Funland by Richard Laymon
My rating: 8 of 10 ⭐
My rating: 8 of 10 ⭐
Pages : 500
Year : 1989
Genre : Horror.jpg)
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Series : Solo
OK, 8 stars. Is one of the best Laymon books I've read and one of the longest now.
So what's this about you ask.. Well, in this tale we are in a place where you've got beach, boardwalk and a funhouse - of all novels by Laymon this is the first time I see a beach and such. Strangely enough there is a lot of hobos laying around and the vast majority are quite odd , crazy or downright evil. One of the things that jump around is that there multiple POV whilst the vast majority of his works are only one or two. You've got two police officers (Dave & Joan), Robin a new-young hobo that lives to play the banjo & Young teen new to the town. This boy meets other teens that at a night go around trolling (trolling being evil stuff to the trolls - the trolls are hobos). If at first you think they are just bunch of kids doing evil stuff to pass the time but we get to learn that one of the girls were raped by hobos and they are now "avenging" this girl. Another girl is doing to search for his sister among other reasons.
As I've said, we also follow cops who patrol that place and the main focus of them is basically the romance subplot. While Robin is the figure you root for.
So how is this compared with other Laymon stuff? Well, first of all is not as gory and full of scarce as other books (woods are dark). You've got some gory parts but mostly in the last 50 pages. The remaining 400 is setting everything in place, is developing the characters, is fulfilling the romance and making teens horny and confused.
As all other Laymon takes you've got some sexy parts, and some sexy parts that make you feel naughty but all good. Rape (which exists in other novels) are mostly told about and not vividly (if you understand what I am trying to say). The purpose of a rape scene that exists (again, told about) is important to understand the hate one of the characters have and how she ensnares other people.
You've got horny boys and some underage stuff (but again, nothing that jumps as dirty - or do you all thing young boys of 16 don't think of sex and porn and other stuff?) Of course , the vast majority of people who are reading are adults and they feel a bit strange reading BUT alas, that's the reader problem.
Someone wrote;
"I've pretty much gotten used to Laymon's standard sex-obsessed male adolescent who ogles all the female characters and thinks nasty, inappropriate things about them in his mind. Doesn't matter if death is breathing down your neck or some monster is crawling up out of the floor, if there's any chance of getting laid, these male characters will never pass up an opportunity to cop a feel or make out. " is he wrong? Boys are like that and to be honest, so are girls. Or girls don't think about sex until they are 18? LOL that's not chauvinist. That's being dumb and worst, blind. Before someone jumps the gun, we are not talking about abusing or forcing someone. We are talking about thinking about sex.
Oh well, you've read one Laymon you read them all, in some instances, beautiful perfect girls. Horny teenagers and violence. What differentiate the novel is intensity or lack of it of one of these. Because you will have everything.
One thing I didn't enjoy, well, although I did enjoy the setup, I thought it was a bit too long. The other is the romance part. For Laymon there is no love, only urges and when he tries to write about love it feels flat. Both the cops, the boy and Shinner and the banjo player (plus another boy) all feel somekind of stuff akin to love But it's not. They are feeling desire and urges. One had a girlfriend that he almost hates and thank the lords another person appears so swaps with a new plaything (which in turn drops a pretender that she "cares" deeply). Other had a twisted girlfriend and swaps and at the same night already loves another girl (overnight) and the third doesn't understand love, although a girl loves him back (or does she?) and prefers to side with desire/lust over love.
Those things were a bit of turn off. I would have imagine having a more unique form of love, and one of the other , because characters are different but in the end they are all the same. That's why this book gets a 8 out of 10. BUT overall enjoyed.
View all my reviews
OK, 8 stars. Is one of the best Laymon books I've read and one of the longest now.
So what's this about you ask.. Well, in this tale we are in a place where you've got beach, boardwalk and a funhouse - of all novels by Laymon this is the first time I see a beach and such. Strangely enough there is a lot of hobos laying around and the vast majority are quite odd , crazy or downright evil. One of the things that jump around is that there multiple POV whilst the vast majority of his works are only one or two. You've got two police officers (Dave & Joan), Robin a new-young hobo that lives to play the banjo & Young teen new to the town. This boy meets other teens that at a night go around trolling (trolling being evil stuff to the trolls - the trolls are hobos). If at first you think they are just bunch of kids doing evil stuff to pass the time but we get to learn that one of the girls were raped by hobos and they are now "avenging" this girl. Another girl is doing to search for his sister among other reasons.
As I've said, we also follow cops who patrol that place and the main focus of them is basically the romance subplot. While Robin is the figure you root for.
So how is this compared with other Laymon stuff? Well, first of all is not as gory and full of scarce as other books (woods are dark). You've got some gory parts but mostly in the last 50 pages. The remaining 400 is setting everything in place, is developing the characters, is fulfilling the romance and making teens horny and confused.
As all other Laymon takes you've got some sexy parts, and some sexy parts that make you feel naughty but all good. Rape (which exists in other novels) are mostly told about and not vividly (if you understand what I am trying to say). The purpose of a rape scene that exists (again, told about) is important to understand the hate one of the characters have and how she ensnares other people.
You've got horny boys and some underage stuff (but again, nothing that jumps as dirty - or do you all thing young boys of 16 don't think of sex and porn and other stuff?) Of course , the vast majority of people who are reading are adults and they feel a bit strange reading BUT alas, that's the reader problem.
Someone wrote;
"I've pretty much gotten used to Laymon's standard sex-obsessed male adolescent who ogles all the female characters and thinks nasty, inappropriate things about them in his mind. Doesn't matter if death is breathing down your neck or some monster is crawling up out of the floor, if there's any chance of getting laid, these male characters will never pass up an opportunity to cop a feel or make out. " is he wrong? Boys are like that and to be honest, so are girls. Or girls don't think about sex until they are 18? LOL that's not chauvinist. That's being dumb and worst, blind. Before someone jumps the gun, we are not talking about abusing or forcing someone. We are talking about thinking about sex.
Oh well, you've read one Laymon you read them all, in some instances, beautiful perfect girls. Horny teenagers and violence. What differentiate the novel is intensity or lack of it of one of these. Because you will have everything.
One thing I didn't enjoy, well, although I did enjoy the setup, I thought it was a bit too long. The other is the romance part. For Laymon there is no love, only urges and when he tries to write about love it feels flat. Both the cops, the boy and Shinner and the banjo player (plus another boy) all feel somekind of stuff akin to love But it's not. They are feeling desire and urges. One had a girlfriend that he almost hates and thank the lords another person appears so swaps with a new plaything (which in turn drops a pretender that she "cares" deeply). Other had a twisted girlfriend and swaps and at the same night already loves another girl (overnight) and the third doesn't understand love, although a girl loves him back (or does she?) and prefers to side with desire/lust over love.
Those things were a bit of turn off. I would have imagine having a more unique form of love, and one of the other , because characters are different but in the end they are all the same. That's why this book gets a 8 out of 10. BUT overall enjoyed.
View all my reviews
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