Customer Reviews

Right to Life: And 2 Stories

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

 

 

Unlike Jack Ketchum's earlier novel, LADIES NIGHT, his newest one, RIGHT TO LIFE, definitely has the shoe on the other foot as a pregnant woman becomes the victim of a deranged married couple that kidnap her right off the street and hold her captive for several months while she's forced to endure their bizarre S&M games. The 139-page novella starts off with Sara Foster on her way to an abortion clinic to do away with the unwanted child that she's now carrying. Before Sara can even enter the clinic, she's grabbed and sedated by Stephen and Katherine Teach-a couple who's unable to have children-and taken to their home where she's held as a prisoner. The couple intends to hold Sara until the baby is born and then kill her. Stephen, however, has other plans for his beautiful captive as well. He's going to get the most out Sara's luscious body by using her to fulfill his own perverted desires. Forcing her to submit in whatever sexual manner he chooses, she's mentally and physically tortured on almost a daily basis. Even Stephen's wife decides to get in on the action by making the prisoner her sex slave when the hubby begins to lose interest after a few months have past. Sara instinctively knows that she has to find a way out before it's too late, but time is her worse enemy as she grows bigger and more powerless with her pregnancy. She also understands that if she does manage to escape, the couple may very well come after her. This leaves her with just one option-to kill them first! RIGHT TO LIFE will shock you to the core as it depicts one's person's attempt to survive unimaginable torture and humiliation in order to keep from being killed. Mr. Ketchum never pulls his punches with the violence and craziness. His prose is fast moving and creates stark images that are mind numbing. The reader is quickly carried into this dark world of depravity and made to realize that anyone can be a potential victim when least expected. The characters are well drawn, but it's the Techs that really steal the show. This is one psychotic couple you wouldn't want to have as next-door neighbors! All in all, RIGHT TO LIFE delivers in full form. Strong in sexual content, it's not for the faint-hearted or those with a queasy stomach. One final note, this edition also contains two extra short stories. The first is "Brave Girl" and it deals with a four-year-old child whose mother has fallen in the bathtub and is now unconscious. The second short story is "Returns" which is slightly different from the author's normal subject matter. It centers on the spirit of a recently deceased man who returns home to his hateful wife, hoping to stop her from killing his loving cat. These two short stories are a nice bonus for the fans of Jack Ketchum.

Right To Life might very well be Jack Ketchum's most striking, affecting and brilliant story since The Girl Next Door. Once more, he comes at us full force to have us face the most terrifying and most disturbing nightmare of all: Death.

A woman considering having an abortion is kidnapped by a couple who desires a child. They will keep her prisoner for the full term of her pregnancy in the hopes of keeping the child for themselves once it comes. They will torture her and torment her for their own pleasure as they await the child's arrival.

Dark, disturbing and terrifyingly realistic, Right To Life is a novella only the twisted mind of Jack Ketchum could conceive. Ketchum's strength lies in presenting his readers with realistic horror. His stories rarely rely on the paranormal, opting instead to investigate the demons that can plague one's mind. And this book isn't an exception to the rule.

Right To Life is a psychological tour the force that will leave you breathless. It's the kind of book which you will forever remember, which will haunt you long after you have finished reading it. This is Ketchum at his best and darkest.

A woman is kidnapped in front of an abortion clinic by a desperate, psychotic couple so that she can bear a child for them. Feeding her unlikely stories of an organization that deals in human slaves, they lock her up in their basement and torment her for the remainder of her pregnancy.

The plot is thin even for a 140-page novella. Beyond the initial abduction and imprisonment, the drama never escalates, and so it grows tiresome. The story might have actually been more interesting had it been expanded into a longer form, and shown us what is going on elsewhere as the woman's lover and family try to find her. But unfortunately the author doesn't concern himself with any of that.

The story's other major flaw is how inept the villains are. At one point they go so far as to reveal their full names, in an attempt to set up a safety net that would never work. And though the wife is a nurse, she doesn't seem to be aware that what they're doing can very likely affect the health of the baby she wants so badly. Despite their actions, they just don't feel threatening, and the reader gets the impression that their captive could easily outwit them if she waits for the right moment. The abuses heaped upon the protagonist are so mundane that it doesn't even earn points in the extreme horror category.

Also included in this edition are two short stories. "Brave Girl" follows the aftermath of a child's emergency call. "Returns" is a bittersweet tale of a ghost who has one final task to complete.

