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Terror Town
Killer on the warpath. Monsters on the street. Vampires in the night. Zombies on the hunt. Welcome to Terror Town, the place where no one is safe. Nothing is sacred. All will die. All will suffer.
From the mind of James Roy Daley, author of The Dead Parade, comes one of the most brutally violent horror stories ever written.
From the mind of James Roy Daley, author of The Dead Parade, comes one of the most brutally violent horror stories ever written.
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First published December 21, 2010
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95 people want to read
About the author
James Roy Daley
28 books14 followersJAMES ROY DALEY is a writer, editor, and musician. He studied film at the Toronto Film School, music at Humber College, and English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Terror Town, Into Hell, 13 Drops of Blood, Zombie Kong, and The Dead Parade. In 2009 he founded Books of the Dead Press, where he enjoyed immediate success working with many of the biggest names in horror. He edited anthologies such as Zombie Kong - Anthology, Best New Vampire Tales, Classic Vampire Tales, and the Best New Zombie Tales series.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 15, 2011
This is the review I posted on amazon.com
Growing up, I was the kid who harassed her father to quickly finish reading the latest King novel so I could devour it. I constantly scared myself by watching the goriest horror movies I could get my hands on and by reading King, Lovecraft and Barker. As I was then, I'm still a huge fan of scaring myself and am always looking for new and creative ways to do so. Of late, I've been disappointed with much of what has been offered to us in the way of horror, until I started reading Terror Town, the latest release from horror author James Roy Daley.
Twisted, unpredictable and deliciously morbid, Terror Town was exactly what I needed to creep myself out. Terror Town has it all, horrifying creatures, vampires, zombies and likely one of the best written, sadomasochistic serial killer characters, since `Buffalo Bill'.
Many writers can't seem to grasp the true essence of a serial killer, Daley has not only captured that essence, but made Nicolas Nehalem a character that will stay in your nightmares for a very long time. This novel is filled with many insane characters, and terrifying monsters, but Nicolas was by far my favourite.
Terror Town was my first journey into the twisted mind of James Roy Daley and he succeeded in providing me with the scare I needed. I don't often give a novel a five star review, but Terror Town definitely deserves it. Written with characters and creatures you fear will jump off the page and come after you at any moment, Terror Town is the ultimate scarefest.
Growing up, I was the kid who harassed her father to quickly finish reading the latest King novel so I could devour it. I constantly scared myself by watching the goriest horror movies I could get my hands on and by reading King, Lovecraft and Barker. As I was then, I'm still a huge fan of scaring myself and am always looking for new and creative ways to do so. Of late, I've been disappointed with much of what has been offered to us in the way of horror, until I started reading Terror Town, the latest release from horror author James Roy Daley.
Twisted, unpredictable and deliciously morbid, Terror Town was exactly what I needed to creep myself out. Terror Town has it all, horrifying creatures, vampires, zombies and likely one of the best written, sadomasochistic serial killer characters, since `Buffalo Bill'.
Many writers can't seem to grasp the true essence of a serial killer, Daley has not only captured that essence, but made Nicolas Nehalem a character that will stay in your nightmares for a very long time. This novel is filled with many insane characters, and terrifying monsters, but Nicolas was by far my favourite.
Terror Town was my first journey into the twisted mind of James Roy Daley and he succeeded in providing me with the scare I needed. I don't often give a novel a five star review, but Terror Town definitely deserves it. Written with characters and creatures you fear will jump off the page and come after you at any moment, Terror Town is the ultimate scarefest.
August 11, 2011
It's rare for me to sit back after finishing a book and wonder what I just read. Unfortunately, James Roy Daley's Terror Town had me doing just that, which is sad because the book started off with such promise.
Daley paints a portrait of a picturesque little town, but like most towns, no matter how quaint they seem on the outside, there's always a darkness that lurks in the heart of some, if not all, of its residents. Of all the town's resident, Nicolas Nehalem has perhaps the darkest heart. Despite the worn exterior of his house, the interior is meticulously maintained, which only serves to deepen the horror of what lies beneath. Beneath the cellar, in a subcellar of his house is a torture chamber with two occupants.
