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Title: Scream Queen by Edo Van Belkom, Edo Van Belkom ISBN: 0-7860-1562-4 Publisher: Pinnacle Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The new "genre fiction"
Comment: Edo van Belkom, Scream Queen (Pinnacle, 2003)
Ah, a return to the glory days of eighties horror. Back then, there were your great writers, there were your A-list writers (who were good, but rarely approached greatness, and never with any regularity), and then, as A Christmas Story wryly tells us, there were "the nameless rabble of victims," those all-but-anonymous genre writers whose work is now lost to the wind. (That the same can be said of many of the greats in no way makes the two in any way similar.) For every John Holt, Edward Levy, or Michael Paine writing in the eighties, you had ten Ken Eulos, Saul Wernicks, and William Hills.
These days, the ratio seems to have been turned on its head. You can find great horror writers under every rock. Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Charlee Jacob, Carlton Mellick III, and their ilk have raised the bar for literary horror far past any place I could have hoped it would go when I first discovered that avatar of literate horror, Clive Barker. Nowadays, you have to search pretty far for the genre writer, the guy whose books are going to sell a few hundred thousand copies and then fade into obscurity.
Scream Queen falls solidly into the realm of genre fiction destined for obscurity. But like the best work of Eulo, Wernick, Hill et al., while it sticks around, those few hundred thousand readers who take van Belkom up on his offer to ride through this funhouse are going to have one hell of a trip.
Scream Queen gives us such an obvious premise it's amazing no one's actually pulled it off yet: two brothers who direct low-budget horror films stage a reality TV show, Scream Queen, the winner of which gets the lead part in the brothers' new movie. All the winner has to do is spend the night in a hunted house (rigged with tricks, natch, to scare the contestants), then have the public vote on her as the best of the contestants. Simple, right? (And brilliant. Expect it to happen in real life in the next couple of years. That's a reality series even I would watch.) The only problem is that the haunted house the producers and their team have tricked out really IS a haunted house, and the ghosts therein are not very happy to receive guests.
The action starts early and continues pretty much nonstop (there are some slow points for setup, but the writing is such that even they go by quickly). This is a slim novel, by modern horror standards, three hundred pages even. They fly. The reader is likely to find himself jarred at least once per page by stupid typos (and the obviously far overpaid editor never met a homonym he didn't misuse), but after a while you gloss those over and just get on with it. Nothing here is likely to make you say "boy, that was unexpected!" or think van Belkom has a line on the next great idea to move the whole genre forward.
If this were a movie, it'd be turn-your-brain-off entertainment. As a book, it's fluff, but readable fluff.***
Rating: 1
Summary: Dull, Predictable, and Nothing Original
Comment: Wow! Was this book bad. Not only am I in the film industry, but I'm a huge fan of horror. So I thought this book would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, with little to no character development or atmosphere, this book is dead on arrival. I have to say, Scream Queen is the most predictable horror novel I've ever read. Every single scene I've seen done before. The author also makes quite a few mistakes when describing positions on a film crew. It's no wonder Mr. Van Belkom got his technical information about filmmaking from Ron Oliver -- the director of Prom Night III ! I also found it funny to learn that this author has written books on how to write horror and erotica when this book contains neither! Scream Queen is a total flop and a complete waste of time. Stay away.
Rating: 5
Summary: Death To Reality...Finally
Comment: I zipped through this book in a day and had a blast. It's not particularly scary, but it moves at a rapid click and kept me wanting to turn the pages. Exactly what I hope for in a thriller. The premise is simple -- reality show contestants spend a night in a haunted house to earn money and a role in a feature film and end up getting more than they bargained for. The characters are entertaining, although not very likable. But the best part was Van Belkom slamming the door shut on the world of reality television. The filmmaking brother team in this book is priceless. They reminded me of an even sleazier version of the producer and director from the brilliant film "The Making Of...And God Spoke." EVB gets in some good laughs, some nice jabs at Hollywood, a few decent scares, and several "wet" scenes. The ending does drop off instantly but it can't be any worse than a manufactured tropical island set during a "Survivor" season finale.
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Title: House of Bones by Dale Bailey ISBN: 0451210794 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Don't Close Your Eyes by Robert Ross ISBN: 0786014822 Publisher: Pinnacle Books Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Serenity Falls by James A. Moore ISBN: 1892065665 Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Risen by J. Knight ISBN: 0786016124 Publisher: Pinnacle Books Pub. Date: January, 2004 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Deep in the Darkness by Michael Laimo ISBN: 0843953144 Publisher: Leisure Books Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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