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Blood Games
College friends Helen, Cora, Vivian, Finley and Abilene all meet up for one week every year. Helen has a taste for horror, and this year she has chosen the Totem Pole Lodge, a deserted hotel in the backwoods with a sinister past. But the girls soon find it is not as deserted as they thought.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published September 24, 1992
197 people are currently reading
1866 people want to read
About the author
Richard Laymon
216 books2,270 followersRichard Laymon was born in Chicago and grew up in California. He earned a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, and a report writer for a law firm, and was the author of more than thirty acclaimed novels.
He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier, and in anthologies including Modern Masters of Horror.
He died from a massive heart attack on February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day).
Also published under the name Richard Kelly
He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier, and in anthologies including Modern Masters of Horror.
He died from a massive heart attack on February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day).
Also published under the name Richard Kelly
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
October 5, 2020
Five girlfriends spend some time at the Totem Pole Lodge, a derelict lodge where something terrible happened some years ago. They have fun and remember good old time at the university. At parts we always return to the Balmore Girls and what a great heap they were (I especially liked the Halloween episode and what they did to their supervisor). Someone observes the young ladies and soon one of them is missing. Who captured her? What is Batty (an old hermit) having in mind? Then they find Jim who says they have to be afraid of his elder brother Hank. Is there a connection to the prior murders at the lodge? Some chapters are really intriguing and you want to know if our girl power group will survive their trip. But then we have interwoven former journey and their exploits at the university. This drags the story to an extreme extent. At the end, the last 30%, the story is very tedious and it's very obvious where Laymon will lead us. Certainly one of his better stories but I didn't like the fact that he had to stretch his main plot with interwoven tales. Of course the girls stripped naked, one was heavy breasted, there was a Peeping Tom... It was okay but definitely not his best.
July 13, 2025
Creepy page turner!
A little back story for you readers:
The story revolves around five friends that have been together since college and every year they have a reunion to relive old times. This time the friend Helen gets to choose where they are going to have their reunion and she picks a place called the Totem Pole Lodge which is a deserted hotel as something horrific happened there a long time ago, but she doesn't divulge that information to her friends.
Thoughts:
Though the story was really good the book was a little drawn out as not much happened till I got to about halfway through the book and that is quite a long way as the book has over 450 pages. There are quite a few chapters that go back to the past explaining how the characters all came together and it tells stories about each character, which was okay as it gives more details about the character depth, but it just made the story longer.
After the halfway mark of the book, then things start happening and the friends start having problems with someone roaming around the lodge. From then on the book starts heating up and then it all hits the fan as the "someone" makes himself known in a horrifying way!
The book was tense, suspenseful and intense! Kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end of the book! Giving this one four Scary Slasher stars.
A little back story for you readers:
The story revolves around five friends that have been together since college and every year they have a reunion to relive old times. This time the friend Helen gets to choose where they are going to have their reunion and she picks a place called the Totem Pole Lodge which is a deserted hotel as something horrific happened there a long time ago, but she doesn't divulge that information to her friends.
Thoughts:
Though the story was really good the book was a little drawn out as not much happened till I got to about halfway through the book and that is quite a long way as the book has over 450 pages. There are quite a few chapters that go back to the past explaining how the characters all came together and it tells stories about each character, which was okay as it gives more details about the character depth, but it just made the story longer.
After the halfway mark of the book, then things start happening and the friends start having problems with someone roaming around the lodge. From then on the book starts heating up and then it all hits the fan as the "someone" makes himself known in a horrifying way!
The book was tense, suspenseful and intense! Kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end of the book! Giving this one four Scary Slasher stars.
June 1, 2023
Wow. Impossible to put down.
November 29, 2015
This laymon book is definitely one of his better reads. Everything seemed to flow just right and the action was placed strategically so as not to really bore you. The flashback chapters were the best parts. Really enjoyed reading the antics of 5 college girls, so much so that I wished I could have been apart of their group. It was creepy and plain weird in some parts, but maybe that's why I enjoy laymon. Just a full and satisfying read. 5 stars for me.
August 21, 2020
A group of five twenty-somethings meet up for a week's holiday - their annual tradition since graduating college together. This year is horror fan Helen's turn to choose the destination and they arrive at an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere. The reason for it having gone out of business was due to a massacre that took place there several years ago. As the friends explore they discover that maybe the place isn't completely abandoned...
This was my first Laymon novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I know he has many fans but I also hear some negative things about his work such as the portrayal of his female characters. So I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of five well-written female characters here who were unique and well fleshed out with detailed back stories. Sure they also got naked quite frequently but it is fiction and entertaining fiction at that.
The novel includes flashback chapters throughout the story so we learn how the five characters met, how their friendship developed, and the crazy antics that they get up to over the years. I loved the friendship aspect of the story and I loved getting to know the characters, it really made me feel for them and so when some creepy stuff starts to occur I actually cared what would happen to them.
This is much more of a character driven story than I was expecting but it is also fast-paced and entertaining with some excellent moments of tension and bloodshed. My only real gripes were a few outdated attitudes including the references to the size and weight of one of the characters, and also the way an androgynous character was referred to. I believe these are unfortunate products of the time this was written.
I don't want to say too much more about this one as it would end up spoiling things but I do recommend it if you're looking for a horror novel set in a remote location with some badass female characters. There are also quite a few horror references throughout which I thought was really fun. I look forward to reading more Laymon!
This was my first Laymon novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I know he has many fans but I also hear some negative things about his work such as the portrayal of his female characters. So I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of five well-written female characters here who were unique and well fleshed out with detailed back stories. Sure they also got naked quite frequently but it is fiction and entertaining fiction at that.
The novel includes flashback chapters throughout the story so we learn how the five characters met, how their friendship developed, and the crazy antics that they get up to over the years. I loved the friendship aspect of the story and I loved getting to know the characters, it really made me feel for them and so when some creepy stuff starts to occur I actually cared what would happen to them.
