This is my first review, mainly due to the fact that I am bored and just finished this book today.The plot was reminiscent of a made-for-tv movie on the sci-fi channel, but if there is a movie adaptation of this, I am thankful I have not seen it, even though it maybe would have provided some semblance of imagery on my part. As it stands, his descriptions were more grotesque than scary, and throughout every suspenseful moment of the book, I felt the imagery used was tired and cliche. I literally skimmed the paragraphs about (view spoiler)[ goopy, icky, sticky, stuff, I seriously can only read the word "gel" about 30 times before I stop caring about the consistency of whatever nasty crap is stuck to something or what the texture of the butthole the main character crawled into is like (hide spoiler)]
Even if you don't like Whitley Strieber for his claims regarding alien abduction, one cannot deny that he is an incredible writer. From the opening sentence, he pulled me right in. The Forbidden Zone is one of those rare books where you truly feel that the evil is so overwhelming, there is no possible hope for the protagonist to survive. I love having that feeling. And while some of Mr. Strieber's descriptions are confusing at times, he manages to stay on course through this highly original landscape of terror. This book came highly recommended to me and I am thrilled to say it was even better than the hype. I'll definitely be checking out his other fiction after reading this one.
