One Rainy Night by Richard LaymonMy rating: 8 of 10 stars
This is how books are meant to be. I read 165 pages in one day. Too me that only happens with specific kind of books. I really enjoy it. I couldn't stop reading it. I will make a big review this week.
I read some reviews about racism in this book... What racism? Because it was a
black kid killed in the beginnig of the book and his grandfather made a voodoo ritual so everyone start kill one another? Oh please.
An apart now... One day I will stop reading reviews because of stupid things like that. What a heck? "Oh there wasn't a lot of black character" "Oh that serie is all whites?" "Oh the deversity of cultural aspects is not that real" - "Oh the girl on the cover is a bit whiter than the character in the book" - "Ohh my the Whitewash of the writers" - "Oh the black always die first on the horror movie."
I'm sick of reading things like this and they are from WHITE PEOPLE. People are so foccused on Racism that they see racism everyone. They even saw it on Tolkien because all characters were white, the white tower and the orcs are black. Oh my goodness.
Most of horror authors from the seventies or eighties are white. It's normal to them to write White Main Characters. I think some writers are now portraying some black characters because of this intimidation. It's like gay characters. You've got Clive Barker portraying in some novels a gay character and is portrayed with some depth and relevant to the character development and plot (and that's good) and you've got writers portraying a gay character that if it wasn't you wouldn't know the diference. I remember reading Brian Keene's Dead Sea book portraying a black gay character and I thought that being gay didn't matter a little bit to the story. It was irrelevant. And to do that just stop doing it. It's stupid.
Now my rambling got almost out of hand. I am not racist and neither am I homophobic. But I support free speech and free writing. If a writer wants to write a neo-nazi character and portraying it as the king of the block why shouldn't they do it? Some rap singers portray the black culture as superior to the white, that the white are bad people, and most of them just treat women poorly and they win awards at mtv... So? You can't be a white supremacist but you can be a black supremacist?
Oh well the world today... Now for the book.
This book deals with a voodoo curse that befalls in a little town after the death of a black youth. As anyone touches the rain it turns to a bloodcrazy frenzy to kill and rape. We follow four main views that converge in a big plot. One is Buddy and his buddies (the killers of the black kid) the other is Denise a beautiful girl that is taking care of a child (Kara), the other is the fathers of Kara as they are besiege in a restaurant and other is a policeman and the girlfriend of the black kid as they try to survive.
Praises
- The different perspectives. As the action changes each chapter so our interest in it.
- The sex and gore. This is both a criticism and a praise. Each chapter (and there are lot of chapters) are fill with sex references and violent deaths. There is also a rape scene and even more sex. - I get that most humans think of sex every hour. You see a girl, and you start undressing her. You see a naked girl and you want to jump and plumb her. Yes I get that we are sex perverts disguised as humans. We are. Can any out there say that they don't think of sex every hour? Even in awkward situations you think of it. My question is: In a hostile situation that you and a beautiful perfect girl are bounded together by terrorists and they tell you to undress would you get "wood"? I guess we would... But that's me... Well where was I? Yes... Sex and Gore references... There are too many and some of them were a bit overdone. But that's a trademark of Laymon and I was okay with it.
Criticism
- Plotholes - There are some plotholes. Some people when touch by the rain turn bloodcrazy but in the end as one of the group are touch by the black rain they are able to think almost rational and kill the maker of the rain.
- We "see" all girls from this book Naked, partially naked.
- We know that every girl on this book is a greek goddess.
These irrealities bother me. First not all girls are greek goddess but everyone was slim and big breasted girls (like Lara Croft) and they all get naked at some point of the book.
Final Thoughts/Advisable
If you want to read a fast-paced book with sex and gore elements (like chainsaw massacre) go right ahead. If, what you want is a frightful exprience that look someplace else. If won't find it here.
To anyone who wants to read the book be very careful to read it on the train... some sexual references could make you... in a awkward situation.
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