Customer Reviews

Moonwalker - A Novel

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

 

 

Well, first off, you have to remember this book was written back in 1989 when the whole zombie revolution of Horror fiction wasn't even close to where it is now. And I think Hautala wanted to do a little experimenting with the idea of writing a long novel about weird, potato farming zombies.

If this book had been 150 pages less, I think a lot more people would have warmed up to it. The first half of the book is character development and a prime example of a writer wanting the setting and situation to simmer in the reader's mind before letting all hell break loose the last hundred pages, or so.

I thought Hautala's writing was nice and smooth, and this being my first intro to him, I decided to not make it my last, picking up Winter Wake to read next.

There's creepy moments here and by the last couple hundred pages, whether you liked this book a lot, or not, Hautala's writing still keeps you stuck reading to find out what happens.

I would say if you're starting out with Hautala like I was, to not start here, though; from reviews, it seems books like Winter Wake and Little Brothers are regarded as his finer works.

I honestly had to force myself to read this entire book. I have never struggled with a book so much. I was ready to burn it by page 15. However, I was determined to read it in it's entirety just in case it redeemed it's self. Unfortunately, it did not. I didn't actually enjoy the book at all until about the last 50 pages. Even then the experience was fleeting.

The author tries far too hard to make you identify with the characters; to the point that I loathed most of them and didn't care what ultimately happened to them. He injects excessive amounts of needless imagery, as though readers don't have the imagination to make up the boring rural landscapes that this book revolves around.
It follows those ever common late eighties persona's that we've seen and read all too many times. These include the stereotypical images of: the scorned beautiful woman, the sensitive widower with the young daughter, the rebellious female runaway, the psychotic redneck, the obese but dedicated cop, and the tall creepy villain. Even the zombies themselves were boring! For the whole 5 pages they appear in out of the whole book. Sadly this book didn't even make up for the action and zombies that it lacked by examining the human condition like other books have such as Autumn and Dying to Live. I'm a huge fan of the zombie genre. I've read tons of books from Day by Day Armageddon to World War Z and everything in between. I bought this book in the hopes that perhaps it would redeem it's self from the varying reviews. It didn't. In fact, this book was so discouraging that it's put me off from reading the genre for a little bit.

At the beginning of the book the author speaks about how he wanted to change some things in the story around, but he thought it would be best to leave it as it was originally. I really wish he would have made those amendments.

Zombie novels, and zombie movies, for the most part involve this scenario: diseas --> zombie outbreak --> zombies bite people who then become zombies --> run for your life --> the end. Moonwalker on the other hand, totally disreagards this formula and gives us something fresh and quite creepy. I think the previous reviews were for an old version perhaps, but this book is brand new and sporting a cover as devilish as the story. Just picture this... you're driving by a potato farm in Maine. You look out the window, toward the potato field and see a workforce picking potatos, lumbering along, never stopping--ever. That's because they're all dead! Just that image, of zombies picking potatos makes me smile every time. It's so sureal and awful--just like a good zombie story should. This book is endlessly fun and would make an awesome movie to boot, especially where zombie films have truely become formula. Two thumbs up, five stars, A+!

I have a voracious appetite for horror novels, the good and even the bad, (which I enjoy if they're bad in a fun B-movie kinda way,) and I consider myself a bit of a connoiseur of them. So when I make this statement, it's with several hundred horror novels under my belt: Hautala's Moonwalker is the worst horror novel I've ever read. And I say that with no hesitation. Imagine Ed Wood writing a Night of The Living Dead type book and you're getting close to what absolute shlock this book is. Somebody's mama needs to be slapped.

I DISAGREE WITH THE PREVIOUS CRITIQUE OF THIS BOOK LIGHTEN UP. LET THE PLOT ABSORB YOUR COMPASSION FOR THE NEWLY DEAD. THE MIXTURE OF A FUNERAL HOME PROVIDER THAT TRIES TO HELP FARMERS WITH THEIR LABOR IN THE POTATO FIELDS IS THE AMERICAN WAY IN THAT NORTHERN STATE OF MAINE. THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK BY HAUTALA I HAVE BEEN BLESSED IN READING. OTHERS THAT HAVEN'T TRIED THIS CREATOR OF HORROR, MAY I SAY, GO FOR IT.