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Havock Junction
It was every mother's worst nightmare. Her husband had abandoned her for a sinister, younger woman and the weird nomadic group she led, and had taken their two children with him. But now Patsy had snatched Peter and Judith back again and was bringing them home to safety. Or so she thought. For as she left the dark old house with the witch-woman's snarled curses deafening her, tearing at her being, the real nightmare was just beginning. She drove into the night, and the road shifted, changed.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 10, 2023
A book rant, if I may ...
"The worst book I have ever read" is a phrase one throws around too lightly these days. I myself am prone to exaggerate sometimes. But with books, if not reviews, I try to take due consideration when deciding on my actual, wholly honest opinion. It is, therefore, with no flippant exaggeration that I say this book has officially earned the dishonour of being the ABSOLUTE WORST THING I have ever read.
Joe Donnelly is not just an American politician. He has a namesake in Scotland who writes - or, that is, wrote - crappy horror novels. Now Havock Junction ...
The idea sounded fun enough. Even the beginning, though cliched, unambitious and very "poor-man's Stephen King", was tolerable with its steady crescendo of menace posed by the visiting gypsies who come by caravans into the Scottish town of Whothefuck.
The characters were boring - Patsy, right from her stupid-ass name, was a weak yet weirdly philosophic woman I never bought as falling in love with her douchebag of a husband. Said husband, Paul, comes straight out of a B-grade Stephen King story - you know, the cartoonishly abusive corporate type with no shred of believability - only minus the interest and sense of threat King would have milked out of him were this his book. His brother-in-law is the standard, burly Scotsman who clearly should have been the husband cause he's so good with the kids and one can't see how the two are brothers at all, raised under the same household by the same mother in a realistic fucking situation.
The kids are just your average, forced-to-be-cared-about liabilities who have nothing to contribute to the plot whatsoever except forcing the story along by continuously walking into trouble and needing to be rescued. All Peter does is wink and know how to handle a slingshot. Plus, he's always hungry - it's another recurring motif to keep the abysmal plot moving along. Judith is good for nothing! All she does is sleep and display signs of a fever and says weird prophetic shit every once in a while. For God's sake, I could not have cared less about them.
The story consists of Patsy taking her kids back from her runaway husband after he kidnaps them to be sacrificed for the witch he has formed a violent, sexual relationship with. Patsy rescues them but is cursed by the witch, and so ends up lost on the open road, midnight in a storm, and takes the wrong exit into another dimension where everything is scary and evil and there is nothing to do but keep going.
Basically, this was a risky premise that only a great writer could have pulled off. Keep in mind that at least 80-85% of this nearly 500-page novel takes place in a car. Compare that with Stephen King's Cujo - another book where the focus of the story is refined to the confines of a vehicle. While King handles the scenario flawlessly, Donnelly is not nearly up to the task.
You notice I keep mentioning Mr King. The reason is that Donnelly often reminds me of him, although in the worst ways possible. While I admire much of King's work, honest fans know he has written some crappy stuff as well. Donnelly is King when he has been swallowed by a story that has no substance and has gone on far too long and he no longer cares what happens but is unwilling to pull the plug as he knows the rubbish will still sell.
Donnelly is King when he knows there is no atmosphere to work with, so he just starts pulling any desperate tricks he can, making phone cords and vending machines malevolent and rubbish like that. Donnelly is the worst of King - the King who wrote The Langoliers, who thought he could outdo Kubrick's Shining adaptation with a Mick Garris remake, the King who directed Maximum Overdrive. Donnelly is King if our friend in Maine had no imagination, no talent, no ambition and was contractually obligated to push something out every year despite wanting to commit suicide.
The writing, pacing and overall structure of this book is atrocious. It really was the most painfully boring, most mind-numbing thing I have ever read. It was so bad I ended up straight-up skipping paragraphs and pages, glancing only at the occasional sentence. I also tried an experiment to test how superfluous and over-stuffed the writing was. Over a few consecutive pages, I would only read the first sentence of each paragraph. The result was that the story suffered nothing for these omissions. And one might say that is the true reason I hated the book. But I reject that. I know a book cannot be properly taken in if one just skims it like I did, but I had gotten far enough into the book before I caved in and resorted to it. It was already beyond redemption when I started doing that, which I try to avoid as much as I can, generally speaking.
Really, the only admirable thing about Donnelly here is that he somehow had the determination to finish the book. How on Earth he found the motivation to see this clearly failed experiment through to the end is amazing.
