by Dan Simmons ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1990
Illinois horror tale by a hot genre novelist whose recent works (Carrion Comfort, The Fall of Hyperion--both 1990) have disappointed but whose first novel, Song of Kali (1985), won the World Fantasy Award. After a superb opening chapter describing the chalkdust memories of a huge old elementary school building--a monster of architectural diversity that is about to be boarded up as a relic--Simmons begins gathering pages as if for a New Grub Street three-decker. Many familiar with Stephen King's ""The Body"" (filmed as Stand by Me) will feel they've been here before, as six preteen lads and a tomboy try to unravel the horror that stalks Elm Haven. How sweet they are, those 1960 childhood memories abloom under shadowy evening elms, and Simmons does a nice job feeding us endless rustling branches and darting black blobs and working up hellholes under a boy's bed while the novel treads water and grows fat on the crawlies. The first kid to be lost is Tubby, who goes down to the basement boy's room and finds a hole in the wall, climbs in, and is pretty much eaten alive. A second kid, Jim Harlen, climbs the closed-up nighttime building to its second floor and witnesses one of his old lady teachers talking with the phosphorescent corpse of an even older lady teacher--at which point he falls off the building and into amnesia. We think we are with Duane McBride for the story's run, but Duane is chewed to pieces midnovel by a rampaging corn combine. Along with the evil combine there is also a death-stinking dead-animals truck, called the Rendering Truck, that (shades of Christine) has a gory half-mind of its own. Among a boy's radio set that talks when it's not turned on; a WW I Old Soldier's ghoul-ghost whose nose can turn into a mosquito's bloodsucking proboscis; the haunted Borgia Bell in the school's belfry; and the wildly betoothed, burrowing, nine-foot black eels of back-rippling nastiness, we find ourselves (Simmons's big joke) in a live-action, flesh-rotting world of the infamous Sixties horror comic Tales from the Crypt. The King-like cursing of these kids is unconvincing, but this is otherwise a superior read in the genre.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0312550677
Page Count: -
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1990
Categories: FICTION
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.