Monday, June 6, 2011

I just read a book!

I don't usually write about books I've read. I'm not a reviever by any means. But I just have to say something about the book I just finished and enjoyed so much. It was called Horror Show. Not too surprising if you know me at all. I've been reading horror fiction since elementary school and my horror fiction book collection currently has over 160 titles. If I keep buying books I'll have to have a room addition built. I guess that's another argument in favor of E-books. I'm just not ready to give up my old school paper books yet. But that's another story for another time.
As I was saying... Horror Show, by Greg Kihn. If that name sounds vaguely familiar to you , it's because it's the same guy who was a one-hit-wonder on the 80's pop/dance music scene. I know he must have been a pretty big deal back in the day, because every singer knows they've "arrived '' when Weird Al parodys them. AAAAHHH, memories!
So we've established that the author's first career was in the music industry. This didn't really score him any points with me. I'm familiar with the concept of musicians trying to break into other careers. Maybe this is a gross generalization but it just never seems to work out quite right for them. (Think Mariah Carey in Glitter, Britney Spears in Crossroads, Maddonna in anything, you get the idea) I usually prefer musicians who stick to music.
I never would have looked for this title if it weren't for me stumbling across A Guide to Horror Fiction at the library. This handy-dandy, not-so-little book listed and categorized horror fiction books and authors, cross-referenced them by style, location, subject matter etc, and gave author bios and brief summaries of the various books. Pretty darn cool in my opinion.
What it said about Horror Show was that it was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. To the uninitiated, that's a very prestigious award for horror fiction authors. To be nominated for the very first book you publish is pretty impressive. That's what prompted me to actually seek out Horror Show and read it. And I'm so glad I did.
The book is written in a style called "splatter punk" which basically means it's very graphic (which I loved). You would think that since it's a book, not a movie, you could just use your imagination and imagine as much or as little gore as you'd like. But the author painted such a vivid picture with words, that every gross, disgusting, detail came alive and slithered off the page keeping me wrapped in goosebumps, even within the confines of my beloved Snuggie.
I know a review is really just one person's opinion and one opinion may not matter all that much but nonetheless, I offer up my own review off Horror Show by Greg Kihn. I give it 5 out of 5 severed heads and definitely two disembodied thumbs up.

2 comments:

Ann said...

So there's hope for second careers. That's a good thing for Greg Kihn, and all the rest of us.

richardsonlaura said...

Please write some more!! You don't know how much i love to read these. I go back and re-read them whenever I need a chuckle!