This is much more of a character driven story than I was expecting but it is also fast-paced and entertaining with some excellent moments of tension and bloodshed. My only real gripes were a few outdated attitudes including the references to the size and weight of one of the characters, and also the way an androgynous character was referred to. I believe these are unfortunate products of the time this was written.
I don't want to say too much more about this one as it would end up spoiling things but I do recommend it if you're looking for a horror novel set in a remote location with some badass female characters. There are also quite a few horror references throughout which I thought was really fun. I look forward to reading more Laymon!
March 25, 2025
I did not like this book at all. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve been a fan of Laymon for a long time, but this felt like plain bad porno, if you ask me.
Women, nudity, and more nudity. I mean, I don’t mind a bit of skin from time to time, but for it to be repeated several times throughout the book? It just became boring and senseless. I wanted more blood, more running, more chasing—a higher body count is a must. In this genre, some characters don’t deserve to die, but oftentimes, it’s the best ones who do.
The women, for me, were shallow, made stupid decisions, and could’ve avoided the whole thing had they just run for the hills and never looked back.
Endless Night is still one of the best books Laymon has ever written, in my opinion. Skip this and go with that one instead.
Women, nudity, and more nudity. I mean, I don’t mind a bit of skin from time to time, but for it to be repeated several times throughout the book? It just became boring and senseless. I wanted more blood, more running, more chasing—a higher body count is a must. In this genre, some characters don’t deserve to die, but oftentimes, it’s the best ones who do.
The women, for me, were shallow, made stupid decisions, and could’ve avoided the whole thing had they just run for the hills and never looked back.
Endless Night is still one of the best books Laymon has ever written, in my opinion. Skip this and go with that one instead.
December 9, 2016
Most of us have fantasies, but I'm willing to bet that we normally don't want to publish them in novel form. But it seems like Richard Laymon has no problem expressing his deviant sexual wishes in Blood Games, a novel about five post-college women who explore the woods, a cabin, and themselves on a camping excursion to a supposedly haunted lodge. Laymon's protagonists are women, and he writes from the perspective of a woman - not strange, and many authors have done it well. But Laymon writes as though he watched a bunch of lesbian porn before and while penning the novel, then thought mimicking those films would be the most realistic plot device for his book.
The story follows Abilene, a young woman who accompanies her five friends into the woods for a reunion visit. Those friends are Finley, Helen, Cora, and Vivian, her college buddies who have decided that exploring a haunted lodge alone is their idea of fun. They spend a lot of their time swimming in pools, taking hikes, and stripping naked in front of each other before they realize that there's a killer watching them in the woods, just waiting to stab them in their nether regions with knives.
The first thing that most readers will notice about Blood Games is that it's written with male readers in mind. These girls have no problems taking their clothes off in front of each other, having sex orgies with each other, or filming each other in the shower. The eroticism apparent in these encounters isn't as sexy as it might seem - Laymon's prose feels lecherous, as though he's an old man writing about what he hopes college girls do with each other when they're at home alone. Their excuse for stripping off their clothes is about as detailed as "it's hot outside." Well, New York just went through a heat wave and I've yet to see any bare chests.
Still, the lesbian tendencies Laymon throws can be overlooked if there's a good story. But that's the problem - the girls' naked romps through the woods basically is the story. At about 500 pages, Blood Games is 40% dedicated to the girls' revenge on people in college, their treks through the woods, and the shapes of their bodies when they get naked to go swimming. This Girls Gone Wild approach doesn't really work that well - not only is it unbelievable, it's also boring. Laymon spends way too much time with overly detailed passages about walking in the woods or eating hot dogs, as though he had an agreement with his publisher to hit a certain page count.
And this is coming from a person who generally likes Laymon's work. There's just too much filler and not enough real action; then again, most of the action comes from passages like, "She was sweaty so she let her boobs hang out." (Laymon's a little more verbose than that.) What's worse though is the weird character developments late in the book. I just don't buy the fact that one of these women will seduce and strip a minor, then commit statutory rape in front of her friends. But I really don't buy the notion that the other girls might think this is normal and want to join in too!
Heed the warnings of the other reviewers that have read this book - Blood Games is a book you'll want to skip. It's like playing an endless game of Monopoly with a bunch of porn directors - and your grandfather.
Written for TheMoonisaDeadWorld.net
The story follows Abilene, a young woman who accompanies her five friends into the woods for a reunion visit. Those friends are Finley, Helen, Cora, and Vivian, her college buddies who have decided that exploring a haunted lodge alone is their idea of fun. They spend a lot of their time swimming in pools, taking hikes, and stripping naked in front of each other before they realize that there's a killer watching them in the woods, just waiting to stab them in their nether regions with knives.
The first thing that most readers will notice about Blood Games is that it's written with male readers in mind. These girls have no problems taking their clothes off in front of each other, having sex orgies with each other, or filming each other in the shower. The eroticism apparent in these encounters isn't as sexy as it might seem - Laymon's prose feels lecherous, as though he's an old man writing about what he hopes college girls do with each other when they're at home alone. Their excuse for stripping off their clothes is about as detailed as "it's hot outside." Well, New York just went through a heat wave and I've yet to see any bare chests.
Still, the lesbian tendencies Laymon throws can be overlooked if there's a good story. But that's the problem - the girls' naked romps through the woods basically is the story. At about 500 pages, Blood Games is 40% dedicated to the girls' revenge on people in college, their treks through the woods, and the shapes of their bodies when they get naked to go swimming. This Girls Gone Wild approach doesn't really work that well - not only is it unbelievable, it's also boring. Laymon spends way too much time with overly detailed passages about walking in the woods or eating hot dogs, as though he had an agreement with his publisher to hit a certain page count.
And this is coming from a person who generally likes Laymon's work. There's just too much filler and not enough real action; then again, most of the action comes from passages like, "She was sweaty so she let her boobs hang out." (Laymon's a little more verbose than that.) What's worse though is the weird character developments late in the book. I just don't buy the fact that one of these women will seduce and strip a minor, then commit statutory rape in front of her friends. But I really don't buy the notion that the other girls might think this is normal and want to join in too!
