together the final posthumous novel, which helps to save the foundering agency for a few more years. Jamie's mother, Tia, is also in a relationship with a police detective, Liz Dutton, who happens to be a dirty cop. She is later thrown out by Tia, only to show up years later, using Jamie's talents to help her in big case involving mad bomber. The result, despite Jamie's misgivings, is a good one, but Liz's reasons are selfish, and Jamie pays an unanticipated cost from the other side. And Liz will be back.
The "dirty cop" bit is the crime element of the story, but the Horror strand has its avenue through Jamie. When the two strands join lines blur, people die, things walk, cosmic Horror encroaches. The title, and its novel long refrain, I initially found a bit corny, but by novel's end it gained a poignancy that surprised me, leaving me with the feeling that I just got played by a Master story teller. The novel overall is also a bit surprise due to its (welcome) briefness. I enjoyed King's foray into economy. He doesn't need 600 pages to tell a good tale. ...more
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