Horror | Book Chatter

IT
By Stephen King
Read by: Steven Weber
(Penguin Audio, 44 hours, May 2010)

The Short of It:

Entertainment at its best! Gripping with moments of terror but at its heart, a story about friendship and the battle of good over evil.

The Rest of It:

I first read IT years ago. And by “years ago” I mean…maybe 24 years. That’s a lot of years! I remember loving it to pieces. I’d stay up all night to read it and let me tell you, it was a full immersion experience. Once you opened the book, you couldn’t help but fall right into the story.

Recently, I decided to re-read it as part of the IT Along which was a read-along hosted by really cool (and fun) people. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had participating. The Twitter conversations (#ITAlong) were a hoot. The clown noses and the pictures that followed were too much. Seriously, clown noses?? I laughed and then I got really creeped out.

The point of all of this?? To distract the hell out of you. Why? Because the book can be terrifying. Well, the images that King paints are terrifying on their own but Steven Weber, the guy from the TV show Wings, reads for the audio version and even though I had read the book and experienced its horror once before, Weber took it to a whole new level. It was like IT on crack.

The story takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine during the late 1950’s. A shape-shifter comes to life and consumes the small children of Derry. One by one the children disappear. Lured by the promise of balloons and sweets, Pennywise grabs them, does terrible things to them and then drags the remains down under the streets of Derry, via the gutters, drains, or whatever else he can find. His constant chant of “They all float down here!” is a reminder that for this town, hope hangs by a very thin thread.

One day, little Georgie Denbrough takes his paper boat out for a run but when it’s swept into a storm drain, Pennywise the clown pulls him down into the sewer and murders him. George’s older brother Bill, is never the same but when he and his group of rag-tag friends figure out what is really going on, they take matters into their own hands.

Many of you have said that you will not step foot near this book because you are totally freaked out by clowns or don’t want to drink the horror Kool-Aid that King is serving up but at the end of the day, the guy can tell a story and it would be a shame if you overlooked this book because of that.

Due to the age of the characters, and the fact that they band together, I was often reminded of the movie Stand By Me, which was based on a novella King had written called The Body some years prior. The innocence of children and the sweetness of their friendship is what makes this novel special to me.

If you decide to give it a go, the audio was brilliantly done but it’s long (44 hours long) and it is hard to work other books into the mix while listening to it. I don’t recall that being a problem with the print version. Maybe because in print, you could easily put it down and come back to it. On audio though, I FEARED losing my place on my iPod as it happened to me twice and I could not for the life of me figure out where I was in the story when it happened.

Anyway, give it a go. You won’t be sorry.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post does not contain Indiebound affiliate links because they don’t have it listed! I guess it’s too old.

American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
(Vintage, Paperback, 9780679735779, 1991, 416pp.)

The Short of It:

Highly stylized, sophisticated and gruesome.

The Rest of It:

I read this one as part of the Dueling Monsters challenge. Having read its competitor, Red Dragon years ago…I expected American Psycho to be a walk in the park. I don’t think I could have been more wrong.

The book opens innocently enough and to be fair, the dastardly deeds don’t even begin until several chapters in, but what you get by way of introduction is that Patrick Bateman, with all his yuppiness and OCD tendencies is a piece of work.

Each chapter begins with a paragraph long description of what Bateman is wearing, along with what everyone else is wearing. All the designer labels are represented here as well as every household brand you can possibly imagine. The story takes place in the 80’s and Ellis makes sure you know this by dedicating entire chapters to the music of that time. As frustrating as these constructs were, they did serve their purpose because for every mundane entry, there is a gruesome counterpart and if it weren’t for those well-placed breaks, I’d have given up on it.

Patrick Bateman is one sick puppy, but at the same time he’s smart and dare I say it? Charming? Yes, he is that and the women seem to know it. Both the women in his immediate circle, as well as the prostitutes he picks up to satisfy his thirst for blood. He’s a modern-day vampire except he has better clothes, a tan and perfect teeth. There were times where I thought him to be quite funny. His days are spent on Wall Street doing what, I really have no idea; he does very little in the way of work, but at night it’s one posh restaurant after another and it all happens after much conversation over who has the better reservation and whether or not that restaurant has easy access to drugs. These parts were highly amusing. And although he has a thing for the ladies, he does not discriminate.

In between the partying, there is horror. Lots of it. Bateman’s need for human blood and flesh is not easily controlled. At times, he openly admits to his horrible deeds, yet no one takes him seriously when he admits it. After having his way with his victims, he tortures them mercilessly in the most horrific ways possible and sometimes he kills them. Other times, he just pays them more to endure it. These scenes are incredibly graphic and I have an iron stomach. At one point, I told another blogger that I sort of liked Bateman. Then, I read a chapter that I could not “unsee” once I had read it and I immediately went on Twitter and told her I was out of my mind for saying what I did.

To give you an idea of the torturous acts he performs, here is a tiny list that doesn’t even go into the real depravity contained within its pages:

Stabbing homeless people and then hurting their dogs
Inserting live animals into body orifices while the victim is alive
Utilizing tools such as drills and nail scissors to mutilate and cause pain
Hooking up car batteries to various parts of the body (while alive)
Using a Bic lighter to boil someone’s eyeballs (yes, while alive)

And that my friends, is just a small taste of what Ellis cooks up for Bateman and his victims and I haven’t even mentioned the sex scenes which are very detailed and include penetration into every possible orifice imaginable.

I was literally shaking when I finished the book. I saw those images for DAYS, weeks even. I could not get them out of my mind and what troubled me the most is that Ellis actually thought this stuff up. The last 100 pages were incredibly hard to read but I felt as if I had to know how it turned out, and having finished the book, I can say that the ending does not surprise me.

I am conflicted over this one because it was highly disturbing to read, yet at the same time, I was fascinated by Bateman. I wanted to get into his head and Ellis provides lots of opportunities for that. In fact, there were some moments where I really felt as if Bateman wanted to be caught. That he too, felt badly about the outcome of his trysts and that in his own way, he missed those women. I guess it’s that “charm” thing coming through again. I’m not sure.

One thing that is for sure, is that this book has a huge following. After talking about it on Twitter with some of the other bloggers, a guy with the name Bateman started following us! That totally freaked me out. Reading about a serial killer as twisted as Bateman, and then some random guy with the same name starts following you?? I almost stopped tweeting about it at that point.

In addition to the book, a movie was made which stars Christian Bale and a bunch of others including Reese Witherspoon. I’m not sure I can work up the courage to see the movie but I have to admit, I am a little curious to see how it was done.

If you have a weak stomach, this book is definitely not for you but if you appreciate dry humor, pokes at consumerism and love a good psychological thriller, you might be okay with it. Just know that you will NEVER “unsee” the scenes portrayed in the book. Weeks ago, I was stuffing a roast with garlic and what I thought about while doing it, was what it would be like to stuff garlic into a dead body. Seriously. How wrong is that?

Pitting Bateman against Hannibal, I’d say Bateman wins hands down. It’s not even a fair match, if you ask me.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.