The Blue Classroom

by Rod Labbe

No one could ever know what happened in the blue classroom.

For four decades, Sister Emmanuel’s second grade class kept their lips sealed, locked tight. They didn’t tell about the beatings, humiliations, blood-soaked dreams or those horrible deaths so close to Christmas. What happened in the blue classroom stayed secret, a sacred trust between God and child. Not even Father Begin’s confessional could break that Rule.

Then, on an October day in 1998, backhoes and steam shovels descended upon Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy, and the blue walls of a classroom seeped human blood.

God was everywhere. She was everywhere, and a penance had to be paid. Don’t tell, or I’ll find you. Don’t tell, or I’ll kill you.

326 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 6, 2014

About the author

I was born waaaay back in 1952 and had a very lucky "Baby Boomer" childhood. That meant I got to see all those great Hammer films at the cinema, I watched The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland on TV (not to mention Batman; The Wild, Wild West; Dark Shadows; Star Trek; Lost in Space and so many more cultural touchstones), and I knew and loved Vincent Price, Walt Disney, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. I was 16 when Woodstock "happened" and man walked on the moon. I not only remember where I was when JFK was assassinated, I watched Nixon give his resignation speech. I saw The Exorcist first-run, did the Twist and the Frug, survived Viet-Nam, Civil Rights, disco, grunge and rap (barely). Somewhere in between all that, I became a writer. I started writing short stories as a child--inspired by Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" and "The Gorgon." At college, I began working for the campus newspaper, and that led to my becoming a freelance writer after graduation. Since 1984, I've been contributing to several magazines, but my longest affiliation has been with Fangoria. The Blue Classroom is my first attempt at novel-length fiction. Hope it's more interesting than this essay!

Reviews

[Darlene Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished this over the weekend and it wasn't the worst thing I've read, but it's far from the best. I'd have to say there's something slightly pretentious about the way Mr. Labbe writes that just made me bored with it. There are some good ideas here, but good ideas a book does not make. This is his first book, or at least the only one listed, hence the two stars instead of one. Still, first book or not, there's just not a lot here to grab me as a reader, and normally I'm easier to please. Not to say there won't be people that like this one, there are people that like prunes, so I'm sure some will find this good. As far as me, I can't truly recommend this one.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: In 1957 in a small, almost rural town near Portland Bangor, Maine, something evil happens. A clown nun terrifies the children, yet the adults turn a blind eye. When something explosively horrible happen, the families pack up and leave. 30 40 years later, the children, now successful adults, are called home to fight the evil one more time.

If the plot sounds like Stephen King's It, that's because it was. Mind you, It is nothing more than a coke-fueled fantasy about John Wayne Gacy. Yet out of all of Stephen King's writings, someone decided to walk the fine line of inspiration and plagiarism because of that book.

It does have one redeeming quality, and the reason I give it two stars - I really felt complicit in Sr. Emmanuel's abuse, to the point where I almost felt guilty. If the whole book had carried on like that, it would have been wonderful.

Alas, it becomes disjointed, repetitive, and as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. I stopped reading a little more than two thirds of the way through because every chapter did one of two things:
-We get a brief, boring history of a classmate after the killing. They either go to sleep, dream of The Pill, and are killed, or get a call from Tim. (Mostly they die.)

-One of the classmates, but almost always Bill Tim, the famous author intrepid reporter, does something super-clever that doesn't make sense until the very end of the chapter, when pieces start falling into place. And by fall into place, I mean the author has to explicitly tell us how it makes sense, because everything else he wrote was gibberish.

There's a lot of pointless recitation of historical facts, and it's not that engaging - more like reading a list of stuff that happened than the characters were actually living in the times.

There are a lot of other things I could say, but yeah, I've gotten most of my anger at wasting $4.25 by writing this. Unfortunately, only a small portion of the book is about a violently schizophrenic nun's subjugation of her students. The rest is a hot mess.

[Russell James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always engaging, often poetic, Rod Labbe’s The Blue Classroom tells a haunting story of lost childhood, all-consuming evil, and redemption. Flashbacks to the late 1950s rival those in Stephen King’s 11/22/63 for accuracy in mood and detail. Plot twists will keep you turning pages faster and faster until you reach the well-executed conclusion.

[Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book by a close friend that suspected I would enjoy it. Boy were they right! I found it intriguing and vivid, perhaps it is because I grew up in small town Maine and found it easy to envision the story play out in my hometown. I am often skeptical of new authors as I know what I like but am grateful to my friend for turning me on to this author and book.

[D.E. Ladd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few things creep me out more than an evil presence wearing a mask of righteousness, and nuns and priests are the worst. The Blue Classroom is a disturbing tale with a high creep factor. Labbe weaves an immersive tale in such a way that the setting becomes its own character. A definite recommend for fans of the genre!

[Pete Kahle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this a lot more, because I usually enjoy the new authors I discover through Samhain, but I never was able to get into it. I kept putting it down and forcing myself to come back to it and give it a chance.

The story is fine, but it felt tired, like it had been done before in numerous B movies from the 70's and 80's. Some of the characters were like paper cutouts, the dialogue was cliche and dated, and the entire second half of the book was predictable, bloated and meandering. Keep trying, Mr. Labbe. There are flashes of potential in a few spots, but in the end my overall impression was "been there, done that."

Perhaps the next novel will catch my eye.

[Dee Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally enjoyed reading "The Blue Classroom " immensely! It captured my attention and held my interest with hanging on to each word. Kudos to the author, Rod Labbe!

[Albert Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really loved this book! It was well-worth the read, a kind of supernatural epic. There are some people here who seem to have a problem with the author. I've never heard of him, and I hope those people haven't prevented him from writing more. Great!

[Carl Labbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in this small town in Maine. Yes, I actually did attend a Catholic school grades 1 thru 5 in the another school but in the same town as the author, my cousin, who I recently reconnected with via Facebook. When I saw that he was writing a horror novel based on scary parochial school experiences, I obviously had to read it.
This is a well written novel with many true-to-life references that brought back many memories for me. Catholic school was not for sissies back then. We had our share of bullies, dove under our desks for mock attacks by the Russians, paid pennies for the sheets the hosts were cut from, and sent our nickels to starving children in Africa. As the books illustrates, nuns were not always benign creatures of God. Sister Emmanuel of the Blue Classroom was downright evil.
The book nimbly dances from the second grade past to current times. I was comfortable with this strategy but felt somewhat let down by the lack of character development beyond the main protagonist.
Much history was included, with many cultural landmarks and even some local politics for extra flavor. The story rolled along fairly well and I could feel the author's personal commitment to the narrative. This strong personal feeling continued through to the end.
All in all a good read, even though "horror" is not my typical genre of choice. Hopefully, you will give it a try, even though this reviewer has the same last name as the author. I can say that Rod Labbe paints a believable picture of Catholic school in the late 50's in small town Maine.
My suggestions to the author would be to attempt more suspense, perhaps by spending a little more time on the adult deaths and then create more terror at the denouement. I'm not the horror writer, so I have no specifics to accomplish that, but I'm sure the author is capable. I will look forward to his next book.

[Jennifer Donlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at my local library and really enjoyed it! One of the reviewers referred to the author's style as "pretentious," but I actually found it literary. And as someone who attended a Catholic school as a child, I can definitely relate to the horrors those poor kids experienced at the hands of nuns. Another reviewer claimed this was an "It" ripoff. I've no idea where she gets that impression from! I checked out other Samhain Publishing books and liked most of them. Wonder why the company went belly-up. Anybody know?