Long and mostly uninspired anthology of original horror stories about obsession, with familiar names predominating. With only a few of its 30 stories conveying the full force of obsession, this collection as a hole disappoints; yet it also intrigues for its rare presentation of tales from every corner of the horror field-splatterpunk, quiet, and mainstream. Editor Raiser bookends the anthology with short, mainstream novellas by his two biggest names, opening with Dean Koontz's ``The Interrogation'' and closing with Dan Simmons's ``The Counselor.'' The Koontz is stylistically experimental-told strictly in the dialogue of a police interrogation-but thematically old hat, just another vampire variant; the Simmons offers no surprises at all, but sustains a fast pace as it details the vengeance a guidance counselor wreaks upon child-abusers. More worthy is the grouping of raw-edged tales that follow the Koontz, spearheaded by Joe R. Lansdale's ``In the Cold, Dark Time''-a grim, powerful fable from this more talented of splatterpunks, about a man who kills children to spare them pain-and including entries by Thomas F. Monteleone, John Shirley, Nicholas Royle (the sardonically amusing ``Crispy Notes,'' about a man who like everything crisp, including his lovers), and F. Paul Wilson. These harsh stories lead smoothly into quieter ones by Richard Christian Matheson (``Region of the Flesh,'' an ineffectual tale about a man obsessed by a murder-bed), Chet Williamson, Charles L. Grant, Al Sarrantonio, Edward Bryant (the wickedly sly ``Down Home''), and other well-knowns; but the best of this lot is by relative newcomer A.R. Morlan, ``The Second Most Beautiful Woman in the World,'' a genuinely haunting tribute to the spirit of Georgia O'Keefe. Peanut-butter-and-jelly horror, well spread by editor Raiser.
Pub Date: April 22, 1991
ISBN: 0-913165-55-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
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
BOOK REVIEW
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