What do you think?
Rate this book
The Beast Within
A lonely wife cheats. A brutal husband gets revenge. A not-so-innocent stranger hears a cellar door scrape shut and begins twenty years of indescribable horror, chained in total darkness, feeding on live rats and human flesh, becoming himself the nightmare creature that lurks within us all
264 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1981
19 people are currently reading
530 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
May 24, 2017
This story creeped me out totally when I first read it - and I can even now, after a gap of more than 30 years, remember it almost scene by scene: which speaks for its power.
A philandering salesman seduces the frustrated wife of a puritanical madman, who discovers the transgression. He chains the salesman up in the cellar, tortures his wife to death, and feeds the corpse to his prisoner. Imprisoned Jimmy Connors is forced to exist on rats and vermin in the cellar for twenty years, when the accidental death of his captor frees him. He has almost regressed to a beast. Before his death by snakebite, the salesman gets the chance to rape a girl (Carolyn McCleary) and to pass on his (regressed?) genes...
The author has created this highly improbable scenario to ask us the question: is there a beast lurking within us all, looking only for a way to get out?
Michael, Connors' misbegotten son, takes off from where his father left-off. As he grows up, his sexual hunger is inextricably mixed up with his hunger for blood. The climax, when it comes, is shattering.
Edward Levy has done a masterful job of interweaving horror and sex, so that this novel is at times positively erotic (at least, for twisted psychos like me!). And the story stays with you long after you finish it - for me, the true hallmark of a good horror story.
A philandering salesman seduces the frustrated wife of a puritanical madman, who discovers the transgression. He chains the salesman up in the cellar, tortures his wife to death, and feeds the corpse to his prisoner. Imprisoned Jimmy Connors is forced to exist on rats and vermin in the cellar for twenty years, when the accidental death of his captor frees him. He has almost regressed to a beast. Before his death by snakebite, the salesman gets the chance to rape a girl (Carolyn McCleary) and to pass on his (regressed?) genes...
The author has created this highly improbable scenario to ask us the question: is there a beast lurking within us all, looking only for a way to get out?
Michael, Connors' misbegotten son, takes off from where his father left-off. As he grows up, his sexual hunger is inextricably mixed up with his hunger for blood. The climax, when it comes, is shattering.
Edward Levy has done a masterful job of interweaving horror and sex, so that this novel is at times positively erotic (at least, for twisted psychos like me!). And the story stays with you long after you finish it - for me, the true hallmark of a good horror story.
July 11, 2021
Recently, I watched the film version of The Beast Within and despite some decent gore and practical effects, I found it to be quite a muddled mess.
I had heard that the book was much better, so I decided to give it a try.
I'm happy to report that The Beast Within (the novel) is very different from the film and a pretty engrossing story.
Unfortunately, the Kindle version that I read was horribly formatted and very poorly edited. For some reason, the word finally TWICE appeared as Anally (yes, capitalized) and even the character Eli's name was misspelled multiple times (Ile). This type of thing gets on my nerves after a while, and ultimately it lessened my enjoyment of the book.
I had heard that the book was much better, so I decided to give it a try.
I'm happy to report that The Beast Within (the novel) is very different from the film and a pretty engrossing story.
Unfortunately, the Kindle version that I read was horribly formatted and very poorly edited. For some reason, the word finally TWICE appeared as Anally (yes, capitalized) and even the character Eli's name was misspelled multiple times (Ile). This type of thing gets on my nerves after a while, and ultimately it lessened my enjoyment of the book.
January 23, 2008
Edward Levy, The Beast Within (Berkley, 1981)
The Beast Within is the book that should have made Edward Levy a household name on a par with Stephen King and... well, okay, in 1981 Stephen King was really the only household name in horror. But the King was in one of his slumps, major presses were champing at the bit to sign AAA-league writers to produce the Next Big Thing. Well, Berkley already had Edward Levy, and here was the manuscript that was going to dethrone the horror master.
All well and good, and to Berkley's credit, they didn't handle the publicity all that badly. But then it was optioned for film...
If you've had the misfortune of seeing the atrocity that was Philippe Mora's 1982 film of the same name, be assured that what you saw was not, in any way, what Edward Levy actually wrote. (One wag, in a review of the film version of The Beast Within, called it The Script Without. Indeed.) The following description of the novel, if you're unlucky enough to actually remember the movie, will sound completely unfamiliar.
The scene opens in some past time. Say, sixty years ago, but in the rural area where the beginning of the story takes place, it might as well be six hundred years ago. A woman has been trapped in a loveless, arranged marriage with a Christian fundamentalist who makes Pat Robertson look like a godless heathen. A traveling Bible salesman (yes! Really!) shows up at the door, and you've all heard this joke a thousand times. Well, at least until the farmer catches them and chains the Bible salesman in his basement for years, treating him like an animal, until he actually becomes one. Levy sets the two men up against one another, one devolving, the other already devolved. These fifty pages (the fifty, of course, the filmmakers decided to cut out first) are some of the best writing in any eighties horror novel I've read (and I've read hundreds of them).
In any case, after the fundamentalist's death (by natural causes), the beast finally has a chance to escape. Now, we all know he's oversexed, and you know how sailors are after they've been on a ship for a year? Well, this guy's been in the basement a lot longer, and when you've had to eat off the floor (with a rather unsavory menu) for a long time, you tend to lose some of the social graces. Let's just say his escape and subsequent actions are not pretty, but they do produce a son, Michael MacCleary. All well and good. At least, until Michael reaches adolescence and becomes daddy's boy...