Heed the warnings of the other reviewers that have read this book - Blood Games is a book you'll want to skip. It's like playing an endless game of Monopoly with a bunch of porn directors - and your grandfather.
Written for TheMoonisaDeadWorld.net
April 8, 2019
Boring and uneventful. This book could've been half the length and still kept the same story. Not a typical Laymon novel.
August 31, 2023
I have only previously read two Laymon books and found this one the best so far. Looking at the reviews it certainly divides opinion. Some love it, others dislike it. Makes me wonder what my opinion will be on other Laymon books I have yet to read.
Five stars from me and I loved it!
The book features five friends, all female, who have been friends since college. They have a holiday adventure each year which one of them choses. Helen choses a visit to a lodge which has a sinister past. It becomes a lodge with a sinister present as the ladies realize they are not alone. Their stay becomes spookier, creepier, bloodier, and scarier.
What I loved about the book was the numerous chapters that detailed the five ladies’ friendship over the years with stories of what they have done in the past. It gave the characters more depth. I loved it as it had that “coming of age” vibe to it.
A great read!
Five stars from me and I loved it!
The book features five friends, all female, who have been friends since college. They have a holiday adventure each year which one of them choses. Helen choses a visit to a lodge which has a sinister past. It becomes a lodge with a sinister present as the ladies realize they are not alone. Their stay becomes spookier, creepier, bloodier, and scarier.
What I loved about the book was the numerous chapters that detailed the five ladies’ friendship over the years with stories of what they have done in the past. It gave the characters more depth. I loved it as it had that “coming of age” vibe to it.
A great read!
February 29, 2024
February's read for the Richard Laymon Book Club was Blood Games. It's alright but did feel overly long and found myself not really wanting to go back to finishing it. It may have been the fact I've read a couple of long books this month which may not of helped.
We follow five friends from college who now as adults catch up once a year to go on an adventure somewhere. This year its Helen's turn to pick and choice who chooses an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere backwoods country. Unknown to them the lodge was the scene of a massacre years prior and history may repeat itself.
I enjoyed the back and forth between present day at the lodge and the chapters of when the girls became friends in college and pranks they pulled and how there friendships developed. I liked the character of Finley who was the crazy one of the bunch and always horny. We meet a character named Batty who was also great and cruel.
Overall it's a good slasher story but is pretty lite on the horror/killing aspect. Its alot of build up and character development with a good ending but honestly could of been cut a hundred of so pages in my opinion.
We follow five friends from college who now as adults catch up once a year to go on an adventure somewhere. This year its Helen's turn to pick and choice who chooses an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere backwoods country. Unknown to them the lodge was the scene of a massacre years prior and history may repeat itself.
I enjoyed the back and forth between present day at the lodge and the chapters of when the girls became friends in college and pranks they pulled and how there friendships developed. I liked the character of Finley who was the crazy one of the bunch and always horny. We meet a character named Batty who was also great and cruel.
Overall it's a good slasher story but is pretty lite on the horror/killing aspect. Its alot of build up and character development with a good ending but honestly could of been cut a hundred of so pages in my opinion.
September 9, 2023
4.5 stars. This was a really fun and suspenseful read about a group of five former college friends who meet up for a reunion at a deserted lodge. It turns out that said lodge was the site of a brutal massacre years ago, and it’s been abandoned ever since. The girls then find themselves being stalked by someone—or something—and after one of the five is found murdered, the remaining four basically have to decide whether to attempt to leave, or to stay and exact bloody revenge on behalf of their friend.
This thing was part serious backwoods horror/slasher, and part pure pulp—and this is pulp as in you’ve got a crazy old hermaphroditic witch doctor who puts a “killing curse” on the girls by dancing around in the nude (sporting both an erection and some super saggy tits) while exuberantly waving some sort of large human bone in the air. You’ve also got a teenage boy who tells the girls that his brother, who was born without any eyelids, makes him lick his dry-ass eyeballs on the regular to keep them as moist as possible. That kind of pulp.
Anyway, while the first half of the book was admittedly often really goddamn slow, it picked up nicely in the second half, rapidly becoming a true page-turner I absolutely could not put down. I grew to like the girls more and more as it went along, so I was increasingly invested in their fates, plus there were more WTF moments toward the end as well, and if you’re a dork like me, that’s a pretty big part of the appeal of sick shit like this. Definitely recommended for Laymon fans—this is only my fifth by him, but so far I’m loving just how fucked-up he can be!
This thing was part serious backwoods horror/slasher, and part pure pulp—and this is pulp as in you’ve got a crazy old hermaphroditic witch doctor who puts a “killing curse” on the girls by dancing around in the nude (sporting both an erection and some super saggy tits) while exuberantly waving some sort of large human bone in the air. You’ve also got a teenage boy who tells the girls that his brother, who was born without any eyelids, makes him lick his dry-ass eyeballs on the regular to keep them as moist as possible. That kind of pulp.
Anyway, while the first half of the book was admittedly often really goddamn slow, it picked up nicely in the second half, rapidly becoming a true page-turner I absolutely could not put down. I grew to like the girls more and more as it went along, so I was increasingly invested in their fates, plus there were more WTF moments toward the end as well, and if you’re a dork like me, that’s a pretty big part of the appeal of sick shit like this. Definitely recommended for Laymon fans—this is only my fifth by him, but so far I’m loving just how fucked-up he can be!
September 25, 2020
Laymon, depending on the characters he develops, can really pull you into a story, and Blood Games stands out as one of his better novels. Thankfully, he drops his typical pervy guy as a narrator and the main protagonists here are five women, BFF since early college. The five women met during their freshman year and the novel flashes back on a regular basis to their earlier escapades, but the present has them going to an old abandoned lodge in Vermont. After graduation, the five decided that each year, they would meet up for a week of fun-- sans hubbies and kids. The first year post graduation (as we learn from the flashbacks) they ended up in NYC, the second year Northern California, and this year the lodge.
