The Traveling Vampire Show

Rating:
Summary: A Laymon Fan For Years
Review: I might be biased since I've been a Laymon fan for years, but rarely does this author do wrong by me. TTVS is probably one of his best. Small towns. Kids who act like real kids. And you can't forget the vampire. There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said. How can you go wrong at this price? Give him a shot and you won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Wasn't bad but wasn't great either
Review: The quality of good horror books has gone down so far in the last decade that this book didn't seem too bad to me. Let me start with what I liked first as the list is shorter. I found Laymon's writing much better than some in the horror genre (Bentley Little, etc.) and there really wasn't any part of the book that was boring. It moved along at a pretty good pace. Also I though you got to know the characters pretty well. Where they well written? No because they were probably the most unrealistic sixteen year olds I have ever read in a story but at least their characters where fleshed out.

I DIDN'T like how unrealistic the book was though. I am a huge fantasy and sci-fi fan for the record, so I don't require realism in my preferred books but I found this book way over the top. The town is like no town in current existence not to mention the tamer early 60's (compared to now). The main character of the story, Dwight, seems to have no other thought on his mind except sex. Now I was a teen not to long ago and I know that it does go through our minds hundreds of times a day but come on, do I have to read about some teen lusting after his Sister-in-law, neighbor, best friends sister, and any other girl character every other page? It got a little old pretty quick. I also thought the whole vampire thing was done in a sloppy way. This was definitly no Something Wicked This Way Comes that's for sure. It never got 'scary' and I never doubted for a minute the main character would survive. I had really high hopes for this book too as the premise sounded so good. All in all I would not recommend this book but I still have hopes for the author. I am reading Darkness, Tell Us right now and it seems to be better than this book so far.

Rating:
Summary: My First Laymon Book
Review: This was my first Laymon book and I loved it. I found myself staying up to 2 a.m. to finish it. I have purchased other books by Mr. Laymon and I'm sure they will be just as good.

Rating:
Summary: Laymon remembers being a sex starved teen.
Review: First off, I will admit that I loved this book. It was very candid, and very true to the feelings of the 16 year old male. While I feel that the "Traveling Vampire Show" itself was almost a passing afterthought through most of the book, with an almost ridiculous final confrontation, I still enjoyed the book immensely. It was just plain old fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its promise
Review: I really like Richard Laymon -I think he's really talented, and he sure knows how to write a scary novel. And this is surely scary enough, but it somehow misses out on the great promise that it isthe relationship between the young main characters.

The story is intelligent enough, and in fact the entire concept of the scary show, in the field of horrors, in a quiet town is the stuff of truly great horror. But this is more than that - it is a novel of friendship and the things that we can get ourselves into when we're not quite children, and not yet adults.

Alas this really falls short. If you want to read a novel which develops these friendships in a far superior manner, you cannot go by Stephen King's "It". However, if you want a quick read, and a quick scare, then come visit the Travelling Vampire Show some time soon.

Rating:
Summary: King's "It," and Simmons's "Summer of Night" - now this.
Review: I would wholeheartedly add it to the pantheon of horror novels (headed up by the two fantastic aforementioned titles and Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes") that can be classified as nostalgic horror coming-of-age books. Stephen King, while I don't like everything he does, writes these types of books better than anyone. "It" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" are the unquestionable high points of these styles of books (think of them as Wonder Years meets Fangoria). But we may add Richard Laymon's "The Traveling Vampire Show" to the list as a fine addition as well.

This book has a lot of plotline similarities to "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - a mysterious and sinister cheap sideshow carnival comes to town, and the kids have a coming-of-age experience because of it. However, the similarities end there. However, that's where the similarities end.

I found this to be quite a charming and evocative book. Dwight, Rusty, and Slim are sketched in fantastically by Laymon, this is, hands-on, the best and most truthful characterization of his career easily. There's a lot of sexual-hormoned-fueled description in this book, but considering we're getting the story from an adolescent boy during the summer while he's having a sexual awakening of sorts, it actually makes sense and works with the book much more than some of Laymon's more trashy sex-laden novels do.

So what's the book about? You can read Amazon's description. The teens go to check out a carnival taking places in a mysterious area that's built up a bad history of its own. From there, a series of events unfold to make all of them have a growing-up experience. The writing is fantastic, I must say. Even though I wasn't even alive during the 1960s, nearly every word of this book rings true, lively and fresh and vibrant, bringing a by-gone era to life and characters long grown up rendered in their youth again.

People who complain that only 5% of the book actually takes place at the Traveling Vampire Show have totally missed the point. If this book actually spent more time at the Vampire Show, it would have been an inferior book. As it, it is hands down Laymon's most artful, subtle, and sophisticated work as an author. Kudos.

Rating:
Summary: My first Laymon novel...
Review: Some minor spoilers...

I did enjoy this novel. It was a quick read, never boring, with fully developed characters. I did have a problem with the book though when I was about half way into it. I truly felt that the kids in this book (15 years old) were sexually exploited and it did disturb me somewhat. I'm 23 years old and I know teenagers younger than that are sexually active but it may have been the timeframe of the novel which was supposedly good natured and wholesome that bothered me. I believe it just was not necessary and tainted my opinion of the characters. Rusty for instance was a great character. He's the friend all guys have who is annoying and always getting you into trouble but he remains one of your best friends. At the end of the book where he rapes the vampire, Valeria, was disgusting and tasteless. And a brief moment where he watches his sister in a perverse way slip her shoes on, with her legs open, was totally unnessecary. It did nothing to help the plot. Another instance had the character of Lee fighting Valeria and at the same time having her clothes torn off. What was the point? There wasn't one. It seemed Laymon was just getting his sexually kicks writing this kind of stuff. The Traveling Vampire Show was enjoyable despite what I have mentioned, however. There are some memorable light-hearted moments and it stands alone as a coming of age drama, but not as a horror novel.

Rating:
Summary: What about Bitsy?
Review: This book was excellent! The best vampire book I have read in years by far! The plot was orginally, story well written and engaging. Once you start this book you will not put it down until you are finished. I wish more people were writing great vampire literature such as this.