Customer Reviews

Ghost Road Blues

5 star:		(135)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'll probably get blasted for this review but I have to voice a dissenting opinion from the bulk of the reviews here. Let me first say that this isn't a bad book, but I simply don't feel it warrants the ratings it is getting. I've read far too many horror books which are better and which I feel deserve four and five star reviews before this book. My mom had a copy of this book which I borrowed a few weeks ago. When I looked on Amazon I saw a slew of five star reviews for it and very, very few dissenting reviews. That's normally a sign of a very good book so I borrowed her copy and started reading. The book starts out well, and there is actually two excellent scenes in the beginning which jerk your chain hard. Then the book settles down....then it slows down.... then it kind of begins to drag. Truthfully I got to within 30 pages of the end and then I put it aside and didn't finish. Why? I realized that the book couldn't fit the conclusion in the next 30 pages. It was obvious the story wasn't going to finish in this book. I went back to the website and discovered that this is the first of a trilogy. The problem here is that, in my view, the book's pacing is all wrong and I was tired at the thought of having to read two more books to get to the conclusion.

Why is the pacing wrong? Mayberry sets out at a good pace and then falters along the way. Actually he doesn't so much as falter, as begin to insert more and more space between moments of dramatic tension. All the elements are there in this story. You have some whacked-out crazies, Evil vampire spirits, scary scenes, violent scenes, good people struggling against bad people, etc. but the tension didn't escalate at the end of the book, it slowed down, took a deep breath and obviously began to prepare for the sequel. This really threw me off and I didn't enjoy it.

The other problem I had was that the "Evil" spirit just didn't come off any nastier than humans. Frankly, one of the human characters seemed nastier and came with a bigger body count than the vampire spirit. The goal of the vampire spirit seems to be to wipe out the town. In an age of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dachau, Auschwitz and other modern horrors the goal of wiping out a town seems like small potatoes. With humans being so accomlished at horror all by themselves you'd think that supernatural Evil would try to set a new standard, yet it came across as something of an underachiever.

In all honesty my feeling at the end of the book was that it was OK but not worth the bother of investing enough time to read two more books. The characters never really developed into truly complex, three dimensional beings, the tension ratcheted down rather than up, and my feeling was that I had read much better, much scarier, and much more enjoyable books. I'd recommend John Dies at the End as an example of five star horror. The supernatural Evil in that one makes humans look like wanna-be evildoers and it is a tremendous book. Try that one and then tell me that Ghost Road Blues deserves the same rating; it doesn't. Or try Infected: A Novel for an example of almost palpably painful escalating tension and five star horror. So while this isn't a horrible book it does have flaws which make me reserve higher ratings for books that I feel are much better.

I don't know how Amazon became a debating society, but I was looking at a few of the recent reviews and when one person commented that they thought that the author was soliciting reviews, I thought...what a shockingly rude thing to suggest. He uses as his "argument" (and I use this term loosely since it is based on supposition rather than any actual facts) that many of the reviewers had not posted before. I spent a little time wandering through Amazon and found that most of the folks who review a book are first timers. I was when I reviewed my first book online, but that does not mean that I was cajoled or coerced by the author. And just for the record -no I don't know Mr. Maberry, though I have seen his name listed in stores for book signings.

All of that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Ghost Road Blues, and can understand the comparisons with some of the more established writers, such as Stephen King; but his approach is not a copycat method. He uses an almost Gothic approach to building tension slowly, letting it creep up on you, and then jumping out unexpectedly.

This is fresh writing, and I will certainly be referring the book to my friends. Living at the seaside as I do, I certainly undertsand the value of a good beach read, and this one thoroughly satisfies.

This is my first horror novel since high school, and I bought it thinking it was a mystery (the cover looks like a mystery novel). I was surprised to find out that the mystery is built on a supernatural story, and that the book is the first of three. Sooo...I read it anyway, and boy this guy hits a homerun out of the park on his first try. Though I would rather have had everything wrapped up in one book, I have to say that I really dug the way the plot twisted and turned.

Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry is a wonderful read, though it is not a book one would ideally read in the dead of night. It is extremely frightening at times.

I found this at our library in Columbia (SC) and was enchanted by the cover illustration. Though my horror reading tastes seldom venture beyond Mary Higgens Clark, I thought I would give this a try, and I was extremely surprised to find that the novel has taste, sensitivity and well-rounded characters. The dialogue is on the money, and the story is the kind of complex, intricate weaving of plotlines that I find most challenging and rewarding.

I will put Jonathan Maberry's on my "must have" list from now on.

Ghost Road Blues is a taut, fast-moving thriller that will ensnare you from the opening paragraph. Pine Deep, Pennsylvania, is a Halloween wonderland dubbed "the scariest town in America," but behind the fame is a history of murder, mayhem and supernatural chaos. The older residents in town can still remember that horrible summer of 1976 -- and the "Black Harvest" that brought disease to the crops and sudden and terrible murder to the quiet hamlet.

As the town prepares for yet another Halloween season, a gangland shootout in far away Philadelphia stands poised to put the wheels of evil back into hideous motion. This time, evil has a face and a name -- Karl Ruger. Before long, iniquity will come back to Pine Deep, and come back to stay.

Maberry's debut novel is a treat for all of the senses. Indeed, you'll see, hear, feel, taste and smell the goings on in Pine Deep as they unfold -- the writing is that vivid. Folks are pretty quick to throw around the phrase "I couldn't put it down" -- simply pick up Ghost Road Blues and you're sure to learn what that really means. Before long, you'll be so entrenched in the lives of these characters that you'll tell yourself, "Just another 10 pages -- just another 20 pages ... just until bedtime."

And you won't stop until you close the book. I can't wait for books two and three of what's shaping up to be a fantastic and chilling trilogy. Recommended.

In Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry there is a brewing battle of good vs evil in a small American town. The story takes place at the beginning of autumn, during harvest time, with creepy cornfields, threatening storms, unlighted back roads, and things leaping out at you from all sides. This is NOT a calm, kick back with a cup of tea read. Maberry's style is fast and furious, and I would recommend that anyone reading this book come prepared for blood, violence, and a million volts of pure intensity.

This first novel by Jonathan Maberry feels like most author's tenth. Granted, he has written a great amount of work in the non-fiction world, but I'm still blown away by his ambitious explosion onto the horror scene. This is only the first of a trilogy Mr. Maberry is planning, and after reading Ghost Road Blues, I'm definitely in for the long ride. He has a great balance of story/plot and characters, creating a deliciously creepy tale where for once, the villains actually seem to have the upper hand on the protagonists.

My few gripes include a couple continuity errors, a handful of spelling errors, a sprinkling of cliches, and a sometimes lengthy description of roads (one of my pet peeves) around the town that were confusing, filling up huge paragraphs. But don't be fooled, this is a remarkable novel, rich in mythology and as dark with evil as I've read in a long time. This should absolutely be on your reading list if you consider yourself a fan of horror fiction. Period.

Ghost Road Blues is the first novel by a newcomer, Jonathan Maberry, and given that he is new to this I'm pretty surprised at how good a story he writes. It zips along and generates enough chills to make you want to read it outside in the hot sunshine. This gets the Danni seal of approval.

A satisfying blend of supernatural and psychological terror. Also, a truly lyrical and literate depiction of the many faces of evil. I'm not so much into the supernatural side of evil (well, besides zombies), but when I got to two of the scenes of chillingly mundane brutality in Pine Deep, I was riveted, pushed back into the seat cushions and unable to look away. So I can really say this book has something for everyone, whatever their tastes in horror.

There are few writers who can successfully mix the supernatural with a good, solid mystery. John Connolly, Peter Straub and James Lee Burke are the names that come to mind, and it's a small club. I saw Jonathan Maberry's name on a book club's list of "supernatural thriller writers" and took a shot at it. I'm usually disappointed by writers who try to join that club. The good news is that Maberry has just bought his way in with his first novel, GHOST ROAD BLUES.

At it's heart the book is a good versus evil story with a black-hearted SOB of a killer named Karl Ruger, an even fouler SOB named Vic Wingate, and a total meltdown named (ready?) Tow-Truck Eddie. All three are villain enoigh for a single book, but Maberry's novel kicks off a series of three books, and my guess is he'll explore each villain in more depth in the following books (if the format of this one is any indication).

The story unfolds in a way that really allows the reader to get to know the large cast of characters. That's important, because these are realistically drawn people, not cartoon cutouts. I saw in a previous review that a reviewer didn't think there was enough of a finale to the story. Well, if two hellacious knock-down-drag-out brawls that become gunfights don't qualify as a solid finale then I don't know what that joker is looking for. For someone like me, who reads Burke, Connolly, Straub and that caliber of writing --and who teaches American Lit here in Baton Rouge-- I give Mabery top marks for his first effort.

Consider me a fan.