13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paranoia, violence, and realistic characterization, July 17, 2003
"The Face That Must Die" was a great read. This is my first experience with Ramsey Campbell, and it won't be the last.
The book starts off with two short stories, one semi-autobiographical and another brief story unrelated to "The Face That Must Die". The opening tale has Campbell speaking about his childhood and the paranoia he lived with under the roof of his mentally unbalanced mother. Campbell's descriptions of the increasing insanity of his mother are very well done, and he paints a sobering picture of how an ordinary person can become swallowed by their own personal demons. How does one cope with a loved one losing their mind? Read this great little tale and find out.
The second story is very short, and somewhat disturbing in its own right. Not a bad story, but it is forgettable compared to the introduction and the main course.
When the main event begins, the reader is treated to another fine examination of paranoid thinking and the consequences thereof. Our "heroes" all live in a small apartment complex, however none are anything more than average people living average lives. One married couple in particular elicit little sympathy from me, as they live their lives stuck in a rut of arguments and drug abuse, making little effort to improve their circumstances. I didn't like any of our protagonists, mostly because Campbell paints them so realistically that they could be real people; people I happen to dislike.
Our antagonist is a bit of an enigma, as his portions of the story are written from his own mad perspective. You never get a clear picture of him, even though the character makes a strong effort to apply reason and logic to his insane internal ravings. Campbell is masterful in his handling of this character and different readers gain different effects from the writing style. Example: darkgenius wrote an excellent review for this novel on this site, and he explains that Horridge lives in a cheap tenement. The impression I got, however, was that Horridge only THOUGHT he lived in the tenement, yet in reality lived as a homeless man on or near the grounds of said tenement. A small bone to pick, but very telling; Campbell expresses the mind of a person disassociated from reality so well that it creeps into each and every line of thought he has.
The plot revolves around Horridge thinking he knows who has been killing gay men in the area. He is convinced that this person lives in the same apartment complex as the other players in the novel, and wishes to intimidate the killer into a confession. Of course, things are not what they seem to be, and as the story develops it is the paranoid delusions of a madman that makes "The Face That Must die" so disturbing and fun.
My only complaint is that this novel lacks the depth necessary to make it a classic. The book is not shallow by any means, but the protagonists are, and the novel suffers a bit as a result. Still, I recommend it wholeheartedly to horror fans. Campbell deserves to have his stories back in print; he is every bit as good as other horror authors (Laymon, Little, Clegg) with large paperback distribution deals.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quite a uniquely disturbing book of horror, January 4, 2003
The Face That Must Die is rather a disturbing read. Ramsey Campbell gives us a look inside the tortured mind of a killer, one who evoked a number of different emotions from me as the story progressed. The man Horridge is a sad, unhappy soul who has pretty much lost everything he once had, including his old home. He now lives in a section of cheap tenements which he regards as a concrete prison. His memories are full of tragic experiences, but the unpleasantness of what has already happened pales in comparison to the increasingly paranoid thoughts running through his disturbed mind. He believes that everyone is out to get him, and he is particularly suspicious of foreigners and gay men. The story begins with the backdrop of a couple of ghastly murders of gay men, and Horridge is convinced he has seen the killer. After a close encounter with the supposed murderer, he sets out to harass the man and thereby protect his own safety by letting him know that he is on to him. As his fears increase, he takes increasingly bold actions that his poor mind tells him are right and just. Simultaneous to his story we have a running commentary on the dysfunctional life of a husband and wife living in the same building as the man Horridge believes is the murderer. As is so often the case with Ramsey Campbell's characters, it is almost impossible to like them, especially the drug addict husband. Naturally, the paths of these main characters cross in the end to present the reader with a pretty effective conclusion to the novel.
The novel is not half as disturbing as Campbell's very personal introduction. In "At the Back of My Mind: A Guided Tour," he offers up an autobiographical account of his unusual childhood and the mental derangement of his mother. He basically never saw his father growing up, although he still lived in the same house with him. On her own, his mother basically lost her mind. Campbell describes her overwhelming fears: strangers would appear in her home and stare at her, she would never change clothes because she claimed someone stole her good clothes and replaced them with rags, her neighbors were trying to poison her, she became convinced that her home was not her own but another one that looked just like it, etc. Campbell acknowledges that his account sounds rather cold-hearted, but he felt it was important to say all these things; it is an attempt on his part to somehow describe why he writes the things he writes. It certainly does make the character of Horridge have much more of an impact on the reader, for he exhibits the same kinds of paranoia that Campbell's mother did.
The book also contains a strange little short story called "I Am It and It is I," which is a little disturbing in itself, but the meat of this literary meal of horror is to be found in the foreword and in the novel itself. The Face That Must Die is a fascinating read that, despite the typically bleak setting and troubled characters that seem to always fill Campbell's novels, is sure to set up permanent housekeeping in one of the darker corners of your mind. I can't say I've ever read another horror novel quite like this one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic by a Master, January 25, 2011
One of the best serial killer books ever.
The killer is an original, and frighteningly believable.
Campbell's realistic approach and his innate ability at transforming the most innocent of settings into a landscape of dread makes this a must read for any fan of psychological horror.
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