Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22191 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 301 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780843960907
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Do you like inbred-mutant-cannibals?
Some folks say there are no new stories. Some folks might compare Brian Keene's Urban Gothic to movies like The Hills Have eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the writings of Richard Laymon and Edward Lee. Yes, there are elements of these things in Urban Gothic, but, it's what Keene does with these elements that makes the book stand out. The action starts early and the tension rises with each blood soaked page. Instead of giving us complete character descriptions at the start, Keene lets the information trickle in; we learn more about each character from their reactions to the horrible situation they find themselves in, then we would if it was all layed out for us in the first chapter. While some may look at this as a simple slasher novel, it addresses issues of race,community pride and sacrifice, as well. BUT, it is a great slasher novel. Brian Keene's amazing talent takes horror tropes and raises them to a level that should not just be enjoyed, but should be praised. (Yeah, I know I didn't mention the inbred-mutant-cannibals. For that, you have to read the book.)

Carbon Copy of better Ketchum and Laymon stories
With all due respect to Mr. Keene (and I do mean that for I am a big fan of his books), Urban Gothic is the exact same story as Jack Ketchum's Off Season and Richard Laymon's The Woods are Dark, only set in an urban city (Philadelphia) instead of rural Maine or in the woods. Same humanoid cannibolistic mutants, same band of characters who get attacked, same outcome. All die and get eaten except for 1 or 2 of the good guys. For that matter, it is also very similar to his other book from this same year, Castaways. I hope he moves on to different topics next year, as this novel was just a rehash of tried and tired stuff. Nuff Said.

Not his best. Good, not great horror.
This was a quick read and a real page turner, I only stopped reading once when I got a little sick to my stomach. Good use of gore, horror and I think that it's fairly original. Nice racial stereotypes and just enough charactor development to define people, have me like them and care about and most importantly see their folly.

This is my third Keene and just like the others, I think that he needs one more chapter. I want to know about things one week later, or one month later. I want closure. In this book, I didn't want the house to burn down now, I wanted the public to learn of the mutants under the house.... you could even make a good sequel from it.

I do have two real complaints however. 1) I think that Keene just can't leave the topic of mutant penis alone for very long. Mr Keene sure loves him some mutant penis. 2) I have never read the word 'shriek' so many times in 300 pages. In fact, this maybe equals the total number of times I've read that word in my life before this book. It actually starts to become funny, waiting for the next mutant, or human, or rat or whatever to shriek. Maybe a penis should have shrieked, that would have been great.