The Folks [Hardcover]

Ray Garton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Garton has a flair for taking veteran horror themes and twisting them sometimes to evocative or entertaining effect, as in his classic novel Live Girls, about vampirish nude models in Manhattan. This time, though, the twist is simply twisted. A young man, a semi-outcast in his rural town because of his fire-scarred face and his problem with the area's fundamentalist Christian ambience, is picked up one Halloween night by a beautiful woman. She drives him at high speed to a spooky graveyard, where he succumbs to her seductions until he feels her impossibly long tongue roaming his body and something unnatural clutching his genitals. He runs, but she has his car keys and won't return them until after she drives him to her family's brooding mansion. There, the young man, who narrates, encounters an incestuous family of grotesques a pinhead, Siamese twins, a massive man-boy with a tail (who, it transpires, is the serial killer who's been stalking the town) and many other misshapen and "retarded" creatures. The young man learns that he, because of his scars, has been chosen to lead the family into the future. A dash for escape leads to an accident, and a predictable ending. The novel will remind readers of Tod Browning's film Freaks, of course, but the compassion expressed by Browning is sorely missing in Garton's telling. Most readers will be repulsed not only by Garton's imagery but by his exploitation of genetic deformity to horrific effect. Garton has storytelling talent the pacing here is brisk, the word craft expert; too bad he's wasted it on this trash.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications; Limited edition (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587670380
• ISBN-13: 978-1587670381
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,997,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun [], April 23, 2003

By 

Kenneth Epstein "huntercat" (Lake Oswego, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Folks (Hardcover)

The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because it's not that long of a book and I wanted more. This is a fun and creepy tale of halloween and moutain folk, incest and inbreeding.I didn't want it to end. Cemetery Dance did a wonderful job on the book and it is a great add to any collection. Ray Garton gives us a simple tale that will stick with you long after your done reading it.A good buy and good read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Story-Telling, September 20, 2004

By 

CreepyT "CreepyTendencies" (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Folks (Hardcover)

Though The Folks takes place on Halloween, this is not your average ghost, ghoul, and witch-strewn Halloween tale. Rather, Garton approaches this tale with a more simplistic and believable formula.

Andy Sayers is an inhabitant of Pinecrest, an isolated village on Mount Crag. The village seems ordinary enough, with the small exception of the random brutal killings spaced out by a few years each. The most recent of which was an ex-girlfriend of Andy's named Carla Firth. A girlfriend Andy feels lucky to have had, since his burn scars on his face hinder his self-esteem.

The Bollingers are a wealthy family that everyone in the town is familiar with by name, yet the family remains elusive. Elusive save for Amanda Bollinger, who strides into town on occasion in a black limousine. One Halloween night, at a post trick-or-treat party for the town's adults, Amanda approaches Andy and cajoles him with her wily charms into following her into a graveyard for some after hours, X-rated activities. Andy is thrilled and nervous all at once, until Amanda surprises him in an extremely unexpected way, scaring him into running away from her. From here, the story takes a dire turn.

Before Andy can leave the situation entirely, since Amanda has stolen the keys to his car, he must be introduced to "the folks," Amanda's inbred relatives who have more in store for Andy than he could have ever imagined. Though Andy has other ideas in mind, he will soon discover that the Bollinger family holds more sway in this backwoods town than previously thought.

Throw into this mix some intense Christian fundamentalist values and perspectives, and this makes for an intriguingly wacky yet fun read.

Though the ending is somewhat predictable and the story rather short, the book is great nonetheless. Ray Garton has a knack for creating a wonderfully creepy atmosphere and well-rounded, colorful characters. With Garton's name on the cover, you can pretty much bet it's gonna be a decent read.

This book is limited to 1500 signed copies, and there is supposed to be a sequel in the works, so pick up your copy soon!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tense gothic horror, December 26, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Folks (Hardcover)

After the fire ravaged his face, Andy Sayers came to live with his grandma in the remote village Pinecrest, isolated even from other towns on Mount Crag. Andy lives apart from the townsfolk not just because he finds their fundamentalist Christian control insidious but also because adults look at his face in horror. Still he has dated though his ex-girlfriend recently became the victim of a serial killer. He earns a scholarship to attend the local Hand of God College, which elates his true believing grandma that he will find Jesus there.

On Halloween, Amanda Bollinger drives Andy to a nearby graveyard where she seduces him with her incredibly elongated tongue, but as he is in the midst of passion something wrong grips his testicles. He wants to run, but Amanda persuades him to come to the family mansion where he meets her family, a brood of people the result of incest with physical and mental disorders that would make a circus side show seem normal. Because of his scarred visage, he is the Chosen One to lead THE FOLKS of the Bollinger brood.

Though the graphic details of the FOLKS may turn off some readers, fans of gothic horror will enjoy this tense thriller. The story line of to be or not to be a Bollinger takes a back seat to the sinister suspense laden atmosphere in which the audience expects bad things to happen to Andy. Several key members of the Bollinger minion have distinct personalities including the patriarch who wants to groom Andy as his heir, the sex predator Amanda, and a boy-man with strange ethics. Not a typical read, fans who appreciate something different in their horror tales will want to read this cross between Layton's Beast House and Browning's Freaks.

Harriet Klausner