Night Show

Rating:
Summary: Who doesn't love Laymon?
Review: Dani Larson is the queen of movie special effects (so says the back cover). Dani is a typical young American woman--she wants to be successful, she wants to find love and romance, and she wants a nice, peaceful life. Two out of three ain't bad. Dani thinks she has everything she could ever want, but then she meets up with her stalker, a young, naive and not incredibly bright man who wants to pay homage to his idol so that he too can break into the FX business. But it wouldn't be Laymon if the novel stopped there. Laymon throws in a side story of a terrorized young woman and how she goes about seeking revenge. How all of these people meet is true, classic Laymon.

This is a quick, easy-to-read splatter novel. Laymon doesn't pull any punches when he writes his horror, and this is only one of the many things I've always loved about his writing. NIGHT SHOW reads like a creepy, cheesy horror film--damsels in distress, things lurking in the shadows, blood and guts. If you want intricate, challenging material, this isn't it! Laymon is one of the great masters of shock horror, and this particular novel is a fast, gritty, gory little read. Is it his best? Not even close. But a Laymon novel is always a fun, gut-wrenching ride. If you can find Night Show, and you can tolerate schlock, you might just like this one.

Richard Laymon, you are greatly missed.

Rating:
Summary: OK for Laymon
Review: I read this book in about one day while home sick. It was, well...just OK. He has written alot better. Some horror, some action, it held my intrest while bed bound. But by the end, I just wanted to know what happens so I could put it down, I just did'nt care about the caracters by the end.

Rating:
Summary: Good early Laymon novel
Review: I've read more than two dozen Richard Laymon books, and I haven't found one that I didn't like.

This one is pretty short, but that's an asset in a sense -- it keeps the pace fast. There's no filler. This is a nice lean novel.

His newer novels are longer. They're better too, but not because they're longer. It's due to the author's experience.

Rating:
Summary: Night Show
Review: The best of these small books by a real horror master.

Rating:
Summary: One of Laymon's little time-fillers.
Review: This doesn't even come close to being one of Laymon's best (or even memorable) works.

A great idea: the female "Queen" of special f/x for horror movies is hounded by a desperate freak (who tries to make a name for himself by scaring the hell out of "ordinary folk") trying to break into the business and become her protege, while he in turn is being tracked down by a girl he played a cruel prank on in high school. Unfortunately, a great idea is all it is. The book is written in the most predictable and uninteresting way.

This makes a time-filler, as it does have some trashy horror value, but that's about all; you really don't care what happens to the characters, and the ending is very disappointing. Laymon could do much better than this. Read one of his other books instead.

Rating:
Summary: One to keep you going
Review: This is a fun little book (about 200 pages) that won't make you bored. Not a piece of literaly excellence but if your looking for a quick read and a page turner than this could be for you. The story is simple. There is a killer loose on the set of the lastest horror movie and our young female herione is the special effects artist and she suspect that the killer isn't really killing but is using special effect to make it look like it. She's right, and the killer is her biggest fan and if she dosen't watch out he just might start killing for real- on her!