The Cellar

Rating:
Summary: A Top Laymon Novel!
Review: A great book. I have to say I rank it pretty high among all the Laymon books I've read. I am dissappointed to know it's a part of a trilogy and now I must find the other two books to read! This is more gore than most of his books but it didn't stop me from loving it. This is Laymon and the ending is a jaw dropping thrill!

Rating:
Summary: Nerve chilling and haunting
Review: I read this book when I was 13 yrs of age and I am now in my 30s. Ever since I read Richard Laymon's book The Cellar; I cannot seem to forget this book and the horrors. I only read this book one time but I have been wanting to read it again. Yes it is sick and very twisted..but if someone likes to read horror and such; this book will chill you to the bones and you will want to read this book over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: It's all true...
Review: Laymon is a really good story teller, even though he is a bit of a perv.

The Cellar is shocking, suprizing, and edgy. A marvelous early effort. I won't bore you with the synopsis, it has been repeated enough already. I will say that it isn't your typical happy ending type story, no one is safe.

My only complaint is that some of the perversity made me squirm a little. I realize that it serves to put the "bad guy" in his proper place and make you hate him, and it also serves to help you understand why the ex-wife and daughter hate him so and do things that would seem unlikely, but dude, do you have to get so detailed with the child molestation. Ick.

That having been said, it's still a great story. Just make sure you get the UK edition.

Rating:
Summary: A SICK, DEPRAVED BLEND
Review: Laymon is known to a select few of us as the true master of horror. His race-car fast style and narrative drive as well as his capacity for downright sick stories make for some of the finest reading in the horror genre. With The Cellar Laymon proves he can outdo anyone in the realm of shock horror. A house with a deadly reputation is visited by dozens every day trying to get a glimpse into the slaughter that happened at the Beast House years before. Enter a young mother and her daughter, as well as a hired killer and the neurotic man who has hired him to kill the creature that haunts the Beast House. These four individuals are caught up in a myriad of plots and subplots as Laymon takes us into the Beast House for one more killfest before reaching a climax that is so sick and twisted you'll put the book down in shock and not want to return. For fans of Laymon I urge you to look for this book. I know it's out of print and difficult to find, but it is definitely worth the trouble of looking. Not as good as The Stake or Midnight's Lair, but damned good all the same. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Hardboiled Horror
Review: Laymon's work is so terse and hard-hitting that it's almost impossible to read it slowly. His prose style owes more to the 'hard-boiled' school of crime and mystery authors than to any traditional horror writers. This gives his best books more brute power than even hardened horror readers might expect. Sentences of sharp, brutal impact can leap off the page and strike the reader like open-handed slaps.
'The Cellar' is one of his best in that it couples this stripped-down readability with an absolutely merciless plot. At his peak, you can never tell how Laymon will end his tales, who will die, who will live and what will be left of them. The conclusion of 'The Cellar' is legendary and it thoroughly deserves this status.
If you like horror fiction, be it Poe or Barker or Blackwood or Hutson, give this book a try. Nobody ever wrote quite like this before.

Rating:
Summary: Hardboiled Horror
Review: Laymon's work is so terse and hard-hitting that it's almost impossible to read it slowly. His prose style owes more to the 'hard-boiled' school of crime and mystery authors than to any traditional horror writers. This gives his best books more brute power than even hardened horror readers might expect. Sentences of sharp, brutal impact can leap off the page and strike the reader like open-handed slaps.
'The Cellar' is one of his best in that it couples this stripped-down readability with an absolutely merciless plot. At his peak, you can never tell how Laymon will end his tales, who will die, who will live and what will be left of them. The conclusion of 'The Cellar' is legendary and it thoroughly deserves this status.
If you like horror fiction, be it Poe or Barker or Blackwood or Hutson, give this book a try. Nobody ever wrote quite like this before.

Rating:
Summary: outstanding reading
Review: Mr. Laymon's book has haunted me for many years. I first read this book after it's first edition. It compelled me to deduct that Mr. Laymon has a sick and twisted mind. I have reread this book many times, and am still in awe of it every time I read it. Compared to Midnight's Lair or Funhouse, it outranks them every time.

Rating:
Summary: What can I say...?
Review: Oh my, I've read this book twice, so far, and I can still see Maggie Hutch with the blue glow around her and her...children. That is probably the most disturbing scene out of all the disturbing scenes I have ever wittnessed in the world of horror, with exception maybe of J.F. Gonzalez' Maternal Instinct. I don't really want to give anything away but let me tell you its great! What other author out there has ever always had dark nipples in everyone of his books? Theres always murder, blood, gore and sex in every Laymon book. Thats what made him the most underated author of all time. His books are crisp, interesting and possess a certain crystal clarity that only he can put into your mind. The only book that I have never finished of his was Quake, and that was because I had to take it back to the library because someone had it on reserve. The Cellar starts off The Beast House Chronicles and ends with Friday Night in Beast House. The Beast House is also great, but I believe that the best book in the series is The Midnight Tour. Yes, its over 500 pages and nothing really, lets say, "beastish", really happens till the last 50 pages or so but he does an outstanding job of developing the characters. Some you love and would want to marry and some you just want to strangle and burry never to be seen again. Like I said crystal clarity is something he does best, its something you should expect from each and every book that he has ever written. Three things you will always see in his books: Gore, violence and sex!

Rating:
Summary: What can I say...?
Review: Oh my, I've read this book twice, so far, and I can still see Maggie Hutch with the blue glow around her and her...children. That is probably the most disturbing scene out of all the disturbing scenes I have ever wittnessed in the world of horror, with exception maybe of J.F. Gonzalez' Maternal Instinct. I don't really want to give anything away but let me tell you its great! What other author out there has ever always had dark nipples in everyone of his books? Theres always murder, blood, gore and sex in every Laymon book. Thats what made him the most underated author of all time. His books are crisp, interesting and possess a certain crystal clarity that only he can put into your mind. The only book that I have never finished of his was Quake, and that was because I had to take it back to the library because someone had it on reserve. The Cellar starts off The Beast House Chronicles and ends with Friday Night in Beast House. The Beast House is also great, but I believe that the best book in the series is The Midnight Tour. Yes, its over 500 pages and nothing really, lets say, "beastish", really happens till the last 50 pages or so but he does an outstanding job of developing the characters. Some you love and would want to marry and some you just want to strangle and burry never to be seen again. Like I said crystal clarity is something he does best, its something you should expect from each and every book that he has ever written. Three things you will always see in his books: Gore, violence and sex!

Rating:
Summary: Quick read with a great ending
Review: One of Laymon's better works, although lacking in character development. One thing that really upsets me in fiction is the develpment of a loving relationship within the period of say, 24 hours (and ends in a sexual encounter). That happens in this book and is unrealistic, to say the least.

Apart from that, the book is satisfyingly grisly, and the ending will probably take you by surprise as it did me. It would have much more impact if you cared a little more about the characters though.