The Beast Within was the first novel I read where the setup took longer than the actual action, and I couldn't care less. After that first fifty-page whack to the head, Levy uses Carolyn (Michael's mother)'s pregnancy and Michael's early years solely to build suspense, taking up well over half the book's full length, and he does so wonderfully. By the time you get to Michael's teen years, the book would have to fall off a cliff to be bad. And it never does (certainly not to the "we had a few thousand extra in the special effects budget" way the film does). Levy takes the setup and delivers a climax that, well, let's say if the rest of the book were plausible, the climax would be the most plausible way to resolve things. But you suspended disbelief when you realized the first part of the book was going to be based on a bad joke, right? You should have. If you did, The Beast Within is one of the most rip-roaring horror novel rides you are ever likely to take. Sits on the short shelf, with Russo's Living Things, Trachtman's Disturb Not the Dream, King's Pet Sematary, and a very few other novels as one of the best horror novels of the eighties. It's an old, and very overused, cliché. But really, you don't want to finish this one late on a dark and stormy night. **** ½
The Beast Within is the book that should have made Edward Levy a household name on a par with Stephen King and... well, okay, in 1981 Stephen King was really the only household name in horror. But the King was in one of his slumps, major presses were champing at the bit to sign AAA-league writers to produce the Next Big Thing. Well, Berkley already had Edward Levy, and here was the manuscript that was going to dethrone the horror master.
All well and good, and to Berkley's credit, they didn't handle the publicity all that badly. But then it was optioned for film...
If you've had the misfortune of seeing the atrocity that was Philippe Mora's 1982 film of the same name, be assured that what you saw was not, in any way, what Edward Levy actually wrote. (One wag, in a review of the film version of The Beast Within, called it The Script Without. Indeed.) The following description of the novel, if you're unlucky enough to actually remember the movie, will sound completely unfamiliar.
The scene opens in some past time. Say, sixty years ago, but in the rural area where the beginning of the story takes place, it might as well be six hundred years ago. A woman has been trapped in a loveless, arranged marriage with a Christian fundamentalist who makes Pat Robertson look like a godless heathen. A traveling Bible salesman (yes! Really!) shows up at the door, and you've all heard this joke a thousand times. Well, at least until the farmer catches them and chains the Bible salesman in his basement for years, treating him like an animal, until he actually becomes one. Levy sets the two men up against one another, one devolving, the other already devolved. These fifty pages (the fifty, of course, the filmmakers decided to cut out first) are some of the best writing in any eighties horror novel I've read (and I've read hundreds of them).
In any case, after the fundamentalist's death (by natural causes), the beast finally has a chance to escape. Now, we all know he's oversexed, and you know how sailors are after they've been on a ship for a year? Well, this guy's been in the basement a lot longer, and when you've had to eat off the floor (with a rather unsavory menu) for a long time, you tend to lose some of the social graces. Let's just say his escape and subsequent actions are not pretty, but they do produce a son, Michael MacCleary. All well and good. At least, until Michael reaches adolescence and becomes daddy's boy...
The Beast Within was the first novel I read where the setup took longer than the actual action, and I couldn't care less. After that first fifty-page whack to the head, Levy uses Carolyn (Michael's mother)'s pregnancy and Michael's early years solely to build suspense, taking up well over half the book's full length, and he does so wonderfully. By the time you get to Michael's teen years, the book would have to fall off a cliff to be bad. And it never does (certainly not to the "we had a few thousand extra in the special effects budget" way the film does). Levy takes the setup and delivers a climax that, well, let's say if the rest of the book were plausible, the climax would be the most plausible way to resolve things. But you suspended disbelief when you realized the first part of the book was going to be based on a bad joke, right? You should have. If you did, The Beast Within is one of the most rip-roaring horror novel rides you are ever likely to take. Sits on the short shelf, with Russo's Living Things, Trachtman's Disturb Not the Dream, King's Pet Sematary, and a very few other novels as one of the best horror novels of the eighties. It's an old, and very overused, cliché. But really, you don't want to finish this one late on a dark and stormy night. **** ½
September 24, 2020
A very fun and exciting read by Levy! I have an old, battered hardcover of this, published by Arbor House in 1981; fitting, as this is a forgotten classic of early 80s horror. TBW consists of basically three discrete sections, taking place in: an old farm in the 1920s in Arkansas near Pea Ridge; a newly invigorated Pea Ridge post WWII, and finally; Pea Ridge in the mid 60s. The first part concerns an old, pious farmer named Henry Scruggs and his young wife Sarah. Henry basically bought his wife from a neighbor for some farm supplies, but refuses to have any carnal relations whatsoever with her, that being sinful and all. After a few years of not quite marital bliss, a traveling bible salesman stops by one evening, claiming his car broke down. The salesman really just wants to score with a lonely farmer's wife or daughter, and Sarah takes the bait, sneaking into the barn where he is 'sleeping' and urging him to take her away, and well, one thing leads to another. Catching them in the act, Henry drives the demons out of Sarah (killing her in the process), and after bonking the salesman in the head with an ax handle, locks him in a root cellar until he repents; unfortunately, he can never repent enough to please ole Henry. Henry keeps him alive (barely) feeding him slops the pigs will not even eat (after his ex-wife's dead body is consumed first) for almost two decades.
Henry dies one day and the former salesman, now not much more than an animal, escapes and lives in the woods nearby, until one day he comes across Carolyn MacCleary trying to find her dog, rapes her and leaves, and although he dies shortly thereafter, he did manage to get her pregnant. The boy is an odd one, however, and grows up even odder...
Levy builds the story upon some well developed characters, and while this may share some elements of "I was a teenage werewolf," it is well written and tight. I found myself laughing in places, but also it was strangely touching. Well worth a read if you can find it! 4 wolfish stars!!