His ability to narrate is not as inept and sloppy as someone like E.L James. But, honest to God, even she is less painful than this guy because at least her work has the kindness to be relatively short. This is why it surpasses my formerly two most hated books (50 Shades and You've Been Warned by James Patterson). Donnelly just comes across as so desperate to scare that every scene is laced with cliched words and phrases a Year 10 class might come up with were they told to brainstorm buzzwords that would signal "frightening". It's all that schlock horror stuff where everything has to be described in a way that conveys menace and hidden evil. An overflow of descriptions like "baleful eyes" and "slobbering jaws" and "razor-sharp claws".
Every single lame attempt to frighten is drawn out over pages with an ineffective bombardment of horror cues, as if the man's trying to hypnotize your brain into thinking this tiresome shit is actually scary.
I could go on an on about this, listing off all the reasons why I hated it and how it eventually - not immediately - became officially my most hated book. Indeed, it isn't necessarily the worst-written thing I've ever read. It isn't the most aggravating. Its characters aren't the most loathsome. It isn't due to any one of these single flaws, but rather all of them combined and many others conjoined, all finally nailed by the fact that it's so torturously long. Not to mention this shit is an unforgotten waste of paper from the 90's by a writer hardly anyone gives a shit about, and so there is absolutely no incentive to bother in the first place.
Ulysses was a bitch to get through, but it was still worth the effort just to have an opinion on the overrated wankfest. If the book is at least a significant one, then even hating it still has its fun, and it gives you something to talk about with fellow readers. But whoever heard of Havock Junction by Joe Donnelly?
What an absolute fucking waste of time. The only thing worthwhile I got out of it was the fun of changing things up regarding my list of all-time worst reads. So yeah, I hated reading this book. Now I can try and enjoy hating it among the other few that even know of its pointless existence.
(Oh, and a quick side note. This book has confirmed a particular suspicion I have been developing over the years regarding poor writers. If ever a character winks in the book you are reading more than, say, twice, and if the wink is not used ironically but in an attempt at charm, you can safely conclude that the writer is not worth your time).
"The worst book I have ever read" is a phrase one throws around too lightly these days. I myself am prone to exaggerate sometimes. But with books, if not reviews, I try to take due consideration when deciding on my actual, wholly honest opinion. It is, therefore, with no flippant exaggeration that I say this book has officially earned the dishonour of being the ABSOLUTE WORST THING I have ever read.
Joe Donnelly is not just an American politician. He has a namesake in Scotland who writes - or, that is, wrote - crappy horror novels. Now Havock Junction ...
The idea sounded fun enough. Even the beginning, though cliched, unambitious and very "poor-man's Stephen King", was tolerable with its steady crescendo of menace posed by the visiting gypsies who come by caravans into the Scottish town of Whothefuck.
The characters were boring - Patsy, right from her stupid-ass name, was a weak yet weirdly philosophic woman I never bought as falling in love with her douchebag of a husband. Said husband, Paul, comes straight out of a B-grade Stephen King story - you know, the cartoonishly abusive corporate type with no shred of believability - only minus the interest and sense of threat King would have milked out of him were this his book. His brother-in-law is the standard, burly Scotsman who clearly should have been the husband cause he's so good with the kids and one can't see how the two are brothers at all, raised under the same household by the same mother in a realistic fucking situation.
The kids are just your average, forced-to-be-cared-about liabilities who have nothing to contribute to the plot whatsoever except forcing the story along by continuously walking into trouble and needing to be rescued. All Peter does is wink and know how to handle a slingshot. Plus, he's always hungry - it's another recurring motif to keep the abysmal plot moving along. Judith is good for nothing! All she does is sleep and display signs of a fever and says weird prophetic shit every once in a while. For God's sake, I could not have cared less about them.
The story consists of Patsy taking her kids back from her runaway husband after he kidnaps them to be sacrificed for the witch he has formed a violent, sexual relationship with. Patsy rescues them but is cursed by the witch, and so ends up lost on the open road, midnight in a storm, and takes the wrong exit into another dimension where everything is scary and evil and there is nothing to do but keep going.
Basically, this was a risky premise that only a great writer could have pulled off. Keep in mind that at least 80-85% of this nearly 500-page novel takes place in a car. Compare that with Stephen King's Cujo - another book where the focus of the story is refined to the confines of a vehicle. While King handles the scenario flawlessly, Donnelly is not nearly up to the task.