It's obvious from their physical condition—caged, with missing fingers and toes and emaciated to the point their ribs are visible—that Olive Thrift and Cathy Eldritch have been held captive in Nehalem's Chamber of Horrors for quite some time.
Daley makes it a point to emphasize the third cage in his description of the subcellar, and Nicolas' apparent displeasure that the third cage is unoccupied. This sets the stage for what could be a thrilling psychological horror novel, but you are left wondering what this has to do with the book's description, which promises vampires and zombies.
Daley then introduces the reader to Daniel McGee, a summer resident of the town of Cloven Rock. He is in the process of renovating his home with the hopes of making it a full-time residence. While working in the basement, he discovers the existence of a sub-basement, which he proceeds to explore. However, upon his initial attempt to check out the place, he never reaches the bottom. The sudden drop in temperature combined with the impenetrable darkness and the mysterious sounds propel him toward the surface. Right away you assume this might be the lair of the promised vampires, but no. When Daniel returns in the company of friends to continue his exploration of the basement, he uncovers the lair of the mutated spider/crab hybrids, one huge one and a bunch of smaller ones that have hatched from a bunch of egg sacs.
One of Dan's friends is devoured by the huge monstrosity, and another of his friends has been bitten and stung by the creature. The bite or the sting, it's never clear which, triggers a metamorphosis, and the young lady turns into a rage-filled lunatic who turns on her friends. But that's only the beginning. Shortly, she becomes encased within a cocoon, within which she undergoes a physical transformation and sets out on a bloody rampage.
So where, you might ask, do the promised zombies and vampires come into play? Disappointingly, they don't. Cameron, the young lady who was bitten by the creature, transforms into a vampire-like creature, but actual vampires? Not in this book. And there is not a zombie in sight. Those who Cameron bites become enthralled to her and do her bidding, but I would hardly call this a zombie. A vampire-like servant to the vampire-like creature? Yes, but zombies? That's pushing it.
The fact that the book does not deliver what it promises is a disappointment and a failure, and it's the first of many in Terror Town. The first major failure, in my opinion, is the number of monsters Daley attempts to incorporate in this novel. Sadistic killer, mutant spiders, vampire-like creatures and their servants. It's too becomes too much; the reader ends up rolling his/her eyes and thinks, "Okay, what else is he going to throw in here next?" Sometimes less is more. Pick one baddie, two at the most, and go with it.
Another fail in this book is the excessive gore. I'm not usually one to complain about the amount of blood and guts spilled in a book—I loved the whole extreme horror of the Splatterpunk movement—but it needs to be done well. The descriptions contained within Daley's novel are almost laughable, with the skulls that broke with a POP! It's like a bad B movie where they want to see just how far they can go to sicken the viewer (reader), but in the end it becomes a joke. Think Dead Alive, one of the goriest movies ever made; the blood fest is so excessive you can't help but laugh at it. It's almost as if Daley is attempting to overachieve in order to detract from the sloppy writing. Notice I said sloppy, not bad.
While the book on the whole is not badly written, it is in desperate need of an editor and a proofreader to clean up the text. Daley, in his attempt to creative as graphic an image as possible, tends to overwrite. When describing teeth, he says they are "like needles, like knives." Needle brings to mind images of a rattlesnake with their thin, venom-injecting fangs; knives generate an image of pointed, wider, dagger-like teeth, the teeth of a carnivore. Pick one, needle or knives, not both.
Another area where the book could have benefited from an editor/proofreader's eye is with author's misuse of words and the cleanup of additional words contained within sentences. There are numerous instances where the wrong words have been used—"option" where it is clear "opinion" should have been used—and repeated instances where additional words appear in within a sentence, for example, "he pointed it the gun at". Happening once or twice can be forgiven, but the number of times this type of error occurs is sloppy. There's also a point where Hellboy, William's pure-breed boxer is described as having a stumpy little tail, typical of boxers, but later on, when the creatures are struggling to emerge from the basement, the dog is described as have its tail between its legs. Last time I checked, a stumpy little tail couldn't drop between the legs.
