Sixteen horror tales that span the length of Wilson's 18-year career and the breadth of his reliable if rarely inspired talents. Best known as a novelist (The Keep, The Tomb, Black Wind, etc.), Wilson's stories reflect his longer work, with biting themes couched in traditional prose and plot. Here, the author presents the tales in chronological order, each with an explanatory note. The first note states that its twinned tale, "The Cleaning Machine," was Wilson's first published story (April 1971); it shows in this truncated telling of an alien machine that sucks up an apartment house's residents. A bit smoother is 1972's "Ratman"—but Wilson only begins to hit his ironic stride with 1978's "Lipidleggin," sharp social satire about a future where outlawed, fatty produce (eggs, butter, etc.) are a bootlegger's staple. The subsequent tales tackle a wide range of themes. Some deal with apocalyptic futures—most notably the title story, a chilling pre-AIDS tale about a virus that sweeps humanity, causing its bones to turn to jello. Some are vengeance tales: the most clever is the most recent story here, "Cuts," a voodoo tale in which Wilson, by proxy, takes bloody revenge on the Hollywood producers who made a bomb out of the film version of The Keep, A couple of stories are efficient, standard horror (the best is the Stephen King-ish "Traps," about a monster in an attic). Of the rest, the standouts are "Buckets"—notable not for its clumsy narration but for its tasteless, repulsive theme (aborted babies strike back at the abortionist)—and "Dat-Tay-Vao," a powerful Vietnam War tale about the curse of a healing touch. A scattering of stinging tales, then, and decent fare for Wilson fans; but most readers will prefer the author's novels, especially The Keep.
Pub Date: May 12, 1989
ISBN: 312-93117-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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