Henry dies one day and the former salesman, now not much more than an animal, escapes and lives in the woods nearby, until one day he comes across Carolyn MacCleary trying to find her dog, rapes her and leaves, and although he dies shortly thereafter, he did manage to get her pregnant. The boy is an odd one, however, and grows up even odder...
Levy builds the story upon some well developed characters, and while this may share some elements of "I was a teenage werewolf," it is well written and tight. I found myself laughing in places, but also it was strangely touching. Well worth a read if you can find it! 4 wolfish stars!!
November 27, 2014
I picked up this book as I am a fan of the classic cult film with the same name. After reading this book, I can assure you that this book is far superior to the film. Levy builds tension and story to a very readable level making all the characters three dimensional.
it starts out in the 20's and works its way up to late 50's and the style and mood are captured fantastically by Levy. The home grown whimsical story telling works well against its American Gothic setting lending itself to a good yarn and setting itself to be an excellent American horror classic.
The Beast Within is well worth a read and very enjoyable page turner as well. This is highly recommended and feel that if you are a true horror fan, this is one novel not to be missed.
The only bad thing I can say is that I would really like to read another book by this author. He has the potential of becoming one of my favourites based on this book alone.
it starts out in the 20's and works its way up to late 50's and the style and mood are captured fantastically by Levy. The home grown whimsical story telling works well against its American Gothic setting lending itself to a good yarn and setting itself to be an excellent American horror classic.
The Beast Within is well worth a read and very enjoyable page turner as well. This is highly recommended and feel that if you are a true horror fan, this is one novel not to be missed.
The only bad thing I can say is that I would really like to read another book by this author. He has the potential of becoming one of my favourites based on this book alone.
December 29, 2013
A classic and gory turn on lycanthropy. The story focuses on a psychologically-driven monster created by a sexual assault of pure evil. Do not take the movie based on this novel as the story presented in these pages. There is only a vague resemblance. The Beast Within is one of my favorite horror novels and it is giddily gory and well-paced. I have tried to track down Levy and the man has seemingly fallen off of the planet. I will take the opportunity to personally thank him here. The Beast Within was one of the works that turned me on to writing horror. Bravo, sir.
April 11, 2022
Boy, The Beast Within might've been an effective monster-in-the-house metaphor for how psychological trauma (particularly cruelty and abuse) experienced by one generation is passed down genetically (metaphysically?) to the next, thereby perpetuating a recurring (and unending) cycle of dysfunction in a family, but this sleazy story just never transcends its pulp-trash pedigree to say anything meaningful about those themes.
It isn't the novel's explicitly graphic grue (which should certainly delight horror-fic aficionados) or even its ugly, mean-spirited nihilism that leaves this story feeling so shallow, but rather the flagrantly one-note characterization: The only figure in The Beast Within who isn't a stereotypical redneck is Jimmy Connors... and he's an "unscrupulous city slicker" (a sin he pays for and then some!). Dull characters, insipid dialogue, and merely serviceable prose make this the novelistic equivalent of a grade-Z exploitation flick. (Its gender politics are badly dated, too.) Ultimately, it's more interested in shocking its readers than genuinely scaring them; The Exorcist, by contrast, did both.
Also: This e-book edition from Authors Choice Press is absolutely riddled with typos and formatting errors, so be warned.
It isn't the novel's explicitly graphic grue (which should certainly delight horror-fic aficionados) or even its ugly, mean-spirited nihilism that leaves this story feeling so shallow, but rather the flagrantly one-note characterization: The only figure in The Beast Within who isn't a stereotypical redneck is Jimmy Connors... and he's an "unscrupulous city slicker" (a sin he pays for and then some!). Dull characters, insipid dialogue, and merely serviceable prose make this the novelistic equivalent of a grade-Z exploitation flick. (Its gender politics are badly dated, too.) Ultimately, it's more interested in shocking its readers than genuinely scaring them; The Exorcist, by contrast, did both.
Also: This e-book edition from Authors Choice Press is absolutely riddled with typos and formatting errors, so be warned.
August 10, 2008
This is one of the creepiest books of all times and has been the stuff of nightmares for me for years--the traveling salesman chained in the basement by a madman, the cheating wife's corpse fed to him, the inevitable escape and reign of terror.............the story lingers still.
Other books/stories on my list of "lingering creeps":
It by Stephen King (I didn't have a problem with clowns until this book, and now all the painted faces at Cirque du Soleil make every hair on my body stick up!)
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (I actually go out of my way to NOT work the nights when Ellis is signing at the store--dark and crazy things live in that man's head and I just don't want to be anywhere near him.)
The Monkey's Paw by E.A. Poe Made me afraid of the knock on the door!
Hannibal by Thomas Harris (the dining scene!)
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (the soup!)
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (over 40 years of inspiring nightmares!)
Other books/stories on my list of "lingering creeps":
It by Stephen King (I didn't have a problem with clowns until this book, and now all the painted faces at Cirque du Soleil make every hair on my body stick up!)
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (I actually go out of my way to NOT work the nights when Ellis is signing at the store--dark and crazy things live in that man's head and I just don't want to be anywhere near him.)
The Monkey's Paw by E.A. Poe Made me afraid of the knock on the door!
Hannibal by Thomas Harris (the dining scene!)
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (the soup!)
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (over 40 years of inspiring nightmares!)
July 19, 2022
This is an odd read. Was not a fan of the time span it covers. It's a bit far-fetched of a story as well. Just does not add up. It had its good points, but not enough for me in the end. The pace was ok and easy to follow but it just does not make sense. And even more so in the final chapter.