Had the manuscript been turned over to a trained eye, what turned out to be a barely passable read could have been elevated to an okay read. Had Daley tightened up his story line a little more, choosing to keep his creature count to a minimum instead of the Monster Mash it was, the okay read might very well have made the move to a good read. But as it stands now, it's just a mish-mash mess that should be passed over, not passed on.
Daley paints a portrait of a picturesque little town, but like most towns, no matter how quaint they seem on the outside, there's always a darkness that lurks in the heart of some, if not all, of its residents. Of all the town's resident, Nicolas Nehalem has perhaps the darkest heart. Despite the worn exterior of his house, the interior is meticulously maintained, which only serves to deepen the horror of what lies beneath. Beneath the cellar, in a subcellar of his house is a torture chamber with two occupants.
It's obvious from their physical condition—caged, with missing fingers and toes and emaciated to the point their ribs are visible—that Olive Thrift and Cathy Eldritch have been held captive in Nehalem's Chamber of Horrors for quite some time.
Daley makes it a point to emphasize the third cage in his description of the subcellar, and Nicolas' apparent displeasure that the third cage is unoccupied. This sets the stage for what could be a thrilling psychological horror novel, but you are left wondering what this has to do with the book's description, which promises vampires and zombies.
Daley then introduces the reader to Daniel McGee, a summer resident of the town of Cloven Rock. He is in the process of renovating his home with the hopes of making it a full-time residence. While working in the basement, he discovers the existence of a sub-basement, which he proceeds to explore. However, upon his initial attempt to check out the place, he never reaches the bottom. The sudden drop in temperature combined with the impenetrable darkness and the mysterious sounds propel him toward the surface. Right away you assume this might be the lair of the promised vampires, but no. When Daniel returns in the company of friends to continue his exploration of the basement, he uncovers the lair of the mutated spider/crab hybrids, one huge one and a bunch of smaller ones that have hatched from a bunch of egg sacs.
One of Dan's friends is devoured by the huge monstrosity, and another of his friends has been bitten and stung by the creature. The bite or the sting, it's never clear which, triggers a metamorphosis, and the young lady turns into a rage-filled lunatic who turns on her friends. But that's only the beginning. Shortly, she becomes encased within a cocoon, within which she undergoes a physical transformation and sets out on a bloody rampage.
So where, you might ask, do the promised zombies and vampires come into play? Disappointingly, they don't. Cameron, the young lady who was bitten by the creature, transforms into a vampire-like creature, but actual vampires? Not in this book. And there is not a zombie in sight. Those who Cameron bites become enthralled to her and do her bidding, but I would hardly call this a zombie. A vampire-like servant to the vampire-like creature? Yes, but zombies? That's pushing it.
The fact that the book does not deliver what it promises is a disappointment and a failure, and it's the first of many in Terror Town. The first major failure, in my opinion, is the number of monsters Daley attempts to incorporate in this novel. Sadistic killer, mutant spiders, vampire-like creatures and their servants. It's too becomes too much; the reader ends up rolling his/her eyes and thinks, "Okay, what else is he going to throw in here next?" Sometimes less is more. Pick one baddie, two at the most, and go with it.
Another fail in this book is the excessive gore. I'm not usually one to complain about the amount of blood and guts spilled in a book—I loved the whole extreme horror of the Splatterpunk movement—but it needs to be done well. The descriptions contained within Daley's novel are almost laughable, with the skulls that broke with a POP! It's like a bad B movie where they want to see just how far they can go to sicken the viewer (reader), but in the end it becomes a joke. Think Dead Alive, one of the goriest movies ever made; the blood fest is so excessive you can't help but laugh at it. It's almost as if Daley is attempting to overachieve in order to detract from the sloppy writing. Notice I said sloppy, not bad.
While the book on the whole is not badly written, it is in desperate need of an editor and a proofreader to clean up the text. Daley, in his attempt to creative as graphic an image as possible, tends to overwrite. When describing teeth, he says they are "like needles, like knives." Needle brings to mind images of a rattlesnake with their thin, venom-injecting fangs; knives generate an image of pointed, wider, dagger-like teeth, the teeth of a carnivore. Pick one, needle or knives, not both.
