Hide and Seek

Simply put: If there were more books like this, more people would read horror. This is without a doubt the scariest book I have EVER read, and I've read 'em all--- King, Laymon, Little, Lee, et al. For the last 1/4 of this book I could literally feel my heart hammering in my chest. Ketchum does something very few horror authors do effectively: he lets us slowly get to know his characters inside and out, so by the time the "action" starts we are ao invested in the characters and the story that it's like we are experiencing the events ourselves. This book is an absolute gem. Don't be put off by the fact that this book costs a little more than your average trade paperback, because it is worth the price of admission and then some.

Jack Ketchum, Hide and Seek (Ballantine, 1984) Eighties horror novels have a special place in my heart. They're like seventies horror films-- there was a glut of them, and most of them were awful, but awful in such a way that one can have a nostalgia for them. But, once in a while, one appeared that was far better than the general run of dreck. Hide and Seek certainly qualifies. Jack Ketchum, who'd burst onto the scene a few years earlier with the fantastic Off Season, returns to Dead River, Maine with Hide and Seek. While what you get here isn't much different than what you got in Off Season, Hide and Seek is an obvious link between Off Season and Ketchum's magnum opus, The Girl Next Door; the writing in Hide and Seek is orders of magnitude improved from that of his first novel. Ketchum went a long way towards the mastery of understated description and air of detachment that made The Girl Next Door such a terrifying experience: "Nothing you've told me can explain this thing to me. No rape, no seduction, no death, no guilt. You must have known. Suspected at least. Why fling your life around like a pocketful of change? It makes no sense. It never has. It must run very deep, as deep as blood and bone, much deeper than you ever knew." (p. 159) Get to know Jack Ketchum; you won't regret it. While Hide and Seek doesn't have the sheer power of The Girl Next Door, it's certainly a good'un. ****

This is the fourth Ketchum novel I have read. It ranks second behind his masterpiece of the disturbing: "The Girl Next Door" ("Joy Ride and "The Lost" are tied at a solid third). I only wish I didnt know anything about the plot before I read this novel. I would have loved to have been completely in the dark;like the characters, until the the bone chilling climax. Oh well, this book was still creepy fun. P.S.: Never mind reviews that suggest this novel starts out slow. These are readers who obviously dont understand concepts like plot and character development (and do not have any patience: its not that long of a novel!). This is a perfectly paced gem.

Jack Ketchum is one of horror's most gifted writers and has attracted a cult following over the past two decades that now includes yours truly among its ranks. Why his talent has not been brought to the attention of more horror and mainstream fiction fans is a mystery to me. Hide and Seek, his second published novel, varies significantly from his incredible debut novel Off Season, but it packs just as much of a punch as its predecessor. Where Off Season was horrible and disturbing, Hide and Seek is downright spooky. I have read enough horror to become immune to the scare tactics most authors rely on, but Ketchum managed to really give me the creeps in the later chapters of this incredible tale. The book does start a little slowly, with character development taking up the first half of it, but midway through Ketchum cranks up the tension and advances the plot at an increasingly intensive, addicting pace. About thirty pages from the end, I found myself covering up the right hand page with my hand because it was all I could do to stop myself from jumping ahead and seeing how things played out. I must say that I found myself more than satisfied with the ending. Many authors put their characters through the ringer only to wrap things up with a fairy tale ending. Ketchum is far too honest to back down at the last minute and give his readers what they might want at the end. This honesty and loyalty to both his characters and his readers is what distinguishes Ketchum in my mind as one of horror's most praiseworthy writers. The story itself seems rather simple and conventional: two young men and two young women go to an abandoned house out in the woods of Maine in order to play a game of adult hide and seek--the house has long been the subject of gossip and rumors but it cannot really be characterized as haunted. The idea for this seemingly foolish pursuit comes from Casey, a complicated, fascinating female character. Her constant shows of bravado and risk-taking bother our protagonist yet he never refuses her requests. The first half of the novel establishes Casey's character and background pretty well, so the context of the game makes sense to the reader. When the gang arrive at midnight and commence their game, this novel quickly shifts into overdrive. Having to follow our protagonist around this creepy house in the dark, searching for the hiding places of his friends, got this reader's blood pumping a little harder, but the increasingly scary nature of the game is actually no more than a prelude of the horror to come. The only flaw I can identify in my own mind is Ketchum's level of characterization. He spends a lot of time introducing us to the four players of the hide and seek game, but I never fully came to know them. The complex Casey remains somewhat of an enigma to me despite the revelations we receive about her life and history. A few events seem very important when they happen but are never fully dealt with later on. Of cou

This is only the second Ketchum novel I've had the pleasure to read. The first was "Ladies Night," an o.k. book that lacked a lot of the things we readers take for granted (a plot, character development, etc.). I shall read more of his stuff in the future, but not as many as I would like due to the high prices publishers and sellers charge for some of his novels. Until there are mass-market reprints of books like "The Girl Next Door," I won't be reading his entire literary catalogue any time soon. That's a darn shame, too, as "Hide and Seek" is an excellent, and surprisingly scary, read."Hide and Seek," Ketchum's second novel released in the early 1980's, is set in a small, dirt-poor town in Maine. The main character of the story is Dan Thomas. Dan is small town all the way; he works at a local lumber mill, and whiles away his days drinking with his buddy Rafferty. Dan ought to go to college, but he's young and drifting a bit in life. That is until he meets up with three rich college kids doing the summer thing in town. Dan really goes for Casey, a hot little number with an annoyingly dangerous habit of doing crazy things. Casey, along with her two buddies, Steve and Kim, think nothing of stealing cars for joyrides, shoplifting caviar for lunch on the beach, and taking their clothes off at weird times. Dan is accepted by the group, and quickly becomes wrapped up in their misadventures. Unfortunately for Dan, he makes the mistake of mentioning the Crouch incident to his newfound friends. The Crouch house, considered haunted by the local kids, stands as a tempting target for Casey's nihilistic approach to life. Casey insists on playing a game of hide and seek in the house as a new means for thrills. The tragedy that ensues changes everyone's life forever.I really liked this book. Ketchum's use of foreshadowing is excellent and the characters are SO well drawn. Even secondary characters, mainly Kim and Steve, are written with some depth. We not only come to understand Dan, we also realize why Casey likes to live on the wild side. I think any guy can understand why Dan is attracted to Casey and why he is unable to break away from her dangerous spell. If you can't understand why, Ketchum explains it in effective ways. I am also surprised that the book actually scared me. Very few authors can bring out that emotion in me. I think it has something to do with the Crouch family. They aren't supernatural beings like vampires; they are mere humans. For some reason, that little distinction makes the novel scarier. When Dan and his friends are wandering through that abandoned house, and the other part of the house they find later, it is genuinely freaky. Maybe it's because we've all been in that situation (either alone in our own houses or exploring an old house in the woods as kids) that makes it so real and frightening. Whatever it is, I found myself looking over my shoulder a few times after reading the book.This is one of Ketchum's good ones. I can't wait