Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Its sort of a James Cain meets Flannery O'Connor, but filtered through Lansdales unique and unmistakable voice. The character of Double Buckwheat was unforgettable...trust me. Its entertaining as hell and moves like lightning. Lansdale's fans will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Cool Novel That won't leave you chilli
Review: Joe does it again !!!!! You feel like you joined the circus from hell.A Great cast of strange characters.It's a funny journey. I Loved it!!!
Rating: 
Summary: JUST WHO ARE THE FREAKS?
Review: Joe Lansdale is a marvelous writer; I have enjoyed most of the books I've read of his. FREEZER BURN is certainly full of Lansdale's trademark humor and unusual scenarios, but ultimately it loses ground in the story of Bill Roberts and his involvement with Frost's freakshow. The story is filled with sexual innuendo, thoughts, and acts; Gidget is reminiscent of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, and other femme fatales. Bill comes across selfish and uncaring at times, and when he does care, it's not enough. He's definitely a man ruled by his sexual satisfaction. Lansdale keeps the plot interesting, although the end is basically a downer, and one wonders how else Lansdale could have resolved it...guess this was the only way. Well written but not satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: JUST WHO ARE THE FREAKS?
Review: Joe Lansdale is a marvelous writer; I have enjoyed most of the books I've read of his. FREEZER BURN is certainly full of Lansdale's trademark humor and unusual scenarios, but ultimately it loses ground in the story of Bill Roberts and his involvement with Frost's freakshow. The story is filled with sexual innuendo, thoughts, and acts; Gidget is reminiscent of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, and other femme fatales. Bill comes across selfish and uncaring at times, and when he does care, it's not enough. He's definitely a man ruled by his sexual satisfaction. Lansdale keeps the plot interesting, although the end is basically a downer, and one wonders how else Lansdale could have resolved it...guess this was the only way. Well written but not satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Still got that MOJO working
Review: Nobody does it like Joe. Not for the squeamish or faint at heart, but if you want a wild tale full of amazing insights into the darker side of the human condition (coupled with biting, dark humor as only Lansdale does) this is a book for you. What an amazing cast of characters! I've never been to East Texas, but after reading all of Joe's books, I feel like I know it, and MAN is it a crazy place.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty but great look into the rotted chili of human essence
Review: Six months ago, Bill Roberts' mother died, leaving him all alone in the world. Bill fails to bury her, let alone report her death. In East Texas, distances between homes enable him to store her in her bedroom. Bill knows her will leaves everything including the house to some cat lover crowd. Down to his last can of vegetables, Bill with the help two acquaintances (Fat Boy and Chaplin) robs the nearby fireworks place, but Chaplin kills the owner. A crash due to a blow out leaves Chaplin dead. The remaining duo flees into the swamp where snakes kill Fat Boy. Meanwhile, thousands of mosquitoes enjoy a meal on Bill's face, which turns his face into a macabre spectacle. Bill becomes lucky and hooks up with a traveling freak show where his new visage makes him one of the guys. The show's owner Frost treats the newcomer with respect and dignity, but Bill has the hots for Frost's "normal" wife and she has a plan to exploit him. If Bill stupidly applies the wrong head to his current situation, disaster will surely occur. Reader expecting a Hap-Leonard amateur sleuth tale will instead find that FREEZER BURN is a brutal character study of the weaknesses of individuals and groups in a small society. Though the kindness and friendship of Frost and Conrad (one of the Freaks) begin to humanize Bill, the anti-hero still represents the cesspool side of the genetic pool. The plot may not be for everyone, but anyone who enjoys a gut wrenching look inside the human soul needs to read Joe R. Lansdale's rumble into rotted chili. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Major disappointment
