Customer Reviews

Beast House

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the second novel in the now legendary Beast House series. The first one is "The Cellar" and the third one is "The Midnight Tour." I read this book for the second time a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. It's not as exciting as some of Laymon's other novels but it's a quick read. If they made a movie of this book it'd be part action movie and part horror movie.
Some of the characters in "The Cellar" are referred to in it so I'd recommend reading it before you read this book. It's not for the squeamish though - there's a lot of strong violence and gore. Though this isn't Laymon's best, he occasionally wrote something that proved he was a genius. "No Sanctuary" and "In the Dark" are two of those books.

I picked this book up one day after i recieved it for a birthday present. I am not one so popular on quite thick books. Normally taking me months to proceed to the end of large novel. I read this book in 48 hours and is truly one of the most mesmorising books i have ever read. A carefully twisted plot and well thought out content mixed in with some steamy horror is a sure fire hit of a read. The Beast House is a harbour for horrors be it human or not at all. The house has a long past of gruesome murders and missing people. But when money and greed gets involved with the house it all starts to unravel. The houses quaint exterior peels to unearth its reality. This is a must read!!!!!

A wonderful read. Of course it answers the whatever happened to.. questions from the 1st book (The Cellar) and it added some more backstory. If I had a complaint it would only be that it does not have the shock value of the 1st book and it has the "happy" ending. Not that I have a problem with the occasional happy ending, it just makes this book a little bit of a lighter read than The Cellar.

I'm not saying it isn't a good book, I really like how he tied in the new characters to the old ones. It was quite visionary. I totally reccomend this book to fans of Laymon. He is quite quickly becoming my favorite author.

As always, I reccomend picking up the UK edition. Headline is the publisher.

After having read "The Cellar" I'll admit that I did not have high hopes for this book. Not that "the Cellar" was terrible, it just didn't live up to its potential. "The Beast House" does a little better, not much, but there is definite improvement. First of all, as readers we now know the layout of the Beast House and what is actually going on there. This makes it a little harder for him to build suspense. I actually found the most suspense in the hope that the ending wouldn't be as bad as the last book.

In comparison to the first book, Laymon has made little progress in making 3 dimensional characters. Once again everyone is ready to sleep with just about anyone within a matter of minutes after meeting them. With this being the second book of his that I have read, I am curious if Laymon has written anything that did not involve either rape or attempted rape. I would be concerned if I was his psychiatrist that he seems to think that all men are either glowing yet dumb good guys, or sick demented rapists and murderers. Then the women are all either sex obsessed idiots, or sex obsessed murdering psychos. It's a very strange world that one enters into when reading a Laymon book. I suppose the good thing is that it is easy to tell who you are supposed to root for.

The story in this on is simple enough; a horror writer with no morals comes to the tiny town of Malcasa Point to write a story on the Beast house. He is lured there by one of the survivors of the first novel, a young girl working at the only motel in the town. She has found a diary which tells the origin of the Beast House and wants a cut of the money from the novel. Also heading into town are two librarians who are apparently very good looking, because you have to read about it constantly, they are saved from a random highway rapist by two ex-military men who seem to be wandering aimlessly about. The four of them shack up together and immediately fall madly in love. They meet up with the unscrupulous horror writer and are commissioned to enter the Beast House.

The novel has a lot of winding this way and that... I suppose to build tension, but everyone knows where it will end. Who will fall in love with whom, who is going to live and who is going to die. The whole book plays out exactly like the reader expects it will. Even down to cleaning up the messy ending of "The Cellar" and giving some redemption to the characters left hanging in that novel. Unfortunately with the poor characterization, this just reads to me like the "Cellar" with a different ending. All of the women are interchangeable. Abe could be Judge, with a simple "search and replace" of the character names. The only difference between this book and the last is that the ending is exactly what the reader expects.

My opinion of this is the same as that of the Cellar; a quick read, okay for a plane trip... but not a must read. 3 of 5 stars.

Beast House is a unique tourist attraction. It's a rustic old building where you can find wax figures copied after the victims of the Beast, a hideous monster said to live in the cellar. While most of Malcasa Point doesn't believe in the Beast, they can't ignore the fifty or sixty missing persons over the last few decades--and that's not counting the bodies they've found.

But now Nora, Tyler, and a couple friends are coming to town. They'll meet up with shady author Gorman Hardy, who has come Malcasa Point to write a book about the beast. Together, they will set out to gather evidence of the Beast, never really believing it exists. But when the Beast finds them, they will believe...

"The Beast House" is one of those few sequals that surpasses its predecessor. "The Cellar" was gory good fun, but lacked something; "House" lacks something to, but it is much better than "Cellar," and offers up a bit more character development. However, it's not on par with some of Laymon's best novels, such as "The Traveling Vampire Show," "Island," "Bite," and a couple others. Those latter novels offered not only chills and thrills, but genuine characterization--"The Traveling Vampire Show" is one of the finest literary horror novels ever written. Compared to these latter works, "Beast House" fails. However, if held on its own--or as a sequal to "Cellar"--then it is indeed a fine horror novel, and well worth your reading.

