Sadly, the newest US-published Laymon novel Friday Night In Beast House is a huge disappointment. For starters, it is mistakenly marketed as a novel instead of a novella; the story is 141 pages long. Leisure Fiction is attempting a marketing scheme by adding a bonus novella The Wilds! at 98 pages in order to beef up the book so they can call FNIBH a novel by comparison. I am a huge Laymon fan, and I was really disappointed by the storyline. The novel is stretched so thin that there really isn't any room to develop more than a basic story: two teenagers make a date to sneak into the Beast House and encounter the Beast. This isn't a spoiler: the back jacket advertises exactly what's going to happen, though any Laymon fan familiar with the Beast House novels should expect this. The plot is predictable, not scary, or even suspenseful. Its sole claim to "horror" stems from its setting at the Beast House--that and a graphic rape scene that is, in fact, the sum total of the Beast's appearance. There are only two main characters, Mark and Alison, and the story is told from Mark's first-person point-of-view. The first ¾ of the novel details Mark's actions as he sneaks into the Beast House; Alison's midnight arrival precipitates the Beast's appearance with about ten pages left before the totally unbelievable ending. The books reads exactly like a short story, without Laymon's trademark character development. Marks exhibits the classic "sex-obsessed" teen behavior that Laymon writes so well, but not nearly to the degree you might expect given the obligatory "sexy sheriff's deputy" and "Beast House tour guide" female characters. The story almost reads as if it was meant to be a longer work but was abruptly cut short and revised to "wrap things up." To its credit, FNIBH is well-written and fast-paced, and I got through it relatively quickly hoping for another Beast House massacre, but unfortunately, this never happened. This novel has more in common with a teenage boy's sexual fantasy than horror novel, and the rape scene is explicitly offensive. I am very sorry to have to write a bad review for a Laymon novel, especially a Beast House entry. The first Laymon novel I read was Beast House, which hooked me on his writing. I generally love his books and really hope this one proves to be an exception to the rule. I haven't read all the books published in the UK because they are too expensive to order through Amazon. Unfortunately, I will have to hope for the best with the next title they release in the US.
Mark is delighted when Alison agrees to a date with him but there is a catch-he has to find a way to get them both into the Beast House after hours so they can explore the off limits areas. Mark decides he has to find a way and so he and Alison are there alone when the beasts come out to play...I really enjoyed this novella which takes you back to the Beast House where you hear the familiar tale of horror and see the cheap waxwork victims again. Kind of like visiting an old friend with big teeth who wants to kill you...The characters were fun and I liked Mark's sick humour as he scared other visitors and of course it was fun to see a return of the beast itself. My edition was only a pound so thankfully I wasn't paying full price for a short book.
Do You like book Friday Night In Beast House (2001)?
Although this novella is labelled as book four in The Beast House series, it seems that labeling it bonus material would be more accurate. Actually, I use the word "series" in the loosest sense of the word. If you are looking for a series with character growth and adventure, something you can really immerse yourself in, skip these books. Books one and three are the only ones that even touch upon the same characters. The second book seems more like something written in haste with only meeting the deadline in mind Regardless of all that I did enjoy this book. Laymon is definitely not for everyone but I like my horror repulsive and maybe even a little campy.
—Nicole
I wouldn't classify this as horror; monster porn, maybe? Also - it is not a novel, but a short novella, with few multi-sentence paragraphs to be found. High literacy level is not a reading requirement here. I know little of Laymon's biography, other than that he has maintained a fairly high level of post-mortem popularity and a penchant for extreme bad taste. If I was a betting man, the choose-your-own-adventure level of writing on display here would have me wager that this was a very early work, probably completed by a teenaged Laymon in high school. The vast majority of the novella is pointless procrastination without suspense or anything of much interest happening, "boy meets out-of-league girl and will do anything to impress until it all goes wrong" is the genre trope, done much better by Ketchum in an early novel (Hide and Seek) of his, IMO. I only rate this book as highly as I have because of the "did I really just read that?" ending, which crosses line after line in rapid succession.I still didn't understand the final sentence of the book, though. It felt as though something was missing, or that Laymon assumed the reader would "get it". I didn't. I recommend that any curious readers save themselves thirty minutes of tedium and read only the final pages for the shock value alone, then move on to something much more edifying.
—Evans Light
That last installment to a great series, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others. It was good in the beginning, but the end got really questionable & just didn't seem like Laymon. I would of gave it 2 stars, but I did enjoy the beginning so that's why it's 3 but I feel like so much better could of came out of it & I also feel I was more disappointed because the first 3 in the series were so good I was expecting a awesome ending, but it happens. It just didn't seem like a normal Laymon ending wasn't his usual style & I'm not totally disappointed because I got The Wilds as a bonus novella.
—Adamus
