Crimson Orgy by Austin Williams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Crimson Orgy
Book Review: Amateurish and misleadingly marketed
Summary: 1 Stars
Best thriller of 2009 my a$$. "Crimson Orgy" is one of the most amateurish and underwhelming novels that I have read in a long time. I bought this book under the mistaken belief that it was a thriller/horror novel about the making of a low-budget horror movie that effectively turns into "the first snuff film ever made". From that description, I imagined that there would be someone on the set of this movie killing the cast and crew, possibly in front of the camera. I was wrong. In fact, only two people die during the course of the story proper, both are accidents, one of which occurs away from the set and the other of which occurs 12 pages before the ending. This isn't a thriller, it is a book about the making of a movie.
Even then, this still could have been a good book if it were written by a good author. However, Austin Williams is not such an author. It is clear that this is his first book, and I actually found myself wondering if it was self-published, the quality was so poor. For the first 100 or so pages, there is very little dialogue and most of the story is told in a passive voice (rather than showing the characters actually living the events of the novel, Williams has them sitting around, alone, thinking about events that had happened earlier). This improves slightly, as the novel progresses, but Williams still has no concept of how to make his story exciting. Even though he is writing a book that includes death, a hurricane and a horror movie, a goldmine for most authors, Williams manages to downplay all of these events to the point of boredom.
This is the second book supposedly about snuff movies that has disappointed me this year (the other being "Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk). In future, I intend to avoid them.
Book Review: An Entirely New Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
As a reader who relishes an intense thriller but is not particularly fond of outright horror, I approached this one with some mild reservations based upon what I'd heard about it. After reading the brief prologue, I knew I'd finish the whole book in short order. It turned out to be one of the most rollicking, unpredictable novels I've come across recently. The narrative moves forward with the unstoppable intensity of a ticking time bomb, filled with eccentric characters colliding within a truly menacing atmosphere. Perhaps most surprising were the well-earned laughs that bubbled up at the least expected intervals. The subject of "underground cinema" is entirely alien to me and yet I found myself captivated by its depiction within these pages. This is the type of offbeat book one can enjoy recommending to others in anticipation of the fun they will have reading it.Book Review: An okay read in my opinion
Summary: 3 Stars
I am inveterate reader of all kinds of books and got this book after a pretty good review in the NYTimes Book Review. The book was a difficult to find and I finally ended up ordering it from Amazon- not a bad thing! It was an easy read and not hard to keep ahead of what was going on. I think it was relatively easy to tell it was a first book for the author. All in all an okay read.Book Review: Behind the Screams
Summary: 5 Stars
The year is 1965, and Stupendous Pictures is in the boonies of Florida, filming a straight to the grindhouse/drive in film: Crimson Orgy. This production will see no end of troubles for its cast of behind the screen characters.
Students of z-grade, grindhouse cinema, fans of human based horror stories, and folks in search of a good, plausible yarn behind the troubled production of a movie that never actually existed (but should) will all find something to enjoy in Williams' novel. It gets a thumbs up from this Horror Reader.
Book Review: For anyone who seeks an edgy story set in the heyday of the Grindhouses
Summary: 5 Stars
The Grindhouse - the origin of the 'B' Movie. "Crimson Orgy" follows director Sheldon Meyer as he attempts to shoot his borderline pornographic to some film, 'Crimson Orgy' - but no one ever said show business was easy as on set problems are abound, the cops are on his tail, nature is working against him, and his own inner demons begin to consume him - at what cost does Meyer pay to get that he desires. "Crimson Orgy" is a deftly written, exciting tale from first page to last, highly recommended for community library fiction collections and anyone who seeks an edgy story set in the heyday of the Grindhouses.