Joyride

Joyride: Carol is a victim. she has always been a victim. That seems to be part of her genetic code. The thing is that sometimes things can go too far and that triggers other things that miight also be part of that same code. Enter Lee and the plan that leads to a little action, and the witness known as Wayne Locke. Wayne is an interesting person, enjoying the act of taking life but never finding himself in the right moment to take the next step - human life. Not until now, that is. Weed Species: Some people are made for one another. That especially rings true of our two lovebirds in this story. They love to be around each other, spend time together, and take lives as well. They make games out of it, too, and even go too far with someone near and dear to the family. What happens when they find out, though, society that is? Who will want a monster walking their streets? Here we having "hiding in plain sight," and the potential to be caught at any time. I read Joyride a while back and like it a lot. It isn't that Ketchum makes new things but he always makes other ideas interesting. I always liked the characters he crafts, too, and thought that the three people heading up Joyride made quite the story. You have everything you want here and more, with backgrounds and plot twists and little things that are described beautifully. Add to that the fact that this was out of print forever and it makes it lovely. Another thing you have to like is Weed Species coming out. Weed Species are invasive elements that are often found in nature, but do not always refer to plantlife. That is the thing you see here, and it is somewhat disturbed when you get into it. It has graphic portions, subtle portions, and horrible things that say a lot about the characters. It isn't long - that's the one thing about it - but it has always been difficult to get a hold of. It also doesn't give a lot of descriptions when it comes to anything other than the horrible tandum we end up following. Still, they are what we really fear - the monsters that hide amongst us. If you haven't read Joyride, enjoy the book and the freebie. Know you might get some awkward stuff in the book and you are going to get details. If that bothers you then don't bother; Ketchum has never been shy when he describes what these people are like. That's what makes him interesting, too, because a lot of authors would rather describe what is on a killer's bookshelf than what is sitting in their floor and pleading. Its a harsh reality and the nature of it gets the 5 stars.

Set aside a Sunday for this running slip noose of a novel. You'll read it in a sitting, I guarantee. Forget about the munchies, forget about the customary cold beer. Just dive right in and chew through this nasty little thriller, written with the vigor of a power-diving white shark. I give this nasty little novel a fast breathless Yowza!! Buy it. Read it. Catch your breath. Yours in horror, Steve Vernon

Jack Ketchum knows how to write a good horror story. There is nothing exceptional or highly original about the plot of Joyride, but it is a very satisfying read. The book opens with a murder. Carole has been a victim throughout her entire life; her ex-husband Howard had abused her just about every way possible. The only way to finally get rid of him, she and her new man Lee decide, is to kill him and make it look like an accident. They think they pull off a perfect crime, but they do not realize at the time that someone else has watched the whole thing, someone even more evil and perverted than Howard. Wayne Lock has killed things throughout his life, but he has always stopped just short of killing a human being. He sees Carole and her ex-husband as his deliverance, kidnapping them, trying to learn from them what murder feels like. The end result is a murder spree of epic proportions, with Carol and Lee his reluctant "witnesses."One criticism Ketchum is vulnerable to is characterization, but he does a pretty good job of it in this novel. Oddly enough, this is most evident in the character of the policeman pursuing the mass murdering Wayne Lock. He knows Carole's history, and she reminds him a lot of his own ex-wife; it is he, however, who makes the most significant realization about himself at the novel's conclusion. We get snips and pieces of Wayne Lock's history, enough to explain the murderous intensity of his personality but not enough to truly understand his reasoning. Carole and Lee are not developed fully in my mind, but this seems to me to be a positive in the context of this novel. I never felt strongly negative or positive toward them; they moved in a haze of contradiction where good and evil continuously wove in amongst each other. There is plenty of carnage in this book--that's pretty much a given with Ketchum. Another given, and this is what makes Ketchum such a great horror writer, is a brutally honest plot that will not cheat the reader at the end. It is hard to predict a Ketchum ending, which is the main reason I respect him greatly as an author. The cavalry doesn't appear magically over the hill to save the day--instead, things happen the way they would most likely happen in real life--good and evil are second-string players in this game; reality itself determines the fate of Ketchum's characters. This makes for a gripping read, even in a case such as this where the storyline is nothing remarkably original.

Wow. After reading this, you too will only be able to review it with this one word

If you are a fan of horror or suspense, just read this book or any other Jack Ketchum book for that matter. I'm not even going to say what this book is about other that you MUST read it. It had me on the edge of my seat at times. It would make a great movie but wouldn't get by the MPAA in it's current form but couldn't be cut since it needs to be in full form. In other words, just read the book before someone decides to butcher it!!!!!!!