Spoilers below
A traveling salesman tricks women into sleeping with him. He does so to the wrong man though who keeps him in his basement, after catching him with his wife, for what seems like 20+ years (after killing his wife, whom he never even slept with himself). In time the man reverts to his basic instincts and when his keeper finally dies, he is free. He rapes a woman, and then himself is killed by a snake. Her child though has seemed (for no real reason) taken his father's feral traits. As he ages, he is able to control it, but when he is just about done with school it starts to take control again and he kills some people (which he is never arrested for). Instead, his girl (who agreed to marry him, even though they never dated?) and her father keeps him locked up with the help of his father. She still loves him. Then the last chapter has a girl he was sleeping with on the side giving birth to an animal/human mix. Just does not add up and the time frame the books takes places is just too much lol.
Spoilers below
A traveling salesman tricks women into sleeping with him. He does so to the wrong man though who keeps him in his basement, after catching him with his wife, for what seems like 20+ years (after killing his wife, whom he never even slept with himself). In time the man reverts to his basic instincts and when his keeper finally dies, he is free. He rapes a woman, and then himself is killed by a snake. Her child though has seemed (for no real reason) taken his father's feral traits. As he ages, he is able to control it, but when he is just about done with school it starts to take control again and he kills some people (which he is never arrested for). Instead, his girl (who agreed to marry him, even though they never dated?) and her father keeps him locked up with the help of his father. She still loves him. Then the last chapter has a girl he was sleeping with on the side giving birth to an animal/human mix. Just does not add up and the time frame the books takes places is just too much lol.
February 1, 2015
The way in which I happened across this book is a funny story in and of itself. Over the summer me and family were camping, and the camp store had a box of free books. My brother who is ten saw this book but it had no jacket, and therefore no description. My brother being ten thought the title sounded awesome and my dad thinking it was a silly children's monster book let him have it. My mom asked me to double check that it was age appropriate so I looked on goodreads and after reading a few reviews realized this was anything but a children's tale, and enraged the beast within my brother when my parents took it away. But I digress.
I found the book on my shelf a week ago and decided to give it a try, and was not disappointed. This book though very far fetched was one of the creepiest stories I've read (especially the first few chapters). It's a quick easy read for those who don't mind a lot of blood and gore.
I found the book on my shelf a week ago and decided to give it a try, and was not disappointed. This book though very far fetched was one of the creepiest stories I've read (especially the first few chapters). It's a quick easy read for those who don't mind a lot of blood and gore.
June 10, 2021
Known to many for the film adaptation that bore little to do with the finished book, and this is because the novel was, at the time, unfinished when producer Harvey Bernhard purchased the film rights, Edward Levy's The Beast Within is a great novel of generational horror and outstretched despair. The story begins in the 1920s when a religious zealot catches his (unloved) young wife in the arms of a fashionable traveler who took board for the night and the cruel fate that awaits them all in varying forms of hell. To say any more would be a disservice to The Beast Within and the lasting impression it could potentially leave on those blind to its tragic, lycanthropic literary merit.
January 28, 2022
The second half of this paperback is a monster story -- a werechimp. The author denies that the monster is supernatural. The author couldn't have known in 1981 that his creature was epigenetically not-completely-far-fetched (environmental factors can induce heritable mental disorders).
The first half of the book is the monster's origin story. It starts in 1927 on a hardscrabble farm in NW Arkansas (not far from the future site of the Walmart headquarters). It is packed full of peckerwood horror tropes, the kind that scare the bejesus out of Brooklyn slickers like the author.
The first half of the book is the monster's origin story. It starts in 1927 on a hardscrabble farm in NW Arkansas (not far from the future site of the Walmart headquarters). It is packed full of peckerwood horror tropes, the kind that scare the bejesus out of Brooklyn slickers like the author.
August 18, 2021
Lo de este libro y yo viene de muy atrás porque recuerdo que cayó en mis manos por primera vez cuando me lo prestó un amigo en sexto de primaria (debía tener unos once años). En aquel entonces era una sensación porque había un montón de sexo y violencia y una premisa inicial en la que un granjero encerraba a un vendedor de biblias adúltero en su sótano durante veinte años, hecho que lo convertía en un monstruo. Tuve que devolver el libro antes de poderlo terminar, pero recuerdo que ese principio se me quedó grabado a fuego en la memoria.
Ahora, tres décadas después, finalmente lo he leído en su idioma original, y aunque la premisa inicial (sospechosamente parecida, ahora lo sé, a la película de la Hammer "La maldición del hombre lobo") sigue teniendo su fuerza, todo el resto de la novela deja bastante que desear: personajes endebles y poco creíbles (los protagonistas aceptan la explicación sobrenatural prácticamente desde el principio y como única alternativa "seria"), giros narrativos predecibles y sobre todo un extraño moralismo que parece querer ocultar un trasfondo bastante retorcido. Pero sobre todo el problema es que es un libro muy pobre cuya popularidad en su momento probablemente tenga que ver con la fiebre por el best-seller de terror americano de principios de los ochenta, del que autores como Stephen King o Dean Koontz eran la vanguardia.
Por supuesto Edward Levy parece estar muy lejos de eso, y este sigue siendo su libro más conocido en una obra escasa y prácticamente olvidada. De todas formas me alegra haberme sacado la espina treinta años después, porque el principio sigue siendo muy bueno a pesar de todo.
