Customer Reviews

The Unblemished

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

 

 

It's ridiculous no one's reviewed this yet. The Unblemished is the kind of book that doesn't much get made anymore, as the author notes in the afterward: it's a homage to the 80's horror novel.

There's some old quote, 98% or 99% of what's published is terrible. In Horror, 99.9% of what's published is terrible. This is not.

I do sense the book wanted to be bigger, longed for the author to show the sympathetic side of his characters, that they, the flawed heroes, the flawed monsters, wanted to show a kinder, gentler side between the unrelenting pages.

Go out and buy it and read it. Just be forewarned when you end up in a bar, and everyone is just pretending to drink, and instead of natural conversation, the dialogue of your fellow drinkers seems planned out, artificial, and every time you look away, they look at you. Just hold up the book and hope they nod and wait for the next meal.

Ambitious, beautifully written, wearing its influences proudly on its surface but with an energy and intensity that is purely original. Barker, King, Cronenberg, Thomas Harris, Ramsey Campbell...all seem to peek out of the text at times. But it also reads like a horrific, hallucinatory take on one of John Wyndham's apocalypses, or Keith Roberts's The Furies. It's not completely successful...some parts of the basic premise never clicked, and London's relation to the global picture felt thinly sketched, but it's still the most entertaining big horror novel I've read in quite a while.

I finished the book feeling empty, but in a good way!
The whole novel is a roller coaster ride and Williams paints a vivid mural of terror from it. The characters are realistic. It seems like all he could do was just run after them and hope to keep up quick enough to jot down their actions and thoughts. At the end, you feel as helpless and drained as the main character Bo - and I don't think I've ever closed a horror novel feeling so distraught for a character before.

Some of scenes are graphic. Really, really graphic. So I don't recommend it for the squeamish.

The novel had potential to be more, but what Williams gives you, I'm convinced, is much more than enough.

My wife got this book for me on a whim...well done, dear.
An incredibly well written, deeply moving...and deeply disturbing apocalyptic read. The characters are well written, as is the dialogue and the story moves at a steady pace without hurrying itself- all somewhat rare traits in horror writing.
The author is all-together an exceptional writer...some passages read like poetry....very gruesome poetry. Williams has the talent to become the best in the horror writing business as I have not seen an author who can mix the bombast grotesque with subtle detail and emotion quite like this.

Just beware...this book is not for the squeamish. Some chapters and passages were particularly disturbing, if not hard to read....and impossible to forget.
If you like your horror wet with blood...look no further.

I don't know what they put in the water in England (obviously not fluoride - I only make this joke because the author did one similar) but something seems to warp some of the British authors - terribly. Some of the kinkiest horror I read is written by British authors (Williams definitely included). What's up with that?

"The Unblemished" was a nightmarish journey through first the English countryside and then the London cityscape. It has some of the most horrific word pictures I have ever encountered. Some of the scenes are just downright over-the-top NASTY! But Williams does weave a horrid tale of 'what if...'. He is a talented writer, a weaver of mind-altering bad trips. The story concept is unique. Character development was good.

This book is definitely not for the squeamish and I REALLY mean that.

Minor spoiler alert:
My only complaint - I thought the obliviousness of the London residents to the threat of their attackers was unbelievable. But then, thank goodness, none of the events in the book will actually happen. Will they?!?

A slow moving roller coaster that somehow got placed in the Tunnel of Love, and a failed attempt to recreate Ogrish in text. There is no dread, no suspense, no horror, no terror, nothing. Reading this book, as it slowly plods long to its trite end, there are no feelings or emotions beyond hoping at some point it will get started. The first half of the book is in fits and starts. In the middle of it, everything around the characters pulls a 180, but the reader is considerately spared the excitement and details of that, and the second half involves the characters plodding around like the most extreme geriatrics, none having a clue what is going on, and not caring to share with the others what it is they know for the most part, or the reader. The book never gets into the fast-lane, but opens itself by crashing into a ditch, and spends the rest of its bulk revving the engine, spinning its wheel uselessly into the stale air.

I first heard about this from reading that one of my favorite writers (Brian Keene) was really into this. So I picked up a pre-release copy and started reading.

Let me get through the good stuff that happened. The author really knows how to paint a picture and show you it. I mean he would describe a london backdrop and I could picture it perfectly. The violence and aftermath of violence scenes were played very very well. This was the first time in a book that during one scene I didnt want to continue (minor spoiler... when hes describing how he's torturing a girl by cutting her legs off)

other then the very well done imaging... the book fell flat. It was slow paced and the characters werent fleshed out enough. I liked the concept of createrpeople coming into London and taking it back over... but everything just happend too fast and at too slow a pace (does that make sense?)It also seemed that there were too many main characters in the book which didnt allow the much more interesting Main Main (bo) enough growing time.

Its good if you want nice graphic images but thats about it. Like the previous reviewer I did get the sense of him wanting to do more with the book but it didnt happen.