Blood Games by Richard Laymon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blood Games
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: Solid entry in the Laymon catalogue
Summary: 4 Stars
With the publication of Blood Games, Leisure Horror continues its tradition of releasing the finest of the lost Richard Laymon titles. Originally published by the U.K. publisher Headline Feature in 1992, Blood Games is a great example of the kind of quality horror thrillers Dick used to write in the early 90's that earned him a sizeable cult following in Britain, Australia and Canada but that were sadly unpublished and mostly ignored in his native country.The story centers around 5 old college friends; Abilene, Vivian, Cora, Finley and Helen. Now in their mid-twenties, these five woman now live in separate parts of the country but once a year they leave their loved ones temporarily behind and all get together for a week's adventure in a location that each year one of them must choose. This year, their third adventure, it's Helen's turn to choose. Helen, a fat girl with a taste for horror, chooses The Totem Pole Lodge in rural Vermont, an abandoned former vacation spot with a sinister past. As they settle into the lodge, the girls soon discover that the lodge and its surrounding grounds are not as deserted as they thought. For there is a maniac lurking in the woods behind the lodge. A maniac who salivates at the thought of plunging his knife into each one of these beautiful former co-eds. But not before having his fun with them first...
As with all Laymon books, this is an extremely fast read. The characters are so well drawn that you'll feel you know them by the end of the story. Throughout the novel, Laymon effectively employs the use of flashbacks as a device for the reader to become more familiar with each character and the history behind their friendship. We get to read about their initial meeting in a shower room during their freshman year of college and about their various mishaps all the way up to their senior years. We also get to read flashbacks about their first two yearly vacations, one of them in New York City, the other along the coast of Northern California where, in an unforgettable sequence a couple of the girls meet and seduce a lone traveling surfer. Although these flashbacks really have nothing to do with the denouement of the present-time story, they are simply fascinating nonetheless.
Blood Games is a book I would highly recommend. Although not a classic, it's a solid entry in the Laymon catalogue that serves as a reminder of how engaging a writer Dick really was. As far as the amount of sex and violence in the novel, it's only about a PG-13 by Laymon's standards. To a Laymon fan, that would usually be a disappointing thing but Blood Games is first and foremost a character study of 5 twenty-something women and how they react when faced with peril. Leisure Horror really is choosing well as far as which of the lost Laymons they are choosing to publish. Up next is "Body Rides" which I've heard is a hoot and a half.