Customer Reviews

Endless Night

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is Laymon working his magic at a gruesome chase novel. Filled with gore and definitely not for the squeamish, Endless Night still accomplishes what it sets out to do: never let up.

Through-and-through, this novel pits a teenaged girl and young boy against a group of savage killers. With a very intense time span, the will to survive is tested against Laymon's painted picture of the will to kill, maim, and destroy. Richard Laymon is one of the only authors I've read who can make a group of marauding maniacs seem believable.

This isn't a novel about character, though there is plenty of character depth. This isn't a novel about scenery, although it is played out mostly in Los Angeles. What this is, is a psychotic romp of a chase. Take it for what it is and you won't be disappointed. If you're coming to Laymon as a fan, you'll know what to expect. If this is your first Laymon, you might be better off starting with Island, or Night in the Lonesome October, which are much better introductions to his work. This is, however, a good, fast-paced read.

I won't lie to you here--this is not a GREAT novel. Were you expecting it to be? I doubt it. Although, I must admit, Richard Laymon was capable of writing some strand-out novels ("The Travelling Vampire Show" and "Island" among them). This is, never fear, a GOOD novel--especially a good horror novel.

Jody is sleeping over at her friend's house. It's all well...until she shes her friend impaled on a spear. And then all hell breaks loose. Jody and her friend's little brother Andy manage to escape...but that's just the beginning. First, there's the pursuit. And there's the waiting. Becuase the killers will catch up...and they'll want to have some fun...

Then there's Simon. He's the guy who's been assigned to find Jody. Which is perfectly alright with Simon, because he has an agenda of his own, which he relates to the readers as he narrates his sections of the book. You see, Simon just may be sicker and crazier than his colleagues...and he'll stop at nothing to capture Jody.

There is one thing going for this novel that most other horror novels lack: suspense. Richard Laymon wove suspense into everything he wrote. Few can match him when it comes to edge-of-your-seat storytelling. If for that reason alone, you should buy this book.

"Endless Night" is a bit gruesome, I'll admit. It had my stomach churning in a couple of spots. But it is a good, fast read. A bit darker than Laymon's last published novels have been (although, as any fan can tell you, he can get pretty sadistic at times), and a bit more haphazzard, but "Endless Night" is still a novel for horror fans, or Laymon's new legions of fans (of which I am one). It's a thrilling, gory ride...one that will have you at the edge of your seat the entire time.

Originally published by Headline in 1993, Endless Night is one of Richard Laymon's most sadistic and mean-spirited books. Those who have read a few of his novels would know not to take such a statement lightly. Sadly, Endless Night also happens to be one of Laymon's worst novels, a flash-in-the-pan exercise in brainless violence that I would soon rather forget. Richard Laymon novels are like the literary equivalent of b-movie slashers. Fun, but not sophisticated in the least bit. I personally gobble all of his stuff up and usually love it but not this time.

The story centers around a group of fiends who call themselves "The Krulls" (a self-reference to the cannibals in "The woods are dark"). Put simply, the Krulls like to break into peoples' homes at night, rape and kill the inhabitants and then torch the house so as to destroy the evidence. Their track record was flawless until they decided to invade the Clark house, where 12-year-old Andy and 16-year-old Jody manage to escape. It is imperative for the Krulls that these two witnesses to the crimes be dispatched immediately and Simon Quirt (who recounts all of his exploits on a tape recorder) feels more than up to the task as he would absolutely love to get his hands on Jody...

The book starts off with a bang and 75 pages of pure adrenaline as Jody and Andy try to flee the murderous Krulls. This chase scene is highly enjoyable and proves that Laymon can be one of the best in the biz at creating suspense. Then the novel takes a nosedive. The dialogue and verbal exchanges between Jody and Andy are boring, laughable and do nothing to develop the story. The gimmick about Simon Quirt recounting his horrible exploits on a tape could have worked but too often we end up reading about the same things twice, previously from Jody's perspective and then from his own. Who wants to read about the exact same events twice?

The major problem with Endless Night was that this time Laymon decided to focus the entire story on rape, violence and perversion instead of using those things in liberal doses to supplement a central concept. The finale was unbelievably gore-soaked and suspenseful but was still not enough to save this novel. Oh well, Richard's written over 35 novels so I guess there's bound to be a few rotten apples.

For me, Laymon isn't just the literary equivalent of dessert -- he is the cherry on top. With his fast pace, simple prose, violence and gore, and occasionally complete illogical plot twists, I know I can just shut off my brain and have fun. There's not much to think about here -- you just let Laymon take you for a ride.

"Endless Night" has a typical Laymon plot -- he takes normal people, puts them in a crazy, violent situation, and then makes them run for their lives.

In this case, two kids -- Jody and Andy -- survive a home invasion by a group of psychopaths. The man blamed for their escape, Simon, is tasked with finding them and killing them (first because they are witnesses and then to provide Jody, who everyone sickly lusts for, for some fun and games).