Another area where the book could have benefited from an editor/proofreader's eye is with author's misuse of words and the cleanup of additional words contained within sentences. There are numerous instances where the wrong words have been used—"option" where it is clear "opinion" should have been used—and repeated instances where additional words appear in within a sentence, for example, "he pointed it the gun at". Happening once or twice can be forgiven, but the number of times this type of error occurs is sloppy. There's also a point where Hellboy, William's pure-breed boxer is described as having a stumpy little tail, typical of boxers, but later on, when the creatures are struggling to emerge from the basement, the dog is described as have its tail between its legs. Last time I checked, a stumpy little tail couldn't drop between the legs.
Had the manuscript been turned over to a trained eye, what turned out to be a barely passable read could have been elevated to an okay read. Had Daley tightened up his story line a little more, choosing to keep his creature count to a minimum instead of the Monster Mash it was, the okay read might very well have made the move to a good read. But as it stands now, it's just a mish-mash mess that should be passed over, not passed on.
October 12, 2011
I received a complimentary copy of Terror Town in exchange for review.
What a frightfully good read! This book brought back childhood fears that were long forgotten, but are now fresh in my mind once again. As a child I always knew there were monsters in the basement, and psycho killers living in the house down the street. Terror Town has brought them all back to life for me. I'm not sure if I'll have nightmares tonight, about my friends and family turning into razor sharp, needle toothed creatures, or whether I'll have pleasant dreams of the lazy Saturday afternoons I spent as a kid watching creature double feature while thumbing through much beloved copies of the old horror comic books. Terror Town brought those memories back for me too. I would recommend this book to any horror fan who's looking for a scary good time.
What a frightfully good read! This book brought back childhood fears that were long forgotten, but are now fresh in my mind once again. As a child I always knew there were monsters in the basement, and psycho killers living in the house down the street. Terror Town has brought them all back to life for me. I'm not sure if I'll have nightmares tonight, about my friends and family turning into razor sharp, needle toothed creatures, or whether I'll have pleasant dreams of the lazy Saturday afternoons I spent as a kid watching creature double feature while thumbing through much beloved copies of the old horror comic books. Terror Town brought those memories back for me too. I would recommend this book to any horror fan who's looking for a scary good time.
July 27, 2023
This book starts off great and goes downhill quick in the second half. I love books about vampires, zombies and serial killers. Why wouldn't I love this right? I mean it has all three! It's just a jumbled mess by the end. Suddenly, you find yourself anxious to be done with the book. The writing itself doesn't follow any rules you learned about in your high school English classes. The violence is there just to be there. There's no build up to it, it's not scary, just violent...much like the other book I read of his called The Dead Parade. Daley's horror novels are basically perfect scripts for bad Sci Fi Channel movies. And much like a Sci Fi Channel movie, the plot is intriguing but the execution is weak...
March 17, 2020
3/5 Stars ⭐️
Terror Town was a very interesting read. And, like the quote on the back of the book says, it is certainly not for the faint of heart. There was a lot of gore; I mean, a lot. Maybe a little too much. It felt like the author just came up with whatever sick thing popped inside his head and wrote it down like word vomit. You start with the discovery of creepy spider/crab things and then the story just keeps escalating from there. Throw in a deranged serial killer and some zombies, and you’ve got yourself a good horror novel. Seriously, the story doesn’t stop, which is probably why I liked it so much. It was very creepy and some parts made me hold my breath and have to look away. Overall, it was a great horror read, and my only two problems with it were the amount of gratuitous gore and the editing. There were so many spelling mistakes and missed words that it sometimes took away from my enjoyment of the book. But, it was good and I would recommend it to serious horror lovers. Just make sure you have a strong stomach.
