The Chosen

Rating:
Summary: HARDCORE HORROR
Review: I had a jaw-dropping good time with this book by hardcore horror author Edward Lee. True, he is not a very literary writer, but try as I might, I couldn't put the book down. I've been reading horror for almost 20 years and it's rare for me to be shocked by what I'm reading. However, with THE CHOSEN, I was aghast many times during the graphic gore and sex that is plentiful throughout the book. Edward Lee isn't afraid of anything when he writes and I appreciate his no-holds-barred approach. This book is definitely not for the weak of heart. You were warned.

Rating:
Summary: HARDCORE HORROR
Review: I had a jaw-dropping good time with this book by hardcore horror author Edward Lee. True, he is not a very literary writer, but try as I might, I couldn't put the book down. I've been reading horror for almost 20 years and it's rare for me to be shocked by what I'm reading. However, with THE CHOSEN, I was aghast many times during the graphic gore and sex that is plentiful throughout the book. Edward Lee isn't afraid of anything when he writes and I appreciate his no-holds-barred approach. This book is definitely not for the weak of heart. You were warned.

Rating:
Summary: When The Bad Gets Worse
Review: Vera, restaurant manager at a successfully established facility, finds herself with many of the aspects a person expects from the perfect picture of what life should bring. She has a job she likes, people working under her that entertain her and that make her laugh, and she feels as if life is going somewhere for her. That, in and of itself, is more than most people can ever bargain for. More than that, however, she has something else going for her, that of the perfect love. Then, out of the blue, a chain of events happens, one that begins with an offer of a job that pays more money than she's ever dreamed and ends with her walking in on her lover with another woman and a -yeah, leaving her with all her dreams smashed and with prospects of the future lying open. In those, she finds herself accepting a position in an ex-sanitarium/now extravagant vacationing spot that local tales say is haunted and that is teeming with odd occurrences. Along for the ride are three of her friends/ co-workers as well, ones that she decides to staff this new position with, and before she knows it, they all find themselves in for more than the typical management position bargains for.

Within Edward Lee's books, there seems to be an underlying current telling one to always look a gift horse in the mouth - especially when dealing with jobs that seem too good to be true. This is because there's always a catch, always some sharpened instrument waiting in the dark to sing a lullaby to an unsuspecting audience, and it always seems to be fashioned from the same threads. There, the unfortunate woes of the rurally-challenged reigns supreme, always greeting the unfortunate in some sexually explicit way they never seem to want, and there are always lurid dreams and doom lurking in the shadows. Many times, this is a good combination, too, and it makes something that is well worth checking into. Unfortunately in the instance we call The Chosen, all this book has to offer on an otherwise interesting theme that this author has been developing is a seed, a little seed, and the cohesion of the book's multiple themes, well, they never pan out. Sure, there are violence tones, many of them, with people and blades greeting one another and the people oftentimes regretting it (the blades, well, they never seem to offer their opinions), but the way this is presented is mostly useless. The blood spilled seems to be nothing more than filler, plodding the story along on a course that, to me, ends in the dullest of manners. Sure, there are shadows and things going bump in them, but the explanation comes late in the book and the reasoning, it is a lifeless thing that only evokes more blood and the death of other people. And the build, based on dreams of hands that grope and do some rather livid things, really begins to wear on the patience after a time.

Basically, this book is nothing more than an erotic dream manifesting itself in a creepy place full of events that, for some odd reason, seem to be a fright train destined for a little town we call Disappointment. As an Edward Lee reader, it basically made me have to take a break from his works, almost keeping me away from some of his newer ideas on what a monster should be. Within all of my objections, the word "demonic pimp" can be attached, showing the questioner why they might want to rethink looking into the idea. . Yes, with phrases like this, the mood built in the beginning is defeated soundly.