The novel starts off brilliantly. As others have noted, Laymon is a master of creating that goosebump suspense. Jody is sleeping over her friend's house when the madmen break in. She sees her friend and her parents slaughtered. She manages to escape with her friend's brother, Andy, but the men chase them out into the early-morning street.

This opening is amazing -- the shocking realization that yes, someone really is in the house, and no, you're not being paranoid; the stunning depravity of the men who are there; the stomach-clenching terror the kids feel, and the way you unconsciously hold your breath wanting them to get away.

They eventually do, and are stashed at Jody's house, where her cop father and most of the police force protect them.

As good as this opening is, what comes after goes soft. To avoid being sitting ducks, Jody, Andy and Jody's father take off on a little trip.

Simon has to find Jody and bring her back to his pals or they'll kill and torture everyone in his life.

What we end up with is alternating chapters of Jody's travel (where we get the finer points of colorful diners and the inside of hotel rooms and gas stations) and Simon recounting the repulsive violence he and his buddies have exacted on innocent people over the years.

While the group's history was interesting (in that gory sort of way) and the things Simon does along the way gruesome fun, I got a little sick of the two-step march the book took: first we hear about Jody on the road and Laymon bored us with the details of her trip, and then Simon would kill someone for some object he needed. And back and forth and back and forth. This is supposed to be a collision course between Jody and Simon, but really it just became a long catalog of violent crimes by Simon. He breaks into a store to steal a wig, he kills a couple of guys for a dog, he kills a bum for the hell of it, etc., etc. And on and on.

Also, he dresses up like a woman to escape the neighborhood of the original crime. But even after being out of the neighborhood, he continues to dress like a woman for the rest of the book. We're never told exactly why, though. It made sense to get away from the crime scene, because the cops had a description, but why continue after that? What makes more sense: dressing like a woman because the cops know you have a shaved head, or putting on a damn hat?

I liked Jody a lot more than I did Simon, but after a while Laymon stops giving Jody anything interesting to do or say.

And for as fast-paced as Laymon plots his novels, he sure does dawdle a lot. As here, for instance, when the novel is about to come to a close and Laymon decides to stick an NRA pamphlet in it practically out of nowhere.

What saves the book is a fairly good ending. You know what's coming, but it definitely doesn't go down like you'd expect it to. I have to give Laymon credit for getting a little wild with his finale. (The final few pages feature two people who have just gone to Hell and back and they're JOKING AROUND. That's inexcusable.)

The thing with Laymon is that though this could have easily been one hundred pages shorter, you plow through it so fast that you hardly notice.

The beginning is sensational, there's a few fun stops along the way, and the ending offers a nice little twist on what you think is coming.

Not Laymon's best, but he heaps on the gore to compensate for the lack of a plot (which is good news if you like gore), and it leaves you with enough of a good taste in your mouth to make it worth checking out.

Richard Laymon, Endless Night (Leisure, 1993)
I've been a fan of Richard Laymon's for something in the vicinity of a quarter century by now, and thanks to my tracking down his early works in drugstores and little twenty-five-cent-used-paperback shops in the mid-eighties, it's possible I've read more of Laymon's early novels than most Americans. And I have found myself genuinely surprised, when reading the last two Laymon novels I've read (In the Dark and this one) to find that I think I like Laymon-the-thriller-author better than Laymon-the-horror-novelist.

Now, don't get me wrong. Funland, The Beast House, The Cellar, Midnight's Lair, all that stuff was great. If you're looking for the literary equivalent of the monster movies Joe Bob Briggs holds sacred, you can't do much better than Laymon's early- to mid-eighties horror novels. Later on in his career, though, he branched out some, and started writing books like Endless Night-- straight thrillers with a somewhat sadistic twist to them. The monsters have taken off for parts unknown, but the blood's still there. And the books are still just as good.

This one opens with the brutal murder of a suburban LA family, leaving two survivors-- Andy, the twelve-year-old son, and Jody, sixteen-year-old best friend of the family's daughter. The first part of the book deals with Jody and Andy escaping from the murderers. After that, the book alternates between Jody and Andy's attempts to elude the killers, and a series of taped monologues from Simon Quirt, one of the killers.

As with all of Laymon's novels, you should probably know what you're getting into before flying in blind. Laymon is not an author for the weak of stomach. For those who don't mind getting their hands a little dirty, however, you pretty much can't go wrong with any of Laymon's novels (and kudos to Leisure for re-releasing a number of them over the past few years). Endless Night is a barrel of twisted, brutal fun. *** ½

This book is about a gang of thrill-killers and the two young survivors of their most recent attack.

Like most of Laymon's novels, "Endless Night" is fast-paced. It's a very quick read. You'll probably want to read it in only 2 or 3 sittings.

