Rating: 
Summary: Mildly disappointing....
Review: After reading 4 previous Ketchum novels (JOYRIDE, THE LOST, HIDE AND SEEK, OFF SEASON), I wanted 2 B bowled-over by this book, especially after reading Stephen King's introduction 2 it elsewhere. Instead, I'm mildly disappointed & am wondering what all the fuss is about -- must B cos it's so hard 2 find copies. If Ketchum wrote this 2day, it would hit harder & move 2 the basement-torture chamber faster.
4 the 1st half of the book, I was wondering if Ketchum COULD write something so shocking & painful that I wouldn't B able 2 read it; 4 awhile I was positive he was going 2 do it. Then about 1/2way, he starts shying away -- events happen offstage, or Ketchum just flat tells U in the text that he's not going 2 present something. Tho what remains is gripping, compelling, horrifically vivid & painful, I don't think it Dserves the award 4 Ultimate Horror Novel, or whatever.
Consider: Ketchum takes nearly 80 pgs 2 set up his basic situation, then still doesn't quite do it. Tho several characters R real, believable people (especially Danny the narrator, Meg the heroine, and Ruth the villianess), others R just names: Nicky is a psychotic with a tire-iron; Woofer feeds worms 2 ants; Willy is a whiny fat-boy; Denise is a giggly slut -- who's previously bn abused herself. Others R just names who R simply there 2 watch.
I was also frustrated with how many times Meg could've gotten away with Danny's help & nobody did NEthing. 1 action by 1 person could've changed things. There R 2 many holes.
But there R things worth reading: 1 early scene in which Danny & Meg go 4 a ride on a ferris wheel is worthy of early Ray Bradbury. & the rest is vivid, believable, painful -- & 1nce the story really gets rolling, it's gripping.
But this isn't a step above Ketchum's other novels (all 4 I named above a 4-star-worthy). I'm still Xploring him; I got bogged down 2/3rds of the way thru LADIES' NIGHT....
Rating: 
Summary: Prepare to sweat and squirm
Review: Holy tamales! This has to be the most disturbing novel I've ever read--and I couldn't put it down until I finished the last word. Ketchum's story focuses on young Meg and Susan Loughlin who go to live with their Aunt Ruth after the tragic death of their parents. Unfortunately, Ruth Chandler is slipping further and futher into insanity, and she comes up with progressively more horrific and torturous treatment for Meg--all the while enlisting the assistance of her sons and other neighborhood children.
The story is told by David, now an adult, who recalls the horrible treatment of Meg throughout that summer in the 50s. He cannot ignore his own participation in the acts, and it is this that plagues him the most.
This is not an easy novel to read. I shed many tears trying to get through the passages, but I continued to turn the pages because this is a compelling tale of mob-think, the depths of depravity humans are capable of, survival instinct, and guilt, guilt, guilt. Is this a good novel? I don't think "good" is an accurate adjective. This is a powerful novel. There are no slimy slugs, aliens, serial killers, or vampires. But this is horror nonetheless, and I think this real-life horror is much more disturbing and frightening than anything I ever read in Dracula. This is destined to be a classic. Just prepare yourself; you will definitely be made uncomfortable by this story (and if not--get thee to a therapist!).
The Overlook Connection Press did an awesome job with this edition. It's complete with artwork by Neal McPheeters and an introduction by Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: The Girl Next Door
Review: The Girl Next Door is more of an experience than a read, so much so that one is forced to use analogies in order to explain your encounter with this book.
I liken the experience to surgery; only in this operation the doctor is truly mad and demented. Ketchum rather than putting you out completely only gives you a local anesthesia so that you get to witness your own skin separating from the muscle under his knife. You get to hear the sound of the saw cutting through your ribs and feel his hands wrap around your heart, as his slow steady grip stops your heart from beating. Only then, when you begin to feel your soul leaving your body and the ghost of you turns around and looks you straight in the eyes, does Ketchum massage the heat back into rhythm. The scars that are left from this surgery are not left on the skin but on the psyche. They travel with you now wherever you go like a disease in remission.
