Toy Cemetery

Rating:
Summary: JUNK CEMETERY ?
Review: Action wins over substance in this unoriginal tale of a town runned amok by evil. Returning to his Missouri hometown after inheriting his aunt's estate, Jay Clute and his young daughter soon realize that all is not what it appears to be. People are acting stranger by the minute, time inexplicably comes to a standstill, and to make matters worse, talkative toys have taken over Jay's properties. How will the Clutes deal with all of this ?

Survival is the theme, here, for this oh-so cheesy horror opus in which the plot, just like its thinly developed inhabitants, goes in all directions. Sometimes a horror story, sometimes a adventure yarn, TOYS CEMETERY can't seem to find its true voice, but one thing is for sure: the novel is never boring. Page-filled action and gore aplenty, plus a hero with a trick or two up his sleeve make CEMETERY enjoyable despite the author's repetitive storyline (check out any of his horror novels) and his obvious degradation of women characters (again, check out his novels). Every female is a victim of Johnstone's overripe sexual imagination. It's no wonder he ended up leaving the horror field to concentrate on adventures and westerns, where men rule. His children characters, however, do bear a certain credibility, especially in their interaction with one another. One can't help but ponder on how much more effective the book would have been with them as center stage.

As a grade-B novel, TOY CEMETERY delivers in spite of its headless-chicken-run plot and it's one-dimensional characters, but as a piece of horror literature, it completely fails to pass the test.-----Martin Boucher

Rating:
Summary: JUNK CEMETERY ?
Review: Action wins over substance in this unoriginal tale of a town runned amok by evil. Returning to his Missouri hometown after inheriting his aunt's estate, Jay Clute and his young daughter soon realize that all is not what it appears to be. People are acting stranger by the minute, time inexplicably comes to a standstill, and to make matters worse, talkative toys have taken over Jay's properties. How will the Clutes deal with all of this ?

Survival is the theme, here, for this oh-so cheesy horror opus in which the plot, just like its thinly developed inhabitants, goes in all directions. Sometimes a horror story, sometimes a adventure yarn, TOYS CEMETERY can't seem to find its true voice, but one thing is for sure: the novel is never boring. Page-filled action and gore aplenty, plus a hero with a trick or two up his sleeve make CEMETERY enjoyable despite the author's repetitive storyline (check out any of his horror novels) and his obvious degradation of women characters (again, check out his novels). Every female is a victim of Johnstone's overripe sexual imagination. It's no wonder he ended up leaving the horror field to concentrate on adventures and westerns, where men rule. His children characters, however, do bear a certain credibility, especially in their interaction with one another. One can't help but ponder on how much more effective the book would have been with them as center stage.

As a grade-B novel, TOY CEMETERY delivers in spite of its headless-chicken-run plot and it's one-dimensional characters, but as a piece of horror literature, it completely fails to pass the test.---------Martin Boucher

Rating:
Summary: Toy Land....Toy Hell!
Review: William W Johnstone's novel "Toy Cemetery" starts out fast and furious like a lot of his novels. It's got a decent storyline about a town taken over by an ancient evil. In fact parts of the storyline are quite similar to his previous trilogy Devil's Kiss, Heart and Touch. As with most Zebra books the summary on the back is quite deceptive. The toys in the story really are a minor character. In fact, Johnstone's novel is full of characters, some of them are throw away some of them are keepers. It's a shame because it's the sheer amount of characters in his novel that prevents me from giving it 5 stars. Written mostly like a classic pulp horror novel, it is quite graphic in it's violence. Sometimes funny..sometimes chilling its a quick easy read for those looking to remember the days of pulp horror novels.

Authors like Johnstone often get burried under the works of King, Koontz, Saul and others and are often overlooked lost treasures. I recommend Johnstones writing for the most part because it's light refreshing entertainment that won't bog you down. Toy Cemetary while not his best horror novel is quite entertaining nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Toy Land....Toy Hell!
Review: William W Johnstone's novel "Toy Cemetery" starts out fast and furious like a lot of his novels. It's got a decent storyline about a town taken over by an ancient evil. In fact parts of the storyline are quite similar to his previous trilogy Devil's Kiss, Heart and Touch. As with most Zebra books the summary on the back is quite deceptive. The toys in the story really are a minor character. In fact, Johnstone's novel is full of characters, some of them are throw away some of them are keepers. It's a shame because it's the sheer amount of characters in his novel that prevents me from giving it 5 stars. Written mostly like a classic pulp horror novel, it is quite graphic in it's violence. Sometimes funny..sometimes chilling its a quick easy read for those looking to remember the days of pulp horror novels.

Authors like Johnstone often get burried under the works of King, Koontz, Saul and others and are often overlooked lost treasures. I recommend Johnstones writing for the most part because it's light refreshing entertainment that won't bog you down. Toy Cemetary while not his best horror novel is quite entertaining nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Another great Johnstone work
Review: William W. Johnstone is the greatest horror writer of all time.Each book keeps you on the edge.Toy Cemetery was awsome.The evil dolls in Aunt Cary's toy collection get their revenge in the end.