Naked Flesh: Get your teeth into this (The Stake - Richard Laymon)

Member Name: Manx

Product:	The Stake - Richard Laymon
Date:	23/04/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A solid Richard Laymon story .

Disadvantages: Despite Laymon's efforts vampires are an increasingly tired concept .

The Stake is not your average vampire story. The Stake is your average Richard Laymon story though - and this might or might not be a good thing.
The story is set in the present day - it starts in a hotel in a Californian ghost town. The hero of the book is a horror writer (which, I feel, is always an interesting choice for a hero when, of course, the author himself is a horror writer) who comes across a naked woman with a stake through her heart.

Anyone who has read a Laymon story before will know that he is -very- good at quickly developing characters into flesh and blood personalities and then wickedly agile in ripping the flesh and blood back out from them. Laymon's favourite types of people to torment with carefully constructed obscenities are pretty young girls. This said, then, the idea of a possible pretty and young-looking female vampire fits snuggling into Laymon's preferred grounds. It is worth noting, though, that this book does not snuggle up to any of the dozen or so vampire cliches and this can only be a good thing.

Summary: A solid Richard Laymon story .