Ghoul by Brian KeeneMy rating 8 Stars
Pages 341
Year 2007
Read in August
Going to rate this an 8 out of 10.
So what's this book about, well a Ghoul. I am kidding. Is much more than that... only after reading the novel I understood what he was doing here but lets go step by step..
This is the tale of a three 12 year old friends who are living their lives to the fullest (well 12years old on 1984). They have their own hideout and their own personal stuff to work with. One friend is beaten by the drunk father, another friend is abused by her mother and the last one, supposedly has a perfect life until he hasn't. I mean even the most normal parents have some weird stuff on them when facing adversities. in the other hand we've got this Ghoul who has been awaken and now eats the dead and wants to procreate.
First of all, this book does not shine away from sex scenes (although brief they exist). Then you've got that vibe of Stranger Things although this predates it. Then you've got some very brief connections to other Keene novels that are interesting to read. LeHorn. They are very brief, so don't worry. I am interesting to see if any of the survivors will appear in the last two books Keene wrote that try to connect all the books into a big Mythos.
So what's good and what's bad.. First of all it's fast paced (I read in two sittings) and it's easy to understand, to care about the characters and to feel from them. I didn't like that much of the confrotantion in the end and that's why rating is not better.
Although this book is about a Ghoul, I think the best book name would be "Monster". Why? Although the Ghoul is indeed a monster, a killer and a rapist , after reading about the stories of each boy you get the feeling that the real monsters are humans and not the ghoul. The Ghoul kills because he has to feed, it rapes (wrong of course) because he wants to mate and spawn and is the last of his kind. But the humans... the woman rapes the child because she has problems or whatever , the man drinks and beats his wife and child. It's a bit different... the humans do that to their own child. I think Keene was trying to show us a bit more , maybe ghoul here means what the monster is (it sucks life of people...) maybe he is saying this mother and father are ghouls..
Spoiler warning,
By the end, one of the child is dead. Two other survive. One was in love with a teen throughout the book, then we've got a jump of 20 years and these two boys, now man meet. They were friends but grew apart, the boy who had that crush/girlfriend and the "love of his life" was no longer and another woman took it's place. While the other boy is now working where his father work and we get some glimpses as he mistreats his own child (like his father did, whereas when he was 12 said that he will never do what his father did to him). What comes around, goes around I guess.
Spoilers end...
This book will make you think about it. It's not just a horror novel. It's much more than that.
Btw, what happened to the girl who was abused by the Ghoul? Did she give birth to ghouls or...
View all my reviews
Going to rate this an 8 out of 10.
So what's this book about, well a Ghoul. I am kidding. Is much more than that... only after reading the novel I understood what he was doing here but lets go step by step..
This is the tale of a three 12 year old friends who are living their lives to the fullest (well 12years old on 1984). They have their own hideout and their own personal stuff to work with. One friend is beaten by the drunk father, another friend is abused by her mother and the last one, supposedly has a perfect life until he hasn't. I mean even the most normal parents have some weird stuff on them when facing adversities. in the other hand we've got this Ghoul who has been awaken and now eats the dead and wants to procreate.
First of all, this book does not shine away from sex scenes (although brief they exist). Then you've got that vibe of Stranger Things although this predates it. Then you've got some very brief connections to other Keene novels that are interesting to read. LeHorn. They are very brief, so don't worry. I am interesting to see if any of the survivors will appear in the last two books Keene wrote that try to connect all the books into a big Mythos.
So what's good and what's bad.. First of all it's fast paced (I read in two sittings) and it's easy to understand, to care about the characters and to feel from them. I didn't like that much of the confrotantion in the end and that's why rating is not better.
Although this book is about a Ghoul, I think the best book name would be "Monster". Why? Although the Ghoul is indeed a monster, a killer and a rapist , after reading about the stories of each boy you get the feeling that the real monsters are humans and not the ghoul. The Ghoul kills because he has to feed, it rapes (wrong of course) because he wants to mate and spawn and is the last of his kind. But the humans... the woman rapes the child because she has problems or whatever , the man drinks and beats his wife and child. It's a bit different... the humans do that to their own child. I think Keene was trying to show us a bit more , maybe ghoul here means what the monster is (it sucks life of people...) maybe he is saying this mother and father are ghouls..
Spoiler warning,
By the end, one of the child is dead. Two other survive. One was in love with a teen throughout the book, then we've got a jump of 20 years and these two boys, now man meet. They were friends but grew apart, the boy who had that crush/girlfriend and the "love of his life" was no longer and another woman took it's place. While the other boy is now working where his father work and we get some glimpses as he mistreats his own child (like his father did, whereas when he was 12 said that he will never do what his father did to him). What comes around, goes around I guess.
Spoilers end...
This book will make you think about it. It's not just a horror novel. It's much more than that.
Btw, what happened to the girl who was abused by the Ghoul? Did she give birth to ghouls or...
View all my reviews
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