Customer Reviews

The Backwoods

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Come on, everyone. The book is called, "The Backwoods". What did you expect? I'm sure Lee blazed through writing this in a matter of weeks -- it has all the standard Lee stuff -- rapes, sex, violent deaths, sex, ridiculous gore, sex, torture, and sex. Look, every few months or so I need my fix of Edward Lee to purge my system. This book worked for me. I had a smile on my face thinking how much fun Edward had writing this. I laughed out loud many times at some of his sexual descriptions. He's not trying to win any awards here. Lighten up. Sure, it's mostly immature, but boy I had a good time.

I had been wanting to read Ed Lee for a while now based on reviews of his previous books and various snippets i'd read along the way. Now i find myself wondering if i will ever read anything else by him ever again. This book simply was not good. It sounded amateurish. The whole thing was rather trite. It was as if someone took a bad romance novelist and gave him a subject and a list of required gore and horror and sat him in front of a computer. And the dialogue, ohh god the dialogue! Bad dialogue will kill a book faster than anything else. I gave it two stars only because i like books that are not afraid to be frank about sex and gore. Otherwise, i consider this book wasted time both on my part and the author's.

The biggest problem with The Backwoods is that the ending seems a little stitched together. Convenient is another word I would use. Sure, I agree with the above review, in saying that once you get to the paranormal elements that you'll probably finish the book anyway. That doesn't make it entirely satisfying.The ending was too rushed, considering just how long and domestic the first act turned out to be. It dragged and set up a few things that didn't turn out as one would expect them to. Once I was almost done, I re-read what actually happened because it seemed to end entirely too quickly.

On the whole, though, the book was pretty good. The characters were fairly likeable, despite the fact that most of them serve the plot to a ridiculous extent. The sexual element did get a bit tiresome, considering that it didn't get resolved in the end very well. It felt as though on every page the size of Patricia's breasts got revealed. That she could see anything at all over them must have been a challenge, especially considering that she was being targeted for much of the book.

I read this book after reading Lee's Flesh Gothic and City Infernal, so needless to say I kind of had an expectation for his work that this book did not meet. It's not badly written, nor is it boring, but I found myself waiting for the next slap in the face that I found Lee was good at, and it never came.

The book is different from most of his other works in that his view of hell and its demons was never seen here, which is fine since they had no bearing on the story, but Lee's creativity is what sets him out and it was not present here. The storyline was OK and new, but I just kept waiting for something big and in-your-face to happen and I was disappointed when it never came. Also, there was no thorough explanation as to who the squatters were and where there powers came from, which I think would have helped if that had been expanded on.

This book is written well and Lee is a great writer, but it did not have his same knock out power that I have come to expect from him and that is why I did not rate it as high as his others.

Edward Lee returns to his "backwoods" roots (CREEKERS, BIGHEAD, GHOULS) in this new one that starts out with a weird murder mystery in a hillbilly setting and then turns into an occult extravaganza full of wild sex, ,rednecks, gore (especially some really perverted ax-work) and an ending that totally took me by surprise. Not as twisted as CREEKERS (my favorite by Lee) but deeper characters and a heavier erotic tone. This one I couldn't put down!

I'm a huge Richard Laymon fan, and this book was recommended to me by some folks on his website. I was suprised at how much I enjoyed it, and at just how much it remided me of Richard's work. It's very graphic and gorey, and has some hot sex scenes as well. The storyline is creepy and will make you want to see what happens next, and who is involved. I recommend this one for anyone who enjoys a good horror novel with blood and gore. I liked it so much I've ordered a few more of his novels.

Nope, this isn't BIGHEAD. Nope, this isn't the gore-a-minute-barbed-wire-gags-and-saguara-buttplugs that Ed Lee fans love, but it's still a darned good read. You really like the character, and the final few chapters offer a couple of chucklesome gag-a-maggot scenes that are guaranteed to please.

Folks, be warned. Ed Lee is writing for Leisure here, not Bloodletting or Delerium. He's got to soften it a bit for the mainstream consumption. Only certain stuff will fly in this neck of the woods.

I talked with Ed a few weeks ago and he assured me he'd be coming out with some dark small press efforts as well as continuing his efforts at Leisure.

Give it a try. It's a good primer for those trying to work up their nerve to climb into one of Ed Lee's more notorius gut-plungers such as THE GOON.

Yours in horror,

Steve Vernon

Having just finished this book at 3;30 am few hours ago, I was glad I got my hands on it. I have read reviews here for his books and decided to give him a try. His books are crazy macabre with deep sexual overtones, but hey it's Horror and that's how these books taste best.

I liked how the characters in the small town and Patricia all had their own agendas, yet their stories came together at the end. First of all, the characters were real whackos, they did things I have never read before in books, how they enjoyd killing and raping, and how the good ones suffered, but it just made for a more intense read. Everyone form the Sheriff, to her crush from childhood, to the Squatters and other locals was always a suspect in the gory deaths that kept occuring one after another. It was not easy to guess who did what, but Lee would describe some scenes from the point of view of the criminal, and they made for a very interesting reading. Usually you get the racap at the end, but here you go along for the ride.

I loved the ending it was a real fast ride, and I just had to finish, there was no putting it down!

I liked how Lee was not sparing characters, the most random main ones were in path of death, and I will not tell you if they met it, but you must check it out for yourself.

-I would love to read a sequel, Patricia's character really intrigued me, and the last 2 pages were the best, total shocker, loved them! I would love to read more of the future unravelings!

It was a good horror read. If you enjoy horror similar to Stephen King then this was a good book. I liked it.

Edward Lee, The Backwoods (Leisure, 2005)

Lee turns in another fast-paced mystery/thriller with horror elements, though this one is far less a straight-up horror novel than most of the Lee books I've read over the years. If you're familiar with Ed Lee, you know what you're getting into (and, actually, it's kind of toned down here, from the stuff of his I'm used to seeing)-- adrenaline-packed action sequences that usually end up with people being very dead and very bloody, supercharged sex, and places where no one, really, has any right to exist outside the covers of magazines.

Sometimes I get the feeling it's all a ruse, though. Every once in a while Lee pops up with a word or phrase that makes me think he's a whole lot more educated than his aw-shucks diction would have you believe. But still, it fits right in with this tale of nasty doings in a minuscule town in rural southern Virginia, a novel in which our heroine must return to the town where she grew up for her brother-in-law's funeral. The fact that no one at all liked the brother-in-law save her sister doesn't seem to matter much. She leaves comfortable home and loving husband in Washington DC and travels to a town which, when she even thinks about growing up there, gives her the willies. Great idea, huh? All well and good until the bodies start piling up in a town where no one's been murdered for decades, perhaps even centuries. Yes, something weird is going on in Agan's Point, and before she knows it, our heroine is right in the middle of all the weirdness. Oh, and as if the present isn't enough, she's also wrapped up in the past trauma that caused her to flee the village in the first place.

While The Backwoods lacks the squick factor of Slither or the all-out gorefest attitude of City Infernal, and in fact looks almost like a tentative stab at reaching out into the world of the crime thriller, Lee fans will find more than enough blood to satisfy their baser appetites, while thriller fans will be held by the mystery-inside-mystery-inside-mystery layering of the surprisingly complex (though, after a time, predictable, until Lee blindsides you with the mystery he's been making sure you don't think about too closely all the way through) plot. It's not a bad book at all, though I've always held that Lee is stronger in short fiction ("Doing Colfax" is one of those stories that I will simply never forget) and this doesn't put much ammo on the other side of the scale. A good, solid, quick read. ***