Blood Games by Richard Laymon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blood Games
Book Review: Thelma & Louise meet Friday the 13th (sort of)
Summary: 4 Stars
If there are any lessons to be learned from the world of books and movies, probably towards the top of the list is that it's never a good idea to camp out in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere, especially if it was shut down after a series of brutal, unsolved murders. The five women who wind up going to such a place in Richard Laymon's Blood Games should know better. Of course, if they took their annual vacation at some nice spa instead, it wouldn't be much of a horror novel.
The five women are Helen, Cora, Finley, Vivian and the more-or-less central character, Abilene. Having bonded in college, they had resolved after graduation to get together one week a year. This year, it is Helen's turn and, horror fan that she is, she's chosen the deserted Totem Pole Lodge. Some of the more sensible members of the group find this a questionable choice from the beginning, especially when they spot a teenage boy watching them lounging in the hot spring. The boy flees and some of the others begin to get uneasy, enough to resolve to stay only a single night. Before that night is over, however, they have another, unknown visitor who disrupts their possessions; that is enough to make them opt to leave immediately; unfortunately, the car keys are lost and they are many miles from civilization. By the morning, one of them will be murdered.
Despite this first death, this is not a Friday the Thirteenth story in which the characters are just picked off one by one. Laymon is a bit more clever in his storytelling than that: these five (later four) are not merely a set of individuals, but have a bond that gives them a strength that exceeds the sum of their parts. Through flashbacks, we see how they have operated as a team before to fight minor injustices; it's when they realize that they need to act this way again that this story goes beyond a mere psycho killer story.
Laymon is a good writer and this book shows his skills well in this book. He may not be one of the all-stars of the horror of the genre, but he does a decent job and definitely deserves a chance if you're a horror or suspense fan. Blood Games is a good representation of his work.
Book Review: They think they're alone...but they're not. Not at all!
Summary: 4 Stars
They're best friends who met in college. Five girls, bound by daring acts of courage and stupidity, all caught on videotape. Five girls, closer than sisters, who abandon everything once a year to get together and celebrate their friendship.Five girls who are going to realize they've madea mistake in coming to Totem Pole Lodge. You see, once upon a time, the Totem Pole Lodge was a great resort--a beautiful, lively place. Then there was an accident in the forest--a young girl died. She was a local. Her family was crazy. ALL the locals were crazy. And they attacked the Lodge. 28 people--men, women, and children--died.
And twelve years later, it still isn't a nice place to visit.
Especially at night, when you're unarmed, and unsuspecting.
Richard Laymon is a master storyteller. He may not have the fame that he deserved--you won't find his name in lights alongside Stephen King--but that never seemed to deter him. For people like me, these reissues (he died a couple years ago, in case you didn't know) are great. I get a chance to read his work, even stuff that was previously out of print.
BLOOD GAMES is proof that Laymon knows what he's doing. Since THE TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW (one of the best horror novels of all time, I should add), his published novels have seemed to go down in quality; now, for a Laymon book, there's a LONG way to fall. His novels are, quite simply, superb. BLOOD GAMES is arguably the best of his novels published since VAMPIRE SHOW. And that's saying a lot.
The flashbacks to the girls' college days should hinder the plot, one would think; instead, you find yourself racing further and further into it, anxious to know just what happens. Typical Laymon.
This isn't a supernatural thriller. Don't go into it thinking that it is. Laymon tackles what most horror authors--including King--don't: the darkness of human nature. BLOOD GAMES, as well as most any other Laymon novel you pick up, is about that dark little part of us that delights in horror and bloodshed. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
BLOOD GAMES scared the crap out of me. And that ain't easy. So, what the hell are you waiting for? You want some good, gory horror with quite a bit of character development thrown in? Pick up BLOOD GAMES. And after you decide that you absolutely love it--which you will--you might as well pick up another Laymon novel. Despite what you hear, he's the best.
Book Review: Trash !!!!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
Read Come Out Tonight.. or Beast House or The Midnight Tour by the same author !! This book was like The Hills Have Eyes.. or Wrong Turn 2 !!! Absolutely Horrible Review: Typical Laymon, but I like that.Summary: 4 Stars Different people read Richard Laymon for different reasons, but I read him because he combines those bastions of the horror genre, sex and violence, with a sense of fun that is infectious, making his novels more pleasurable than most other horror. Of the three novels I've read (the other two are Island and In the Dark), Blood Games is the least of the bunch, but it is also the one which seems to be the most typically Laymonesque, as if he had cranked up the output on all the things for which he is known.
