Laymon writes with the sexual mentality of a 15 year old boy, the descriptions of his female characters, their attire and sexual desires, borders on pathetic. However, his imagination within the realms of horror delivered in his trade mark tongue in cheek style make for easy reading thrills and chills.
Most of his books hit the mark (The Stake, In the Dark, Alarums), some below the belt (Quake), and others just out and out horror for the sake of it – Flesh. At first Flesh reminded me of the cult sci-fi horror movie The Hidden (1987) and I was disappointed with its unoriginality. The underlying juvenile sexual theme bored me to tears and the constant descriptions of everything a character did from putting on individual items of clothing to what they did bit by bit in the bathroom just gave me the impression that he was trying to fill the page up with words because there wasn’t much to the story. Incredibly Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by Science Fiction Chronicle and also shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award. A huge disappointment for this (closet) fan.
Footnote: Laymon passed away on Valentine’s Day 2001.
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