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Ghoul
Brian Keene
Leisure Books
2007

I've been a fan of Brian Keene's for a long time. Even before his first novel, The Rising, came out. Back when he was the fiction editor for Horrorfind.com. Back when I was barely starting my fiction writing career and well before I ever had anything published.

I've read just about everything Brian Keene has had published. Ghoul is his most recent mass market paperback release, and in some ways, it's the best to date, and in some ways it doesn't quite measure up.

I'll start with what I didn't like to get that out of the way. The good far outweighs the bad anyway. And let me just preface this with: in no way would I have considered putting this book down without finishing it. (As you'll see, I'm just nitpicky.)

Ghoul is set in 1984. I was a sophomore in high school in 1984, therefore, the 80s references throughout the first quarter or so of the book were all very familiar to me. And that's why I felt it was overkill. Subtle references, like the mention of Atari game systems, Star Wars and a few various and sundry musical artists strewn throughout (as in the following of the book) would have sufficed. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the reminiscence. I just thought there was too much of it. The scene was already well set.

That being said, I think this was a minor issue. A large portion of Brian Keene's readership didn't spend it's pre-teen and teen years in the mid 1980s, so I'm thinking they may not have felt the same way about it as I did. Putting myself in, say, my younger sister's shoes, (rather, her brain) I can see where the particulars of that year might be really cool to read about. Much the same way I would read with interest something set in the late 60's/early 70s, an era in which I lived, but of which I don't have quite as many fond memories.

All right. Let's move on. We're almost to the good part.

I thought the writing wasn't quite up to par with things Brian Keene has done in the past. Not that it was bad, necessarily, just a little bumpy. Like maybe it could have used a once-over from a second pair of eyes. The main thing that struck me was that the kids the main characters didn't always speak like kids, but more like adults.

Again, a minor issue. I want to reiterate what I said before: this stuff would not have made me put the book down (which I do more frequently now because I just no longer have the patience for sucky books.) The story itself was just too good to not continue reading. I still highly recommend Ghoul

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