Terror Town was a very interesting read. And, like the quote on the back of the book says, it is certainly not for the faint of heart. There was a lot of gore; I mean, a lot. Maybe a little too much. It felt like the author just came up with whatever sick thing popped inside his head and wrote it down like word vomit. You start with the discovery of creepy spider/crab things and then the story just keeps escalating from there. Throw in a deranged serial killer and some zombies, and you’ve got yourself a good horror novel. Seriously, the story doesn’t stop, which is probably why I liked it so much. It was very creepy and some parts made me hold my breath and have to look away. Overall, it was a great horror read, and my only two problems with it were the amount of gratuitous gore and the editing. There were so many spelling mistakes and missed words that it sometimes took away from my enjoyment of the book. But, it was good and I would recommend it to serious horror lovers. Just make sure you have a strong stomach.
September 17, 2020
Not bad
Really my only complaint was the rather abrupt ending. Other than that, a great scary read for all horror lovers
Really my only complaint was the rather abrupt ending. Other than that, a great scary read for all horror lovers
May 3, 2014
Terror Town begins with a man finding a hidden trapdoor to a seemingly bottomless pit in the basement of his summer home, and soon enlists the help of a few friends to investigate, unwittingly setting off a chain of events that threaten to destroy the town.
I was set to like this book after readying the sample, but the initial plot has little to do with the overall story really. Let me start with the good. The writing is decent, but could have done with more editing. I noticed a number of distracting spelling and continuity errors that marred it, though not enough to be a true issue. Secondly, Daley knows how to write interesting, convincing back stories for his characters, though unfortunately the reader will see that this talent is largely wasted amidst the plot. It's no spoiler to say that the survival rate is very low in the book - the author usually tells you far ahead of time that someone is going to die. This sucks a lot of the tension and emotional investment (whatever is possible before a character dies) out of things quickly.
Unfortunately, the character dialogue is very stilted at times, both towards formality and coyness. The latter is particularly bizarre considering the unrelenting brutality of the book. Having a character say "oh man, this is terrible" after having vividly describing someone else's head being caved in felt wooden. Secondly, the characters often spend far too much time in their own heads, even when they're supposed to be numbed into shock.This is especially true during what were supposed to be tense action scenes that allow the character so much time to think I could only imagine the monster who was rushing at them standing off to one side checking its watch as the character ponders the impossibility of it all and what they should do next.
Another positive, for some, is that if you like torture porn, sadism, gore, and brutality, then this book will be right up your alley. The book is unflinching and no one is safe from death. I have no problem with this aspect - books like Clickers are very similar. Daley takes it to the extreme though, turning it into an almost parody at times, and by the end the whole shock has worn off and become a tedious slog through another long description of death and mayhem. Perhaps this was a purposeful attempt to shock the reader into the same numbness that the characters feel at the actions before them, but as a reader I'm not interested in paying someone else for that feeling.
Ultimately, this piggybacks on the big problem of this book - that shocking and graphic description of atrocities was in lieu of a cohesive story. There feels like three different novels are present piecemeal here, each of them appealing to a different audience. None of them feel fleshed out, complete, or satisfying as a result, and only the barest level of internal logic exists.The story is helped along by a combination of bad luck, convenient coincidence, and absurd levels of stupidity on the part of the characters. In this way the plot only serves as a conveyor belt to carry the story from one contrivance to the next and to offer the characters up to the next atrocity.
I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. It's too focused on shock value, too schizophrenic, and ultimately just not fun to read unless you're a torture porn fan.
I was set to like this book after readying the sample, but the initial plot has little to do with the overall story really. Let me start with the good. The writing is decent, but could have done with more editing. I noticed a number of distracting spelling and continuity errors that marred it, though not enough to be a true issue. Secondly, Daley knows how to write interesting, convincing back stories for his characters, though unfortunately the reader will see that this talent is largely wasted amidst the plot. It's no spoiler to say that the survival rate is very low in the book - the author usually tells you far ahead of time that someone is going to die. This sucks a lot of the tension and emotional investment (whatever is possible before a character dies) out of things quickly.
