Urban Gothic
by Brian Keene
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brian KeeneEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-08
ISBN: 0843960906
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Leisure Books
Book Reviews of Urban Gothic
Book Review: " . . . the shunned house at the end of the street was very hungry."
Summary: 4 Stars
Heee's back. "Castaways" was a good, fun, horror adventure that was also a tribute to Richard Laymon. "Urban Gothic" however is a return to the Keene glory days of his extreme zombie novels. Here, six white teenagers are coming home from a rap mega-concert when Tyler, the requisite stoner decides to do the requisite stupid-as-a-bag-of-dirt thing and travel through Philadelphia's more seedier districts into the heart of the city, into the parts that are often forgotten and then laid to waste by poverty and neglect. There will be no surprise to popular fiction fans that Tyler's car breaks down at a most inopportune time. They are stuck in a dead zone for their cellulars, at the end of a dead end street, and coming up quick is a bunch of black youths. Keene makes his suburban youths open minded enough to like modern black culture and music, but when this is put to the test, they automatically assume that the oncoming blacks are hostile. Maybe understandable given the circumstances, but the circumstances were not helped when one of the white youths hurls a racial epitaph at the black kids. The neighborhood kids are shocked and angered by this. This causes the white kids to run down the street and hide in the house at the end of the street. The neighborhood boys give marginal pursuit until they get to the house, but don't try to go in, as those who go in, never come out. The suburban kids soon find out why as they meet the first of the house's monsters. It's no surprise, as this is a Keene novel, all will suffer, many will die, and few will survive.
"Urban Gothic" is more than just a slaughterfest however. "Urban Gothic" tells its story from many viewpoints, we find out for instance that the neighborhood boys were not going to hurt the kids, but help them before the whites panicked. One of the more interesting viewpoints is Leo's, the leader of the neighborhood kids, as he gets his friends together, along with long time neighborhood resident Perry, and decide to rescue the suburban kids. Even if it means breaking into the house that they are all afraid of.
This is a well-constructed horror novel, as even the house itself becomes a character in and of itself. It has been changed, and altered over the decades by its inbreed residents into a labyrinthine nightmare of traps, ever changing corridors, dead ends, dens, and abattoirs. The novel ratchets up the suspense as during the last half we ping-pong back and forth between Leo and his bunch storming the house and searching for the white kids, and the trespasser's viewpoints as they are constantly separated and hunted. Some will become cannon fodder, while other will not disgrace themselves as they find out what they are made of as they fight for their lives.
The novel doesn't quite get the five star rating it deserves because of two things. The first is to pad the novel out; Keene gives "Urban Gothic" the character of Paul, who is just a filler character. Paul is a metal pirate, cruising around looking for scrap metal to rip-off, he spots the house, and you can guess the rest. His character, fate, and presence accomplishes nothing, and furthers the action or plot not one bit.
The second is that Keene continues his pattern of open endings to "Urban Gothic". This was a problem with "The Rising", "Dead Sea", and even "The Conqueror Worm". Here, the ending seems a bit rushed, and then the novel is left open for a sequel. I have no problem with sequels, but this novel should have had more of a definite ending.
But, in the end, this was a dynamite read. It was a good thing that I didn't have to work the next day, as I was up to the very early hours of the next day, as I ultimately couldn't put it down until it was over. "Urban Gothic" is easily one of the best novels of the year, and if you are afraid of the dark, stay away from this one. But, for most, when you are done, you will want to read it all over again. This is the original and the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" but only set inside the classic "old dark house".
As a postscript: this novel is set in the same universe as "Dark Hollow" and "Ghost Walk" as the events in those novels are referenced, and the suburban white kids come from the same town as those events happened.
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