This is the worst book I've ever read, seriously I wish there was a way to give it zero stars and make it stick. There are so many things bad about this book.

1. The prose is written at a Jethro Bodeen sixth grade edecation level.

2. Pedophilia. I'm not against pedophilia as a plot device; its unfortunately a conceivable and real part of our world and therefore acceptably part of writing, both fiction and non-fiction. After establishing that Roy is a really bad guy (he raped his six year old daughter), Laymon gives us the bathroom implied sex, and definitely not implied, murder scene (he lays with a naked 12-year old girl in a blood filled bathtub). Okay, now we know he's a REALLY bad guy. I can dig it. But Laymon has to go that extra mile and with a complete lack of any subtlety or decency describe the actual sex act with the child. This is now the writing of a seriously disturbed person. Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I'm not a prude when it comes to explicit sex or violence in writing (as long as its not purely gratuitous). Does anyone think, for instance, that showing this scene in a film, even if you knew it was all CGI, would be a thing anyone but a person in desperate need of incarceration would want to watch?

3. The plot is absolutely ludicrous. It tests even the most gullible person's suspension of disbelief. The "Beast House." - Somebody would have burned this m-f down a LONG time before the setting of this novel. Or the FBI would have taken it apart board by board already. Nobody in over half a century had ever thought to look for anything in the basement? Geez. And nobody ever thought to look in that weird house with no windows that's RIGHT NEXT TO the Beast House? In over 50 years? Vacation tours of the Beast House where a murder was committed just the day before and the body and perpetrator remain missing? Stupid.

Roy leaves a trail as wide as Texas. The law would have been all over him before he got the Malacasa.

The diary - This has to be the most clumsy plot device ever imagined. It is so poorly written into the plot and so, so unbelievable.

The ending. The "twist" ending with Sandy and Donna is as dumb as dog dookie (like that alliteration?); nobody, but nobody buys it.

This novel is just 300 pages of bad, bad, bad.



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What haunts the Beast House? And how in the world did an evil fuck like Roy get released from prison?
That's in the book, well, except how Roy got out. The parts with him are really hard to read. He repeatedly rapes a girl that he kidnaps. Ugh. Almost too much to keep reading.
The rest of the story is good. Lots of Bay Area settings, which is where I live. And a pretty straight forward read. I did not like the instant romance between Jud and Donna. Lust I get, but instant love? It always feels sloppy to me.
It's a quick read, and pretty graphic in sex and violence. In the diary entries too!
Super, super creepy ending! Makes me want to read the next one! ( )

ok so this one i really liked since the ending at least gave me something to smile about. though i have the suspicion that this is not the last time i will read about the beast. but who knows we will find out in the 3rd book.
there werent many rape scenes this time around but still a few that made my head turn.the way the two books connected was great and interesting. Action scenes were good and at least im happy there werent any under age sex scenes taking place.
I book i can recommend but obviously you will need to start at the first book, one i didn't enjoy. ( )

The book was very different from other books that I have read. Then again I have never read a book about beasts. The way it ended was sad but kinda stupid too. It was okay but I wouldn't say I liked the book. I've talked to a few people about the book and they say they liked it but I just couldn't find myself getting into it. It was good enough to keep me reading but not good enough for me to truly like it. Towards the end there it got exciting with lots of action and gunfire but how it all ended itself did not really set well with me. Like it left a nasty taste in my month. I guess it was just setting up for the next book. Hope the third one is better. (I don't have the second book.) ( )

A guilty pleasure.... ( )