Helen, one of the five who is a huge horror fan, made the plan for the lodge, as it has a rather sordid past; 12 years ago, everyone in the lodge was butchered one night and it has been abandoned since. So, Helen plans on having a long weekend hanging with her BFFs at a spooky place, but they quickly realize that they may not be alone. The 'cabin in the woods' meme is long standing in genre, but Laymon gives it a nice twist-- these are not helpless co-eds, but a group of strong women who have overcome a range of adversity. Are they up to overcoming the lodge?
I really enjoyed the flashbacks and the character development that went with them. The five women pulled some rather crazy stunts via guile and planning that were outrageous and funny at the same time, and they were never caught. Together, they are resourceful and cunning, and Laymon focuses the stories around their actions rather than their bodies (although there are, of course, numerous references to their breasts-- the man is obsessive!), but this time they are playing for keeps. Although rather long, the text flows and we get some nice (although not entirely unpredictable) twists at the end. 3.5 stars rounding up!
Helen, one of the five who is a huge horror fan, made the plan for the lodge, as it has a rather sordid past; 12 years ago, everyone in the lodge was butchered one night and it has been abandoned since. So, Helen plans on having a long weekend hanging with her BFFs at a spooky place, but they quickly realize that they may not be alone. The 'cabin in the woods' meme is long standing in genre, but Laymon gives it a nice twist-- these are not helpless co-eds, but a group of strong women who have overcome a range of adversity. Are they up to overcoming the lodge?
I really enjoyed the flashbacks and the character development that went with them. The five women pulled some rather crazy stunts via guile and planning that were outrageous and funny at the same time, and they were never caught. Together, they are resourceful and cunning, and Laymon focuses the stories around their actions rather than their bodies (although there are, of course, numerous references to their breasts-- the man is obsessive!), but this time they are playing for keeps. Although rather long, the text flows and we get some nice (although not entirely unpredictable) twists at the end. 3.5 stars rounding up!
September 14, 2015
Creepy page turning slasher with a weird twist, but the ending was really not a surprise. Nice one :)
March 26, 2025
I’m continuing my quest to read all of Richard Laymon’s novels. There are more of them than I realized.
The women in this book are much braver than I would ever be. I definitely would not stay overnight at an abandoned lodge that was the scene of a horrific mass murder. But that’s what they decide to do. The frequent flashbacks to their college days and previous trips show just how confident they are.
The women in this book are much braver than I would ever be. I definitely would not stay overnight at an abandoned lodge that was the scene of a horrific mass murder. But that’s what they decide to do. The frequent flashbacks to their college days and previous trips show just how confident they are.
January 6, 2020
I'll start off by saying that this read was an IMMENSE struggle to finish; a real 'Why am I doing this to myself?!' slog. To begin with, the length of time it took to establish any of the characters + their stories was entirely too long. Some of their antics/prior histories were mildly entertaining, whilst others I had minute or no interest in.
I'm honestly not really sure what else to say as I took so so little away from this read. But as a small, final comment: this was my first Laymon read and it will certainly be my last.
I'm honestly not really sure what else to say as I took so so little away from this read. But as a small, final comment: this was my first Laymon read and it will certainly be my last.
September 22, 2011
I loved it ! Creeped me out ! Perfect for the upcoming Halloween season :). I felt like I was right there at the inn with them. The only part I didt like was the chapter about Cora's vacation. It seemed absurd to me. I plan on reading many more books by Laymon!
April 5, 2017
Review of BLOOD GAMES by Richard Laymon
Another outstanding novel by a Master of Horror, BLOOD GAMES focuses on five close-knit female friends, who met unexpectedly in college (the story of their meeting is hilarious), and since graduation have committed to spend one week together each year, on an “adventure” chosen by one of them (takin turns). This particular year, Helen chooses the Totem Pole Lodge, a long-abandoned Vermont resort. Helen is a lifelong horror fan, but she doesn't reveal her rationale for this choice until after the five women have arrived and tried to settle in.
As he did with NIGHT SHOW and DARKNESS, COME TELL US, Mr. Laymon wonderfully blends the potentially Supernatural with an encroaching human evil and provides monsters-in-human-form who will chill the blood of almost any reader (and likely bring on nightmares as well.)
Another outstanding novel by a Master of Horror, BLOOD GAMES focuses on five close-knit female friends, who met unexpectedly in college (the story of their meeting is hilarious), and since graduation have committed to spend one week together each year, on an “adventure” chosen by one of them (takin turns). This particular year, Helen chooses the Totem Pole Lodge, a long-abandoned Vermont resort. Helen is a lifelong horror fan, but she doesn't reveal her rationale for this choice until after the five women have arrived and tried to settle in.
As he did with NIGHT SHOW and DARKNESS, COME TELL US, Mr. Laymon wonderfully blends the potentially Supernatural with an encroaching human evil and provides monsters-in-human-form who will chill the blood of almost any reader (and likely bring on nightmares as well.)
did-not-finish
January 2, 2019Dnf 8%
Das war mein zweiter Versuch mit Laymon, nachdem ich letztes Jahr Die Insel gelesen hatte und mich das Buch auch schon nicht wirklich begeistern konnte. Da gab es einfach zu viele wippende Brüste, die die Spannung für mich immer wieder etwas zerstört haben.
In Das Treffen gab es hingegen noch gar keine Spannung. Gut, ich hab erst gute 60 Seiten, aber bei einem Thriller will ich eigentlich gleich gepackt werden. Ich hab das Buch jetzt auch einige Zeit pausiert und gemerkt, dass ich überhaupt kein Interesse habe, weiterzulesen. Inzwischen hab ich sogar mal durchgeblättert was noch passieren wird und ne...
Da ich viele meiner Thriller nicht kaufe, sondern gebraucht von meiner Mum bekomme, hab ich noch Furien, Rache und Das Loch von Laymon hier. Mal schauen, wann ich zu einem davon greife werde und ob das vielleicht mal ein Buch für mich ist.