You notice I keep mentioning Mr King. The reason is that Donnelly often reminds me of him, although in the worst ways possible. While I admire much of King's work, honest fans know he has written some crappy stuff as well. Donnelly is King when he has been swallowed by a story that has no substance and has gone on far too long and he no longer cares what happens but is unwilling to pull the plug as he knows the rubbish will still sell.
Donnelly is King when he knows there is no atmosphere to work with, so he just starts pulling any desperate tricks he can, making phone cords and vending machines malevolent and rubbish like that. Donnelly is the worst of King - the King who wrote The Langoliers, who thought he could outdo Kubrick's Shining adaptation with a Mick Garris remake, the King who directed Maximum Overdrive. Donnelly is King if our friend in Maine had no imagination, no talent, no ambition and was contractually obligated to push something out every year despite wanting to commit suicide.
The writing, pacing and overall structure of this book is atrocious. It really was the most painfully boring, most mind-numbing thing I have ever read. It was so bad I ended up straight-up skipping paragraphs and pages, glancing only at the occasional sentence. I also tried an experiment to test how superfluous and over-stuffed the writing was. Over a few consecutive pages, I would only read the first sentence of each paragraph. The result was that the story suffered nothing for these omissions. And one might say that is the true reason I hated the book. But I reject that. I know a book cannot be properly taken in if one just skims it like I did, but I had gotten far enough into the book before I caved in and resorted to it. It was already beyond redemption when I started doing that, which I try to avoid as much as I can, generally speaking.
Really, the only admirable thing about Donnelly here is that he somehow had the determination to finish the book. How on Earth he found the motivation to see this clearly failed experiment through to the end is amazing.
His ability to narrate is not as inept and sloppy as someone like E.L James. But, honest to God, even she is less painful than this guy because at least her work has the kindness to be relatively short. This is why it surpasses my formerly two most hated books (50 Shades and You've Been Warned by James Patterson). Donnelly just comes across as so desperate to scare that every scene is laced with cliched words and phrases a Year 10 class might come up with were they told to brainstorm buzzwords that would signal "frightening". It's all that schlock horror stuff where everything has to be described in a way that conveys menace and hidden evil. An overflow of descriptions like "baleful eyes" and "slobbering jaws" and "razor-sharp claws".
Every single lame attempt to frighten is drawn out over pages with an ineffective bombardment of horror cues, as if the man's trying to hypnotize your brain into thinking this tiresome shit is actually scary.
I could go on an on about this, listing off all the reasons why I hated it and how it eventually - not immediately - became officially my most hated book. Indeed, it isn't necessarily the worst-written thing I've ever read. It isn't the most aggravating. Its characters aren't the most loathsome. It isn't due to any one of these single flaws, but rather all of them combined and many others conjoined, all finally nailed by the fact that it's so torturously long. Not to mention this shit is an unforgotten waste of paper from the 90's by a writer hardly anyone gives a shit about, and so there is absolutely no incentive to bother in the first place.
Ulysses was a bitch to get through, but it was still worth the effort just to have an opinion on the overrated wankfest. If the book is at least a significant one, then even hating it still has its fun, and it gives you something to talk about with fellow readers. But whoever heard of Havock Junction by Joe Donnelly?
What an absolute fucking waste of time. The only thing worthwhile I got out of it was the fun of changing things up regarding my list of all-time worst reads. So yeah, I hated reading this book. Now I can try and enjoy hating it among the other few that even know of its pointless existence.
(Oh, and a quick side note. This book has confirmed a particular suspicion I have been developing over the years regarding poor writers. If ever a character winks in the book you are reading more than, say, twice, and if the wink is not used ironically but in an attempt at charm, you can safely conclude that the writer is not worth your time).
May 2, 2019
I can’t recall how Joe Donnelly’s “Havock Junction” came to be on my bookshelf, although I do vaguely recall having read three of his books at some point in the past. That said, I don’t remember the titles of the other two, nor how come there is only one left on my shelf now. I do know that I’d read “Havock Junction” before and that the vague idea of it has remained with me for years, even if the details have faded.
Patricia Thomson has settled into an uneventful life as the wife of Paul, a lawyer, and mother to Peter and Judith. This all changes when the gypsies come to their village and set up near the stone circle. Whilst most of the village want them to be evicted, Paul has switched sides and defended their right to stay and when they leave he, captivated by one of their number, Kerron Vaunche, leaves with them. He returns only once, to reclaim his children.
