Customer Reviews

No Sanctuary

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Deep woods and house breaking are elements familiar to Laymon fans. In this book Laymon manages to combine the two in an interesting way.

The book opens with two separate stories that eventually twist together into an unpredictable knot. One story involves a comfortably wealthy young woman who likes to live in other peoples houses. Without their knowledge. The other story is about a couple going camping. Sounds simple enough.

But he young woman has found the house of a dangerous character and begins to be less careful about discovery. The couple contains a man who had a very bad experience in the woods when he was a boy.

Paranoia, new characters popping up, suspense, possible clues and plenty of Laymon twists keep the reader turning pages to find out what happens (or doesn't happen) next.

Many of Laymon's books deal with the theme of how easy someone can turn totally dark when something breaks society's control. This one is a little different. The evil characters are already evil when they walk onto the stage. Instead, we are treated to a story of people who have witnessed said evil in the past and now look for it as they know it can still be out there.

But despite the change of view, this is definitely a book for Laymon fans.

"No Sanctuary" is the kind of book that makes you realize just how great Richard Laymon was. His ability to keep you turning the pages and the surprises always makes for interesting reading and this one doesn't diappoint.

When Bert decides to go camping in an isolated area in the Sierra Nevadas, Richard is hesitant to go along. He has a fear of camping for good reason and afraid she would find someone else to go along, he decides to conquer his fear and join her. On the other side of town is Gillian, a seemingly normal woman with a penchant for breaking in people's homes when they are on vacation. After years of doing this, she is horrified to find out the home she is currently residing in is that of a vicious madman who takes his victims to...you guessed it...the same place Bert and Richard are camping. The suspense builds and interweaves the two stories as well as Bert and Richard's fears of three teenage boys they encounter on the trail. Also they meet up with Andrea and Bonnie which adds the typical sexual tension and temptation that comes with one guy out in the woods with three good-looking women.

I won't give away any more plot details but you soon begin to wonder what is going to happen and just who is stalking Bert and Richard in the woods and just what will happen to Gillian in that house?

"No Sanctuary" will hook you from beginning to end and the horrifying ending will make you wonder just how safe it is to traipse in the woods. Typical of Laymon there are also the campy elements that makes his work so entertaining and of course, it always leaves you wishing he was still hear writing his great horror novels.

To me, Richard Laymon's books read like early 80's slasher films. Not exactly high-art, pretty misogonystic, and ultra-violent. Some people, like me, like this type of film and book, but this one just doesn't really do it for me.

First of all, it's really two novels in one. I kinda don't understand why that author just didn't make this into two books. I think it would have worked better. We don't need any Tarantino-esque plot melding in the literary equivalent of a Friday the 13th film.

Also, as with all of Laymon's novels, but especially in this one, the female characters are ridiculous. They are always wearing next to nothing, they always want to have sex with strangers, they're always beautiful. It seems like a lot of horror authors, especially Laymon, create female characters to be like what they wish most women were like. I know it's "fiction" but come on.

Additionally, every time a character in the novel comes across another person, their first thought is that the other person is a serial killer rapist. When I'm out hiking, or walking down the street, and I run across another group of hikers or pedestrians, I don't automatically think "thank god I brought my gun because these people are going to sodomize and mutilate my girlfriend." Laymon must have been one paranoid guy. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

It's also pretty slow and devoid of suspense until the end of the novel(s). Nothing, and I mean nothing, (not even any successful character development) happens within the first 200 pages.

Also, the word "breast" or "nipple" appears at least once every three pages. Seriously.

It's redeeming quality is that is does deliver the splatterpunk goods before all is said and done. Still, not recommended. Pick up "Night in the Lonesome October" as a much better example of what Laymon is capable of.

I don't understand the negative reviews, are we all reading the same book here?

Yes Laymon has gore, sex and shocking twist and turns and if his books bore people then my, I don't know what to say. They might not be your cup of tea, yes that's one thing, but I see these reviews coming from people who are all ready familiar with his work and continue to punish themselves somehow.

So anyhow, ramblings aside...

This was my first Laymon book I purchased and first book of his I read, and I was not disappointed. I managed to collect about 20 or so of his books, but I read them sparingly, stuff this good and crazy doesn't come often, and the man is no longer with us, so you can see if I'm saving him for special reads, then it musn't be so bad!