Rating:
Summary: Underappreciated, High Quality Horror Novel
Review: Were it not for a neurotic obsession with finishing any book I start, I would never had read this whole novel. About the only good thing I can say about The Chosen is that it is not boring. I can add that it is also not erotic at all, nor is it scary. Vera, the protagonist, is a restaurant manager soon to be married. Out of the blue, she is offered a job managing a restaurant at a remote inn for an exorbitant salary. She turns down the offer because of her fiancée; arriving home, she finds her fiancée "entertaining" a girl and a hermaphrodite. She then takes the new job and moves out of town, bringing along three of her coworker friends to run the place. The restaurant and the connecting inn just happen to have once been a sanitarium where the patients were tortured and brutalized. Don't let the back cover mislead you into expecting some haunted house aspects to the story--the sounds heard in the night are judged to be the doors of an elevator opening and closing, and nothing ghostly happens at all. Basically, we are treated to literally hundreds of pages of demonic, disgusting, pointless sex acts which are anything but erotic. I don't mind reading scenes with sex and violence, but the reader of this book is simply deluged with the same lewd descriptions over and over again. Vera begins having erotic nightmares--that's fine, but I don't need to read the same description of the whole nightmare twenty-something times. The characters themselves are superficial and unsympathetic, seemingly capable of expressing anger, sexual desire, and nothing more. Two of the men can only communicate by throwing insulting sexual innuendoes at each other, and their material is below that of even the most dirty-minded juvenile.

There is a story of sorts buried in the morass of sexual descriptions. Every so often, it seems like it might get interesting, but alas it never does. Furthermore, the author does not even bother to tie up many loose ends. The most obvious question harkens to the title itself--Vera was "the chosen," apparently, yet I never found out why she was chosen or exactly what she was chosen for. Some of the basic premises of the plot itself simply make no sense. One thing I found most galling occurred in the last few pages of the book--Vera refers to something that she has no knowledge of whatsoever because the only person to have discovered it is one of the other characters.

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, this book is badly written and reeks of adolescence. As is typical with Lee, the plot seems to exist only for the purpose of providing him with a means of unleashing his deep torrents of sexual fantasies. My copy has a number of typos and grammatical errors in it, but I can hardly blame an editor for letting these things slip because no one should have to read this novel thoroughly. I hate to criticize a novel in such harsh terms, but The Chosen may well be the worst book I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Good inside, awful outside
Review: What an awful cover!

I can't imagine who Pinnacle thought the market was for Edward Lee's The Chosen to have picked such a lurid picture and tagline -- certainly not discerning horror aficionados. Lucky for me (and, in turn, for you), several other things were working against that first impression to get me to actually buy it. First, I had heard of Edward Lee through his novels -- City Infernal, its sequel Infernal Angel, and the recent Messenger -- and I knew of his reputation. More importantly, however, this book was on the clearance table for $3.99 (of course, the blurb on the back from Cemetery Dance didn't hurt, either).

One or the other would not have done it, but the combination of the two found me leaving the bookstore with it while wondering to myself if I would ever have the nerve to read it in public (I did, as it turns out, just carefully hiding the cover from passers-by). Lurid covers on crime novels often, surprisingly, designate high quality (see, for example, the Hard Case Crime series), but on a horror novel, it usually represents the worst in the genre. (The same publisher did much better by Bentley Little's The Summoning.) Fortunately, there is a truly solid scarefest in these accompanying pages; one that doesn't skimp on character or carnage.

Reputed restaurant manager Vera Abbot -- through a series of unexpected events -- takes a job managing the restaurant side of the newly opened The Inn. It is all she ever dreamed of: triple her former salary, carte blanche on spending for staff and supplies, and free room and board at the suite of her choice. Oh, sure, The Inn used to be Wroxton Hall, an asylum where noted atrocities took place, but this doesn't bother Vera.

At least not until the dreams start, and other questions need answering: Why does the room service kitchen always outperform the restaurant, and why does the owner not seem to care? What are the strange noises coming from the supposedly-empty second-floor suites? And what's up with the surly, mute housekeeping staff? Meanwhile, a pair of fetishistic hedonists named Zyra and Lemi spend their time picking up swinging couples and having their way with them. Sex and violence are inextricably intertwined, as unsuspecting victims are pleasured (usually without their consent) and killed (always without their consent) with unflinching frequency.

Edward Lee is a master of extreme erotic horror. The Chosen pulls no punches and is not likely to be appropriate for reading at mealtimes. Luckily, character is at least as important to the author as blood flow. Sure he could have written a novel full of little more than carnage, but that wouldn't be nearly as interesting as getting to know the character before they're snuffed (and that includes nearly everyone). In particular, Vera's kitchen staff -- waitress Donna, chef Dan B., and dishwasher Lee -- are given a lot of page time. The usually coarse Lee is even given an especially tender storyline, complete with "love interest."

Of course, nothing is ever as it seems and, in fact, one of the best choices the author made in The Chosen is that we know something is going on at The Inn, but that we don't have a clue what is going on until the final fifty pages. Having two of the characters turn out to be the same person was a special touch of genius. This isn't necessarily the kind of stuff I like to read all the time, but when you've got a taste for it, you can't do much better.

