The Amityville Horror was another book group pick (nominated by me as well). It’s always interested me as it is supposed to be based on real events from the mid 1970′s. There have been numerous films, sequels, magazines articles and books written on the subject but this is the original one that started it all, written from transcripts of conversations had with the protagonists. If you want to delve into the history and what not of it all, there is a good Wikipedia article on the matter here.

This is proper 1970′s horror fare, setting a lot of what are now clichés in the horror genre including that good old built on an Indian burial ground that seemed to be trotted out in every B movie for a decade. But to be brutally honest, unless you’re interested in the background and the surrounding events, this probably isn’t the book for you. It was written about 6 years after Blatty wrote the Exorcist, probably the seminal 1970′s horror story (ignoring Stephen King for a moment) and couldn’t be further away from it if Anston had tried. Put simply, the man cannot write. Any one that uses exclamation marks in general prose should be given a good kicking in my book and he does this frequently from early on.

One of the group did say he was scared by the book but I can’t help thinking this was despite the way it was written rather than because of it. Some of the aspects contained within the book are unsettling, the basic premise is fundamentally scary in itself but it is let down by the writing that veers from novel to commentary page by page, with comments like “later on when they discussed it the Lutz’s felt…” peppering the text. When a book is neither an intelligent written selection of transcripts (lets not forget Dracula was written as a variety of journal entries and letters) or a novel in its own right, it’s difficult to get fully immersed in the story. This is a shame really as the main protagonists, George and Kathy Lutz, do have some decidedly odd things happen to them. Phantom embraces, odd behaviour, flies infesting rooms in the dead of winter, it’s all there really.

It is a fairly short read, which is why the book group went for it. I can’t help but think if we could have looked past the page count, then The Exorcist or The Shining would have been a profoundly more rewarding read, despite not being based on alleged true events.

Is it worth as read? As I’ve mentioned earlier, if the actual story itself is of interest to you, if you like reading about real life hauntings and so on, it probably is but if you’re actually after reading a well crafted book, in my humble opinion, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

The Walking Dead then, bit of a change here, this ones a comic. I’m not going to call it a graphic novel or anything pretentious like that, it’s 1,000 odd pages of pure and unadulterated zombie awesomeness.

It follows a group of survivors of some sort of apocalypse- we’re left vague to what this is as the main character Rick is in a coma for it and wakes up in an empty hospital- as they struggle to survive the zombie aftermath.

As the story progresses it becomes less and less about the zombies, after all there are only a limited number of ways people can be ripped to pieces by the undead, and more and more about the relationships between the survivors and how utterly horrible people can be to each other.

It gets increasingly bleak as it progresses, dealing with death, madness and a desensitisation to violence amongst other recurring themes.

The art work veers between the great and the clunky but the story is what matters and it is great. It’s a £45 RRP but currently only £25 at Amazon. Buy it whilst it’s still in print.

When I was in my late teens I went on a bit of a Dean Koontz marathon. It was the early 90′s so even the stuff written in the 70′s hadn’t dated too badly at the point (no ubiquitous mobile phones for example). I ran through most of his back catalogue in a long summer and enjoyed pretty much all of what he wrote.  It is true to say that when you read his works back to back, the lead characters become a little but samey- basically they are idealised versions of Koontz himself, generous caring chaps, a lot of them with special forces backgrounds that they don’t like to mention because they’re working as a mechanic or something or other now days.

It’s been a few years now since I read anything of his, although I keep on meaning to go back and read the Watcher as it’s one of the books I remember enjoying the most when I was younger. But since the weathers been terrible this week, I’ve not really wanted to haul Wolf Hall into work every day as its over 600 pages and a bit too much like hard work in that respect, so I have another book on the go at work.

The House of Thunder lies a little about its age, it purports to have been written in 1994 but that’s the first time it was published under Dean Koontz’s name as the author rather than a pseudonym. It’s really older, dating back to the early 1980′s. But that doesn’t really matter, that’s part of the joy of books, stuff that was written a few years ago is still relevant, it doesn’t become outdated or outmoded by the latest remake or sequel like TV or film does.

I can see why The House of Thunder wasn’t originally released under the name Dean Koontz. Although the writing style is definitely his, the nature of the book isn’t particularly (although he has visited the central themes of it again in the 90′s with False Memory).

I’m not going to give the central plot point away as that will render the book a bit pointless but you shouldn’t be more than half way through before you get the gist of the twist. It’s fairly well telegraphed. Some of the prose is a little poor, and the way Susan falls for her doctor isn’t handled in the most convincing manner- it is very facile and more than a little twee.

It’s not a long book, weighing in at 350 pages, so it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. When I’ve finished A Christmas Carol for our bookclub, I think I’ll try one of his newer books. Or maybe I’ll dig out my ancient copy of Watchers…