Das war mein zweiter Versuch mit Laymon, nachdem ich letztes Jahr Die Insel gelesen hatte und mich das Buch auch schon nicht wirklich begeistern konnte. Da gab es einfach zu viele wippende Brüste, die die Spannung für mich immer wieder etwas zerstört haben.
In Das Treffen gab es hingegen noch gar keine Spannung. Gut, ich hab erst gute 60 Seiten, aber bei einem Thriller will ich eigentlich gleich gepackt werden. Ich hab das Buch jetzt auch einige Zeit pausiert und gemerkt, dass ich überhaupt kein Interesse habe, weiterzulesen. Inzwischen hab ich sogar mal durchgeblättert was noch passieren wird und ne...
Da ich viele meiner Thriller nicht kaufe, sondern gebraucht von meiner Mum bekomme, hab ich noch Furien, Rache und Das Loch von Laymon hier. Mal schauen, wann ich zu einem davon greife werde und ob das vielleicht mal ein Buch für mich ist.
July 24, 2020
Ultimate girls trips gone awry! I would be interested to see this story re-written or interpreted by a female author just out of morbid curiosity. Laymon is such a captivating author with diverse story lines. Loved this one!
November 17, 2024
Este ha sido el primer libro de Laymon que me ha costado terminar y eso que llevo 7 completados hasta la fecha, porque la verdad es que es un as entreteniendo en el género del terror. Sin embargo, con 'Blood Games' mis párpados han tenido que luchar contra el sueño en varios capítulos y, cuando la acción aparece, sigue sin compensar. Como escritor, algunos de sus detractores le suelen achacar lo malo que es describiendo el comportamiento de las mujeres, cosa que efectivamente a veces sucede con las escenas eróticas inverosímiles que introduce de forma gratuita, pero en su favor diré que por lo menos esos contenidos cumplen un fin claro, excitar al personal.
En esta novela esas escenas se producen, pero hay una diferencia con respecto a otras de sus obras, aquí el grupo de chicas sí está bien definido y tanto sus conversaciones anodinas como sus reacciones erráticas y caprichosas sí son realistas. Pues bien, ahora que sé que Laymon es capaz de ponerse en el cerebro de una mujer joven con éxito, no quiero volver a verlo nunca más, el tiempo que pierde con nimiedades, con cambios de ropa, con rodeos y rodeos sobre lo mismo, con indecisiones y con flashbacks de travesuras colegiales sin chicha, es insultante. No sé qué le llevó a tomar ese camino, porque la premisa prometía con esa pensión alejada de la civilización y marcada por el asesinato, es como si te presentaran un plato de cocina con la apariencia de 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' y luego al tomar un bocado su sabor fuese el de 'American Pie'. Un despropósito.
ENGLISH
This has been the first Laymon book that I have had a hard time finishing and I have completed 7 to date, because the truth is that he is an ace in entertaining in the horror genre. However, with 'Blood Games' my eyelids have had to fight sleep in several chapters and, when the action appears, it still does not compensate. As a writer, some of his detractors often blame him for how bad he is at describing women's behavior, which actually sometimes happens with the implausible erotic scenes that he introduces for free, but in his favor I will say that at least those contents comply a clear goal, to excite the staff.
In this novel these scenes occur, but there is a difference with respect to other of his works, here the group of girls is well defined and both their anodyne conversations and their erratic and capricious reactions are realistic. Well, now that I know that Laymon is able to successfully put himself in the brain of a young woman, I never want to see him doing that again, the time he wastes with trifles, with changes of clothes, with detours and detours about the same thing, with indecisions and flashbacks of college antics without chicha, it is insulting. I don't know what led him to take that path, because the premise was promising with that totem pole lodge far from civilization and marked by murder, it's as if you were presented with a plate of cuisine that looked like 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' and then when you take a bite it tasted like 'American Pie'. A nonsense.
En esta novela esas escenas se producen, pero hay una diferencia con respecto a otras de sus obras, aquí el grupo de chicas sí está bien definido y tanto sus conversaciones anodinas como sus reacciones erráticas y caprichosas sí son realistas. Pues bien, ahora que sé que Laymon es capaz de ponerse en el cerebro de una mujer joven con éxito, no quiero volver a verlo nunca más, el tiempo que pierde con nimiedades, con cambios de ropa, con rodeos y rodeos sobre lo mismo, con indecisiones y con flashbacks de travesuras colegiales sin chicha, es insultante. No sé qué le llevó a tomar ese camino, porque la premisa prometía con esa pensión alejada de la civilización y marcada por el asesinato, es como si te presentaran un plato de cocina con la apariencia de 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' y luego al tomar un bocado su sabor fuese el de 'American Pie'. Un despropósito.
ENGLISH
This has been the first Laymon book that I have had a hard time finishing and I have completed 7 to date, because the truth is that he is an ace in entertaining in the horror genre. However, with 'Blood Games' my eyelids have had to fight sleep in several chapters and, when the action appears, it still does not compensate. As a writer, some of his detractors often blame him for how bad he is at describing women's behavior, which actually sometimes happens with the implausible erotic scenes that he introduces for free, but in his favor I will say that at least those contents comply a clear goal, to excite the staff.
In this novel these scenes occur, but there is a difference with respect to other of his works, here the group of girls is well defined and both their anodyne conversations and their erratic and capricious reactions are realistic. Well, now that I know that Laymon is able to successfully put himself in the brain of a young woman, I never want to see him doing that again, the time he wastes with trifles, with changes of clothes, with detours and detours about the same thing, with indecisions and flashbacks of college antics without chicha, it is insulting. I don't know what led him to take that path, because the premise was promising with that totem pole lodge far from civilization and marked by murder, it's as if you were presented with a plate of cuisine that looked like 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' and then when you take a bite it tasted like 'American Pie'. A nonsense.
