Customer Reviews

Resurrection Dreams

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let's face it: the last few Laymon novels have lacked something. Could be because a lot of them weren't published while the author was alive...there could've been a REASON he decided not to publish them. But throughout, they have borne Laymon's patented, edge-of-your-seat suspense. "Resurrection Dreams" has that suspense, and a lot more, making it one of the best Laymon novels to be published recently.

Melvin Dobbs was the outcast at his high school. Always the butt of the jokes, always picked on by pretty much everybody. Vicki never picked on him (not that she liked him more than everybody else) and in fact once stood up for him. Shouldn't have done that. Because, all these years later, Melvin is still infatuated with her. And she's returned home, to take up a job at the local doctor's office. And Melvin is still around, and still up to his old tricks...

At a high school science fair, Melvin tried to bring a girl back from the dead. It didn't work. In fact, it got him put in an institution. Well, Melvin DID learn from his mistakes--learned how to ACTUALLY bring people back from the dead. He's murdered several people in the process, and with his heart set on winning over Vicki, there ain't much this guy won't do. Aren't too many people he won't kill, or too many natural laws he won't try to break...

"Resurrection Dreams" has some gut-churning moments, as most of Laymon's books do. However, it doesn't have the overt sexual overtones that many of his others (especially the recent publications) do--which means it has more room for plot and character. While not his best, "Resurrection Dreams" shows that Richard Laymon was one of the best contemporary horror authors around. This one is for true horror fans--those who like their novels crisp, bloody, and unpredictable.

Let's face it, Richard Laymon was never really the same writer after he died... Resurrection Dreams is one of the multiple books that was published after Laymon's untimely death from a heart attack in 2001. Most of those books, it seems, weren't published when he was alive for a reason: they really weren't that good. The Lake is really the prime example of a Laymon novel that would have been better if it just remained on the unpublished shelf.

Resurrection Dreams, while it is definitely not one of his best, is still an entertaining, weird novel that kept my attention from the very beginning. The novel starts out with the main character, Vicki, participating in her high school science fair. The school freak, Melvin, who is mistreated by pretty much everyone, has decided to use the science fair to make a statement to the rest of the school. Melvin takes the body of a recently deceased student, and tries to re-animate her with a car battery. After that, we advance an undetermined amount of time, with Vicki returning to her hometown after graduating from medical school. She immediately encounters Melvin, who has spent most of the past years in a mental institution, but now he is out and "better." Since Vicki was the only one who was ever really nice to Melvin, he has a deep crush on her that really cannot be satisfied until he has her for himself. That is just the basic setup of the novel, I left out the details of what happens after that because I think that the novel is a lot better if the reader has no idea what is going to happen next. And, while ridiculously unbelievable, the novel kept on surprising me throughout.

In keeping with his normal theme, Laymon injected heavy amounts of violence and sex into this novel. Actually, the violence in this book seems to be some of the most graphic I can remember in a Laymon novel, which is really saying something. The characters in this novel are also well-done. Vicki is a good heroine, and Melvin is a great villain, who you grow to despise more and more throughout the book. This one is definitely recommended for Laymon fans.

So this isn't quite a new release, it's actually a re-release of an older Laymon book that Leisure is putting out. But thank god for that. The last Laymon book that Leisure released was a book that Laymon hadn't finished by the time he died, but Leisure released any ways. That book was The Lake, and it wasn't very good.

The story begins with two friends, Vicki and Ace attending high school with the nerdy reject Melvin. Melvin's kind of out there and everybody picks on him, and Vicki's the only one who's nice to him. Well, Melvin has a surpise for his senior class at the annual high school science fair. He's dug up a fellow student that died the week before in an auto accident and snuck her in to be his experiment. By attaching battery cables Melvin attempts to bring his fellow student back too life in front of the entire senior class. Lets just say it doesn't go to well and Melvin gets sent away for a long time to the local mental hospital.

Vicki has left and graduated from medical school, and now she's back working for the local doctor Charlie. And Melvin's back too, having been released from the mental hospital, supposedly cured. But Melvin hasn't forgotten how Vicki was nice to him back in high school, nor has he stopped his resurrection dreams. Melvins killing people now and trying to bring them back to life so they can be his zombies, no matter how many times it takes.

Along the way we meet some strange and well written characters. There's Dexter Pollock, the retired police chief who owns the apartment building Vicki first lives at. He's not a nice guy and is actually quite a perv. There's also Jack, the handsome lawyer that Vicki falls quickly in love with. Ace, Vicki's best friend who is also a great comic foil in the book. Then there's Patricia Gordon, Melvin's first succesful ressurection, a nurse who is now Melvins slave, and who also does a lot of his dirty work.