Although I agree with some of the negative points made by a previous reviewer, I don't agree with his 2 star rating. I'd give it 3 and 1/2 or 4 stars.

The book is definitely worth reading. However, I recommend some of his other books more highly, including "Body Rides", "Island", and "The Traveling Vampire Show."

I love reading Richard Laymon and this book was no exception. It was intensely suspenseful at parts, very gory, and incredibly disturbing.

In fact I think this may be the most disturbing book by him I have read. And in this case, I don't know if it's a good thing... I don't think it is for the reasons the author had intended.

The book is split into two parts, flipping back and forth between Jody and her friend Andy, as they attempt to escape the gang of killers and then to one of the killer's monologues, a hideous man named Simon. I found myself sort of dreading Simon's monologues, because they were... really awful.

A sick feeling crept over me every time Simon would describe the "hi-jinks" of his gang's exploits. Normally in Richard Laymon books, I get a delicious creepy feeling when it comes to the gore and the over-the-top events that happen. This book seriously grossed me out. There is so much brutal rape in this book, it really surprised me and sickened me. Skinning, murdering, skewering, cannibalism, torture, all of that is there too... but the rape scenes made me start feeling very jittery and ill and they are present from beginning to end.

I have often wondered about Richard Laymon's "mental state" and views of women, and this book verified to me that he must have had some issues. Particularly when he describes the rape/murder of the character Connie, who is kept alive for two months because she apparently "enjoys" the abuse. I just don't know. There are so many girls and women raped and "destroyed" in this book. It's pretty terrible. And it is treated so flippantly and with humour and joy by the killer... disturbing, as I'm sure Mr. Laymon intended. Mission accomplished. But... too disturbing for me. I felt SAD reading this book, sad and sick, during these parts. A first for me with this author.

Also abhorrent is the character Andy, a perverted and stupid little boy who seems to hesitate when choosing between killing the murderer of his family, and having the "opportunity" to rape the girl of his dreams/best friend. Nice. Real nice. *cough*

That said, I did enjoy this story but I am glad to be moving on to another book now. I love this author, but it is definitely not without some questioning and guilt, and, with "Endless Night", some hesitation.

This was my 3rd Laymon novel, behind In the Dark and Among the Missing. Laymon is my new favorite horror novelist. He writes with a style that's crisp and keeps you turning the pages--exactly what I'm looking for in a good horror novelist. The last Koontz book I read was a real drag; I definitley don't have that problem with Laymon.
This book was extremely gory, and is relentless in its abuse of the characters--but I've come to realize that's Laymon's style and I absolutley love it.
This is a good, albeit cruel novel. I recommend it.

I have read over a dozen of Laymon novels and yes by the way I am a fan, when you crave the kind of story that only he writes so well nothing else can satisfy. At least that's how I see it, take a bunch of sympathetic level headed kids, a crazed killer on their tail ( with a very flamboyant but totally cold soul) and you have some page gripping moments, you'd want to read this over the weekend if you have some time to put into this, it's an entertaining ride and it's well embellished for those who like some icky moments. Once again Laymon proves that his well used formula of bad men after pretty girls works to grip the reader, Jody is on a sleepover at a friend's house when noise wakes her up, what happens next is the appetizer of the story which sets up the tone and the urgency for the reminder of the novel, there is no time to breathe nor relax when this wild ride starts, and get used to creepy, crazy and nasty it can appear at any time in Laymon's world. I miss you man, wish you were still around to churn out some more...

This story line echoed a bit of Dean Koontz's "Intensity" which was an amazing book, a must read for horror fans, it has that nasty surprise of being in the wrong place at the wrong time but take to another level, you're at your friends house at a sleepover and her whole family except for one boy gets hacked to pieces, talk about picking the wrong night and what it will take to keep your precious life!

Jody manages to escape through some well written pages - I was pulling the paper to the point of breakage, but what waits for her next isn't any easier. One person in particular from the bunch of mysterious killers is on her trail, not only is he meant to kill and silence her but he's smitten with her as well, talk about double lousy luck! There are many unlucky houses that he uses to hide in or use something from, and those descriptions were the most interesting in the book because he gets quite creative with all that he finds in each house, the residents included - nothing is wasted, scalps included... but overall the whole story had a quick and crazy pace, there is no rest until the last page. I'm happy that the ending was pretty shocking, it was explosive until the last letter and period sign and sometimes I read an amazing and suspenseful book where the bad buy gets a buh-bye in a page or two after hours of torment, that to me is almost a cop out, this guarantees a satisfying finish, good or bad you judge but it was a great weekend read for those who like a crazy horror book or those who are Laymon fans, enjoy!

- Kasia S.

During the chase sequences this book reads very, very fast. I've read a lot of Laymon and the violence and sexual depravity here may be his personal high point. Very tense with lots of scares.