July 22, 2020
А най-плашещото е, че ми остават само десетина романа от чичо Дик и край - повече няма и то при положение, че се четат за ден парчето.
Игри на кръвта е книга от средата на творчеството на Леймън, точно онази среда, където се губи първоначалния устрем, а натрупания опит не е достатъчен за добра рутина. Имаме две сюжетни линии - главна и ретроспективна, като втората е използвана за пълнеж на страници, както в по-ранните му произведения (Малакаса пойнт примерно). Добре че опитът си казва думата и Леймън нетипично успява да вкара повече кръв в героите си, благодарение на ретроспекцията, както и една минорна крими нишка.
Абълийн, Кора, Финли, Хелън и Вивиан са пет приятелки от колежа, които се събират всяка година да си припомнят старите дни. Условието е една да избере мястото и никой да не се дърпа. Тази година Хелън - хорър ентусиаст - ще ги закара в изоставен спа хотел, сцена на масово убийство от преди петнайсетина години. На момичетата започват да се случват зловещи неща още от пристигането, а на първата вечер Хелън изчезва. Това, имайки предвид кой е авторът, няма как да завърши добре.
Отново се смях с глас повече на някой от коментарите тук, от колкото на самата книга. Не било реалистично, било сексистко, момичетата не правили така... ми момичетата на Леймън така правят - имат цици и обичат да си ги показват. Колкото дали е нереалистично, то пък дърт хермафродит вуду магьосник и селтак албинос психопат без клепачи - каквито са главните антагонисти, са супер сериозно реалистични.
Казах го и по-горе, но пак да повторя - ретроспективните моменти на петте героини бяха страшно за��авни и помогнаха за дълбочина на характерите, които иначе бяха като изкарани от ситком. А момента, когато петте напиха един непълнолетен сърфист и буквално го изнасилиха ме разсмя брутално.
Игри на кръвта е книга от средата на творчеството на Леймън, точно онази среда, където се губи първоначалния устрем, а натрупания опит не е достатъчен за добра рутина. Имаме две сюжетни линии - главна и ретроспективна, като втората е използвана за пълнеж на страници, както в по-ранните му произведения (Малакаса пойнт примерно). Добре че опитът си казва думата и Леймън нетипично успява да вкара повече кръв в героите си, благодарение на ретроспекцията, както и една минорна крими нишка.
Абълийн, Кора, Финли, Хелън и Вивиан са пет приятелки от колежа, които се събират всяка година да си припомнят старите дни. Условието е една да избере мястото и никой да не се дърпа. Тази година Хелън - хорър ентусиаст - ще ги закара в изоставен спа хотел, сцена на масово убийство от преди петнайсетина години. На момичетата започват да се случват зловещи неща още от пристигането, а на първата вечер Хелън изчезва. Това, имайки предвид кой е авторът, няма как да завърши добре.
Отново се смях с глас повече на някой от коментарите тук, от колкото на самата книга. Не било реалистично, било сексистко, момичетата не правили така... ми момичетата на Леймън така правят - имат цици и обичат да си ги показват. Колкото дали е нереалистично, то пък дърт хермафродит вуду магьосник и селтак албинос психопат без клепачи - каквито са главните антагонисти, са супер сериозно реалистични.
Казах го и по-горе, но пак да повторя - ретроспективните моменти на петте героини бяха страшно за��авни и помогнаха за дълбочина на характерите, които иначе бяха като изкарани от ситком. А момента, когато петте напиха един непълнолетен сърфист и буквално го изнасилиха ме разсмя брутално.
August 2, 2023
Blood Games was my first Richard Laymon and I'm a little torn. Parts of the book read as though they were written by a fourteen year old boy who has recently found his dad's Penthouse magazine stash. Every single scene does not require a full report on what each female character's breasts are doing. The way Laymon wrote his female characters feels quite pervy at times. BUT with all that being said, I really enjoyed the story in general.
Take out the teenage fantasy descriptions and you have a solid slasher book that doesn't shy away from the brutality of the situation. It was a lot of fun to read, and despite the constant cringy descriptions of breasts and rumps, I had a blast reading Blood Games and I think it deserves the four stars I've given it. If Goodreads offered half stars, it probably would have been a 3.5, but three stars feels too low for the enjoyment I got.
I'm definitely gonna read more of his work. I might even start keeping count if the 'rumps' 🙃
Take out the teenage fantasy descriptions and you have a solid slasher book that doesn't shy away from the brutality of the situation. It was a lot of fun to read, and despite the constant cringy descriptions of breasts and rumps, I had a blast reading Blood Games and I think it deserves the four stars I've given it. If Goodreads offered half stars, it probably would have been a 3.5, but three stars feels too low for the enjoyment I got.
I'm definitely gonna read more of his work. I might even start keeping count if the 'rumps' 🙃
February 2, 2021
2.5
This should have been a horror novel?
I'm sorry to say that this book was such a waste of time.
The book could've been so much better. The setting was perfect, the story was interesting, but there was no action, no creepy atmosphere...nothing. Instead of that I read pages and pages about the lodge, about the pool, about naked girls doing stupid things, about their wandering in the woods, about them eating hot-dogs... some pats were so boring I wanted to scream.
The stories about the past adventures of the girls that were filled in were ok. Some of them were interesting. Even more interesting that the main plot and that says a lot.
I excpected some fast-paced, horror novel but instead I got too much filler and no action.
I really hope that other Laymon's book are not like this one because I bought some books and I hope it's not a waste of money.
This should have been a horror novel?
I'm sorry to say that this book was such a waste of time.
The book could've been so much better. The setting was perfect, the story was interesting, but there was no action, no creepy atmosphere...nothing. Instead of that I read pages and pages about the lodge, about the pool, about naked girls doing stupid things, about their wandering in the woods, about them eating hot-dogs... some pats were so boring I wanted to scream.
The stories about the past adventures of the girls that were filled in were ok. Some of them were interesting. Even more interesting that the main plot and that says a lot.