I was really excited when I heard Leisure was re-releasing this older story by Laymon. I'd like to read all of his books since he's one of my favorite authors, but I don't have the money to order a bunch of them from Europe where you can get all of his books. The plot of the story is great, especially since it reminded me a lot of the movie Re-animator. This book has some of the same vibe as that movie. I'm also a really big fan of zombies, and since this book has quite a few, it makes it all the better. The characters are well written, not cardboard cutouts like lots of other books. Each character has there own personality quirks and all are fascinating to follow in this story. Plus, some of Laymons more recent books aren't to gory, but this one is very gruesome. This story isn't for the faint of heart. The only problem I really had with this story is its ending. I won't ruin it for anybody who hasn't read the book, but it seemed sloppily tied up, with not much thought put into it.

Written in 1988 this book starts off sounding unlike Laymon in many ways but by the time I got sucked into it I appreciated the book for what it was. Published after his untimely death in 2001 the story came out without his final editing but still a good read, especially for the die hard fans. This is certainly not his best book but I enjoyed it, the suspense kept on building up and made me twist in my seat, wondering what is going to happen next.

After finishing medical school Vicki Chandler comes back to her hometown of Ellsworth as a doctor to take up a job at her local medical clinic. She has mixed feelings after finishing high school and college to be back home but she is in debt to the clinic's owner who gave her money for her studies and decides to grin and bear it as she pays back her loans. Her memories flood back with her arrival, her best friend Ace still living and working in the city, Paul - her long lost love haunts her memories because she knows she will never see him again here and Melvin, the geek with bizarre hobbies is back to drooling over her the same way he did back in high school.

Many things have changed since the high school days. Back then Melvin was obsessed with resurrecting the dead and would dig up bodies form graves. These days he no longer robs graves, he finds himself fresh live victims and does unthinkable things to them. Unfortunately for Vicki, she is back just when his experiments are starting to bring results and he wants her, first dead then brought back to life and his forever.

There is so much more to this story that I can afford to tell, because I read it only knowing the basic story line and really enjoyed the twists and turns. Melvin tried his best to woo Vicky, even though she found him repulsive and was nice only to get him off her back as he meddled in her life, killing of friends and anyone she crosses paths with to bring her closer to him. The characters were well developed and even the minor ones stood out; watch out for Patricia, the mad woman steals half the show! The book follows Vicki around as she goes to work and tries to date again only to have Melvin follow her and disturb her plans, many times barely letting her get away with her life.

The ending was brought together but without an explosive finish I was expecting. Overall it tied up the loose ends but few things jumped up to the surface too abruptly and complicated the matters. I liked the book enough to give it 4 stars, mostly because when I thought everyone was safe, something else would happen and stir up the story, keeping me on my toes!

- Kasia S.

Although I have been a fan of horror fiction for years, I had never read a Richard Laymon book until I picked up this one on a whim. Based on this introduction to the author, I am not positive that he will be worth further reading: Resurrection Dreams is passable but unspectacular horror.

The story starts off with a prologue principally taking place at a science fair for students of all ages. School nerd Melvin (can a fictional character named Melvin be anything but a nerd?) presents his own experiment: a recently dug up corpse that he intends to electrically bring to life a la Frankenstein. He fails.

Years later, Melvin - released from institutionalization - is perfecting his resurrection skills by kidnapping young women who are passing through town and trying out various spells. One finally works, although there are interesting side effects. Meanwhile, Vicki, the only one of Melvin's classmates to actually treat him nicely, has returned to town as a new doctor. Melvin, deeply in love with her, plans on using his new skills to make her his eternal lover.

Although Laymon does have his bits of cleverness, overall, his writing is nothing special and is most noteworthy for being quick and readable. The humor that occasionally pops up seems more unintentional than not. Generally, the pluses and minuses of this book balance each other out, creating a strictly average horror novel. There are worse authors out there, but there are also a lot of better ones.

In the town of Ellsworth, senior high school student Melvin, isn't having an easy time of it. He is constantly picked on - how he dresses, the way he acts and just about everything else. The only student who ever showed kindness to him is Vicki.

But even Vicki is appalled when at the school science fair, Melvin displays the dug up, decapitated body of a fellow student, killed in a car accident, and tries to bring her back to life using a car battery to the shock and dismay of all those gathered at the fair.

Melvin is placed in a mental hospital and Vicki goes on to college and medical school. However, she's never been able to shake the horrific images of the day of the science fair and of Melvin.