Unfortunately, the character dialogue is very stilted at times, both towards formality and coyness. The latter is particularly bizarre considering the unrelenting brutality of the book. Having a character say "oh man, this is terrible" after having vividly describing someone else's head being caved in felt wooden. Secondly, the characters often spend far too much time in their own heads, even when they're supposed to be numbed into shock.This is especially true during what were supposed to be tense action scenes that allow the character so much time to think I could only imagine the monster who was rushing at them standing off to one side checking its watch as the character ponders the impossibility of it all and what they should do next.
Another positive, for some, is that if you like torture porn, sadism, gore, and brutality, then this book will be right up your alley. The book is unflinching and no one is safe from death. I have no problem with this aspect - books like Clickers are very similar. Daley takes it to the extreme though, turning it into an almost parody at times, and by the end the whole shock has worn off and become a tedious slog through another long description of death and mayhem. Perhaps this was a purposeful attempt to shock the reader into the same numbness that the characters feel at the actions before them, but as a reader I'm not interested in paying someone else for that feeling.
Ultimately, this piggybacks on the big problem of this book - that shocking and graphic description of atrocities was in lieu of a cohesive story. There feels like three different novels are present piecemeal here, each of them appealing to a different audience. None of them feel fleshed out, complete, or satisfying as a result, and only the barest level of internal logic exists.The story is helped along by a combination of bad luck, convenient coincidence, and absurd levels of stupidity on the part of the characters. In this way the plot only serves as a conveyor belt to carry the story from one contrivance to the next and to offer the characters up to the next atrocity.
I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. It's too focused on shock value, too schizophrenic, and ultimately just not fun to read unless you're a torture porn fan.
July 20, 2014
There were so many ideas bursting forth from James Roy Daley's Terror Town, that I wondered just how any author could juggle them all sufficiently in a novel of less than 350 pages. The answer, as it turned out, was that many ideas can be juggled, just don't expect them all to stay in the air for long.
This is a real pity, as I believe Daley could one day be a great horror writer. His prose reads easily, in that it's not unnecessarily padded, yet I never lost my place with what was happening and to whom. Some of the dialogue at the beginning of the novel felt a little awkward and ill-placed (especially when some of the older characters were talking like people in their late teens or early 20s), but settled to the point where it read fine once the action got rolling.
And that action is one of the strengths of Daley's work. So, rest assured, there's plenty of it and it rarely lets up. His other main strength is his creature design. If only this whole book had have been about the nasty creature living deep beneath one of the main character's homes, than this could have been truly great. As it is, we switch between this monster and a psychopath who has apparently been living in town for years kidnapping girls and murdering countless others. Unfortunately, this plot-line just isn't as strong and soon seems to be getting in the way of the monster mayhem that is happening simultaneously a block or two away.
More problematically, Daley opts to switch manically between POVs with one being the omnipotent narrator who spoils numerous characters' fates long before they're apparent, robbing the novel of some much needed tension. It's just not fun reading that character X is doomed to die, and rather than him or her meeting their grisly end within a few pages (where such a device can often work well), they end up surviving for almost the entire book. Daley also leaves most of his established characters at about the two-thirds mark of the novel to follow a developing plot thread that involves an almost entirely new set of characters that the reader has no investment in. And then there's the extremely abrupt ending ...
Here's to more straight forward creature features from the author in future, because let me tell you, the beast in this is the stuff of nightmares.
2 Beasts in the Bunker for Terror Town.
This is a real pity, as I believe Daley could one day be a great horror writer. His prose reads easily, in that it's not unnecessarily padded, yet I never lost my place with what was happening and to whom. Some of the dialogue at the beginning of the novel felt a little awkward and ill-placed (especially when some of the older characters were talking like people in their late teens or early 20s), but settled to the point where it read fine once the action got rolling.
And that action is one of the strengths of Daley's work. So, rest assured, there's plenty of it and it rarely lets up. His other main strength is his creature design. If only this whole book had have been about the nasty creature living deep beneath one of the main character's homes, than this could have been truly great. As it is, we switch between this monster and a psychopath who has apparently been living in town for years kidnapping girls and murdering countless others. Unfortunately, this plot-line just isn't as strong and soon seems to be getting in the way of the monster mayhem that is happening simultaneously a block or two away.