I like stories that take the main characters ( and its nice to have more than one good character, versus a solitary main person) and secludes them somehow from civilization and help and throws them in the middle of a quiet remote place. This book has two stories of a couple, Bert and Rick who go camping, never a good thing for any character in a Laymon book, he loves to kill em off and of Gillian who breaks to peoples homes when they are on vacation.

Yes somehow these two remote stories come together as the couple and Gill get involved with some unstable and dangerous people who take pleasure in their pain.

Without any spoilers there wasn't one boring moment, and I read this into the wee hours of the night, maybe this stuff has glue on pages, because I couldn't put it down.

Haha, go get a cheap used copy, and have a blast!

When he was forteen, Rick Wainwright had an experience on a camping trip that left him terrified of the mountains.

He's about to have the damndest feeling of deja vu!

Rick and his girlfriend Bert head into the woods for a camping trip, meeting up with three horny teenage boys (who they instantly dislike) and two teenage girls (whom they like). Do those boys mean them trouble? What about the local wildlife, lik the cougars? Or the shadowy figure that seems to be dogging their every move?

Then there is Gillian. She is a unique housebreaker--she goes into people's homes and lives there while they're on vacation. (For those of you who read "Night in the Lonesome October", you might wonder if Laymon had a fetish for this type of thing.) However, Gillian chose the wrong house. For one thing, she is getting too involved with the mysterious next door neighbor. For another, the house's occupant seems to have a few odd hobbies...like murder...

Richard Laymon manages to do what only a select few authors (say, J. N. Williamson and Rick Hautala, for example) can do: take a cheap, cliche horror story, loaded with gore and sex and violence, and turn it into a suspensful romp of terror. If anybody else had written this novel, I wouldn't have even bothered to review it. But Laymon's skill is evident here: this cheesy horror tale is elevated to a new level.

If you don't buy that philisophical [stuff], try this: "No Sanctuary" is a damn good read! This one is for horror fans who are tired of fake heroes and weak endings. "No Sanctuary" delivers the horror goods!

I find it a pity that Richard Laymon wasn't truly appreciated by American readers until after his passing. After all, Laymon most certainly filled a nitch with fans of horror fiction. Particularly those folks that enjoy a pretty basic plot, with visceral, grisly story telling. Not to mention, plenty of sex thrown in as well. In "No Sanctuary" we bascially have "Silence of the Lambs" meets "Deliverance." Two concurrent storylines follow the novel's protagonists: a young lady who gets her kicks (illegally) breaking into strangers homes and hanging out for a few days while they are away--and an opthamologist, (traumitized during a wilderness outing in his youth, of course) and his paramour who pick the wrong week for a backpacking trip. Bad luck would have it that the house crasher picked the home of a serial killer and the attractive couple picked the woods where said serial killer dispatches his victims. Everthing else is pretty standard Laymon stuff. The male "hero" has issues and is largely an inffectual wimp, there's lots of heaving chests and ripped bodices, and, as usual, pretty much everyone (villan and victims alike) wind up naked, bloody, and snarling for the finale. Not to speak ill of Mr. Laymon, but I think some fixation issues exist. "No Sancutary" is a quick romp--guilty pleasure, best read at the beach and left in the motel room for the next occupant. Or, even better--read around the campfire at a secluded lake in the middle of the deep, dark forest. Warning: be aware that any plans to go skinny dipping might be ill-advised... NOT for young readers--parents , be aware of what your kids read!!

In typically terse and propulsive ,dialogue heavy prose Laymon tells 2 converging narratives in this book .
Bert and Rick are on a camping expedition in the Sierras ,Rick in part being motivated by a desire to escape his own demons when a woman friend of his was raped on apst trip.

They encounter a distinctly loutish trio of self -proclaimed "thugateers " who are unpleasant and sexist if not exactly criminal .plus a two attractive women campers,Amelia and Bonnie .Stir into the mix prowling cougars and a cannibalistic hermit named Angus and you can see the trip is not going to be a piece of cake

The second story concerns Gillian a screenwriter with the unusual hobbby of breaking into people's houses while they are away from home and living there .One home she breaks into turns out to belong to a serial killer whose unexpected return sees him overpower Gillian and take into the Sierras where teir paths cross with the other party .Mayhem ensues .
The usual Laymon trademarks are present and correct --extreme violence ;short ,pithy sentences which at times seem aimed at the borderline literate but are appropriate for the velocity of the narrative .It is a style that can be self-parodic and in this book this trap is not always avoided .

