Ghoul by Brian Keene Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ghoul
Book Review: 1984... knockin' at your door...
Summary: 3 Stars
Brian Keene, Ghoul (Leisure, 2006)
Keene leaves the zombie-infested world of his first two books for Ghoul, a somewhat surprisingly small-scale novel set in the mid-eighties. Though you don't really need to take note of this fact, because in the first half of the novel, Keene will remind you of this constantly. It's the book's biggest failing. If you set a novel in a particular time frame, it makes sense--in fact, for atmosphere, it's necessary--to include some details of the time and place to lend the narrative veracity. However, Keene overdoes it to a ludicrous level. Once you're past all that, however, and the book gets too plot-heavy for all the extraneous details, it picks up and we get back to the good, solid action/horror hybrid that Keene does so well.
The story revolves around three childhood friends, Timmy, Barry, and Doug. Summer vacation has just started, and the three are looking forward to spending the summer the way twelve-year-old boys usually do. Until, that is, Barry's father ropes him into helping out in the family business--tending the cemetery for the local church. Problem is, the title character, who's been imprisoned in the cemetery for hundreds of years, was awakened when Barry's father, drunk as usual, cracked the stone keeping it asleep. And now the ghoul has roped Barry's father into providing him with human women to play with when he's not snacking on his favorite meal, the other bodies buried there. Everything comes to a head, in that Brian Keene kind of way. (There's an end piece that's even more heavy-handed than the pop culture references at the beginning, and twice as predictable, but it's forgivable.)
The simple answer is that if you've read Brian Keene's work before and you've liked it, Ghoul will be a winner. If you haven't, starting with The Rising and City of the Dead, which are slightly more accomplished from a writing standpoint, would probably be a good idea so you can get a handle on Keene's action-heavy style before diving into this one and its relatively slow beginning. Once it gets going, though, it's a lot of fun. ***
Book Review: A 4 ½ Star Review
Summary: 4 Stars
After the lackluster THE RISING (well, to yours truly at least) Keene comes up with a winner in this coming of age tale of a father/son relationship and the monster that hovers in all of us--as well as underneath a local cemetery, for the benefit of this chilling story. Indeed, metaphors make a big splash this time in GHOUL, in which Keene uses wit and heartfelt moments to bring forth an impressive novel. It's not only a slew of characters thrown into endless action sequences anymore; no siree, this time Keene proves he's in the same league as other horror greats, with a full-fledged character study of a pre-teen faced with the horror of growing up. Sure, many novels have already dealt with this type of a subject, but this author's rendition is as intriguing and well done as the ones that come to mind. So give yourself a chance and dig into this novel. You'll come out smelling rosy underneath all the monstrosity.-----Martin BoucherBook Review: A Disappointing and Amateurish Novel
Summary: 1 Stars
It was nice to see Brian Keene move away from books like the Rising. While I loved the Rising, and to a lesser extent the sequel, I was concerned that Mr. Keene would become a one trick pony and we would never get to see what else he is capable of. It's nice to see an author move away from an area where he obviously feels safe in, to another type of story that is substantially different.
That being said, this book is horrible. I can think of three main reasons why this book fails at what it sets out to do. The first is that Mr. Keene cannot write with a child's voice. Every single thing the child characters say sounds like they are 60 year old men reflecting on their childhoods. When a character's father rips apart his comic collection, the child actually thinks something similar to, OH NO, THE REPRESENTATION OF MY CHILDHOOD INOCENCE. I can't how many times characters continually referred to summer as a MAGICAL TIME IN A BOYS LIFE. The general theme of the book, that there are monsters everywhere, and not all of them are ghoulish creatures, is repeated by characters so many times that it feels like Mr. Keene believes his core audience has Alzheimers.
This is especially annoying since Mr. Keene is unable to bring any of these themes home. I don't know what kind of contract he has with his publishing company, but I don't know if he is allowed to write a book that is longer than 350 pages. This book either needed to be a hundred pages longer, or condensed in a more skillful manner. The story develops characters, and then does nothing with them. The book ends very quickly, and neglects to tie up about a thousand different threads. It's frustrating because while some books are left open ended to make you free to wonder about what happened, this book just makes you feel like you could have completely skipped over 150-200 pages and still have had the same experience when you reached the end.
Finally, the major problem of the book is that it doesn't feel like it is being written with Brian Keene's natural voice. The book feels awkward and forced, like he wasn't writing it how he wanted to write it, but mimicking how others had written the book.
Again, it's sad that an author, who I thought was going to be the next Stephen King, turns out to be something far less. However, at least the trick of this one trick pony is pretty damn good. I just finished Dead Sea, and it is rather entertaining. My only advice to Mr. Keene would be to write stories until they are finished, not until you have reached a page limit.
Book Review: A Fine Read
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the 5th Brian Keene book I have read. This book has a different type storyline from the previous books I have read which are The Rising books and The Conqueror Worms. I think the writing here is excellent as in his previous books but the content was more disturbing to me. While the other books dealt with zombies ripping people apart and eating them and the other wildlife run amuck eating people . . . this dealt with more than just a supernatural monster. Even without the Ghoul to deal with, these kids dealt with real life monsters -- like serious abuse. The Ghoul was almost an afterthought to the problems these characters faced.
I am a recent Keene convert. His writing grabs you and sucks you into a story so fast your head spins. I am trying to wait patiently until his next book.
Book Review: A Frightening Feast
Summary: 5 Stars
Brian Keene writes so convincingly about flesh-eating creatures that it makes me wonder what the hell he's got stored in his fridge at home. He spins fast-moving tales and jerks the reader into all sorts of directions. His living dead series (The Rising, etc) have breathed new life into zombie fiction, and with GHOUL he goes deeper than he has before, looking into the horrific distortions of the human soul. This is a far more important book than the back-cover text suggests. Read it with the lights on and your mind open.