Double Edge

Rating:
Summary: A great premise lost in an unoriginal story
Review: Dennis Etchison is hailed as a great writer of psychological horror, but the strength and originality of his short stories is never fully brought to bear in his novels. The whole Lizzie Borden premise underlying the plot of Double Edge is interesting, but this novel is far from original. Jenny Marlow has researched the Borden murders and reached her own conclusion as to the identity of the murderer; she and her husband have pitched a docudrama to a cable network and hope to see their dreams realized in a Lizzie Borden miniseries. Then her husband's parents die in a horrible accident .... From this point on, she and her husband basically have no more contact with one another, living separate lives as a series of grisly deaths invade their private world. Jenny's relationship with her friend Libby becomes as important as it is confusing; Libby takes her friend with her to a strange type of women's "club," one in which a blind woman channels information and speaks constantly of "Companions." There are many allusions to duality throughout the novel, all of which plays directly off of the Lizzie Borden history, but the seeming possibilities the Borden premise provides are never taken advantage of or realized. The conclusion works but does not impress. I should add that you don't really need to know much about the actual Borden murder case to make your way through this novel, and I actually found myself more disappointed in the end than I might have been had I not brought a strong interest in Lizzie Borden's history with me to the tale.

My main criticism of the novel is that I never really understood the characters. They moved like wooden puppets controlled by the author; I could not sympathize with their pains nor really care very much about any of them. Some of the behavior they indulged in made little sense to me in the context of the story, and the two protagonists seemed more like strangers than man and wife, even on the few occasions when they were actually together. Etchison kept my interest throughout the novel, but he never hooked me emotionally. Double Edge is a perfectly acceptable horror novel, but there is nothing about it that distinguishes it from most other horror novels written in the past couple of decades.

Rating:
Summary: A great premise lost in an unoriginal story
Review: Dennis Etchison is hailed as a great writer of psychological horror, but the strength and originality of his short stories is never fully brought to bear in his novels. The whole Lizzie Borden premise underlying the plot of Double Edge is interesting, but this novel is far from original. Jenny Marlow has researched the Borden murders and reached her own conclusion as to the identity of the murderer; she and her husband have pitched a docudrama to a cable network and hope to see their dreams realized in a Lizzie Borden miniseries. Then her husband's parents die in a horrible accident .... From this point on, she and her husband basically have no more contact with one another, living separate lives as a series of grisly deaths invade their private world. Jenny's relationship with her friend Libby becomes as important as it is confusing; Libby takes her friend with her to a strange type of women's "club," one in which a blind woman channels information and speaks constantly of "Companions." There are many allusions to duality throughout the novel, all of which plays directly off of the Lizzie Borden history, but the seeming possibilities the Borden premise provides are never taken advantage of or realized. The conclusion works but does not impress. I should add that you don't really need to know much about the actual Borden murder case to make your way through this novel, and I actually found myself more disappointed in the end than I might have been had I not brought a strong interest in Lizzie Borden's history with me to the tale.

My main criticism of the novel is that I never really understood the characters. They moved like wooden puppets controlled by the author; I could not sympathize with their pains nor really care very much about any of them. Some of the behavior they indulged in made little sense to me in the context of the story, and the two protagonists seemed more like strangers than man and wife, even on the few occasions when they were actually together. Etchison kept my interest throughout the novel, but he never hooked me emotionally. Double Edge is a perfectly acceptable horror novel, but there is nothing about it that distinguishes it from most other horror novels written in the past couple of decades.

Rating:
Summary: Laboured horror novel
Review: Etchison is an acclaimed --justly so--writer of horror short stories but has not really delivered a novel that comes close to the excellence he displays in the shorter form.Double Edge is unworthy of his talents and gives the impression of an unduly padded short story.
The Malones --Jennie and Lee -are a partnership professionally as well as a married couple and are awaiting the decision of a cable TV company regarding production of a docu drama they have written about Lizzie Borden ,who they see as an unjustly persecuted woman ,guiltless on the charge of parental murder.There are problems in the marriage mostly to do with Jennie's disturbed mother who is deeply psychotic and jealous of the easy friendship the couple enjoy with Lee's parents.When they are killed in what the police dismiss as an accident Lee comes to suspect sabotage ,and nor is this the end of the deaths surrounding the couple --an executive of the cable company and later their agent are hacked to death .
A psychic element is stirred into the mix when a medium becomes involved in the tale .Is the killer the mother?Is it the spirit of the dead Lizzie Borden ?Or somebody else?
You will have a hard job caring one way or the other as the charcters are flat and one dimensional and the story poorly structured and flabbily written .Too little is made of the actual Borden case and this is a missed opportunity as it remains a controversial and deeply fascinating story .
Etchison knows the media world well and the best bits are his sharp and pointed remarks about the timidity and self absorbtion of media people but as a horror novel it is too slack and illogical to engross the reader for long
Pick up a volume of his short stories--they are a whole lot better.