It was bound to happen at some point. Me, a horror critic accidentally buying two books with the same title. What I can't view as an accident is how terrible both of these books are. Enter
The Nightwalker by Diane Guest and Thomas Tessier respectively. One invokes the name of V.C. Andrews on the cover but actually is only as disturbing as spoiled mayonnaise. The other sports praise quotes from Peter Straub and Stephen King and after reading it I doubt they actually read this garbage. Both of these suck in unique ways so I'm going to cover
The Nightwalker by Diane Guest first. I feel like I should also mention that this was published only in the UK and after reading it I understand why.
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HarperCollins 1994 Paperback Edition
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The event that sets in motion the idea a ghost walks its ancestral estate is literally a collection of fine china being destroyed. So spooky. Honestly, this entire novel can be summarized as a bucket of haunted ancestral estate cliches with a topping of money doesn't cure crazy. Also if something invokes the name of V.C. Andrews I walk into it expecting a fiery tornado of incest, violence, fractured family dynamics, and spicy female villains. This featured an extremely mild case of incest at best (main character's half brother is married to a non blood related aunt). If it didn't set itself up as a V.C. Andrews knock off I might have hated this less but as it stands it's a skip. As bad as this was
The Nightwalker by Thomas Tessier made me much angrier.
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| Berkley's 1989 paperback edition |
I will say this is better written than Diane Guest's novel and the feeling of detachment it cultivates does put you in the headspace of the Vietnam veteran main character whose obviously suffering PTSD. But this book is 199 pages and NOTHING happens for almost 70 of it. I complain because the cover, the praise quotes, and the synopsis purport it to be a werewolf novel. No werewolfing happens for like 100 pages. Events happen but they could be more closely tied to dissociation and violence triggered by the main character's PTSD. What made me throw this book was the sex scene in chapter 17. He invites a young looking female run away into his apartment and after she accuses him of only doing so because he wants sex but is too scared to say it he assaults her. That in itself is horrible what disgusted me was that these characters then proceed to have a consensual night of sex because he gave her an orgasm so he won her over. Just NO. Male authors STOP. This is not how this works. It's bad enough with the forced kiss trope leading ro a woman melting into the forced affection but this scene is rape. Worse still it condones it. The icing on this disgusting cake is that he doesn't know her name, doesn't ask, and declares towards the end that her name from now on is Angel and he will be her father from now on. I almost vomited in my mouth. According to the dates in the publishing information this was originally published in 1979 but that in no way excuses the pro-rape fantasy that is that chapter. To be transparent I technically have 67 pages left in this book and I'm having a hard time finishing it. I do not recommend this novel and unless you crave the chance to spite read something I would stay far away. Well those are my thoughts on these novels with the same title. Have you ever had a visceral reaction of hate towards a development in a book? As always the comments are open and to be alerted to the latest on the blog give a follow or subscribe. 'Til next time!
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