More problematically, Daley opts to switch manically between POVs with one being the omnipotent narrator who spoils numerous characters' fates long before they're apparent, robbing the novel of some much needed tension. It's just not fun reading that character X is doomed to die, and rather than him or her meeting their grisly end within a few pages (where such a device can often work well), they end up surviving for almost the entire book. Daley also leaves most of his established characters at about the two-thirds mark of the novel to follow a developing plot thread that involves an almost entirely new set of characters that the reader has no investment in. And then there's the extremely abrupt ending ...
Here's to more straight forward creature features from the author in future, because let me tell you, the beast in this is the stuff of nightmares.
2 Beasts in the Bunker for Terror Town.
December 5, 2011
I wish I could give this good ratings but I can't. There was so much potential here only to have it squandered by trying to be everything to everybody. We have a deranged serial killer, unidentified new species, a bug like species that can turn people into vampires and a secret cavern under a house. So many themes to choose from. Someone needs to tell Mr. Daley that too much of a good thing (horror) can lead to junk.
Also...from a medical standpoint you can't keep someone in a cramped cage for 14 years. This person should be dead long before that from malnutrition, skin breakdown, infections, etc.
I did manage to finish this so it didn't get a one. A book has to be really horrible not to finish. I think Daley could have gotten 2-3 different books out of these themes but he tried to cram it all into one to the point that it didn't really make any sense. Also....the ending sucked.
Also...from a medical standpoint you can't keep someone in a cramped cage for 14 years. This person should be dead long before that from malnutrition, skin breakdown, infections, etc.
I did manage to finish this so it didn't get a one. A book has to be really horrible not to finish. I think Daley could have gotten 2-3 different books out of these themes but he tried to cram it all into one to the point that it didn't really make any sense. Also....the ending sucked.
May 17, 2013
Not for the faint of heart. Terror Town is like a monster movie combined with a serial killer movie. I couldn't put it down. There's some really cool monster stuff in here that totally surprised me. Daley puts a unique spin on a classic monster premise that I thought was totally original and awesome. It's dark, dark, dark! I'm also impressed with Daley's writing style. It's very smooth, poetic, and ironic. There were lots of things in it that made me laugh, purely because of his interesting turns of phrase. It made me think of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies. Even though it's terrifying, funny little things happen constantly. Things that are so over the top, but Daley is so understated about it, you have to laugh. I can also see a resemblance to Stephen King, but darker, scarier and more intense than King ever was. If you love monster movies and break-neck horror, this book will kick you in the face and you will like it.
January 25, 2012
Fairly disappointing read. I think the combination of crab-like critters and vampires was a bit confusing. Never understood what the correlation was, it seemed like the author was just trying to throw stuff in there at random. I did like the psychotic nicholas character, that is one messed up individual! Ultimately though, I found the story hard to get into, pacing was slow. I think Mr Daley could have cut out half of the story, and tightened up the pacing, and this would have been so much better.
June 12, 2011
A good gore story with monsters, vampires, and a psychopath. The gore was written well, better than many other gore novels I have read. An early interaction among the characters was poorly done, and the denouement left too many loose threads--it was fair at best. Still, it was a good read, and I will read more of this author's work.
February 2, 2015
Vampires, zombies and giant crabs (Toto I don't think we're in Kansas anymore) along with plenty of bloody mayhem and gruesomeness should make for an interesting read but somehow, doesn't. No real explanation for how or why all hell breaks lose. I didn't care about any of the characters and somehow the unending scenes of violence became boring the last fourth of the book.
October 24, 2016
Good, fast read. The antagonist Nicholas went on a killing spree, and Daniel/Betty/Patrick and party were all just bystanders in the mayhem after leaving the basement door open. Wished the book would have gone on for a few more chapters to explain what happened to Cameron (the transformed girl who was stabbed with poison).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2011
Sometimes I read for inspiration. Sometimes I read for fun. This one was fun.
February 20, 2012
Good book...
August 30, 2012
Possibly the sickest, most disturbing and discomforting creatures ive ever endured reading a story about. I could have nightmares about these things. A disturbingly great read
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