Rating: 
Summary: An Old Fashioned Scarefest
Review: Having received Harry Shannon's Night of the Beast and also having heard so many good things about it, I picked it up yesterday and I'm about 100 pages from completing it. I had little doubt that I'd like it, as so many astute readers and authors have praised it.Sacred Indian Grounds and Ancient Evil are just about the hoariest clichés in the horror field. Right up there with bloodsucking vampires. In Night of the Beast, Harry Shannon proves that there are no tired ideas or genres; only poorly executed ones. Which excludes this fun book. Harry obviously loves the genre and this story could have come up in the glory days of the mid 1080's. A burnt out songwriter flees LA to his boyhood home, where something seems to be VERY wrong. Many of his old friends are still there, and they are glad to see him, but strange things are happening to them. No, this isn't a blazingly original plot, but Harry clearly states in his introduction that Night of the Beast wasn't intended to be. It is a labor of love and is intended to be a lot of fun. Does he succeed? I'd say, YES. I'm enjoying the hell out of NotB and I heartily recommend it to those old enough to remember the old days and also to younger readers who are just looking to have a great, scary time reading a pulpy novel. The pages fly, but not at the expense of the characters, which is really where the heart of this novel seems to be. I've said it again and again, that's what great fiction is all about; the characters and whether we care enough about them to keep reading until the end. Harry Shannon has assembled a lovable assortment of small town eccentrics that keeps this novel's pace going strong. If I had to compare Night of the Beast with any other author's works that I've read, I'd say Rick Hautala or Joseph Citro or even Bentley Little. I even see a bit of early Stephen King in these pages. If one cares enough to look for these things, I see Night of the Beast working on different levels as well. It appears to me to be about redemption and exorcising personal demons from our minds and our past. In his intro, Harry is pretty forthright about the hurdles he had to overcome during the long passage of this book's struggle for life. I get the feeling that even had this novel never seen publication, it would have been remarkably therapeutic for the author to create. However, Night of the Beast did see publication, from a small press horror outlet. That's very nice, but this book deserves more. It would be a perfect entry in Leisure Books' line of paperback titles. Even before I'm actually finished it, I can tell it's a lot more engaging than some of the Leisure Books I've read in the last couple of years.
Rating:
Summary: Scary As Hell...
Review: I bought this book in the hopes that I'd be able to revisit the old pulp horror days when horror novels made the hair stand on the back of your neck. It didn't. Night of the Beast didn't make the hair stand up, it plucked them out, attacked my dog and snarled in my face before beating me across the head and shoulders with a table lamp. This scared the bejesus out of me. Get this book if you want to have to sleep with the lights on for the next couple of months.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulp? More like PUMP!
Review: I didn't care for this at all. Immature horror, nothing intelligent at all here. I read about 100 pages, and wanted so badly to put it down, but was peed for spending the money on this that I had to keep going. It never got better. I can't understand all the good reviews (unless the author wrote them himself). And considering the fact that this publisher (whom I never heard of) can't be found in bookstores, I'd say that this is a serious case of PUMP. Sorry, this is a sham...and I'm one unhappy customer.
Rating:
Summary: I Am Shocked
Review: I looked forward to this book based on the hype that it has received. I am very sad to say that it was just that: hype. I am shocked at all the the great reviews for this book. I have never posted a review of a book before but could not hold back warning readers about this one. I found the book to be totally unreadable. I only got to page 50 before I talked myself into thinking that the money I spent on the book was well worth not having to finish it. I found the writing dilettantish, with an overall lack of flow and continuity. I will concede that: a) perhaps 50 pages is not enough to judge an almost 400 page book, and b) "campy" is not my thing. Believe the reviews that say this book is cheesy and pulpy. It is, but unfortunately not in a good way. I have heard nice things about Mr. Shannon, and would still give some of his other works a try. This one was just not my cup of tea -- make sure it is yours before you purchase it. (For those interested: books that do live up to the hype are Jack Ketchum's THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, Ray Garton's LIVE GIRLS, and F. Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle).
Rating:
Summary: Scarey
Review: I ordered this book because a friend had read it. So scary, I LOVED it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Post Modern Pulp
Review: I picked this book up eagerly, but still felt trepidation. Could a new author pack the punch this promised?
Oh yeah. Mr. Shannon kept true to his promise. He grabbed me from the start. I found the action true and momentous. The dialogue was fresh, but hinting at MacDonald noir. The settings were well described. Whether Hollywood or the Desert, I had no doubt he knew what he was writing and I felt placed within each.
Just the right amount of gore, ennui and love. Mr. Shannon's writing is a great blend of pulp noir with post modern pacing.
Yeah. I definitely liked this one.
Rating:
Summary: Post Modern Pulp
Review: I picked this book up eagerly, but still felt trepidation. Could a new author pack the punch this promised?
Oh yeah. Mr. Shannon kept true to his promise. He grabbed me from the start. I found the action true and momentous. The dialogue was fresh, but hinting at MacDonald noir. The settings were well described. Whether Hollywood or the Desert, I had no doubt he knew what he was writing and I felt placed within each.
Just the right amount of gore, ennui and love. Mr. Shannon's writing is a great blend of pulp noir with post modern pacing.
Yeah. I definitely liked this one.
Rating:
Summary: UGH!
Review: I read a lot of good reviews before I bought this book, and I'm sorry I listened to any of them! The writing's terrible and for the most part is just a series of gory scenes. I got half-way through the book and still had no clue as to what the plot is. Needless to say, I couldn't finish it. Definitely a disappointment. I don't recommend this one to anyone. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Scary and riveting
Review: I went to some trouble to get a copy of this book, based mainly on the hype surrounding it with good reviews by reputable authors - Graham Masterton, William F. Nolan, Ed Gorman, etc. I'm about 30 pages from finishing it (the only reason I'm finishing it is that I paid good money for it) and have got to say it's just about the worst book I've read in the past couple of years. I read probably an average of 100 books a year, so that's saying something. The writing is juvenile, almost childish. Dialogue is hackneyed and unrealistic. Metaphors and images are inappropriate and strained. Characters placed (literally) on-stage are totally stock, practically caricatures, and wouldn't even make it onto the script pages of the worst B-movie you could possibly imagine. Character development is practically non-existent. Motivation is non-existent. Jump-cuts from scene to scene are totally arbitrary and bear little or no relation to each other. Character interactions are forced and wooden and make Pinocchio's relationship with Gepetto seem an ideal of familial interaction. I mourn the number of trees that were sacrificed to the production of this abomination.
Rating:
Summary: Great debut novel from Harry Shannon
Review: I'd read and enjoyed quite a few short stories by Harry Shannon, but now I've finally gotten around to reading one of his novels. I don't know why I waited so long--this is a very compelling story, with great characters and a fully-realized small town where the horrors all converge.
The author is a therapist in real life, so as you might expect the characters are realistic and sympathetically drawn--which makes it all the more involving when you just *know* that bad things will happen to most of them. This novel's plot burns on a slow fuse, which is something I like very much in a horror/suspense novel: the sense of dread builds very subtly as the book moves forward. And when things explode, it's a huge, satisfying payoff. I'm really looking forward to the other novels in this series (which I hear are even better!).
| 
