Escardy Gap

Rating:
Summary: Bow, wow wow!
Review: A real turkey, a real dog. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" this is not. But it sure would like to be. And nothing offends me more than pretentious writing, unless it is a writer who writes about having writer's block. This author does both.

First we have the hackneyed plot: the too-good virgin town is paid a visit from Hell by a too-bad evil train, whose occupants proceed to trash the place by preying upon the townspeople's "secret" flaws. (With two exceptions, EVERYBODY dies, including the train, which is disembowled in a squishy blood-and-guts scene that goes on just as long and just as disbelievingly as the story itself.) But the characters don't simply play their roles; they psychoanalyze them. For pages upon end.

Then we have the fact that the townspeople have no good reason to be so good, AND the evils have no good reason to be so evil, AND both parties actually say so! So we have... no real plot, no real story, every cliche you can think of, and no reason for any of it to exist.

Which, I guess, is why I found the book for $2 in one of those stores where books go to die. This dawg deserved its fate.

Rating:
Summary: Get past the 1st half for a great finish
Review: I found this novel to be very tough to rate. The first 200 pages were forgetable; too many cliches, too much over-the-top characterization, too many characters, and too many bad guys. But then, the plot started to take hold. We delve down into the major characters and begin to see them grow. The quirky plot device of getting the "main" character (the author who is writing this tale) actually into the novel seemed contrived at first and almost hokey but somehow, they pull it off. My interest level definitely perked up and I rode the final pages of the book like a wave. When I finished the last chapter, I wanted to give it 5 stars but must cut back to only 4 because of the long drawn-out build-up in the beginning. The gory parts (and there are a lot of them) are very gory but often original. All in all, worth it in the end.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, bad execution...
Review: This book has a wonderful premise, a circus train pulls into a small town, and proceeds to terrorize the town.

I was going to write about what was wrong with the book, but in the end, all I'm going to say, is that when I finished reading the book, I was glad I did not have to read it anymore. It's a shame because if this book would have had decent editors it would have been a classic.