I do not understand accusations of sexism levelled at Laymon -his women are oftem far more capable than his men and this is surely so in this book .

Never boring but not his best and one for the gore-hounds .

I gave up feeling guilty for reading Richard Laymon a long time ago. Sure, it's violent, sexist, unbelieveable. Characters who seem merrily oblivious to every warning sign in the book that something bad is going to happen. But it's also really, really good.

There are no suprises in this book if you've read any of his other books. But this book left me with a very unsettled feeling. In a nutshell, the plot involves Bert and Rick, two hikers who meet up with some other hikers (and, of course, the standard Laymon psychos-in-the-wilderness) along a trail. There's a side story, involving Gillian, who breaks into and lives in other people's homes while they are away. You know that the two plots will eventually join up. And so they do.

The thing with this book I disliked was the ending. I won't reveal it, and I'm not talking about the climax of the story, which was hideous and disturbing. I mean more the epilogue. It felt rushed... *spoiler*.... I disliked the namby-pambyness of the news interview, the cozy-wozyness of Gillian and the next-door neighbor. Didn't like it.

As with all Laymon books, I had the feeling of "Why the HELL don't they just LEAVE!!?" Horrible things happen, yet nobody ever seems to think going home is a good idea. Attacked by a psycho on a hiking trail? May as well trek on!

Again, pretty standard Laymon, but good. Not the first book by him to pick up if you've never read him before (I'd recommend Night in the Lonesome October, probably, for a first-time read), but a good one nonetheless.

I just recently stumbled upon Laymon, but find him a great read. I have been a Koontz fan forever, and have every one of his books. I so far have read Night in the lonesome October and Darkness, but No sanctuary was by far more suspenseful! I think I put it down 3 times until I turned the last page. If you think this book will be predictable, you will be wrong. About half way through I didn't put it down at all. I recommend it highly!
It's the first book I read in a long time that actually had me waking up from a nightmare. Definately not for the younger reader, and those planning on taking a hike or camping trip....
I know I won't be in the outdoors (with the exception of my backyard) for a long while!!

It can be jokingly said that the Lifetime Channel is really the Women-in-Jeopardy Channel given the number of TV-movies it shows that have women threatened by stalkers, abusive husbands and other myriad (and typically male) evils. If there is an equivalent in the field of horror writing, it would probably be Richard Laymon, whose novels (at least the sampling I've read) all deal with women-in-peril. No Sanctuary is a partial exception to the rule, but it basically fits in with Laymon's regular themes.

The lady-in-danger in this book is Gillian, who has an unusual addiction. She is compelled to break into and live in houses belonging to people who are on vacation. She isn't really a thief (although she does help herself to food and such), but she just needs to explore the lives of others. Unfortunately, the house she chooses this time belongs to a nasty serial killer who particularly enjoys raping, torturing and murdering beautiful women, a category that Gillian fits into. When the killer comes home early, Gillian has real problems.

What makes No Sanctuary a little different, however, is there is also a man in danger, albeit at the same time as his girlfriend. Rick and Bert (short for Bertha) are taking a camping trip in the California mountains. Rick hasn't done camped since he was a kid, with good reason. During that last trip, while he was disabled with a broken leg, his step-mother was raped and killed. But Rick loves the outdoorsy Bert, so he goes along and runs into trouble this time around, too. There is a trio of teenagers who seem threatening, a strange vagrant preacher, and, of course, eventually, the serial killer that Gillian has intruded on.

Like Laymon's other books, this is a good, suspenseful read, but it almost seems like he has his own demons to wrestle with. He loads his books with sex, but also crimes against women. In this book alone, there are at least four different rapists/killers or potential ones, and I can see Laymon turning off quite a few readers with his explicitness. In addition, this book suffers from the fact that the two storylines (Rick & Bert and Gillian) are completely separate until the very end, and, outside of flashbacks, there is no real threat to any of the characters until beyond the halfway point of the book.

Amazingly, although this may be one of Laymon's most flawed books, it is still a good book. Laymon will make you turn the pages, so if you're a horror fan, this will be worth reading.