I excpected some fast-paced, horror novel but instead I got too much filler and no action.
I really hope that other Laymon's book are not like this one because I bought some books and I hope it's not a waste of money.
September 10, 2014
This isn't your typical Richard Laymon novel and that's not a bad thing at all. This is more story oriented and the focus is less on the Laymon standards of gore, sex, and, violence and more on the story told through flash backs that show that Laymon was capable of crafting a solid story.
The violence is there but in the last few pages of the novel and while Laymon die hards may see this as Laymon's attempt to snag some mainstream success stateside Blood Games is a good novel. The friendship between the girls is bonded through their adventures which in typical Laymon fashion are highly implausible but interesting and add more depth to the ending of the book.
While it is a bit different Blood Games is a Laymon novel that works despite it being less violent than most of his novels. Laymon proves that he can write and I see why the reviews are so mixed. it isn't the Laymon we knew and loved. He took a gamble and Blood Games has easily become one of my favorite Laymon novels.
The violence is there but in the last few pages of the novel and while Laymon die hards may see this as Laymon's attempt to snag some mainstream success stateside Blood Games is a good novel. The friendship between the girls is bonded through their adventures which in typical Laymon fashion are highly implausible but interesting and add more depth to the ending of the book.
While it is a bit different Blood Games is a Laymon novel that works despite it being less violent than most of his novels. Laymon proves that he can write and I see why the reviews are so mixed. it isn't the Laymon we knew and loved. He took a gamble and Blood Games has easily become one of my favorite Laymon novels.
August 25, 2019
It's an ok story,some what fast read. It's about 5 girls who meat in collage and go on a trip to an abandoned lodge. Where of course around 20 years ago all the guest at the lodge were murdered by who they guess would be the mountain people who have had trouble with the lodgers.but no one has ever solved it.while the girls are on this trip they get stranded and desover 20 years isnt that long and some of the mountain people are still there...... what gets me with this story is how the author keeps cutting back to their life in collage and some of the things these crazy girls did. I felt as if this drugged the story out to add more pages a few were plenty enough to grasp why they do some of the thing they do. Anyway ,,,
March 7, 2024
An Adventure of a lifetime
I will always stand behind this. No one writes like Laymon. This book was about five women who have forged a friendship and that friendship is based upon doing wild and crazy things. Every year one of the women in the group gets to pick one place everyone has to go to for an entire week.. this pic is one of the ladies who tends to have a morbid and dark side. this is where the book begins. I did enjoy the stories of the ladies and their adventures it made up for the slow burn in the book. There was a nice buildup, but once the Book got going, it was nonstop. This is definitely a good read.
I will always stand behind this. No one writes like Laymon. This book was about five women who have forged a friendship and that friendship is based upon doing wild and crazy things. Every year one of the women in the group gets to pick one place everyone has to go to for an entire week.. this pic is one of the ladies who tends to have a morbid and dark side. this is where the book begins. I did enjoy the stories of the ladies and their adventures it made up for the slow burn in the book. There was a nice buildup, but once the Book got going, it was nonstop. This is definitely a good read.
April 28, 2021
With the exception of some completely random and pointless sexual references that took place at the end of the book, “Blood Games” had a “Steel Magnolias meets the Hardy Boys” feel to it (God damn odd combination and NOT what I signed up for)…. Absolutely nothing one would expect from Richard Laymon…. With Laymon, you typically get psychotically driven stories full of blood and perversion combined with poor character development. This book was not that….
Ignore all other reviewers who have this book rated over 3 stars…. “Blood Games” was not a “good” or “amazing” book. You guys with your 4 and 5 star ratings, listing “Blood Games” in your Top 5 All-Time Laymon books, need to look into changing your medication dosage because your brain is not functioning properly. People who are horror fans do not read a Richard Laymon book with hopes to read endless pages of girls having fun chatting under the influence of alcohol and just roaming college halls with flashlights at night or egging someone’s house on a college campus. The pages that revolved around that kind of crap were truly just fillers and took up most of the book.
The book is 311 pages long and nothing worthwhile happens for the first 250 pages except that type of teenage crap (along with a strange shower scene)…. Then, finally, a single murder takes place and the story wraps up as quickly as possible after that, spiraling off the rails on more than one occasion with a totally predictable outcome. That’s it…. One murder in a 311 page story hardly qualifies as a horror novel. The majority of the book focuses entirely on the friendship development of a group of five, early to mid-twenty year old chicks and it is done through pointless college flashbacks. It’s like the ultimate dragged out, time wasting character background you can imagine. From endless banter and cat fights to twenty pages talking about phobias that one of the girls has and how they were shaped. When the one murder takes place, I cheered aloud, “FINALLY something happens”….
“Blood Games” was published in 1992, right after “Darkness, Tell Us”, and has a very simple storyline…. It is about a group of women who have been good friends since college. Every year, the group take an adventurous vacation of one member of the group’s choosing. All of them have a pact that no matter how they feel about the vacation spot chosen, they will follow through and suck it up. This year’s vacation is at an abandoned resort named “Totem Pole Lodge”. This vacation spot has been chosen because twelve years ago, a mass murder took place there and has intrigued one of the girls. Is it too farfetched to believe THAT would make this place a premier vacation spot for a group of young hot females?
Anyway…. During their “vacation”, one of the girls mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night…. Upon discovering she is nowhere to be found, the rest of the group begin to search for her. If you didn’t pick up on the big clue I mentioned above, I’ll just say that she didn’t go running off into the woods to find dandelions….
The only positive things I can say about the book is that it had one or two scenes that were interesting and I enjoyed how the dead body was found and described. The author did a good job with dialogue surrounding the disappearance and uncovering the mystery. That, at least built up SOME suspense and increased the pace a bit…. However, the entire scene was summed up in about thirty pages, give or take, so there were more cons than pros to this book (hence my 2 star rating).
I expected the ending to finally pick up the pace of the story and end on a high note, but I was completely let down. The ending was rushed, sloppy, and predictable so my favorite part of the book was completing the final page and knowing I could move to another book.
