Road to Hell

Rating:
Summary: I take back my original comment
Review: After finishing the book I take back my original comment. The book reedemed itself to me after finishing the initial build up. There were a lot of brutal vivid scenes that cut into my fevered brain like a butcher slicing through a tendon on a swinging cattle carcass. The ending was a growing nightmare of claustraphobia, impending doom and bloody gore. I would definitely recommend this book now. A disembowling experience of epic preportions. Gerard is possibly one of the finest poets of gore and mayhem to grace this century.

Rating:
Summary: Unreadable.
Review: Gerard Houarner, Road to Hell (Leisure, 1999)

I struggled through the first fifty pages of Road to Hell, then considered tossing it to the dustbunnies. But then I read a number of reviews that said "it gets better." So I struggled with it while not reading other things for another four months. It may get better, but I finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't willing to put in the time to get there. I quit at about page 130.

Road to Hell is a confused mess, to put it bluntly. It looks as if an editor took certain sections of the book, tossed the pages into the air, and started swinging with a meat cleaver. Sometimes the book will stay in the same moment for twenty pages, at other times it goes through weeks in the space of a page, with no delimiters of any kind to tell you time has gone forward. Suddenly, you're in a different setting, wondering "how on earth did I get here?" The characters are flat and uninspired (casualties of "tell, don't show" syndrome). The action is confusing most of the time, and when it isn't it feels as if it were written by someone who was scientifically observing, rather than actually feeling it. Simply put, I couldn't find a single redeeming quality about the book that made me want to read any farther. And with so many books sitting and waiting for me to get to them, I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. (zero)

Rating:
Summary: Not for skimmers
Review: If you're the type who likes to skim through books for the "good parts" and knock out a book (or more) a day, then this is not for you. If you like books that explore the psychological foundations of their characters through the use of unusual settings, mythic tropes, and occasionally rich language, then take the time to read this book. This isn't James Joyce by any means, but it does challenge the imagination as well as the comfort level of the reader drawn to read horror by watching endless slasher movies and looking for the same level of story in books. Yeah, sometimes the sentences are a little long, and the names are not all Anglo-Saxon, and it doesn't takeplace in a mall or suburbia. But if you're tired of that kind of stuff, and you're not afraid of an occasional thought, give this one a try.

Rating:
Summary: Not taking the easy path
Review: It was a pleasure to read a book with the depth of characters and story that Road To Hell gives. Having read the first book (The Beast That Was Max) I couldn't wait to see what other trouble Max and the girls would get in and what it would cost for them to get out. Houarner delivers in a book full of action and tension that doesn't take the easy path--everything has a cost in real life and in his fiction. Really enjoyed the journey through Max's hell and the redemption he seeks for himself and his son.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This is my first Max book and it was great. This the fourth book with Max (Pain Freak, Inside the Works, The beast that was Max)and although I have not read the first three it was not hard to pick up the story and get into all the players. This is a horror, adventure, action, spy book and they all blend well. Try this book, you will like it. If you can find the hard cover (limited to 100) it's worth it. It's signed and has leather cover boards and silk book marker, really a great looking book.