What Ketchum teaches us it that there are things that live in the darkness things that you feed once and like a stray they never go away....like a parasite they make themselves part of you and then slowly but very deliberately devour you alive. First by picking away at the fleshy soft parts and then moving to the ridged bone and soft marrow. On a further and deeper note this book delves into the monsters that are created from the toxic elixir of jealousy and haltered. The light that Jack Ketchum shines on these monsters allows us to understand and respect their danger, like the cobra behind the glass at the local zoo. The book is truly a masterpiece and I am glad to see that is it gaining a wider audience every year. Thanks Jack!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Shocked!
Review: When I first picked this book up I could not put it down until I finished it - in about eight hours. I was horrified at what I was reading - I felt guilty for wanting to read it. I just could not stop myself from turning each horrifying page. I don't think that anyone out there can. You keep turning those pages until your deep in the middle of the most unbelievably sad and at the same time grotesque story ever told. Is is just a story? Read The Basement, it's a true story of simular events that happend to a young girl named Sylvia Likens.
Rating:
Summary: can't believe it
Review: Very violent, very graphic... and very touching. I can't believe that this is based on a true story, as this is very messed up and scary. Read the other reviews if you want to know what it's about, remember NOT to read Stephen King's intro first, and just go with it... there are things that you will NEVER forget.
Rating:
Summary: The Girl Next Door--an all time horror classic...
Review: The Girl Next Door was the third Ketchum book I'd read. Off Season was ok, Hide and Seek better, but The Girl Next Door blew me away. It was THAT good. Told in first person by 12 year old David, the book touched me in many ways. First off, to me the key to this book is NOT the shocking horror, though there is plenty of that, but the wonderful writing. I absolutely could NOT put the book down. I received it at work on a Sunday morning, read about 30 pages at work, held off until about 4pm on Monday, then read the last 300+ pages between 4pm and 8:30 pm. The novel took me back to when I was 12, and had first seen a pretty slightly older girl in my neighborhood. Had Ketchum choose to, he could have written a gentle, emotion ridden all time classic. That's right. A classic about growing up...with no horror at all. But he choose to go in a different direction. A darker path. One that lead me to explore my own self, wondering what I might've done in the same situation. David does not come off as a hero, yet this book is written with such skill that he also does not come off as a villian, which he could've easily have been had Ketchum had a less deft touch. The Girl Next Door is the best novel of horror I've ever read. Better than anything King, Barker, Koontz, or any other writer has written. I've just ordered Cover, Stranglehold, Red and Joyride, and I'm reading Ladies Night right after I write this. (One caveat, though. I'm not sure this book is suitable for teens, especially girls. The subject matter is a bit...sensitive.)
Rating:
Summary: Could it be your neighbor?
Review: This is the first book that I ever read by Jack Ketchum and it has set the benchmark for much of what I read today. As with all the Ketchum books that I have read, his style is easy to read and flows well. There's not a lot off wasted words like some books that could easily pared down from their 800 page drivel down to about 200 pages or less and still have a great story. The story here is tight, concise, graphic, and memorable. I won't hash words on what the story is about, as you can find that just about anyplace. What I will say, is what makes this book so good, is the fact that it is so real. In this day and age, with all the things you see on the news, and all the things you read about in the paper, this story could be one of those and you'd never be able to tell is was fiction. This fits right in with today's society, and could be happening to your next-door neighbors daughter, right now as you're reading this. This book brings it close to home. It will make you think, "Could there be someone that twisted in my neighborhood? Could this happen to my kids?" Better go check.....
Rating:
Summary: Real-life horror, not for the faint-hearted.
Review: I'm not sure I can really add much to the other comments here, some of which are really quite eloquent in their discussions of the book. I bought the old paperback copy of the book, way back, a horrendous thing with a skeleton in a cheerleader's costume on the cover--the art had absolutely nothing to do with the story inside, as I was to discover. This was not the first Ketchum I'd read--that honor went to _Off Season_, which, if you've not read it yet, you owe it to yourself to find immediately. No, I came to _The Girl Next Door_ after I'd read a few more Ketchum titles, and I was totally unprepared. This is easily the most gripping, horrifying, impossible-to-stop-reading book I've ever had in my hands. At the end, I felt so dirty, so complicit in the experience of reading that I threw away the book. Now, that's not a comment on the book or the quality of Mr. Ketchum's writing. On second thought, maybe it is--I've never been in the hands of someone so brutally honest, so able to force me to endure such a horrifying experience as the story he chronicles. This is not a feel-good experience. This is not one of those books where good triumphs over evil. You should not read this book if you're looking for a reassuring, light, easy read. But if you're ready to look into the dark heart of human evil, this may be the book for you. It is truly a great book--an excellent novel with memorable characters and spot-on writing. But the story is not one you'll shake off easily. It really is something akin to driving slowly by the scene of an accident--you want to see what happened, while at the same time, you dread seeing what happened. If you feel up to the experience, give this one a try.
