Customer Reviews

Nightmare People (Onyx)

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

 

 

If you want a fright I recommend this book. The nightmare People is one the scaries story I have ever read in my life and I've read Lovecraft,Poe,King,Barker and many other of the great horror and supense novalist and this was like nothing I had ever expirence in reading a horror novel. I couldn't sleep for week after reading and for two days while reading it and since I have never read anything better or that can compare.

Thanks Larry

I first read this book years ago when my friend(who,like myself, has read many horror novels) told me that this book actually scared him. I, of course, had to read for myself. Never before in all my reading has a book given me the willies like this one. I had a hard time going to sleep for weeks afterward. This book was passed on to every skeptic (macho guys as well) and every one, to the last, was physically scared by it. Great read if you can find one. The original copy I had was lent out and never returned. Whenever I see a used bookstore,espcially when travelling, I always stop in to see if I can find a copy. No luck yet. I guess anyone who ever owned it knew not to let such a gem out of their hands. If you can, READ THIS BOOK! I guarantee you'll be scared (but loving every minute of it!).

Suppose you knew that your neighbors had all been murdered and replaced by monsters, what would you do?

Contacting the police seems like it would get you nowhere further than a psychiatric hold. Telling other people what you knew would the quickest route to convincing everyone that you were insane. Bring in evidence of the monster body and you might be held for murder.

That's the problem that faces Ed Smith when he is wakened by the police because he is the sole occupant of an abandoned apartment complex. His neighbors soon return with the story of being scared out of the complex by a prank bomb threat, but Smith notices that there is something odd to his neighbors. There is also the fact that he had woken the night before to an eery face in his fourth story window, a face with many sharp teeth and glowing red eyes.

From that point on, Ed is faced with figuring out what is going on and what he should do when he discovers that this is a new breed of monster with its own powers, including wearing the skin of its murder victims, and its own unknown vulnerabilities.

The story is a fun read. It does take a few chapters to start moving. The characters are not well developed. But the flow of the story is compelling, the idea of the supernatural breeding new monsters to fill an ecological niche is interesting, and the final couple of pages were amusing enough to induce me to raise my rating of this book from three stars to four.

The Nightmare People opens with a bang, quite possibly the 2nd best opening chapter I've ever read (Blood Music by Connelly being the first).

Ed Smith spies a particularly hideous monster peering in his window one hot August evening. He halks it up to a waking dream or hallucination, only to find out the next morning that all 200 occupants of his apartment complex have gone missing. Those neighbors are eventually found, but have apparently been replaced by...otherworldly creatures wearing their skins.

The plot is downright implausible and silly. The author throws in some rather idiotic complications to delay Smith and his band of "nightmare people killers" from going to the police. It seems fairly obvious that Watt-Evans wrote himself into a corner here.

There are some very audacious set-pieces in this book, some that make you shiver to your very bones. The creatures in this novel aren't circumspect about their purpose - call one of the telephone (yes, they'll answer) and it'll be more than happy to tell you about its (evil) purpose in this world.

Characterization, beyond the main character, is lacking but to be expected of a 200 page book. The action is fast, lose, and while nonsensical, ends up being satisfying. I found the final resolution to be a tad pat, almost "deus ex machina"-like, but I'm still glad I read it.

Given a few changes, such as the creatures' main weakness, this would make a very scary horror movie.

This book starts off a little slow. You learns the main characters name about 3 chapters in, and the story only begins to hint at what is to come. PURE EVIL. That is what the Nightmare People are, and they will admit it right before they eat you. I will reveal no more, as to give away anything else will spoil all the surprises. All I can say is that this book gets better as it goes, and ther ending is the BEST! I read that LWE once got a phone call late one night from a young man that had just read his novel. Once you read this you will see why. Get it and read it.

Hurry, what are you waiting for? This book might just save your life! ;)

this book will make you look at people differently