Ahora, tres décadas después, finalmente lo he leído en su idioma original, y aunque la premisa inicial (sospechosamente parecida, ahora lo sé, a la película de la Hammer "La maldición del hombre lobo") sigue teniendo su fuerza, todo el resto de la novela deja bastante que desear: personajes endebles y poco creíbles (los protagonistas aceptan la explicación sobrenatural prácticamente desde el principio y como única alternativa "seria"), giros narrativos predecibles y sobre todo un extraño moralismo que parece querer ocultar un trasfondo bastante retorcido. Pero sobre todo el problema es que es un libro muy pobre cuya popularidad en su momento probablemente tenga que ver con la fiebre por el best-seller de terror americano de principios de los ochenta, del que autores como Stephen King o Dean Koontz eran la vanguardia.
Por supuesto Edward Levy parece estar muy lejos de eso, y este sigue siendo su libro más conocido en una obra escasa y prácticamente olvidada. De todas formas me alegra haberme sacado la espina treinta años después, porque el principio sigue siendo muy bueno a pesar de todo.
July 13, 2022
Almost reads like a modern and extremely deranged take on werewolves but also throw in some stuff about trauma and how we pass it on through the generations. Take those and you have a feel bad hit.
May 5, 2010
I got quite a kick out of this one. Mike Buozis and I are reaching the end of our October-to-June werewolf-themed discussion group, and, unless the last couple change my mind, I'm going to go ahead and say this is the best book we've read in this series.
I've found that, as with the film world, werewolf representation in literature isn't quite where it could be. There are more good ideas and scenes than there are fully realized novels.
This one's pretty good, though. A very fast-paced read that first makes the reader think it's about a guy trapped in the basement of a religious nut, then switches gears, and then switches gears once more, before settling on the story's real protagonist: a teenager afflicted with psychological lycanthropy.
This is the first book I've read dealing with this sort of werewolfery, the werewolf never changing into an actual beast--but doing some fairly serious damage nonetheless.
I've found that, as with the film world, werewolf representation in literature isn't quite where it could be. There are more good ideas and scenes than there are fully realized novels.
This one's pretty good, though. A very fast-paced read that first makes the reader think it's about a guy trapped in the basement of a religious nut, then switches gears, and then switches gears once more, before settling on the story's real protagonist: a teenager afflicted with psychological lycanthropy.
This is the first book I've read dealing with this sort of werewolfery, the werewolf never changing into an actual beast--but doing some fairly serious damage nonetheless.
September 18, 2018
I picked this book up on a whim and was immediately told I needed to read it sooner rather than later since I live wedged in the setting of this twisted tale. This is a classic human horror story on level with Jack Ketchum and Ira Levin. I was hooked at the prologue and finished it in one fevered sitting.
I love that the story spans so many years and pleased that it felt true to the area.
A must read!!!
I love that the story spans so many years and pleased that it felt true to the area.
A must read!!!
August 14, 2014
I really enjoyed reading this book. The story moves along nicely , not a bunch of "fill in" crap. Gets to the point. Keep In mind This Is A Fiction book so you have to use your imagination or just go with the story and accept it.
February 20, 2014
My #1 favorite book! I read cover to cover in one day. Then I re-read it two weeks later, again in one day. Great book!
November 12, 2025
It's definitely readable and even ambitious, with about two hundred pages of arguable preamble going by before we technically get to the werewolf stuff. Which kinda works. It's a story which spans something like thirty years, becoming a generational saga of trauma, abuse, and repression, only to end at a nihilistic anticlimax. I suppose that's the way it goes with the horror genre, but sheesh, man. Most werewolf stories at least do you the courtesy of ending things with a silver bullet for the main guy and the takeaway that he's not suffering anymore.
Also, this isn't really much of a werewolf thing, which sometimes super bugs me. Like when a movie is called The Wolfman and doesn't have anything to do with wolves or the supernatural, it's just like a 'grounded' 'wendigo' 'super-rabies' thing. You know what I'm talking about.
He's less hairy as a werewolf, what the fuck are you on, Blumhouse?
But here, Ed isn't promising a werewolf, it's more of a, I don't know, spiritual thing. Like a metaphorical werewolf. There's even a pretty goofball foreword about how, like, we're all animals, man, and there's darkness in everyone, just waiting to come out. Maybe at a Costco's or perhaps a Supercuts.
The kind of stuff that sounds really cool when it comes from Vincent Price and just kinda shit when you read it.
That said, we launch into the narrative. Deep breath, everyone. We start off in the Ozarks, in the 1920s, with a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to the kind of fundamentalist whackjob you can imagine Carrie's mom would trust to babysit for her. She's seduced by a traveling salesman, who is also a scumbag, but more your garden-variety scumbag, not the "someone's going to do a podcast about this boy" kind she's married to.
The whackjob catches them, kills her, and imprisons the salesman in the cellar because he's gone completely out to lunch and now thinks the poor sod is Satan in human form. Twelve years later, the salesman has entirely regressed into a man-beast. And not the fun kind, like Manimal. This is definitely a man, hyphen, animal.
When his whackjob captor dies (the big change in the unfaithful movie adaptation is keeping him and some cohorts alive so that the monster can get revenge on him; thanks Tom Holland, creator of Chucky the Killer Doll, I appreciate you), the salesman manages to get loose. He attacks and rapes a newlywed before being killed by a water moccasin. The newlywed gives birth to a boy, who as a preteen starts acting out, transforming at night in a cheapo Supernatural-Tuesdays-on-the-CW sort of way where he doesn't have hair or fangs, he's just nutso. His loving parents try to find a fix for his condition, because holy shit, he's eating chickens in a way that would make even those Chick-Fil-A cows say "hold up, dude, that's going a little far."