Before you read this book read the first book in the series "The Cellar", you won't be asking the question "who is this character?" when you read "The Beast House." "The Midnight Tour" is the third book in this Trilogy (paid through the nose for this one but it was worth it if you can find it). I am telling you I am more than impressed with these books, they are well written and fun to read. I did find this book kind of Kinky at times but what the heck! Highly recommend Laymons books, they are one of a kind in the horror arena!

Never again will I buy a book based solely on the one-sentence reviews on the back jacket cover. I'm convinced that the quotes on the back of Beast House must have been taken completely out of context. The storyline is sophomoric and reads like the script to a B-rate slasher film from the 70's (which isn't surprising considering it was originally published around 1980).

The characters are one dimensional and clichéd (like the salty old seafarer whose cringe-inducing dialogue is sprinkled liberally with the word "matey") and not a single one of them behaves in a manner that remotely approaches believability. Major plot points happen for no reason and are never explained (like an old diary that mysteriously appears in a motel room) or are so unbelievable as to be laughable, as when a house in which a murder has taken place is "thoroughly searched, top to bottom" but the investigators fail to notice a yard-wide tunnel dug into the floor of the cellar. Sprinkle in just enough pointless and poorly written sex of all kinds and species, and the end-result is an enormous waste of your time and money.

As a sequel to a stunning debut and as the second book in a series, The Beast House expertly ties into its predecessor and sets up for the next installment. Although a new cast of antagonists and protagonists is added, old characters are revisited, and even a minor character from The Cellar (Dan Jensen) becomes a considerable catalyst in the plot.

Not as brutal, disturbing, or fast-paced as Laymon's best work, The Beast House builds on the mythology of the infamous tourist attraction and on the beast that prowls it. Where did the beast come from and what can it be? Those questions are answered in this dreadful little tale.

All around, a decent segue into the rest of the series.

Although it is relatively common with movies, sequels are less common with horror novels. While even the big names of horror - like Stephen King or Dean Koontz - have resorted to sequels occasionally, the bulk of their work are standalone tales. Similarly, Richard Laymon generally did not write sequels; the exception, however, are his revisits to his first novel, The Cellar. The second of his "Beast House" books is appropriately called The Beast House.

The Beast House introduces Tyler and Nora, a couple of Southern California librarians who have gone up the coast on vacation. As is typical with Laymon heroines, they are young, beautiful and sexy, the last characteristic of which is described on almost page in the early stages of the book. Nora is the wild one and Tyler is still sulking over a long-ended relationship with Dan. Since he is around the Bay Area, Nora coerces Tyler to track him down.

This leads them eventually further north to the isolated beach community of Malcasa Point, home of the Beast House. Along the way, they get attacked by a would-be rapist but are saved by a couple ex-Marines named Abe and Jack. Soon enough, Tyler is falling for Abe, but she still feels the need to find Dan. Readers of The Cellar may remember what happened to Dan during his brief appearance in that novel, and soon enough so will Tyler.

Also in Malcasa Point is horror writer Gorman Hardy who is intending on writing a nonfiction book about the Beast House. This will lead the sleazy writer down unexpected paths as he determines that this is a must-write book and that nothing will stand in the way of his writing it. Hardy will eventually get Tyler and company involved with the Beast House.

And what exactly is the Beast House? It is a haunted house occupied not by ghosts but by semi-human creatures which are intent on savagely killing any unauthorized male occupants and reproducing with any woman they can get (sexual violation is a common theme in Laymon novels). As The Cellar had shown, these creatures are killable, but not easily.

The Beast House is another successful effort by Laymon, a fast-moving read that also resolves certain open issues from its predecessor. Although it does stand alone, I do not suggest reading this book unless you've read The Cellar first. If, however, you have read that book and enjoyed it, you should be quite happy with this one.

I have stated before on these reviews that Richard Laymon is the man to see for over the top violence and sex. It does not change for the Beast House, the 2nd book in the Beast House Triolgy (The Cellar and The Midnight Tour are the other two). I read the trilogy out of order starting with this title and than The Cellar and ending with The Midnight Tour. I have to say its the best cause it gives closure for the weak ending of The Cellar. The Midnight Tour is an extension of the other two and takes place 20 years after the 1st two.

The Beast house also gets into the origins of the beast itself and although we get a brief history in The Cellar, The Beast House goes into the real descriptive history of the house and like I said the beast. Most of the action is at the end and we finally see some justice to the crazy family running the house. I do like how Sandy plays a part in all 3 books and i wish the character of Judgment Rucker could have made a return. In my opinion this is the best of the trilogy.