Review: "Right to Life"

You ever feel dirty after reading a novel? Because that is exactly how Jack Ketchum's "Right to Life" novella will make you feel afterwards. Like Ketchum's "The Girl Next Door" (which was inspired by the tragic Indiana Torture Slaying), "Right to Life" is primarily based on the Cameron Hooker case. Read "Perfect Victim" for the full story, of Cameron and Janice Hooker, who held a young hitchhiker captive for 7 years. Ketchum tells the story of one, Sara Foster, who is currently in a relationship with a married man, Greg Clover. Several years ago, Sara lost her son to a tragic accident. By mistake, she is impregnated during the affair with Greg. If Greg's wife ever finds out about the affair, their life together would be over. He particularly doesn't wish her to know he got another woman, Sara, pregnant. As the story begins, Greg is driving Sara over to a Manhatten abortion clinic, where dozens and dozens of New Yorkers protest right to life. In the midst of the protesting, Sara is abducted by married Stephen, and Katherine Teach, who drug her and then whisk her away to their New Jersey residence. Sara awakens from her stupor in the Teach's basement/torture chamber. There, she is tortured physically, mentally and sexually by Stephen, who is an evil psychopath who uses a story to brainwash Sara into believing she is his and Katherine's slave, and her and her family will be killed if she ever disobeys. The Teach's plan is to keep her captive until she bears her child. Sooner or later, Stephen becomes less interested in his own wife than he does his "slave", who is repeatedly tortured throughout. It even seems like he'd rather have the slave than the baby. Lonely, Katherine even finds herself sexually attracted by Sara. Will Sara escape the Teach's?

While readers are meant to believe Ketchum's sole intention is to make a bold statement about the controversial abortion themes, the Right to Life issue is left in the wind as soon as Stephen's psychopathic colors show. This is when this disturbing, sadistic novella is told with a frightening immediacy. No matter what side of the abortion issue you are on, you really start to feel for Sara. Her helplessness and despair leaks onto the pages. She has no way of escaping the Teach's, and you really want to see her and her baby survive. Yet, as this novella begins to reach its conclusion, you never have an idea how it's going to end exactly, or what is going to happen to Sara, and if she is ever going to escape. This keeps you on edge, frantically turning the pages until you get to the end of it all.

Rounding out this novella are two of Ketchum's short stories, "Brave Girl" and "Returns". Both stories are so far on the other side of the spectrum of the title story, it is actually refreshing to see a change of pace. If the former had a tighter ending, it'd have been really memorable due to how well-told of a short it is. "Returns" is light in its tone, and while it isn't exactly my cup of tea, it's pretty much a harmless, neat ghost story. These short stories, in a way, are like appetizers to a main course (although they are featured at the end of the volume). And that main course, "Right to Life" is a difficult one to digest.

Because the book is way more distturbing than that! This book scaredthe hell out of me in part because it was based on a true story, I will say this-if you're a cat lover, as Mr, K obviously is, have LOTS of kleenex ready for one of the short stories towards the end. AND for at least one scene in the title novella.
Not for the easily upset, squeamish, or offended.

Jack Ketchum delivers another discomforting look at the dark side of human nature. A bizarre, sadistic couple of right-to-lifers kidnap a pregnant woman in front of an abortion clinic, hold her captive and engage in various forms of physical, psychological and sexual torture. I don't know why, but I couldn't put it down. Very graphic and descriptive as Ketchum tends to be. Not for the faint-hearted.

This is my second Jack book. I read the Girl Next Door because books like this interest me and I feel, because I'm naturally good hearted, complete me. However, there were issues.

1. J.K...who edited this book! This book is full of stupid typos the author should have caught. I usually put down a book after 10, give or take, but I kept reading this one because the woman had my sympathy. Misspelled words, run-on sentences, missing quotations marks, half of a repeat sentence...Was there an editor at all?

2. The plot goes stale after chapter seven, is sometimes unbelievable because why isn't no one looking for a pregnant women abducted in broad daylight, and the ending leaves you confused, like was she dreaming, or what?

3. The charaterization of the antagonist is, well, more horrible than the horror.

I liked the theme that was played with here.

While there's nothing supernatural in Jack Ketchum's terrifying thriller, Right To Life, the monster in this tale - like most of his work - is all too real, taken right from the headlines of today's news. At first, I was hooked on the mystery of why this innocent woman was kidnapped and wanted to know more about her kidnappers and their motives. However, the reasoning behind their actions didn't seem as effective as it could have been. Maybe that was an easier way out instead of writing about someone doing this because of their belief in saving a precious life, doing anything they can to protect the baby that grows inside of our main character. Regardless, it was an enjoyable read and one of Ketchum's stronger works, along with The Off Season, Offspring, Old Flames, and The Girl Next Door - my favorite of his books.