Rating:
Summary: Matter-of-fact Writing Rings Haunting Resonance
Review: First, let me say that if you read this book, you will not forget the experience, not for a long time. Whether it stems from the piercing theme or from the realism that sears through the work like a hot rivet in the snow, this novel resonates more than any other I've ever read. Sure, the unthinkable violence and cruelty keep you turning the pages the way a line of ambulances and crunched cars make you turn your head when you drive by a multi-car pileup, but it's more than that. I'm a slow reader and I downed this book in two days, mostly in one evening. But it's more than that. A lot more. The narrative is the wizened recollection of a man haunted by the past: the summer of his thirteenth year on the planet in the late 50's. The realism comes from his devout memory of the period. The initial sympathy is driven by everyone's memory of early adolescence and the first love during that phase of life. But that is only the primrose covering the path. As we follow Ketchum, we find things beyond the thin dressing along the trail; we find dark shadows and strange twists and decisions and sharp things that hurt and water that scalds and scalds again and searing needles that carve words on a young girl. And hot irons. Hot irons that melt flesh. The novel is essentially about a murder. A slow torturous murder of a 14 year-old girl, but the central story nonetheless. The theme and ideas revolving around that occurrence are what make this novel one of the most resonating I've come across. He reminds me of a severe Maxwell Smart in his storytelling. Would you believe a woman goes crazy and tortures her niece? Maybe. Would you believe she brought her boys in on it? Well, that's tougher to swallow, but sure, it could happen. OK, would you believe she had every kid on the block helping beat, cut and dehumanize the girl? I don't thinks so. But you will, if you read this book. I've never been so haunted by a story in my life. So torn between loving it and hating it. I hated what happened in it, but no more that I hate what Jeffery Dalmer did. But I still watch the documentaries about him when they're on. I still watch. A boy in The Girl Next Door watches too. He's the only one who never actually harms the girl. But he still watches. He still lets it happen. And that begs the question, which is the true monster, the aunt or the boy? By the end of the novel, we know. We know because he knows and he tells us. I've tried not to give too much away here - no more than you can read from the dust jacket. But I would heartily recommend reading the Introduction after the novel. It's written by Stephen King, who is always worth reading, but Mr. King gives a bit much away. Better to read it later, as the resonance begins to hum. This is the first Jack Ketchum novel I've ever read. But it will not be the last.
Rating:
Summary: Will leave you shaken and disturbed
Review: Nothing really shocks me anymore. I read a lot of horror and see a lot of horror films and after a while you've seen and read it all. Nothing really scares you anymore. Or so I thought. When I read Stephen King's introduction to this book in a collection of King's essays and short stories I knew immediately that I had to try and locate a copy of this novel. The book starts out peacefully, a boy catching crawfish by the river on a lazy summer day in the 50's and meets the pretty new girl in the area. Lucky for him, he thinks, it turns out she will be living with his best friend next door. Her parents were recently killed in an auto accident and the best friend was the next of kin. But something isn't right next door, as we soon find out. No, something definately is not right. It's the kind of book where you hands tremble as you hold the book, where you dread turning the page because you know it will only get worse but you do anyway. It's the kind of book where you almost hate yourself for not being able to put it down but you have to find out what happens next. It's the kind of book where you can't wait to find out the victim has been harbouring a plan all along and you can't wait for that moment of revenge, where good triumphs over evil. Then you think about Sylvia Lykins, the girl whose brutal murder was the catalyst for this book and you realize there isn't always a plan, that good doesn't always triumph over evil and when it does sometimes it's way too late. It's a horror story all right. And for fans of the genre it's a must read for it will remind you that true horror is happening out there right now, all over the world in basements, seedy aparments downtown, and maybe even in the house right next door.
|
