Happy New Year everyone! In the last days of December I had the pleasure of reading two different paperback originals so different in scope that I thought I should review both on here. Firstly, for newcomers to this blog or to vintage horror from the 80's Horror Boom when I say paperback original I refer to a work that was printed only in paperback format to reach the widest audience cheaply. This doesn't cheapen the stories these types of books tried to tell but goes to explain the type of over the top plot, eyecatching cover art etc. you see with the paperbacks within this period because they were in competition with thousands of other cheap paperbacks for reader attention. Also when I refer to the scope of a book specifically in genre fiction like horror, I'm referring to the scale of imagery the work creates in my mind. Do I feel like I'm immersed in a high budget movie or is the feeling I'm getting more akin to viewing a forgotten made for TV special? To pinpoint these differences we should look at what I felt reached cinematic scope:
Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell.
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| Avon Books 1980 First Edition |
Simply put this is a lean, mean tale of supernatural vengeance that earns its visceral violence with its natural feeling depiction of a Florida town with Southern values and barely concealed tensions. Working within a surprisingly spry 292 pages McDowell sets to work out the gate, to show that no one is safe and starts ratcheting tension immediately. This is a novel that I think works best going into somewhat blind but I will briefly say it's about the increasing supernatural events that stalk the pedophile murderer of a 14 year old girl in a small town after it becomes clear local police won't even investigate, since he is the son of the richest man in town. Now technically, a pedophile is someone who sexually preys on children but I will label anyone who is a grown adult having sexual relations with teens as a pedophile. I say this because McDowell goes on in the novel to confirm that the main villain is in an active relationship with a teenager and has a history of violence against teenage girls which caused his father to force him to enlist 'til a past incident blew over. Yikes. Speaking of the main villain named Nathan, the haunting sequences involving him are amazing. Leading up to them the moon itself becomes a character seeming unnaturally bright and large to Nathan's eyes and whenever it's mentioned you know something freaky is going to go down. The imagery Michael McDowell is able to conjure in this book is honestly what makes it feel cinematic. There is an all encompassing doom created in the moon imagery that just grabs you by the throat. Coupled with the increasingly nightmarish appearances of Nathan's victim and later victims plural you get one hell of a spooky ride as a reader. Saying all this
Cold Moon isn't perfect. The characters aren't really fleshed out they fall into John Saul territory in that you get enough attributes to root for or boo them and the book could have been given a little bit more room to breathe to accomplish that. But its breakneck pace and quality of writing really make it sing.Now on the flipside we have
The Dollkeeper by Jack Scaparro. A Zebra Horror paperback original that should have been shorter than its 380 pages.
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| Zebra Books 1987 First Edition |
Reading
The Dollkeeper really gave me flashbacks to those multipart event TV movies major networks used to do like the original adaptation of
It. I say this because it literally takes place over three unnecessary parts and its characters are primo white bread Everyman protagonists. Also weirdly enough there's also a feeling you get that you're reading an alternate universe William W. Johnstone novel with all the gun worship, sex, and over the top violence sucked out of it. Don't worry there is violence in this since the book is about the capture of a crazed child serial killer but it almost feels like the author is editing himself. For instance, you know who the killer is from the beginning and that she slits the throats of her victims but the cops describe one of the victims they find as eviscerated which brings to mind a higher level of violence than the killer is shown doing. I found it odd. I found it weirder how chaste the romance subplot was. Don't get me wrong I would question it if a sex scene showed up but the hero sheriff character has the hots for his divorced neighbor but he's so hands off about it and takes so long to show his feelings it feels wildly unnecessary to the plot. Like they have one kiss and at the end it's hinted they will get together and it feels tacked on because Scapparo read that you need a romantic interest in everything. More than that it's just goofy. It relies hard on the by that time pretty tired trope of the killer with schizophrenia who ignores the obvious signs that something is wrong. In fact the killer no joke, adds up her lapses in memory and discordant thoughts with menopause. Why yes, this was written by a man how'd you know? It's not a hard read and it is enjoyable for what it is which is a silly child killer book involving dolls and a small town sheriff to the rescue. Much like the made for TV feel of this book it's a great time killer and if you find a cheap copy worth reading but nothing outstanding. Well those are my thoughts on two wildly different paperback originals. Do you agree with how I view imagery in genre fiction? As always the comments are open and to be alerted to the latest posts mae sure to give me a follow. 'Til next time!
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