Something Stirs

Grant is an author whose esteem among fellow writers seems higher than among the general reading public which seems to prefer the horror brew to be a bit more gore drenched than is usual with Mr Grant.A similar situation prevails in Great Britain where schlockmeister Herbert and gore hound Hutson outsell the superior but more literary CampbellThis novel does however open with a double dose of death by violence-Eddie Romano and his father are discovered hacked to pieces .The grisly discovery is made by Joey Costello,a member of The Pack,a small group of dedicated 50's cultura afficionados.Soon after other deaths follow-Slap Zubrovsky,a vagrant, and the local bookstore owner and his clerk followed soon by Joey himselfThe killings are the work of an elemental force conjured up by Eddie years earlier after it had lain dormant in the town river for many yearsIt is left to The Pack to do battle with the force and try to overcome it and its depredationsThe writing and characterization are well above the genre norm with all Pack members being sharplt differentiated--the crippled"brain"of the outfit;the jocks;the slightly weird one and the nice middle class one.Grant does not take refuge in the safety os stereotype either with the teenaged heroes and heroines or with the street people who form a key part of the plot.On the surface it is a prosperous town but it has an underclass and its vagrancy problem.Even outwardly comfortable people are shown to be managing only with some difficulty to keep heads above waterThe resolution is a bit pat and too reminiscent of the "clap hands if you believe in fairies Peter Pan style tweeness I loathe so passionatelyI am not disposed to be unduly critical of an author who clearly feels that finesse has its place in the genre and this ,while largely centred on teen characters is an adult--ie mature- read

Once again dark fantasy king Charles Grant explores the traumas of being a teenager in that unique hell called high school. A group of friends mourn the death of their leader as "something stirs." This book reads less as a typical dead teenager horror story than a dark parable about the pain of growing up...and apart. And of saying good-bye.