The Taint

by Patricia Wallace

Book by Patricia Wallace

Genres: Horror, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1983

Reviews

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

For future study: why are Patricia Wallace's books so boring?

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spooktober 2022 Book 7

Another day, another Patricia Wallace dud.
Seriously folks, The Taint was an absolute snooze fest, ironic title aside.

This is a 351 page lesson in sheer monotony and the perfect example of how to bore the ever living crap out of your readers. Literally NOTHING takes place until like page 340 and by then you’re so freaking annoyed and ready to move on that you don’t even care that there’s anything exciting occurring.

Patricia Wallace’s books are fun to collect and she may have been one of the most famous of the infamous cabal of Zebra authors but she continues to prove time and time again just how mediocre and overwhelmingly underwhelming her books always turned out to be.

[Kevin Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this as a joke just because of the title and cover. As I started, I was happily surprised by a very competent writing style (unusual in a lot of these 80’s genre paperbacks). But as I went further in the story I realized it was just meandering. No through line to build suspense, just a general unease. Until the end you weren’t sure quite what the threat was or how to avoid it. So you just have some, albeit interesting characters wandering around. Mildly upset by some general threat. The denouement does little to remedy that problem and I left the book frustrated over the time I just wasted with it.

[iasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads like a 1970’s made for TV movie. But that is exactly why I liked it!