I love the whole idea of inscapes and the thematic weight thereinâthe toll to be paid to travel these treacherous roads of imagination creates an emotional consequence.
Unfortunately this is very much a 300 page book dragged out to damn-near 700 pages. The pacing is all over the place, and despite the creative richness of its themes and the grueling amount of pages offered up to exploring them, Hill never manages to do anything truly interesting, exciting, or terrifying with them. And the characters are almost uniformly awful; especially Vic McQueen and Charlie Manxâtwo insufferably flat characters.
I choose this book first because I loved the title, it was clever and hinted of vampires. I wont say it isn't a good book, but I will say that I was disappointed in it. There is no question that Joe Hill is a good writer, he is just not to my taste. It could be I am of the wrong generation for his writing. The story is very interesting. I really liked where the story went and it was definitely a fresh take on the vampire storyline. My real complaint would be that it didn't seem to have much in the way of back story, it moved right along but left me wanting details. I wanted to know more about the characters and to have more interaction with them when they weren't involved in the action of the story. For a younger reader (15 to 30 years old) it might be a great read as the younger generation absorbs their information in smaller bites and at a quicker pace. I like to linger in a story, spend time in the world with the characters. Not a bad book, but not a good one either.
Very disappointing. I bought this because Brian Keene named it as his best book of 2013. It got off to a good start but it was all downhill from there. I gave it 2 stars because it is an original take on vampire stories but there's really nothing else about it worth talking about. I'm glad I only paid 99 cents for it.
*** Stop me if you've heard of this book before:
An evil person who has a thing for children is eliminated but comes back years later intent on capturing more children and even enrolls someone to assist him in these new captures.
One of his survivors, now an adult, makes it their mission to hunt down this person.
Among the cast of characters is a stutterer, an overweight person with low self esteem and a vintage car that acts on its owner's decisions.
Oh, and the author of this book is from Maine.
Do you think Joe Hill was heavily influenced by Daddy's "It"?
Just maybe, rabbit, just maybe.
There's even reference to a certain year and a certain clown, though at different parts of the book.
The book was ok. The whole second half of this book could have been way shorter.
His constant use of cultural references as descriptions ("a punk-rock Keebler elf", "a passing resemblance to Popeye the Sailor Man", "He looked like that actor from the Alien movie, Lance Henriksen") seems like lazy writing.
And the constant repetitive explanation, reminding us why certain characters were taking certain actions. Where were the editors?
Not a bad book, it was ok.
This is the first Joe Hill I've read, and I did enjoy it. Even with all of the vehicles in it, it did seem to take a long time to get rolling, for me. I probably would have given it four stars if it were a bit shorter and more precise.
A great villain (I keep picturing Charlie Manx as a Clive Barker drawing/creation), and a wretched, horrible, ugly henchman. A frail but strong heroine. A great cast of supporting characters, particularly Lou and young Bruce Wayne. If you're not into typical vampire stories, be assured that this really isn't one, no matter what the descriptions (or title) say. Good stuff.