Rating:
Summary: Ed Delivers Another Gut Wrencher
Review: You gotta love Edward Lee. I have said it before, and I will say it again: this guy writes the most sadistic horror/gore stories you will likely come across. Sure, there are other writers who can get down and dirty just as well as Lee can, like Poppy Z. Brite or Brett Easton Ellis, but Ed does it with a brazenness all his own. I have been a fan since reading "The Bighead," arguably his most disturbing book. Throw in his excellent collection of mind melting short stories, entitled "The Ushers," and you will learn quickly that Ed Lee knows how to shock and disgust. I have an ironclad stomach and his stuff still makes me groan with regularity. With that in mind, I read one of Lee's early 1990's efforts, "The Chosen." It is surprising this book is still in print since it first came out in 1993, but for Ed Lee fans that is a good deal. His stuff is usually quite difficult to find, and you will pay through the nose if you do find one of his books in the secondary market. Knowing the opinions of other knowledgeable horror fans, I went into "The Chosen" with low expectations. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I actually enjoyed this gruesome story about a restaurant manager who accepts the job of a lifetime only to discover that her new employer is not what he seems.

Vera Abbot has a great life. She manages a wildly successful restaurant called "The Emerald Room," a success for which she is largely responsible. She works with a stellar crew that includes Donna, a former alcoholic who successfully reformed herself and now manages the waitressing and bar duties; Dan B., a chef capable of whipping up the most scrumptious dishes in town; and Lee, a gruff, obese dishwasher whose loyalty to Vera knows no bounds. On top of a great job she loves with a passion, Vera has the ideal fiancé in Paul, a freelance journalist widely respected by the local newspapers and magazines. With a stable life like this, Vera doesn't expect things to get much better when Mr. Feldspar walks into her life. Feldspar is looking for a new manager to run the restaurant at a posh resort called Wroxton Hall some miles north of where Vera lives. This very wealthy guy offers Vera a hundred grand to take the job, and even lets her take the staff from the Emerald Room. Vera cannot believe her good fortune, but decides not to accept the job because it might affect Paul's career. Well, an extremely seedy incident concerning Paul results in Vera's sudden acceptance of the job offer, and she is off to bigger and better things.

Within a matter of days, things start to sour at Wroxton Hall. Vera discovers she plays second fiddle to Paul, the manager of the room service kitchen at the resort. She also finds out that Paul is a royal jerk who likes to brag about what a big shot he is at the hotel. Then Vera starts to suffer from highly erotic dreams, dreams that take a toll on her as the days turn into weeks. Eventually, the rest of her co-workers experience their own personal traumas at the new resort. When some of Vera's guests complain about strange noises at night, she begins to ask serious questions about her new situation. It definitely does not help matters when Vera discovers that Wroxton Hall was once the site of a mental institution where inhuman crimes of sickening depravity took place. As Vera puts the various pieces of the puzzle together, she discovers that Wroxton hides a new horror beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.

While I like "The Chosen," I did have several problems with the story. Why everyone referred to the chef as "Dan B." drove me to fits of distraction. Does a Dan A. or a Dan C. lurk somewhere near the deep fat fryers? Why not just call him "Dan" and be done with it? And why is it of such paramount importance to take a dishwasher to a resort? I can understand taking a chef along for the ride, but some guy who cleans dishes? C'mon, that is totally unbelievable. Moreover, Dan B. and Lee are uninteresting and uninspired characters who converse in pedestrian insults of the type commonly found on a grade school playground. While it is not difficult to imagine a couple of guys trading verbal jabs about the reputation of one's female family members, this is all these two men do and it grates quickly. "The Chosen" also contains a host of continuity errors too numerous to mention. It is sufficient to say that this is not one of Ed Lee's best books, but it is not entirely hopeless, either.

The best thing going for "The Chosen" is how Lee keeps the reader in the dark about what is really going on at the rebuilt Wroxton Hall. One thing is for certain: you will never guess how this book concludes until you get there. That you must wade through endless descriptions of sexually charged scenes in the process is a bit of a bummer, but I thought the payoff made up for some of the redundancy of the previous sections of the book. "The Chosen" contains many truly sickening scenes, which is exactly what I expect from an Ed Lee novel. I was often struck by the similarities between this book and his latest novel "Monstrosity," with the insecure lead character and the sleazy eroticism. I liked "Monstrosity," and I generally liked this book as well. For a great Ed Lee experience, I recommend "The Ushers," but "The Chosen" should eventually follow at some point.