One of the best known aspects of his work (whether it is appreciated depends upon the individual reader) is that his female characters have a tendency to disrobe early and often. After all, why else would Blood Games feature five lead female characters, if not to have them be comfortably nude with each other? (In fact, they first meet as a group in a dormitory shower, with one of them videotaping the rest.)
This is a major aspect of the novel, with many loving descriptions of exposed, swaying breasts, and wet, clingy clothing showing that Laymon is interested in raising more than just his reader's heart rate. It certainly stretches the suspension of disbelief, but I believe that Laymon is merely following a popular novelists' maxim of writing the book he would like to read. But there's also enough suspense to carry over those readers who have had their fill of vivid descriptions of feminine anatomy. Actually, Blood Games is mostly suspense, with very few nasty events occurring, but their potential everpresent.
Five college friends -- known for their rowdy escapades back in the day -- gather for annual reunions at one's choice of location, in order to continue their adventures. This year is Helen's turn and, being a horror fan, she has brought Finley, Cora, Vivian, and Abilene to the abandoned Totem Pole Lodge, the site of many grisly murders years ago. At first, the atmosphere is enough to shake up the group, but then someone starts messing with their stuff, they lose their car keys, and one of them turns up dead. Now they've got to use all the physical and mental talents at their disposal to survive while they continue to search for the keys.
To give us occasional breaks from the relentless suspense, their struggle is peppered with flashbacks of their college pranks and of their first two reunions. This gives us, along with a chance to take a breath, the opportunity to delve deeper into the five characters. At the beginning, it is difficult to tell a few of them apart, but continuing to read opens up their individual personalities and makes them more recognizable by their actions and dialogue.
Richard Laymon has taken a plot and characters that could have easily gotten out of hand and kept tight control over them, exhibiting his novelistic skill while providing a hell of a good time. I can't imagine what a cut version would have been like, as any piece missing detracts from the whole, but this restored version from Leisure is ideal in its completeness. Blood Games may not be as instantly stunning as Island or In the Dark, but it is still a phenomenal piece of work and one that will continue me in my pursuit of more Laymon titles.
Book Review: Wonderfully creepy set-up...wasted opportunity.
Summary: 3 Stars
****POTENTIAL SPOILERS**** You have been warned.
Laymon sets up a dang creepy scenario in "Blood Games" by setting five girlfriends in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere, the scene of a brutal massacre many years prior which is now considered to be haunted. Initially I got some chills reading about what occurred there and his description of the place as the girls go traipsing through the grounds during their annual get-together only to find out that the lodge is not as abandoned as they thought it was.
Sadly, that is where the thrills and chills end. Laymon paints a very creepy picture and you really think "wow, this could get awfully scary." And you would be right, it COULD get awfully scary but it never truly does.
First of all, the current story is interrupted in nearly every other chapter with flashback tales of the girls' fun and misadventures during their college years. This was not an entire waste as it does illustrate their friendship and bond, however it also leaves you with the feeling that he is building up to something big when he's really not.
Secondly there is ultimately only one murder (I do not count anyone the girls end up killing as that was inevitable and self-defense more or less). I am not the type that thinks a book or movie is only worthwhile if there is a lot of death and gore, but in this case there weren't even really any close calls, brushes with death via accident or maniac, and no cat-and-mouse games, just a bunch of flashbacks and walking around after one of the girls turns up dead.
"Blood Games" had some of Laymon's more realistic and believable characters (um, well relative to his other work, that is) and it certainly did not contain the level of "sick" that is present in so many of his other books. Yet I somehow miss those over-the-top elements that rather annoy me in his more twisted work. As of yet I have not read a Laymon book where there is a happy balance...it's either too much twisted and ridiculous stuff or not enough of it. But, I have about twenty-seven or so more novels of his to read before I have read them all, so who knows, maybe at some point I will find one that gets it just right.
If you read "Blood Games," be prepared to be creeped out in the beginning but once you stumble upon the body of Helen...don't expect much more to follow.