And that's roughly seventy-five percent of the plot, so I'd better stop before I completely spoil things, but like I said, it's a very unusual structure where there's all this build-up to the meat of the tale, which is the kinda sorta I Was A Teenage Werewolf stuff, which is the very last segment of the story. And it feels a little cramped to then only have fifty pages to wrap things up. I'm torn between appreciating that this isn't a Stephen King novel and Ed doesn't go on for another two hundred plus pages of bloat before putting a pin in it, but on the other hand, it feels like such a long, leisurely drive to get to that third act and then there's no big showdown or catharsis or any kind of lesson learned, really, it's just awful things happening to people who really don't deserve any of that.
And sure, it's a horror novel, and sure, I didn't like it when those It movies ended up with the characters just kicking Evil Incarnate's ass and delivering a big monologue together about being true to yourself, but like
I guess the evil fundamentalist farmer ruined his own life and the lives of everyone around him and even the lives of people who never met him and were unlucky enough to be affected by his actions long after his death. To quote MST3K, "Pretty much a clean sweep for Satan then." Here's your three stars, book. Please leave.
Also, this isn't really much of a werewolf thing, which sometimes super bugs me. Like when a movie is called The Wolfman and doesn't have anything to do with wolves or the supernatural, it's just like a 'grounded' 'wendigo' 'super-rabies' thing. You know what I'm talking about.
He's less hairy as a werewolf, what the fuck are you on, Blumhouse?
But here, Ed isn't promising a werewolf, it's more of a, I don't know, spiritual thing. Like a metaphorical werewolf. There's even a pretty goofball foreword about how, like, we're all animals, man, and there's darkness in everyone, just waiting to come out. Maybe at a Costco's or perhaps a Supercuts.
The kind of stuff that sounds really cool when it comes from Vincent Price and just kinda shit when you read it.
That said, we launch into the narrative. Deep breath, everyone. We start off in the Ozarks, in the 1920s, with a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to the kind of fundamentalist whackjob you can imagine Carrie's mom would trust to babysit for her. She's seduced by a traveling salesman, who is also a scumbag, but more your garden-variety scumbag, not the "someone's going to do a podcast about this boy" kind she's married to.
The whackjob catches them, kills her, and imprisons the salesman in the cellar because he's gone completely out to lunch and now thinks the poor sod is Satan in human form. Twelve years later, the salesman has entirely regressed into a man-beast. And not the fun kind, like Manimal. This is definitely a man, hyphen, animal.
When his whackjob captor dies (the big change in the unfaithful movie adaptation is keeping him and some cohorts alive so that the monster can get revenge on him; thanks Tom Holland, creator of Chucky the Killer Doll, I appreciate you), the salesman manages to get loose. He attacks and rapes a newlywed before being killed by a water moccasin. The newlywed gives birth to a boy, who as a preteen starts acting out, transforming at night in a cheapo Supernatural-Tuesdays-on-the-CW sort of way where he doesn't have hair or fangs, he's just nutso. His loving parents try to find a fix for his condition, because holy shit, he's eating chickens in a way that would make even those Chick-Fil-A cows say "hold up, dude, that's going a little far."
And that's roughly seventy-five percent of the plot, so I'd better stop before I completely spoil things, but like I said, it's a very unusual structure where there's all this build-up to the meat of the tale, which is the kinda sorta I Was A Teenage Werewolf stuff, which is the very last segment of the story. And it feels a little cramped to then only have fifty pages to wrap things up. I'm torn between appreciating that this isn't a Stephen King novel and Ed doesn't go on for another two hundred plus pages of bloat before putting a pin in it, but on the other hand, it feels like such a long, leisurely drive to get to that third act and then there's no big showdown or catharsis or any kind of lesson learned, really, it's just awful things happening to people who really don't deserve any of that.
And sure, it's a horror novel, and sure, I didn't like it when those It movies ended up with the characters just kicking Evil Incarnate's ass and delivering a big monologue together about being true to yourself, but like
I guess the evil fundamentalist farmer ruined his own life and the lives of everyone around him and even the lives of people who never met him and were unlucky enough to be affected by his actions long after his death. To quote MST3K, "Pretty much a clean sweep for Satan then." Here's your three stars, book. Please leave.
April 2, 2018
I originally posted this review on my blog.
Wow, so where do I start? First off, How did Edward Levy not raise in the ranks with Steven King? Seriously, this book was dark and twisted. It was an interesting take on lycanthrope. Warning, this book does have rape scenes in them. the book spans approximately 20 years and it does it in a way that makes. It starts off with Farmer Scruggs. He was by far the evilest man, and is what set this entire story into motion. He was an elderly man who pretty much purchased a wife (she was 19) to serve as a maid pretty much. He isolates her from her family and she is NEVER allowed to go into the town. So she is in this home by herself with only one dress…you read that correctly. He only allowed her one dress and she could only wash it when he was in town because he would have flipped out if he saw her naked. Seriously, they never ever have sex because he believes it is a sin. And a couple years of being together she asks him to have a baby….well he punches her because clearly she has to be possessed by the devil for thinking such things.
Not much longer after this a young traveling bible salesman ends up on their farm because his car (which just started being made) broke down. And let’s just say that while Farmer Scruggs may have had issues sleeping with his wife but this salesman did not! Scruggs finds his wife having sex with the Salesman and knocks out the man. Later on he wakes up chained in their dirt cellar and admits to setting his wife on fire until she admitted that they were in leagues with the devil! He then throws the charred wife down with the salesman so that he would have something to eat. Something TO EAT! Scruggs is insane! To make matters worse he literally keeps this man in the root cellar for 15+ years. The man pretty much goes feral and only escapes because Scruggs had a heart attack, fell down the stairs, the guy eats him, and it wasn’t until he was starving again that he pulled on this chains and wood (finally rotted) gave out.