FINAL VERDICT: I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. From the title, “Blood Games”, I was expected more of a novel like “In the Dark”…. The only reason I am not giving this book a 1 star rating is because there was a section in it that I did enjoy and the book WAS readable. There was never a point where I was thinking about just quitting and reading another book. But, “Blood Games” isn’t even close to being one of Laymon’s best novels. If you are new to Richard Laymon or this was your first Laymon novel, I feel very bad for you. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, unless the alternative is watching paint dry.
Ignore all other reviewers who have this book rated over 3 stars…. “Blood Games” was not a “good” or “amazing” book. You guys with your 4 and 5 star ratings, listing “Blood Games” in your Top 5 All-Time Laymon books, need to look into changing your medication dosage because your brain is not functioning properly. People who are horror fans do not read a Richard Laymon book with hopes to read endless pages of girls having fun chatting under the influence of alcohol and just roaming college halls with flashlights at night or egging someone’s house on a college campus. The pages that revolved around that kind of crap were truly just fillers and took up most of the book.
The book is 311 pages long and nothing worthwhile happens for the first 250 pages except that type of teenage crap (along with a strange shower scene)…. Then, finally, a single murder takes place and the story wraps up as quickly as possible after that, spiraling off the rails on more than one occasion with a totally predictable outcome. That’s it…. One murder in a 311 page story hardly qualifies as a horror novel. The majority of the book focuses entirely on the friendship development of a group of five, early to mid-twenty year old chicks and it is done through pointless college flashbacks. It’s like the ultimate dragged out, time wasting character background you can imagine. From endless banter and cat fights to twenty pages talking about phobias that one of the girls has and how they were shaped. When the one murder takes place, I cheered aloud, “FINALLY something happens”….
“Blood Games” was published in 1992, right after “Darkness, Tell Us”, and has a very simple storyline…. It is about a group of women who have been good friends since college. Every year, the group take an adventurous vacation of one member of the group’s choosing. All of them have a pact that no matter how they feel about the vacation spot chosen, they will follow through and suck it up. This year’s vacation is at an abandoned resort named “Totem Pole Lodge”. This vacation spot has been chosen because twelve years ago, a mass murder took place there and has intrigued one of the girls. Is it too farfetched to believe THAT would make this place a premier vacation spot for a group of young hot females?
Anyway…. During their “vacation”, one of the girls mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night…. Upon discovering she is nowhere to be found, the rest of the group begin to search for her. If you didn’t pick up on the big clue I mentioned above, I’ll just say that she didn’t go running off into the woods to find dandelions….
The only positive things I can say about the book is that it had one or two scenes that were interesting and I enjoyed how the dead body was found and described. The author did a good job with dialogue surrounding the disappearance and uncovering the mystery. That, at least built up SOME suspense and increased the pace a bit…. However, the entire scene was summed up in about thirty pages, give or take, so there were more cons than pros to this book (hence my 2 star rating).
I expected the ending to finally pick up the pace of the story and end on a high note, but I was completely let down. The ending was rushed, sloppy, and predictable so my favorite part of the book was completing the final page and knowing I could move to another book.
FINAL VERDICT: I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. From the title, “Blood Games”, I was expected more of a novel like “In the Dark”…. The only reason I am not giving this book a 1 star rating is because there was a section in it that I did enjoy and the book WAS readable. There was never a point where I was thinking about just quitting and reading another book. But, “Blood Games” isn’t even close to being one of Laymon’s best novels. If you are new to Richard Laymon or this was your first Laymon novel, I feel very bad for you. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, unless the alternative is watching paint dry.
February 29, 2024
Helen, Cora, Abilene, Finley & Vivian. The best of friends since their college days, they meet up yearly for a girls’ adventure. This time Helen’s picked The Totem Pole Lodge, an abandoned hotel with a very creepy history. But these girls are game for anything, as the flashbacks of their college days reveal.
But they soon realise they aren’t the only ones at the lodge. And with their car keys lost and no way of escape, this is going to be their biggest adventure yet…
I first read this back in August 1995, on a girls holiday to Faliraki. I loved it so much that I’ve never forgotten me sitting on the beach, completely engrossed. It was interesting to go back to it & see how I felt nearly thirty years later. I still loved it, I particularly enjoyed the fact that Laymon had written a book with an all female cast, which was quite unusual for him. I also enjoyed the college days flashbacks & getting to know this wild bunch of ‘gals’. My only criticism would be that I didn’t think there was enough fear and tension and well, crazy people, as usual. I think if a few more lunatics had been thrown into the mix this would have been perfect.
But they soon realise they aren’t the only ones at the lodge. And with their car keys lost and no way of escape, this is going to be their biggest adventure yet…
I first read this back in August 1995, on a girls holiday to Faliraki. I loved it so much that I’ve never forgotten me sitting on the beach, completely engrossed. It was interesting to go back to it & see how I felt nearly thirty years later. I still loved it, I particularly enjoyed the fact that Laymon had written a book with an all female cast, which was quite unusual for him. I also enjoyed the college days flashbacks & getting to know this wild bunch of ‘gals’. My only criticism would be that I didn’t think there was enough fear and tension and well, crazy people, as usual. I think if a few more lunatics had been thrown into the mix this would have been perfect.
February 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this one. It's maybe a bit slowly paced for a Laymon novel, with a lot of setup for it's five main characters (all women, a true Laymon rarity), but I enjoyed the hell out of that setup and the way Laymon structured the flashbacks. I Really loved the antics these gals got up to and their group dynamic. And of course things get suitably violent and unhinged, you just have to wait longer than you normally would in one of his novels, but I wasn't bored for a moment.
July 15, 2025
I think it had a decent beginning, some action in the middle but I was ultimately forcing myself to pick it up & keep reading it. He has better books than this one.
If you’d like to read about women & their boobs in a creepy setting then sure
If you’d like to read about women & their boobs in a creepy setting then sure
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