Realising how much of her personality he had subsumed, the newly renamed and rediscovered Patsy Havelin sets out to rescue her kidnapped children with the help of her brother-in-law before the Winter solstice comes and a ceremony which will result in the death of Judith and an increase in Kerron’s power comes to pass. As she is driving away from their base with the children, Kerron Vaunche curses Patsy and the road they are on is no longer the road home, but a road full of nightmares and strange things.
The story is, mostly, masterfully told. Whilst the three of them are stuck in a car on a long road in a strange place which keeps leading them back to the same place, as the solstice nears, the road becomes more threatening. On each go around, Patsy finds something new on the road, from a strange service station, to cat’s eyes which come alive and attack the car. There is a creepy abandoned church, which is perhaps something of a cliché, but the scarecrow watching over it edging towards the road adds an extra level of frightening. In not revealing everything all at once, Donnelly ratchets up the tension and the scares on what could have easily become a repetitive journey.
I also liked the way Donnelly wrote Patsy’s motivation and her emotions. She’s a mother running in fear not so much for her own life, but those of her children. Donnelly sets this out very early on and doesn’t feel the need to repeat the points to drive it home. Every action and emotion Patsy feels makes it clear where her priorities lie and her motivations and the strength the children both give her and drain from her is written between the lines as well as along them. Whilst the characters are not particularly well drawn other than in the broadest brush strokes and along familiar lines, emotionally speaking they are nicely done.
As well written as the novel was from an emotional point of view, I did feel it ran out of steam a little towards the end. Having done so well to increase the suspense throughout, the ending came in a bit of a rush and more easily than I had expected based on the build-up. So rushed was it, that it almost felt as if Donnelly had no clear idea how to end things and just threw a few ideas at a page to see what worked out, with the result being a very disappointing end to what was a decently imagined and crafted, if occasionally cliched and poorly characterised novel.
Patricia Thomson has settled into an uneventful life as the wife of Paul, a lawyer, and mother to Peter and Judith. This all changes when the gypsies come to their village and set up near the stone circle. Whilst most of the village want them to be evicted, Paul has switched sides and defended their right to stay and when they leave he, captivated by one of their number, Kerron Vaunche, leaves with them. He returns only once, to reclaim his children.
Realising how much of her personality he had subsumed, the newly renamed and rediscovered Patsy Havelin sets out to rescue her kidnapped children with the help of her brother-in-law before the Winter solstice comes and a ceremony which will result in the death of Judith and an increase in Kerron’s power comes to pass. As she is driving away from their base with the children, Kerron Vaunche curses Patsy and the road they are on is no longer the road home, but a road full of nightmares and strange things.
The story is, mostly, masterfully told. Whilst the three of them are stuck in a car on a long road in a strange place which keeps leading them back to the same place, as the solstice nears, the road becomes more threatening. On each go around, Patsy finds something new on the road, from a strange service station, to cat’s eyes which come alive and attack the car. There is a creepy abandoned church, which is perhaps something of a cliché, but the scarecrow watching over it edging towards the road adds an extra level of frightening. In not revealing everything all at once, Donnelly ratchets up the tension and the scares on what could have easily become a repetitive journey.
I also liked the way Donnelly wrote Patsy’s motivation and her emotions. She’s a mother running in fear not so much for her own life, but those of her children. Donnelly sets this out very early on and doesn’t feel the need to repeat the points to drive it home. Every action and emotion Patsy feels makes it clear where her priorities lie and her motivations and the strength the children both give her and drain from her is written between the lines as well as along them. Whilst the characters are not particularly well drawn other than in the broadest brush strokes and along familiar lines, emotionally speaking they are nicely done.
As well written as the novel was from an emotional point of view, I did feel it ran out of steam a little towards the end. Having done so well to increase the suspense throughout, the ending came in a bit of a rush and more easily than I had expected based on the build-up. So rushed was it, that it almost felt as if Donnelly had no clear idea how to end things and just threw a few ideas at a page to see what worked out, with the result being a very disappointing end to what was a decently imagined and crafted, if occasionally cliched and poorly characterised novel.
April 4, 2014
Having read this book in the mid 90's when it came out, nearly 20 years later the story was on my mind, but I couldn't identify the book or author. I asked for help identifying the book on goodread's and luckily someone came through! Once the book was identified I was then a bit worried that I would not enjoy as much, but thank goodness I was not disappointed. Great plot, such good attention to detail and just a fantastically enjoyable read!
August 27, 2011
This book frustrated the hell out of me. I loved it - but on the other hand it's repetitiveness drove me nuts. I often found myself double checking that I wasn't accidently re-reading previously read pages! But yet I still thoroughly enjoyed it!