He then goes into the woods, finds a woman, knocks her out, rapes her and then gets bit by a snake and dies alone in a cave. But that was only the FIRST part of the story! The woman gets pregnant but believes it to be her husbands baby. They raise the baby and when he is 6 years old he starts having these dreams and feeling at night. Here comes the whole spin on lycanthrope….At night the beast within him takes over and he escapes from their home and goes on a killing rampage. He kills local farm animals and when his parents find out they do everything they can to help him, including caging him in his room. The book goes on and jumps to when he is 13 and his first sexual arousal which summoned up that beast. Then it jumps again to when he is older. At this point you find out that the beast within was still coming out at night but he was hiding it better. That is until he started killing humans and raped a woman. I won’t go any further because I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, but the ending was fantastic.
Pros:
•It is horror at its finest. You will feel uncomfortable at times because of the story and what you are reading.
•The characters all seem like real people who are trying to do the best that they can and genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. Even evil Scruggs believed he was doing the right thing….which is insane, but he really did think he had the devil trapped.
Cons:
•For me there were parts that were just really upsetting, but I guess that is the point. So maybe that isn’t a really con.
Overall:
This book is a must read for anyone that hungers for a great horror book. You will be brought into the mind of a mad man, a creature that is no longer a man, and the mind of a young man trying to balance the two. You will find yourself hoping that things turn out ok, but they never really do. It is just one horrible event happening after the other and you will not want to put the book down. Definitely a must read!!!
Wow, so where do I start? First off, How did Edward Levy not raise in the ranks with Steven King? Seriously, this book was dark and twisted. It was an interesting take on lycanthrope. Warning, this book does have rape scenes in them. the book spans approximately 20 years and it does it in a way that makes. It starts off with Farmer Scruggs. He was by far the evilest man, and is what set this entire story into motion. He was an elderly man who pretty much purchased a wife (she was 19) to serve as a maid pretty much. He isolates her from her family and she is NEVER allowed to go into the town. So she is in this home by herself with only one dress…you read that correctly. He only allowed her one dress and she could only wash it when he was in town because he would have flipped out if he saw her naked. Seriously, they never ever have sex because he believes it is a sin. And a couple years of being together she asks him to have a baby….well he punches her because clearly she has to be possessed by the devil for thinking such things.
Not much longer after this a young traveling bible salesman ends up on their farm because his car (which just started being made) broke down. And let’s just say that while Farmer Scruggs may have had issues sleeping with his wife but this salesman did not! Scruggs finds his wife having sex with the Salesman and knocks out the man. Later on he wakes up chained in their dirt cellar and admits to setting his wife on fire until she admitted that they were in leagues with the devil! He then throws the charred wife down with the salesman so that he would have something to eat. Something TO EAT! Scruggs is insane! To make matters worse he literally keeps this man in the root cellar for 15+ years. The man pretty much goes feral and only escapes because Scruggs had a heart attack, fell down the stairs, the guy eats him, and it wasn’t until he was starving again that he pulled on this chains and wood (finally rotted) gave out.
He then goes into the woods, finds a woman, knocks her out, rapes her and then gets bit by a snake and dies alone in a cave. But that was only the FIRST part of the story! The woman gets pregnant but believes it to be her husbands baby. They raise the baby and when he is 6 years old he starts having these dreams and feeling at night. Here comes the whole spin on lycanthrope….At night the beast within him takes over and he escapes from their home and goes on a killing rampage. He kills local farm animals and when his parents find out they do everything they can to help him, including caging him in his room. The book goes on and jumps to when he is 13 and his first sexual arousal which summoned up that beast. Then it jumps again to when he is older. At this point you find out that the beast within was still coming out at night but he was hiding it better. That is until he started killing humans and raped a woman. I won’t go any further because I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, but the ending was fantastic.
Pros:
•It is horror at its finest. You will feel uncomfortable at times because of the story and what you are reading.
•The characters all seem like real people who are trying to do the best that they can and genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. Even evil Scruggs believed he was doing the right thing….which is insane, but he really did think he had the devil trapped.
Cons:
•For me there were parts that were just really upsetting, but I guess that is the point. So maybe that isn’t a really con.
Overall:
This book is a must read for anyone that hungers for a great horror book. You will be brought into the mind of a mad man, a creature that is no longer a man, and the mind of a young man trying to balance the two. You will find yourself hoping that things turn out ok, but they never really do. It is just one horrible event happening after the other and you will not want to put the book down. Definitely a must read!!!
May 9, 2025
Yet another in my “I’ve seen the movie, now let’s read the book” adventures. This one was interesting because the movie ended up being a little different from its source material (supposedly because the book wasn’t finished yet when the movie began filming). The main characters and events are similar, but you won’t find any giant cicada-men or elaborate transformation scenes here. Levy takes a slightly more realistic approach to the material, which is certainly less fun than the B-movie thrills of the film. The novel is like a more drawn out version of The Curse of the Werewolf, exploring the backstory of the “beast” and the coming-of-age of its progeny. It’s snappy and well-written, but Levy takes the material so seriously that its more ludicrous contrivances and frankly dumb characters stand out all the more. This is the kind of book where a woman is brutally raped by a beast-man, and it never once dawns on her, nor her husband, that their son — who has begun leaving his room in the middle of the night and tearing the throats out of animals, and later, people — could possibly be the result of said beast-man rape. The thought never crosses their minds! Then again, it’s set in Arkansas, so maybe that’s not so far-fetched after all.
