Rating: 
Summary: An Exciting Pulp Horror Romp
Review: 'The bodies lay in pieces. They'd been expertly dismembered.' So starts this brilliant horror novel by the author of 'The Bighead'. It is 1995 and we follow a professor at an archaeological dig, his team having uncovered the 10,000 year remains of an Indian tribe (The Ponoye) and their place of worship; the mummified remains of the Ponoye appearing to have been mutilated by something else down in the cavern...We follow what happens on this dig as the book progresses. The bulk of the book is set in the present time. Clare Prentiss is offered a dream job as security chief in a federal reserve - the skies are blue, she has a beautiful beach house. But her job at the government research clinic seems too good to be true. And it isn't. For starters, there are the mutated creatures lurking in the swamps - take the eels with heads the size of Dobermanns, the giant centipedes, and rats. And Clare herself is plagued by erotic dreams. This is an exciting pulp horror romp, laced with lots of gore (and not gratuitous in anyway), skilful characterisation, and big scary, mutated creatures, all mixed in with a good dollop of paranoia and an 'X-Files' type conspiracy theory. This is intelligent and literate horror fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: 13 reasons I hated this novel
Review: 1) The cover is misleading. 2)The archeological story thread has little to do with the rest of the story. 3) The chronology of the story threads is awkward, at best. 4) A clunky lead weight of a sentence like this: "She preferred to think of herself, instead, as a passionate woman who pursued her physical desires in a feminine natural way, not a societal urchin hopelessly addicted to variant amphetamines and subsequently given to rampant sexual excess due to a subjugating environment and a connected dependency to the unnatural stimulation of certain chemical receptors in her soon-to-be-if-not-already damaged brain." 5) Potentially interesting characters soon devolve into juvenile stereotypes. 6) The heroine stumbles onto clues too conveniently and predictably. 7) Minor characters routinely and predictably become monster food. 8) The novel is populated only by relevant characters (Where is the rest of the staff of the facility? Or other people from outside the community?) 9) The ending is predictable (the mastermind who feels he has to explain everything at the climax), farfetched (a minor character brought in from left field at the end), and dull (evil govt research, genetic mutations, yadayadayada) in about equal parts. 10) Everything is wrapped up too conveniently, except for the archeological part, which is 11) one of the many things left unexplained. 12) There are logical implausibilities (Why leave Clare on the streets for so long?) 13) Why go through the ruse of hiring for a job? Why not just arrange a disappearance and hold the individuals prisoner at the facility, where they can be better controlled and analyzed?
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Lee horror and shock
Review: A very down and out Air Force dischargee is given a chance of a lifetime. Having been dishonorably discharged after being raped by the Colonel's son and now homeless, Clare is offered a position as security chief at a small quasi-government lab in the wilds of Florida. Add to the mix an archeologist trying to prove the existence of a lost Indian tribe that practiced human sacrifice, add a dash of Lee's unbridled ability to show the dark side of human nature, then a good dollop of mutations and you have a gripping horror novel not for the faint of heart (although true fans of Edward Lee could hardly be described as faint of heart). I won't give away the ending, but if you like Edward Lee, you are going to love this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Sloppy and seemed to have been written way too fast
Review: As a fan of extreme horror, I was looking forward to this book after I picked it up and read the jacket blurbs. I was disappointed, alas. There were some genuinely creepy moments, but it didn't hang together, either plotwise or logically. There were so many unbelievable coincidences and inexplicable motivations and cliched characters and situations, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. The ending was so rushed and predictable, it was hard to care who was killing who. This was the first Edward Lee novel I'd read; he has a good reputation, so I plan to give him a chance and try one more of his works before writing him off as a semi-hack. But based on this one book, I'll take Bentley Little, Graham Masterton, or Stephen King any day of the week.
Rating:
Summary: High 5 for MONSTROSITY
Review: Blurb from back cover : Blue skies, palm trees and flawless white-sand beaches. Clare Prentiss thinks her new home is paradise and her brand new job as security cheif at the clinic almost seems too good to be true. It is. But the truth is worse than she could ever imagine.
Lurid dreams, erotic obsessions and twisted fantasies aren't the only things that abruptly invade Clare's life. Is someone really peeping into her windows at night? Yes. Could those grotesque things in the woods possibly be real? Yes. Clare being stalked? Yes. But not by anything human. By a monstrosity. Overview : Lee does a remarkable job with this book. It jumps out and grabs you, shakes you within and inch of your life and keeps you begging for more! *Atmosphere In depth descriptions of the area really sets the mood for this story. I actually felt I was back in Florida. *Characters You feel the pain that our main character Clare has had to suffer and even how other character can be annoying. Lee has a true feel for the writing of different personas. *Story/Plot/Pace I loved the style Lee used. Just when you were knee deep in a particular story line, he would yank you out and throw you into a totally different storyline! This kept the pace steady and you felt terrible having to set the book down ~ leaving the character hanging until you could return to the pages! *Style Very fluid writing style from beginning to end! Jekyll & Hyde Movie Reviews (and sometimes books) http://horror-web.com
Rating:
Summary: Clinical Cures For the Ailments of Normality
Review: Clare was a promising member of the Air Force, one that thought she would go far because of her drive and determination she had, and she worked hard at the security detail she worked. She was easily defined as a motivated individual, clearly exclaiming this fact in the way she approached tasks that were presented to her, and she was respected by her associates as someone that put her job before her free time because of this. So, when he came, the deformed child of one of the Air Force's top brass, having his way with her and shattering her dreams as the progression of this physical and mental rape took place, she found herself stunned by the events that followed. While she thought that someone would hear her plight, she found her claims on what had transpired thrown out and then, as the ultimate insult, she was dishonorably discharged from the service. Thus the nightmare began. Now, a year later, she finds herself unable to find employment, living in shelters as only a shadow of what she once was, and wanting so desperately to have something - anything - to steer her life in the right track. And then one day, while digging through the trash, she finds a fortune cookie that grants her the boon of prophecy, exclaiming "Something Very Good Will Happen to you Today," and things begin to seem as if they are turning around. She finds herself offered a job, one where she would be the head of security at a clinic that is located in the middle of nowhere, and that offers her a home in the middle of a would-be paradise. White-sand beaches, friends, a cottage to call her own, a good salary, and a vehicle are only some of the things she founds suddenly thrust in front of her. Thinking this is too good to be true, she finds herself happy, wondering if the dream will end. Sadly, the dream is only a silver lining and the cloud, it is one with teeth. A wildlife preserve in the depths of Flordarian naturalism, The Air Force doing what the Air Force likes to do, an archeological dig that find some well-preserved mummies dating back 10,000 years, and a cancer treatment facility seem like a string of things that wouldn't connect very well. In fact, they all seem like portions that could be good and could be ill by themselves, but that wouldn't make too harrowing a tale for someone when telling it. Still, when coupled with the name Edward Lee, definitely take on a much more gruesome shade of fabrication. When Edward Lee wants to create some vestibule of the horrific, meshing it into an almost B-movie storyline that makes for a wild world of entertaining notions, he can do it well because he understands some of the smaller portions that need to be given. His writing style, while somewhat simplistic (depending on the tale), allows for the use of some interesting analogies on how to prod and poke, how to maim and mutilate, and how teeth and the human form fit together and greeting one another warmly. It always seems to find a way to put a rural class of people in as antagonists and victims, people working as disposable cast members that can be seen in their addictions to alcohol and chemical crutches, and that are not always "bad," but not normally "good." That and it always creates beasts that work as beautiful horror boons for the reader looking for something that has the potential to destroy. So, in that right, Monstrosity delivers. In some portions of the tale, there are some shortcomings as well, like the fact that some of the characters seem a bit too plastic for my tastes. Many of them, they seem to flutter through the story but without any impact other than in the lusting department, and that makes it hard to really ingest their suffering. Then there is the fact that the overwhelming allure of sexuality always inflicts Edward when writing and he, a victim of these needs, seems to think that the reader has to be reminded over and over again of these in order to feel the plight of the characters. Unfortunately for us, we oftentimes do not. While this doesn't necessarily hurt the read, mind you, but it is something worth noting and it does begin grating on the nerves a little, making me want more of the beast and less of the burdens. Basically, if you like Lee's looks into what is or isn't the normal thing to find hiding in swamps, then you'll be pleasantly entertained. It isn't the most grotesque thing he's ever created but it does have a few moments that are nice, and its scripting is something that reads easily and quickly. If you haven't checked him out before, I would suggest starting in another place, looking around before you delve straight in, but I would say that this would make good reading at another time. Dying, deformity, and despair always made good snacks before bed.
Rating:
Summary: Grindhouse Horror
Review: Ed Lee's latest tour de force is 'Monstrosity,' which is a significant departure from last year's 'City Infernal.' With his newest book, Lee returns to ground he covered in 'The Bighead,' one of the most unsettling horror books ever written. While this book does not engage in antics Bighead did, it still packs the usual Lee punch by providing generous amounts of queasiness, eroticism, and hillbillies. After reading this book, it appears Lee is moving towards a synthesis of sorts by supplying answers to some of the questions left over from 'The Bighead.' This budding synthesis is not nearly as complex as Stephen King's grand 'Dark Tower' amalgamation, but Lee does not have the number of novels King has, either. Having said that, 'Monstrosity' works as a stand alone book that reads quickly while serving as a good introduction to the entertaining world of Edward Lee. The book opens with an archeological expedition in Florida, where a university professor and his mouthy graduate student unearth an extremely rare underground Indian temple. Several questions arise during this exploration: why are there mutilated remains of Indian priests near the altar? And what's up with that hand sticking out of an entrance to a lower level? Lee occasionally revisits this expedition throughout the course of the book, and cleverly ties it in with the larger story about a young, down on her luck woman who gets what seems to be the dream job of a lifetime. Clare Prentiss's life has gone steadily downhill since her dishonorable discharge from the United States Air Force. Shooed out on a trumped up charge in order to keep a possible scandal under the rug, Clare is now homeless. She makes money by working as a test subject for cosmetic products, ever hopeful that she will earn enough scratch to buy some food. In the meantime, her life is one miserable day after another with no hope in sight. Just when things seem to be at a nadir, Clare catches a lifeline thrown to her by Dellin Daniels, a scientist working at a top-secret military installation in Fort Alachua Park situated on the Florida coast. Dellin offers Clare a cake job as head of security at this laboratory. She gets a car, a big salary, start-up money, and a great house right on the shoreline if she accepts the job. Clare jumps at the chance and begins working right away. There are a few annoying problems to contend with: locals occasionally poach on the property, there is a huge stock of medical drugs to guard, and an obnoxious park ranger keeps turning up like a bad penny. Despite these drawbacks, Clare likes her job and quickly becomes friends with Dellin and her two exuberant co-workers, Joyce and Rick. Clare's biggest problem is that she cannot stop digging her nose into increasingly obvious problems on the site. Questions arise that have no easy answers: why does a hysterical local turn up claiming that monsters are chasing her through the area? What happened to the former head of security and why did she disappear so fast? Who is Dellin Daniels and what exactly does he do in this medical facility? Why are mutated animals turning up in the area? There are few satisfactory answers to these questions, and the answers that do emerge reek of danger. As Clare digs deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Fort Alachua, she discovers an unpleasant secret from her past come back to haunt her. In typical Lee style, the whole thing explodes into a raucous, frenzied free for all in the last forty or so pages. One of the problems I had with 'Monstrosity' involved the flatness of the characters. Only Clare receives adequate attention from the author, and that is due to her importance as the main character. Maybe I expect too much from a horror novel, but once in awhile it is nice to see both major and minor characters with multidimensional personality traits. Some horror authors do a great job with this, especially Stephen King. King always spent a lot of time polishing minor characters, even if their only purpose was to die immediately in a horrible way. Oftentimes, the horror increases exponentially if the reader knows something about the victims because the empathy factor kicks in. Nobody experiences remorse over the death of a cardboard cutout. What does work well with Lee is his ability to create cringe worthy scenes, and 'Monstrosity' is no exception. In fact, this book may contain one of the most 'shudderific' incidents I have seen in this author's canon (at least those I have read). Witness the demise of the turtle egg poacher and you will understand what I am talking about. I literally had to put the book down after reading these excruciating pages. Good job, Mr. Lee! I suspect the author had a huge amount of fun writing some of the scenes in this book. The dedicated horror fan will have an equivalent amount of amusement reading them. While I don't think Ed Lee is the best writer in the horror field, it always surprises me how much I look forward to reading another one of his books. Let's hope that some of his older stuff finds a mass-market reprint soon. Hopefully, Leisure will acquire the rights to Lee's back catalog and start churning these babies out. Give it up for Ed!
Rating:
Summary: what a sorry sorry hack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: edward lee laughs at YOU as he goes to the bank.dont buy any of his books pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A few scares, little suspense (mellion108 from Michigan)
Review: Elderly Professor Fredrick and his student team begin their excursion into an ancient Ponoye site. On the verge of perhaps the most astounding archaeological discovery in modern times, Professor Fredrick is both awed and frightened by the bizarre and amazingly well-preserved bodies found in what appears to be some ceremonial sacrifice. Elsewhere in Florida, Clare Prentiss is a former Air Force Security Specialist who now finds herself homeless and trying to turn a buck as a deodorant tester. She is offered a too-good-to-be-true job as head of security at a secret cancer research site in a remote location. What does she have to lose? Once Clare joins the small security team, crazy things start to happen. Large, mutated, hungry creatures roam the swamplands and the water. People disappear. And Clare can't help but wonder what is going on behind the only locked door that she is not allowed to access. Little does Clare know that all the nightmares from her past are about to slam into some very new, even more frightening terrors. Who can she trust? What does Professor Fredrick's discovery have to do with what is happening on the island?
This is the second full novel that I've read by Edward Lee (the first being City Infernal). Although I liked Monstrosity better, that really doesn't say a lot because I really didn't care for the first novel. Lee writes some amazingly disturbing and creepy short stories, but I have not seen the same quality in his novels. Monstrosity is rather good as a type of B movie scare, and it has more than its share of graphic sex and violence, but it lacks an underlying sense of suspense and fear that I like to find in horror novels. There really is not much that you don't know will happen from the very beginning of the novel. Yes, there are some scary moments (Kari Ann's repeated assaults and her attempts to escape are the highlights of the novel). However, I think that I will stick with Lee's short stories as that seems to be his strong point. His story "Mr. Torso" remains one of the most disturbing and frightening things I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Main stream Lee
Review: Good book. This is a pretty tame book for the king of sick, the one and only Edward Lee. Monstrosity is more like a B-movie put out by a man that also makes block-buster movies. Monstrosity is much tamer than most of Lee's stuff and a good starting point for the main stream to read Lee. This is a fun read with monsters and mad scientists, sex and some gore (this is Lee after all). Unless you are a collector I would go for the paperback, although Cemetery Dance doe's a great job with the hard cover
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