Vicki returns to her home town, an internal medicine doctor now. She is joining an older, but still spry doctor is his family medical practice.

As she gets closer and closer to Ellsworth, her fears of Melvin escalate. She knows she will have to face him again.

Melvin is out of the mental hospital and is now the owner of his deceased parents' business, a gasoline and automotive repair station. After all these years Melvin still clings to the nice act Vicki performed for him and imagines a life for the two of them.

Melvin also has still maintained his obsession with bringing the dead back to life.

He prays upon strangers who enter the town and in a stroke of bad luck, stop for gas at his business. Melvin has tried many, many occult rituals to reanimate the dead, but none have worked.....until now.

A great cast of characters live in Ellsworth. Including a handsome young lawyer named Jack who becomes the love interest of Vicki. Vicki hopes the bad times are behind her and that she can start a new life with her work at the clinic and with Jack.

But, Melvin has other plans for Vicki and some of the residents of Ellsworth.

As Melvin amasses his own group of loyal and eager to please zombies, Vicki cannot imagine the horror her life is to become.

A great read by one of the true masters of horror.

This is my first Laymon novel which I picked up on a lark at the book store. From reading reviews, I probably should have started with something else to get his very best work. As for this story, I thought it was good. I have read a lot of horror novels, and this one falls pretty much in the middle of the pack. I read through it easily, the characters were interesting enough, and the ending was a bit flat. It was enough to make me enjoy it, but it won't be one I'll want to pick up and read again and again. I think I will search out The Cellar and The Traveling Vampire Show so I can get a real idea of what Laymon was all about.

I am a big Laymon fan and having just read this book has renewed my thirst for his work. I found this novel to be weird, suspensful, gory but the ending is truely lame. Throughout the whole story you are on the edge of your seat wondering who will be the next victim and where the villan will appear next. The last couple of chapters spoil it all though. This is yet another pulled from the "unpublished" box and put in print after Mr Laymons death. Unfortunately after reading it you can see why it wasnt published. It has an unfinished feel to it and I am sure if he were still alive the ending would be completely different. So although the ending was lame I feel the novel is worth the read.

This is your old B-grade movies, vamped up and with Laymons usual recipe of sex/violence.Everyone can relate to the freaky, quite school nerd. But I dare you to find one as crazy as this one.Great lead characters.Wait till you meet Ace. Loved it, great for a quick thrill. The ending will leave you wondering!

This is an amusingly vile take on the back from the grave plot. Laymon takes twisted delight in creating Melvin, a junk food ingesting geek with an all consuming desire to bring back a woman from the dead. He uses old tomes with recipes/spells to bring the dead back to life but never truly believes it'll work (we surely would've heard about it on the news if were possible, wouldn't we?!). Somehow his most recent *recipe* works and then the fun begins as he's unprepared to deal with the consequences. It's quite entertaining in a morbid, dark-humor kind of way.

Vicki was unfortunate enough to witness Melvin's first attempt at resurrection when they were teens at the same high school and has horrible nightmares ever since. Now she's a doctor and headed back to her home town and decides (quite ridiculously, if you ask me) to visit Melvin (he owns the local gas station) and get it out of the way. Melvin always liked Vicki because she was the only person who was nice to him as a teen. Now that Vicki is all grown up Melvin likes Vicki a whole lot more and develops an unhealthy obsession and starts some serious stalker-like behavior.

Vicki and her friend Ace decide the only way to end Melvin's obsession with Vicki is to shatter the illusion. So these two brainiacs concoct a plan where Vicki will "date" Melvin thus shattering his dreams of the perfect "dream girl" once he realizes Vicki isn't entirely inaccessible to him. Okaaaaay! This, of course, only allows Melvin closer access to her life and causes more trouble (and more grossities!) I found this book extremely funny and was especially amused at all of the perverted men populating the story. The thing that cracked me up the most was the "resurrected" people who all came back as raving sex fiends. Eyeballs gouged out? Hands burned to a crisp? Half a noggin' gone a-missing? Fear not, one can still get excited and easily grab the nearest breast with nearly a fumble!

For those who care about such things be warned that this book would've benefited by another round of the red pen. See page 109 for example. Two characters are in the same room talking about trivial things like biting hands and such when in the next sentence (not chapter) they're suddenly in separate rooms and it seems like we've missed a huge section of naughty goings-on. Hey, I want to know why all of the good stuff went missing! It was disconcerting and jarred me right out of the story but that's the nitpicky reviewer in me (sorry, it's hard to shut off).

Anyway, this was my first Laymon but definitely not my last!