The names are changed, but the story is nearly the exact same, only in Perfect Victim, it's a true story, and in Right to Life, Ketchum made it all up.

**Here is the description for Perfect Victim:

Hitchhiking from Eugene, Ore., through northern California in 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan thumbed a ride into hell. Her kidnappers, a sadistic lumber mill worker, Cameron Hooker, and his battered wife Janice, subjected her to seven years of torture and sensory deprivation. She was made a sex slave, kept locked in a wooden box and brainwashed into believing that an underground network of sadists would recapture her if she attempted to escape....this harrowing tale shuttles between the courtroom and the grisly doings in the Hookers' basement.

**Here is the description for Right to Life....I made the changes all caps:

SET TO ENTER AN ABORTION CLINIC IN NYC, in 1998, 40 YEAR OLD SARA FOSTER STEPPED INTO a ride into hell. Her kidnappers, a sadistic lumber mill worker, STEPHEN TEACH, and his battered wife KATH, subjected her to 7 MONTHS of torture and sensory deprivation. She was made a sex slave, kept locked in a wooden box and brainwashed into believing that an underground network of sadists would recapture her if she attempted to escape....this harrowing tale DEPICTS the grisly doings in the TEACHS' basement.

Ketchum's got cojones, though, because it's very nearly a straight play*-jar*-eyezed (mispelled and split up because apparently it's a naughty no-no word in Amazon reviews) work, including the methods that the perpetrator (whackjob) uses to brainwash his victim AND the name of the fake underground network - The Organization.

And like any Ketchum novel(la) you get two, two, two mints in one. Well, three, actually. There's the main story, and two short stories that have nothing whatsoever to do with the main story, and all of this rolled into 158 very short pages that were totally not worth nearly $12.

Sara Foster finds herself in a situation she had never thought she would be in again, one in which she feels that her body and her emotions have betrayed her and have allowed her to love once more. Its a sad thing, too, because Greg's a married man and happy with his family, a good man that also loves her but that can't leave them, and because she's pregnant with his child. Because of tragedy in the past this is further complicated, to the point that having the baby doesn't seem like a viable option. Together they decide that aborting the child is better than the pain of not being able to be with one another, and Sara decides that, in order to get things over with, she'd have Greg drop her off and park his car. Enter Stephen and Katherine Teach, one with the inability to have children and the other with plans that feed his sadistic desires, as they take their station wagon and snatch Sara off the streets in broad daylight, leading toward a life that has, until now, been nothing more than a news article read in passing.

Although this is only a novella in length, I found myself happy with the way that Ketchum balanced the act of positioning the character and storytelling, letting the days bleed by and the notions infect mindsets as one played into the other. He did this by keeping times and dates at first and by letting you know what was through the minds of both the victim and the victimizers, not to mention leaving no holds barred in the torment department. In many rights this made me feel for Sara, the woman that had been judged and yet wasn't known to the captors that kept her locked inside those devices, as the story played out and the travesties became more familiar to the person they had attempted to break.

Also accompanying this are two really short stories, one which I liked and the other that I didn't, called Brave Girl and Returns. In Brave Girl I saw an idea that I thought might be horrific in its own right, that might find a way to display something vile within its clutches, but that turned out to be something that I was relatively disappointed in. Perhaps it was because of the content of the book that caused it, that its message seemed out of place to me and tragic but not tragic enough, or that it simply wasn't that well orchestrated on its minute approach. Whatever the case, it wasn't a hit with me. Returns was better, however, making up for Brave Girl with a little breath of oddity in its own right, finishing off the book with a brisk jog through the lives of the dead and the reasons they carry back into life. I still don't judge these as anything other than accompanying material, however, and see them as nice gifts set as ornamentation for a novella I liked.

For anyone that enjoys Ketchum's works, I think this is a pretty nice piece to have around. It isn't as detailed as some of the longer works as far as setting is concerned, but this instance doesn't demand setting changes so familiarity allows a little less. He still has all the time to delve into the torments of the captive, the mindset painted in the expressions of the tormentors, and how things can sometimes become a little graphic as the horrific is fleshed out. It is a quick read, but a good one nonetheless.