Review: This book is really odd. I gave it a rating of 4 stars, but I can't decide if that's really the best rating. I can't really say it has a good beat and I can dance to it, so I give it an 86; no, I have to say that it is so far outside the bounds of nearly anything I've ever read that I cannot easily classify it. The story revolves around Bill Roberts (a name that almost screams average guy) who is a middle-aged loser who used to live off the his mother's meager pension checks. Well, that's no more because good old mom is dead and Bill can't forge her signature to save his life. So he cooks up a scheme to rob a firecracker stand. That's right, a firecracker stand. Go figure. Naturally, the robbery goes terribly wrong and people get killed. A strangely hilarious chase through a Texas swamp ensues whereby more people die in bizarre manners. Bill ends up being nearly eaten alive by misquotoes, which makes him look freakish, and by coincidence happens to be rescued from the swamp by the owner of a traveling freak show. (Do these things really exist anymore?) He discovers that he looks like a freak with his puffed out face, and discoveres the mysterious focus of the freak show called the Ice Man, that may be a Neandertal, or Elvis, or perhaps something even more sacred. Eventually Bill's face clears and in waltzes the deadliest femme fatale imaginable: Gidget, the freak show owner's wife. Anyone who has ever read James M. Cain will see through her like an hungry man sees food through Saran wrap -- which incidentally is a simile similar to ones used by Lansdale who drops them like firebombs on Dresden. The sex is violent, the language is strong and there are no heroes, which is interesting since Bill reads westerns almost exclusively, where good and bad are black and white. This book is pure black comedy. Comparisons to Cain are inevitable, but I felt the book is more akin to Elmore Leonard novels, albeit twisted like a Texas tornado got hold of Leonard's complete works.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to pin down, but interesting.
Review: This book is really odd. I gave it a rating of 4 stars, but I can't decide if that's really the best rating. I can't really say it has a good beat and I can dance to it, so I give it an 86; no, I have to say that it is so far outside the bounds of nearly anything I've ever read that I cannot easily classify it. The story revolves around Bill Roberts (a name that almost screams average guy) who is a middle-aged loser who used to live off the his mother's meager pension checks. Well, that's no more because good old mom is dead and Bill can't forge her signature to save his life. So he cooks up a scheme to rob a firecracker stand. That's right, a firecracker stand. Go figure. Naturally, the robbery goes terribly wrong and people get killed. A strangely hilarious chase through a Texas swamp ensues whereby more people die in bizarre manners. Bill ends up being nearly eaten alive by misquotoes, which makes him look freakish, and by coincidence happens to be rescued from the swamp by the owner of a traveling freak show. (Do these things really exist anymore?) He discovers that he looks like a freak with his puffed out face, and discoveres the mysterious focus of the freak show called the Ice Man, that may be a Neandertal, or Elvis, or perhaps something even more sacred. Eventually Bill's face clears and in waltzes the deadliest femme fatale imaginable: Gidget, the freak show owner's wife. Anyone who has ever read James M. Cain will see through her like an hungry man sees food through Saran wrap -- which incidentally is a simile similar to ones used by Lansdale who drops them like firebombs on Dresden. The sex is violent, the language is strong and there are no heroes, which is interesting since Bill reads westerns almost exclusively, where good and bad are black and white. This book is pure black comedy. Comparisons to Cain are inevitable, but I felt the book is more akin to Elmore Leonard novels, albeit twisted like a Texas tornado got hold of Leonard's complete works.
Rating:
Summary: Racist drivel in the sorry tradition of 'American Psycho'
Review: This sorry book joins 'American Psycho' as one of the worst books ever written. I'm not saying Lansdale shouldn't have written it; I should have known better than to buy it! There is nothing, nothing to commend this book for anyone. This is not hard-boiled - Andrew Vachss writes hardboiled, and with a heart. No, this is a mind dump onto the page of the ugliest, sickest reaches of an author's mind. I feel this book is something dirty in my house that I must get rid of now. DON'T tell me I don't get it, either! I DID get it - this is an excuse for someone to tell us all about his most dirty psychosexual and racist leanings. The thing that disturbs me even more is that so many readers have gleefully praised it here as a great book.
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