The Richard Laymon Collection: Night ShowAND Allhallow s Eve v. 3
£3.45
Do I want to read anything else by this author ...... ? - I d never heard of Richard Laymon before I came across this. I thought the title was intriguing - an excellent title, in fact, that made you want to know more - but when I started reading it The Travelling Vampire Show I thought I d picked up a children s book by mistake. The story seemed to be made up of Americanised Enid Blyton-like dialogue with very little narrative to hold it together. It was all rather cosy and full of teenage wonder with a bit of teenage angst thrown in for good measure (the narrator lusting after his sister-in-law, for instance). I suppose it s called rights of passage stuff. However, after a while it became apparent that it wasn t meant for children as some rather more graphic adult themes surfaced. The story meandered along for several chapters before getting to the crux - the Travelling Vampire Show itself. This took place at midnight in a very scary place (at least, so far as our teenage heroes were concerned, although the rest of the inhabitants of the town didn t seem to be greatly fazed by it when they arrived to see the show)! This resulted in quite an exciting climax, which was well written, but which was spoilt by a revelation at the end (no - I m not giving any secrets away) of something completely daft! I m quite glad I read it as I found it amusing in places, but I don t think I ll go out of my way to look for anything else by the same author, especially as this volume included his Dreadful Tales (short stories) as well. I read the first four or five of those, but they were silly little tales that didn t seem to be getting any better as they went on, so I gave up. The author seemed to have something of an obsession with decapitation which got a bit wearying after a while. The whole experience of reading The Travelling Vampire Show was very light and was quite amusing in places, so that s why I ve given the volume two stars, although one and a half would have been nearer the mark. Had they been less amusing the book and the short stories would only have got one star from me. Over all - a load of twaddle!
Don t even bother. - I have never read such a load of twaddle in my whole life. These stories don t even seem to have actual plots. They trash, but not even good trash. Neither have satisfactory endings. It s as if Laymon knocked these off one rainy Sunday. Honestly, don t waste your money. Try Stephen King or Dean Koontz instead.
Keep you up until midnight - Both stories move you quickly into the action with a rush of interesting and believeable characters. Laymon has a knack of hitting just the right nerve of human lusts and emotions. Night show feels like reading a movie - The pace of story and short chapters keep you wanting to read on and agreat example of the dark storytelling craft.Allhallow s Eve has a bit of an abrupt ending, which was something I was a touch disappointed by, having raced through the story.
Almost five stars - This is a excellent book. Funland is in my top five Laymon books and ive read them all. I would ve gave it five stars but I don t think Stake was as good as a lot of his other work. Still an excellent read though.