Read The Cellar based on my husband's raving recommendation and thought it was really cheesy but I am a nitpicky crab. My husband, who is much nicer a person than I, says they get better as the series continues but we'll see . . .I'm going to read this in December for Jare's 2009 Spills & Chills Release Challenge over at bookcrossing.com. This month the theme is monsters.Laymon is hit or miss for me. The Traveling Vampire Show is one of my favorite books despite the fact that nothing all that exciting happens until the very end. It's the characters in that book that hooked me. The Beast House however doesn't feature characters I can latch onto in any way. There is a true-crime/horror writer and his protege attempting to steal a valuable diary from a buxom teenager and two ditsy women who are supposedly librarians who decide it will be a good idea to look up an old lover named Dan whom they haven't seen in five years . Who cares if he's married or worse yet bald and paunchy? They're supposed to be attending a librarian's convention in the town anyway and head out on a road trip wearing too tight t-shirts which attract the attention of every redneck with rape on his mind. Their virtue (ha, ha) is saved when two hunky young guys with absolutely nothing better to do come to their rescue. They all hit it off immediately, want to jump each others bones as well as become inseparable best buds. Awww. But wait! There will be no happily ever after for these dimwits. This is a Laymon novel not a romance. The chicks are still looking for Dan and their "search" for him leads them to the Beast House where the beast from The Cellar supposedly resides. I hope they all get boiled and eaten at this point because I am thoroughly bored. I'm quite a bit into this book and nothing at all has happened besides a little boob grabbing and some t-shirt ripping. A little later: A few deaths have occurred and there is a clear distinction between the bad and the good characters but I'm still at the point where I could care less about any of them. I have finally finished but admit to doing a lot of skimming to get through it. The majority of the book was deadly dull as we followed the aimless characters around as they looked for spooks and admired each others bums. A little action happens towards the end but it wasn't exciting enough to make up for the rest of the book. My husband says the last book in the series is better but I'm not sure I believe him.
I was disappointed to find out after I was well into THE BEAST HOUSE, that it was the second in a three part trilogy based on Beast House. The first, called, THE CELLAR, tells the story of how Donna and Sandy came to be there. The third, called THE MIDNIGHT TOUR, tells what happens to Sandy, her brood, and the Beast House.It worked well as a stand alone novel. Laymon is not much on character development. Tyler, Nora, Abe, and Jack, are really developed only as much as needed to propel the story. Not much is given to development of Sandy in this book, probably because she was developed in THE CELLAR, as was her mother, Donna, who plays just a bit role in The Beast House.Since the foursome were new editions to the story, it’s obvious they weren’t developed in the earlier novel. Tyler’s sudden discovery of her desire to rekindle an old flame seems more spontaneous than something over which she has been brooding. The instant emotional attraction the couples develop is also given superficial treatment. Just a bit more interaction between them before they fell in love would have made them more credible characters.Gorman Hardy is developed enough to make him unlikeable, but he’s too simple. His thinking is simple, his motives are simple, and he doesn’t plot. He just acts one event at a time. A more devious Gorman Hardy would have added to the book.Janice is the best developed character of the book. Her thoughts, emotions, and planning make her a rich character. Since she is the one who ultimately writes the story of what happened to her in Beast House and it is she who stays in Malcasa Point to run the motel left to her, we must believe this well developed character has a role in the next novel.Laymon’s writing reminds me very much of John Saul, who writes stories driven entirely by plot. Like Laymon, Saul develops his characters just enough to propel the story, but even Saul provides deeper characters than Laymon.According to various websites, Laymon wrote particularly violent and gory horror. I didn’t find Beast House that gory or violent – certainly no more so than anything Stephen King writes. I found The Beast House to be a fast paced novel that was a bit thin on character and completely lacking in meaningful subplots.I write of Laymon in the past tense because, unfortunately, he died of a heart attack in 2001.Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable book. I may even pick up the first and the third books to round out the trilogy.
Do You like book The Beast House (1994)?
Wow!! I really liked that book I definitely think that this series is Laymon's best work or on top with some others. This story, the plot is just so great & through every ok I read so far it keeps getting better & better which is what you want when your doing a series. Some authors have a really good first book then the 2nd just flops, but not this series. The Cellar was good & even tho it didn't seem like a lot was going on in the first as much action it is just the build up & the beginning for a full fledge bloodbath. The Beast house was a great book to me & definitely so far 1 my favorite Laymon books. The end of the Cellar throws you off & makes you feel bad for the characters because it of course didn't end how you thought or how you wanted it & the Beast House picks up a couple years later & you see how the two books go together perfect. I really enjoyed this cast of characters. They were really good & they have so many from the first & it's definitely a book where you must read them in order to understand certain things, but well worth it. There were so many twists in this book it's just jaw dropper 1 after another & just keeps nudging you further up in your seat. It was the opposite of the Cellar in how the ending went I feel this book was meant to build up your hopes so hopefully in this next one he just surprised you big time! I highly recommend this book so far it's the best & my favorite out of the series, but still 2 more to go!!
—Adamus
The sad thing is that Richard Laymon passed away several years ago, but I think people continue to write under his name (The VC Andrews Syndrome). Maybe it'll be an improvement. This book was effing terrible.
—Melmo
I really enjoyed the book. You get a lot more detail of the beast, and how they came to be. You get more of the story of Maggie's involvement in the Beast House. I had a tough time putting the book down because I just found myself wanting to know what happens next. Initially, the first half of the book, you don't really learn the fate of the characters from the previous book in which you're just left hanging. But, well after half way through the book, it starts coming back to them, which was kind of a nice tie in with the previous book.
—Reese Copeland
