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Richard Laymon: The Cellar

Will

Active Member
The following is a summarised review, for a full review check here.

The Cellar was the first in Richard Laymon’s Beast House series, which comprise this novel, The Beast House, The Midnight Tour and the novella Friday Night at the Beast House. It's also the first novel that Laymon ever got published, and shows us what would be in store from this great horror novelist.

It’s a short, punchy, yet quite brutal novel, but one that doesn’t lack depth. It creates and then continually manages to maintain a successful air of mystery, alongside an uncomfortable but compulsive horror-feel. With shocking moments peppered throughout, this one continues to ride through to an unexpected ending.

Laymon was a prolific and talented writer, who contributed over forty well-known and respected novels to the horror canon. He is often accredited for writing in a sub-genre of horror that later evolved into that known as splatterpunk, and in which authors such as Poppy Z Brite came to feature with some prominence.

He injects humour into his works through his characters, sometimes in the situations in which they find themselves, and creates some likeable protagonists – likely so that you will be shocked more when they’re put through the grille, but then the oldest tricks are often the most effective.

But do beware; this novel makes for some very uncomfortable reading at times. Subjects and topics that many will find uncomfortable are really tested here and it’s harsh at times, have no doubts about that.

Richard Laymon wrote to shock, and with The Cellar his aim to push the boundaries on horror literature were successful. It’s a gripping beast of a book, and will leave its boot-print stamped into your grey matter long after you’ve finished it.
 
Laymon's quality of output really did vary some, certainly. Some of his books are top pulp-horror output, others, very much 'meh'. He remains a favourite of mine nonetheless, probably more to do with the time of my youth when I read him the most, and his strengths in writing some page-turning horror books of worth from time to time.

Lenny - what other books of his have you read?
 
I always got the impression that Laymon sat about his house, typing with one hand and masturbating with the other. Some of the novels I read were more like mad fantasias than anything really horrific (thinking of The Beast House and Blood Games in particular).
 
Amusing, interesting image. I remember seeing a photo of him wielding some large calibre handgun and always just pictured him as someone who just 'shot out' varying quality horror lit. Some hit the target spot on, others missed considerably.

Some of his books certainly do have something of that 'fantastic' air about them. 'Alarums' is one such book, for example. Actually, I'd better make that fantastical, not fantastic. Don't want to cause any confusion - though his books can be great, some of them are definitely not. 'Savage' <ahem>.

I love Laymon as I read much of his work when I was younger, and it played a huge part in my growth and appreciation of the horror genre. He's a pulp horror writer of some distinction I feel, and occasional quality issues aside offered great bang-for-buck and readability. I still recall reading 'Flesh' - alongside Lumley's 'Necroscope' - on the evenings before my English Lit GCSE exams. I just couldn't put those damn books down...
 
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