December 29, 2014
Awesome read!!
March 28, 2013
a dificult book , it seems to be part of a series, but so well written and so great even in its dificult to read status.
Donnelly is a master of writing and takes you on the back seat of this drive to Havock Junction
Donnelly is a master of writing and takes you on the back seat of this drive to Havock Junction
July 8, 2010
amazing book. the imagery of this has stayed with me for years.x
June 9, 2020
Personally, I loved this book.
March 1, 2024
Gelesen in deutsch
Das Buch war Okay. Die gute Frau gelangt mit Ihren Kindern auf grund eines Fluches auf die Strasse ins Nirgendwo. Und dort hat sie einige eigenartigen Erlebnisse. Im grossen und ganzen war das Buch okay. Allerdings hätte es auch kürzer sein können. Denn die unendliche fahrerei hat nicht nur die Heldin des Buches genervt sondern ab und an auch mich. Aber es kam auch zu einigen Spannenden passagen. Es ist nicht so, dass man sich am ende ärgert, das Buch gelesen zu haben. Das Fazit....man sollte sich nicht verfluchen lassen.
;-)
Das Buch war Okay. Die gute Frau gelangt mit Ihren Kindern auf grund eines Fluches auf die Strasse ins Nirgendwo. Und dort hat sie einige eigenartigen Erlebnisse. Im grossen und ganzen war das Buch okay. Allerdings hätte es auch kürzer sein können. Denn die unendliche fahrerei hat nicht nur die Heldin des Buches genervt sondern ab und an auch mich. Aber es kam auch zu einigen Spannenden passagen. Es ist nicht so, dass man sich am ende ärgert, das Buch gelesen zu haben. Das Fazit....man sollte sich nicht verfluchen lassen.
;-)
November 17, 2024
Havock
I read this book several years ago. I had a hardback copy which I gave to my mum to read. I enjoyed reading it again. I can't remember if it was like that before being reproduced on kindle. But I noticed American words like highway, blacktop and Peter calling Patsy mom instead of mum. Which seemed odd when the story is based in the UK. That's the only thing I noticed, .but it didn't spoil the book for me. I've read other books by Joe Donnelly and I highly recommend this and other books he's written. I love his books.
I read this book several years ago. I had a hardback copy which I gave to my mum to read. I enjoyed reading it again. I can't remember if it was like that before being reproduced on kindle. But I noticed American words like highway, blacktop and Peter calling Patsy mom instead of mum. Which seemed odd when the story is based in the UK. That's the only thing I noticed, .but it didn't spoil the book for me. I've read other books by Joe Donnelly and I highly recommend this and other books he's written. I love his books.
March 21, 2024
I want to give this more than three stars, I really do, but i feel it suffered from too much padding. The concept is very cool and the story is good it just could of done as well or better minus a 100 pages worth and been more concise. As soon as I passed pages 300 I was very much enjoying myself. If you enjoyed movies such as highway to hell you'll get a kick from this
March 20, 2023
Total mieses Buch. Einfach nur verworren und langatmig. https://www.sarahhatsgetestet.de/2023...
September 17, 2023
Think this would have been better as a novella rather than a novel. It meandered like the roads the family were stuck on and just seemed to go on and on, to the point where I didn't care about their fates and hoped they would just plummet off one of the freeways they travelled (so many Americanisms in this book, like freeway, asphalt and roadhouse for a book based in Scotland and featuring a British family, annoying). Saying this, I was going to give a 2 star, then about 3/4 of the way through a new character was introduced, a sort of '"gunslinger"and the action seemed to build up, hence the 3. I kept thinking, whilst reading this, that Stephen King would have done this material so much justice, the single parent, stuck on a never ending road, trying to protect her family from the dangers all around, right up his street (or down his road).
January 3, 2014
It was every mother's worst nightmare. Her husband had abandoned her for a sinister, younger woman and the weird nomadic group she led, and had taken their two children with him. But now Patsy had snatched Peter and Judith back again and was bringing them home to safety. Or so she thought. For as she left the dark old house with the witch-woman's snarled curses deafening her, tearing at her being, the real nightmare was just beginning. She drove into the night, and the road shifted, changed
March 14, 2019
This book is brilliant I have read and reread it 4 or 5 times. A woman's husband goes off with a gypsy and they kidnap her children so the gypsy can use the daughter as a sacrifice to make herself younger and prolong her life. The mother rescues them and speeds off in the car and ends up on the road to hell, her children with her.
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