Mantis

by K.W. Jeter

Except in times of greatest need, the female praying mantis does not destroy her mate.

Rae has needs, hungers that cannot be easily satisfied. Michael thinks he understands her desires, believes he can fulfill her needs. He's wrong. Rae's needs is for something Michael has never dreamed of, even in his darkest nightmares. Rae is irresistible. Michael will do her bidding. Thus beings his descent into madness. For Rae's need is great. To satisfy her, someone must die...

Except in times of greatest need, the female praying mantis does not destroy her mate.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

281 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He is also credited with the coining of the term "Steampunk." K. W. has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Series:
* Doctor Adder

Series contributed to:
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Alien Nation
* Blade Runner
* Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars
* The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mantis is not the kind of 1980's horror book you'd expect, certainly not from the synopsis, nor the sample at the beginning of book which invokes horrifying images of a female mantis devouring her mate shortly after copulation.

Rather, Mantis, is an intense psychological horror derived from madness and a warped sense of reality, thanks to a schizophrenic subtext and an unreliable narrator.

Michael Turner is a graphic designer of sorts who seems to have over capitalized on his business venture, with clients slowly departing for his competitors and his estranged wife making things difficult with their son, Michael turns to the red-light district for some escapism from the daily grind.

It's among the street walkers, pimps, and thugs who own the night that he becomes obsessed with a couple of bar hoping regulars; his namesake, Michael (a tough guy with a penchant for killing women), and Rae (a boyish woman on the night who likes to live on the knife edge between life and death). It's this obsession which leads him into oblivion.

I liked Mantis but did find the reading tough going in the earlier stages of the book. It takes some time getting used to the writing style and then to understand that the book's narrator isn't to be relied upon. However, once everything clicked into place, Mantis didn't disappoint.

My rating: 3/5 stars. Mantis won't appeal to everyone, however I enjoyed the different aspect to 1980's horror this book brought.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a book about a killer mantis, surprisingly. Instead it's one of those "inside the mind of a serial killer" books that has its serial killer meet an even worse serial killer who's a woman, and the author does not approve of lady serial killers. How come I never meet any serial killers? Apparently, they're everywhere.

[Ryan Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the vibes... 3.5317

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite Jeter's genre credentials, and the bizarrely inappropriate Paperbacks From Hell-style cover, this is a psychological portrait, bearing comparison with the later, more popular, and eerily similar American Psycho - written in cool prose, finely delineating an emotionless character disintegration in the faceless inner city environment.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeter's book takes on inside the consciousness of a serial killer. As a profile it's fairly well done, first-person main character being a confused and conflicted man who finds himself drawn to the thrill of abusing or murdering women whom he feels are 'asking for it' in a literal sense ... he is not murdering out of moral condemnation, but selecting only women he feels are subtly telling him that they need to me murdered. It's all nonsense, of course, and rather amusingly when the main character tries to paint his actions (without going into details as he relates them to people in his life) as somehow manifesting an almost spiritual aspect, they consistently mock and dismiss his urges. The plot twists are minor, but people who enjoy this sort of narrative will find this a satisfactory example.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A killer meets a lady who gets off on the darkness and destruction of his conquests. Well written but the style takes time to get into.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sordid and unrevealing portrait of a serial killer. The book's one spark of life is the character our murderous narrator confides in, an older man who scoffs at his overwrought fantasies as if they were something out of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"; it is hard not to scoff alongside him. The killer is too petty to be scary, and too inhuman to recognize as a character.

[Guy Ferguson]

Better than it sounds or looks. I thought it was a decent exploration of loneliness and depersonalisation.

[Joanna Kyriakakis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it would have worked as a short story.