June 10, 2021
It's like another "Werewolf Cop," by Andrew Klavan. This book is very different from that one, but it's a nice big 0 stars on my list.
There was literally nothing about this book that I enjoyed. The husband was insane, the salesman too bold for thinking he could get away with sleeping with a woman in her own husband's barn, and the woman just gets killed. The salesman turns into a demented man, not the cover image of a werewolf. People say that this is a werewolf novel, and it's not. The cover even has a picture of a werewolf hand. It's just a man who has gone insane and ends up escaping from a farmhouse a couple of decades after he is put in the cellar. The old man from the beginning has a heart attack, and he escapes. He gets a woman pregnant while she's unconscious, then she has a kid whoo becomes him. I don't know how people can give this book a good review. I expected a scary horror novel, but instead got a jumbled-up book of awkwardness.
There was literally nothing about this book that I enjoyed. The husband was insane, the salesman too bold for thinking he could get away with sleeping with a woman in her own husband's barn, and the woman just gets killed. The salesman turns into a demented man, not the cover image of a werewolf. People say that this is a werewolf novel, and it's not. The cover even has a picture of a werewolf hand. It's just a man who has gone insane and ends up escaping from a farmhouse a couple of decades after he is put in the cellar. The old man from the beginning has a heart attack, and he escapes. He gets a woman pregnant while she's unconscious, then she has a kid whoo becomes him. I don't know how people can give this book a good review. I expected a scary horror novel, but instead got a jumbled-up book of awkwardness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2022
This book. WELL. This book is... NOT what I expected it to be. The title and blurb indicated it would be weird but, damn, nor THAT weird.
It started off as a thriller about a dude being tormented in a basement for years by a dude who, when it comes to religion, resembles a religious conservative on coke, and it evolved into a combination of a reincarnation tale and a gore-ish version of "Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde". And, oh man, so many trigger warnings.
My stomach is unwell after reading this. Perhaps I should've opted for "Gone Girl" over this.
But well, I guess overall it was interesting, its main flaw being that it dealt with too many disturbing themes all at once, deeming it a gut-wrenching book with a messy plot.
It started off as a thriller about a dude being tormented in a basement for years by a dude who, when it comes to religion, resembles a religious conservative on coke, and it evolved into a combination of a reincarnation tale and a gore-ish version of "Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde". And, oh man, so many trigger warnings.
My stomach is unwell after reading this. Perhaps I should've opted for "Gone Girl" over this.
But well, I guess overall it was interesting, its main flaw being that it dealt with too many disturbing themes all at once, deeming it a gut-wrenching book with a messy plot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2020
I was promised vile and terrible things, and it delivered. A very interesting werewolf story with a spine chilling foreboding lore. It proses interesting questions like“ is evil even really evil?”. What actions are truly evil when being reasoned with good intentions?... a lot actually. Or is an action evil if it’s just a natural occurrence of your nature? Should you wander the woods by yourself? And the most interesting concept nature vs nurture.
Ps: I actually got the willies reading this books in a few passages(Not For The Weak of Heart)
Ps: I actually got the willies reading this books in a few passages(Not For The Weak of Heart)
June 23, 2022
This is essentially Hammer’s “Curse of the Werewolf”, regrettable Ugly Bastard scene and all, only they don’t go full werewolf. They should have gone full werewolf! That’s significantly less dumb than whatever Jungian collective unconscious devolution is supposed to be happening. There are zero good werewolf books, and this could have been the lone good one.
Anyway, it’s sleazy and gross and the first section where the salesman guy gets turned into a caveman ghoul guy is pretty disturbing, so as far as horror paperbacks go this delivers what you’d expect, I guess.
Anyway, it’s sleazy and gross and the first section where the salesman guy gets turned into a caveman ghoul guy is pretty disturbing, so as far as horror paperbacks go this delivers what you’d expect, I guess.
August 24, 2022
I honestly hoped this one would be more like the movie - which freaked me out as a kid. But rather than turning into a giant cicada, the teen her just becomes a gutless werewolf, a curse passed down from his father who turned feral after being tortured for 20 years.
Levy lifts quite a bit from Hammer Films Curse of the Werewolf, right down to the bars on the kids window. But the setting here is Arkansas, where apparently no one EVER investigates the murders perpetrated by our poor protagonist. It’s an odd book but not without some appeal. And it has a hoot of an epilogue.
Levy lifts quite a bit from Hammer Films Curse of the Werewolf, right down to the bars on the kids window. But the setting here is Arkansas, where apparently no one EVER investigates the murders perpetrated by our poor protagonist. It’s an odd book but not without some appeal. And it has a hoot of an epilogue.
June 22, 2024
This was one of those reads where I absolutely visualized everything going on, even the “odd” stuff happening. It was as if I was watching it unfold and I loved it.
Having lived in the South (moved away now back) the dialogue was spot on.
Pretty quick and easy read that ended with a twist that made me wish there was a follow-up book.
Having lived in the South (moved away now back) the dialogue was spot on.
Pretty quick and easy read that ended with a twist that made me wish there was a follow-up book.
October 9, 2021
I watched the movie some time in the last year.
I liked them both for different reasons.
The movie was random but entertaining obviously things escalated quickly. While the book was slow and building the characters had the same names but those were the only similarities.
I liked them both for different reasons.
The movie was random but entertaining obviously things escalated quickly. While the book was slow and building the characters had the same names but those were the only similarities.
September 19, 2020
It was meh. Purchased because of the classic 80s horror film. Preferred the film
August 20, 2021
A vintage horror (1981) creature/slasher mixed in with a bit of coming of age and teen angst. Easy quick read with some shocking scenes of gore and sex. Not bad at all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews