Customer Reviews

Loveliest Dead

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It all begins with Josh, the Keller's beloved son, and his agonizing death. Filled with grief and an unending suffering, distraught over memories of their son's short life, the Keller's move from their small apartment into a dilapidated old house seeking an escape from the memories they can no longer bear. Here, they shall have a new start and thus escape the tormenting memories of a son that is lost to them. Here, in this dismal house, neglected and in need of repair they see only hope and happiness for their future. That is, until they see them. Alone in her home, awaiting the return of her husband and remaining son, Jenna Keller glances up the darkened upstairs corridor to see a young toddler, clothed in the shadows soundlessly running toward her. An apparition sent from beyond the grave as a messenger of hope or a conveyor of peril? Later, her husband hears the haunting laughter of children in the back yard, children that soundlessly elude him as they fade into the darkened night. Miles, the Keller's remaining son, is woken from a fitful slumber to suddenly witness the apparition of a man as he phases through the floor uttering the chilling words, "Be a good puppy." Jenna's feisty mother, Martha, also witnesses disquieting apparitions as she awakens nightly to the images of children long dead writhing along her bedroom wall wailing in agony throughout all eternity. What can it all mean? This house of hope, this dream of peace, this desire for life, shall it all be shattered by the children's mournful requiem and the secret of what happened to them in that house so long ago. Will the Keller's survive or shall their sorrowing phantasms be added to the legion of the dead stalking the shadows of 2204 Starfish Drive, forever engulfed in waves of unending sorrow? This is the story of the loveliest dead and their haunting requiem.

As the reader is introduced to the Keller's in the initial prologue, the waves of foreboding and eloquent foreshadowing instantly engulf the stunned reader leading them deep into the chasm of despair enshrouding the haunting world of the Loveliest Dead. The atmosphere of the novel truly gained its own life to the extent that I was actually terrified whilst reading this novel and lost several nights sleep as I peered into the shadows, some part of my mind still entangled with the Keller's and their new home, silently reverberating with the mournful dirge of the dead. Despite logic, I discovered myself becoming increasingly frightened and thus I had to quit reading this novel before bed. Still, even during the daylight hours, the heavy aura of the novel weighted upon my conscious clothing everything in a dingy aura of unwholesome despair.
Added to the fearful emotions induced by this woebegone tale, the revelations as to the nature of the fitful spirits, especially the large man who wanted children to be "good puppies", was most disquieting and despite my continual sojourns into the fascinatingly fearful world of horror, I feel that such a disturbing and ultimately disgusting topic should not have been pursued in the name of mere entertainment. Simply stated, I feel that it went too far and that the causes for the young children's disturbed peace and their relation to the male phantasm were far too emotionally upsetting to the general reader. This tale should certainly not be pursued by children as they would find the content extremely upsetting.

The characterization was extremely well developed and I felt a certain emotional attachment to all the characters. Each character, including secondary characters, was attributed with a distinct personality causing the disturbing aura of realism to gain epic proportions. I discovered myself being drawn into the world of the Loveliest Dead, by the protagonists' strong emotions and well detailed personalities. The author presented each character through their own words, occasionally allowing the narration to switch to another character thus imbuing the tale with several distinct personalities and adding depth and meaning to each of the protagonists' actions. This style of narration was exceedingly effecting and amplified the aura of horror causing the suspense and terror to become almost unbearable in its intensity.

The writing style flowed smoothly never allowing the story to loose its distinct aura of chilling realism. The writing was eloquent, yet simple, and this chosen style greatly complimented the general tone and feel of the novel yet again amplifying the paralyzing horror.

The story never suffered from inactivity and the continual action, paranoia, and foreboding caused this to be a quick read despite its hefty 372 pages. The sequences of phantasmagoric peril and merciless mayhem were well enacted and produced in abundant supply without exhausting the reader emotionally by interjecting occasional respites in which the reader's foreboding only increased, anticipating the momentary respite as a signal of impending doom. These sequences, while distinctly disquieting, were not overtly gory. Rather, this tale sought to engage the readers mind inducing more physiological elements of horror than the typical gruesome sequences of unbridled carnage.

While the story keep me on the edge of my seat and the characters and dilemmas never failed to peak my interest and maintain my unwavering attention, I was able to easily predict the nature of the phantasms within the first several chapters, and although the conclusion was unpredictable, and somewhat unsatisfying in its rapidity, throughout most of the tale, I was easily able to discern the impending events. This was partially due to the more formulaic elements portrayed throughout the tale most noticeably the typical drop in temperature as an apparition enters a room etc. This, coupled with the sheer obviousness of the phantasms intent lent the story an air of predictability that was maintained throughout the duration of the tale. Although usually, when encountering this displeasing element within a novel, I immediately downgrade my star rating, the other aspects of the tale that so fully occupied my attention were so well presented that I was able to overlook the other more predictable aspects inherent within the storyline.

Despite the numerous shinning elements of perfection, this tale did succumb to one of the more typical ailments prevalent in the ghost story genre: the illogicality of the character's actions. Had I seen a single specter in my home, despite the characters' supposed financial restrictions, I would have immediately left my home and dwelled within my car if need be. I would not, under any circumstances remain within the house as objects hurtled about and apparitions writhed over the walls and wailed throughout the night. Also, and it truly pains me to say this, why must every horror novel have something nasty dwelling in the basement and why must the characters, knowing full well what awaits them in darkness below, happily trudge down the stairs (often without the aid of a flashlight), despite what has assailed them in the basement before? These are only a few of the examples of the occasional illogical meandering of the tale. However, it must be said that it wouldn't have been much of a tale if the characters had reacted as I would have and a tale of someone dwelling in their car talking about what they might have possibly seen once wouldn't prove particularly horrifying. Therefore, this tale requires a certain amount of poetic license and a fairly liberal imagination in relation the character's seemingly un-wise decisions.

In summarization, this tale boasts many enchanting aspects related to the expert characterization, appealing writing style, imaginative plot, and compelling aura of terror. Each of these essential elements of the horror genre easily interweave to create a strong tale of misery and palpable terror however, I advocate extreme caution when approaching this disturbing tale due to the theme of the children's requiem and the overpowering emotional turmoil invoked so effortlessly by each line of this shocking tale. This is certainly one of the better horror novels available but its overall theme is, stated mildly, perversely disturbing. Approach with caution.

- Ravenova

This book is pure Garton at his best. The Loveliest Dead is a haunted house novel, but it is a *scary* haunted house novel, not merely formulaic. Garton provides a believable cast of characters whom we come to care about. And then rips reality out from under them.

It's been a long time since a book made me keep reading into the night...and then turn a light on before going to bed. The Loveliest Dead was a nice surprise from one of my favorite authors, and I hope to read more by him soon.

2 and 1/2 stars

Ray Garton is usually known for his more adult, disturbing horror. The Loveliest Dead unfortunately, is like Ray Garton-lite, a PG-13 type ghost story that felt very familiar and run-of-the-mill. This has exactly what all the other supernatural novels have - mysteriously disappearing children, unexplained noises in an empty house, strange voices in the basement, and the always predictable chill that passes through the room. There were a few real moments of terror, but not enough for the amount of buildup that came before it. It seemed that Mr. Garton was uninspired in writing this latest story.

The thing that kept me reading was Garton's writing. The story was the same, standard ghost story as most other books, but Garton's strong point is his clear, fluid writing style. His characters are nicely defined and the dialogue feels real. There are a few typos (shame, shame, Leisure!) that unfortunately appear near the climax and my only other problem seems to be Garton's dislike for Catholics. I'm not a Catholic, but his writing not only dismisses the religion, but makes the only priest in the story a pedophile. This clich annoyed me, but was only a minor complaint. Other than that, I'd recommend the A.J. Matthews/Rick Hautala or T.M. Wright ghost novels if the supernatural is your preference.

This is a pretty decent read about a haunted house and its dark past. There are negatives and positives to the book that seem to cancel each other out and force me to give it a 3 star rating.

The Postives:

1) Well written. Smooth easy prose that moves quite fast. Not bogged down, not too literary, but well thought out.
2) Nice, fleshed out characters. They are believable (most of the time), and you actually do feel sorry for what they are going through
3) A good story throughout, if not a bit cliché.

The Negatives:

1) The horrors are few and far between, and when they do appear, they are repetitive and redundant. Okay, so there are spooky kids on the swings. Tell me once, maybe twice, not five times. This happens a lot.
2) Some dis-believable items peppered throughout, ie, a character complains of a nauseous stomach, then stops into a Burger King for a double whopper with cheese. A cop tells someone that he doesn't know the person in question very well...but happens to have a photo of the person in question on their desk.
3) Some characters are placed into the plot for no use other than to prove the development of other characters-ie, bad psychic written in to prove the talent of good psychic.

All in all, a fairly decent read, and worthy of my looking into another Garton title.

Two things attracted me to this book - 1) I have heard a lot of good things about Ray Garton, 2) I am partial to a good ghost story. I was not disappointed, Garton put together a solid ghost story. The pacing was great, the characters were well developed, and I thought the plot was put together nicely. I also really enjoyed the ending.

There were two main problems I had at the beginning of the book. First, I am just not a fan of psychics, mediums, etc - I just think that sometimes they are a little too convenient of a tool to push the plot forward. But, I was able to tolerate them, and to Garton's credit I was won over in the end. Second, I found the characters reactions (particularly Jenna) to some of the early supernatural events unconvincing, because I didn't feel they were being consistant. At times they seemed too ready to accept the supernatural occurances, while other times they seemed too resistant to the idea. But eventually they settled down... and so did I.

I don't give out 4 or 5 stars often, and this one didn't quite make it... but, I would give this 3 1/2 stars if I could.

As a 43 year old horror/thriller fan it takes a lot to
keep me reading; and while this isn't gory the story is
creepy enough to keep you going! Good read; Good to see Ray back on the shelf; haven't seen much over the last few years!
all you new to him try to find his old out of print stuff;
those are more laymonesque I think; but grisly fun!!

This is the first Ray Garton I've read, and I wasn't sure what I was getting into. When I slipped into the first chapter, I found myself immediately interested in his characters. I cared for his family. In three pages I learned that these folks were honest-to-god people, living and breathing there on the page.

That's Ray Garton's strength, in my opinion. I'll be reviewing this book for Horrorworld, so I won't say much more than this.

I recommend Ray Garton's THE LOVELIEST DEAD for horror fans, and folks who just want an honest to goodness read. This is a darned fine novel, probably the best I'm going to read this year. I'm definitely going to have to hunt up some more of this guy's work. He lives up to everything I've heard, and then some.

Don't fart around. Order this book. You won't regret it. I believe this is the first five-star rating I've given, and it's definitely worth it.

Yours in horror,

Steve Vernon

This is a rather standard ghost story. However, I give Mr. Garton 5 stars for writing the Ed & Lorraine Warren based characters into the story. Mr. Garton wrote In a Dark Place for the Warrens. He found the Warrens so fake he posted the true tale of In a Dark Place on Usenet in 1999 & 2000. In Loveliest Dead, he reinterates the tale for all to see.

Bravo for that alone!

I'm probably going to irritate someone by saying this, but there is only so far you can go in the haunted house horror story before you start repeating everyone else's themes. An author can be a very good writer, and Ray Garton certainly is, but as soon as you put ghostly children, a dark, menacing figure, and a family newly moved in to an old house the plot must always lay on the edge of the predictable. The Loveliest Dead is a story that needed a more dreadful hand than Garton's to really move it into the realm of deep horror. Instead what we have is a carefully crafted novel that simply stays to true to the canon of its genre.

The Kellars are a family marked by recent misfortune, David and Jenna's four year old son Josh dies suddenly of a brain aneurism, their finances spin out of control, and things keep moving from bad to worse. When an opportunity comes to move into a house inherited from the father Jenna had never met, it seemed like a miracle. Now they, their surviving son Miles, and Jenna's mother can get a new start in a new community, free from their dark memories.

Unfortunately, there is something eerie about the house. Jenna hears music late at night, and the family sees shadowy children who come out to play and then disappear when approached. Miles starts seeing a fat man who can rise through the floor and keeps calling him a puppy. The pace of this encroaching evil picks up slowly, but soon Miles can't sleep alone, Jenna has visions of Josh returned to the living, and David starts blacking out and sleepwalking. The house has begun its assault on its residents, its past has returned to extract a price from those within its reach.

Garton now adds the complication of psychics come to battle the houses evil, but even this doesn't completely help the story to evade the dangers of its predictable plot. Characters are well drawn, and the events have at least the potential of real horror. But the writer holds back too much, and The Loveliest Dead never reaches the intense peak that might have made it more than a low-key horror story. The book is more grim than horrible. If you are interested in a stronger display of Garton's talents try Live Girls.

This book was one of the best ghost stories I have ever read. The title caught my attention one day and I got it. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I got through it on about 3 days! This is the 1st book I've read by Ray Garton. It is very well written, and I just may read another book by him.