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Goat Dance: A Novel of Supernatural Horror
A little girl possessed. A small town engulfed in dread and horror. A dark house at the edge of a frozen lake. What secret lies within the place known as the Goat Dance? New York Times bestselling author Douglas Clegg blends supernatural suspense with heart-pounding horror in this dark epic novel. "Clegg's stories can chill the spine so effectively that the reader should keep paramedics on standby."- Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times bestselling author.
A young man - Malcolm "Cup" Coffey - returns to Pontefract, Virginia, to find the girl he once loved. A town must face its terrifying past as a possessed child threatens to unleash an unspeakable horror upon them all and a dark house at the edge of a frozen lake remains locked and abandoned...
For fans of Guillermo del Toro, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz.
"Douglas Clegg is a weaver of nightmares!" - Robert R. McCammon, New York Times bestselling author.
"Douglas Clegg knows exactly what scares us, and he knows just how to twist those fears into hair-raising chills..." - Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author.
A young man - Malcolm "Cup" Coffey - returns to Pontefract, Virginia, to find the girl he once loved. A town must face its terrifying past as a possessed child threatens to unleash an unspeakable horror upon them all and a dark house at the edge of a frozen lake remains locked and abandoned...
For fans of Guillermo del Toro, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz.
"Douglas Clegg is a weaver of nightmares!" - Robert R. McCammon, New York Times bestselling author.
"Douglas Clegg knows exactly what scares us, and he knows just how to twist those fears into hair-raising chills..." - Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
203 people are currently reading
745 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
September 16, 2013
Douglas Clegg has a great way of taking a small town and infusing it with the most appalling forms of evil imaginable. The beginning was a little confusing to me, with the introduction of all the characters, but once I'd gotten past that the story really took off. The visceral imagery was incredible! There were times when I actually felt the sensation of something akin to what a character was going through. I've long been a fan of Clegg's work, and this novel is no exception!
Recommended!
Recommended!
January 20, 2024
There was a time when I'd hear about this book in horror circles as one of the scariest ever written. But over the past five years, I've ceased to hear about it anymore. "Goat Dance" is not a new novel, being Douglas Clegg's debut in 1989. So what happened? Had the novel enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and then got quickly forgotten? Is it an underappreciated diamond in the rough, an acquired taste, a horror great that somehow stays under the radar of contemporary fandom salivating over the next new "extreme" gore fest? Or is it just not all that memorable?
Well, let's analyze it. It's a small-town evil story, partially a Christmas horror, and (would you believe it?) a Founder's Day horror. Ironic since we have a new slasher movie coming out called "Founder's Day". The setting is a fictional village in Virginia. Now, Virginia is a weird enough place as far as I'm concerned. There's almost the feeling that the whole state is a suburb of Washington DC, yet it also has the heartland Main Street Americana feel of Indiana, some rural Appalachian mountain man moonshine aesthetic, and enough patrician Southern charm to make you drunk just off the smell of mint juleps. Douglas Clegg takes full advantage of this nebulous Virginian identity and makes his town of Pontefract feel almost like a liminal space, a disorienting amalgamation of places from your dreams, with homicidal rednecks living next to some Hogwarts prep school for debutantes and future golf instructors. His writing proves that prose can be accessible without being insultingly childish, and in fact, can be quite beautiful and thoughtful, likely leading to some dog-eared pages and a few underlined passages in your copy.
It's also highly nostalgic for those of us who grew up in the Eighties. The local cinema marquee announces Nightmare on Elm Street 3. "We're the Dream Warriors!" (Sorry.) Kids are working concession stands during winter break or running around in the streets playing football, making snowmen, stealing bones from dogs, assaulting homeless people, and breaking through police cordons of homicide scenes instead of texting their friends on smartphones. You know--old fashioned normal kid stuff. People use answering machines and pay phones, and 9-1-1 is still a novelty. And teenage boys still think they have a chance with Jodie Foster.
Let's talk about the negatives. It was unnecessarily convoluted. Perspective, location, and time perpetually shift back and forth until the reader feels like an ADHD kid watching SpongeBob while playing Terraria at the same time. It took me almost a third of the book to get my bearings, but not before almost having a seizure once or twice. But you know what this means. A chapter ends on some cliffhanger, and now you have to wade through five more chapters featuring different characters and situations, each ending in their own cliffhanger, until you get back to a thread you've already forgotten about. As a result of all this intentional hocus pocus to make an otherwise simple plot that we've all seen before more complex than it is, we get a book that stretches out to almost 500 pages, at least in my version. That's not terribly long for a book you really enjoy, but it didn't have to be "big like King".
Douglas Clegg does understand comedy as well as horror, and in this story, he uses it to good effect in order to spice up the characters, especially the main protagonist Cup Coffee.
Yes. Cup Coffee. Get it?
I do believe Clegg takes the humor a bit too far here. It feels like he went on a binge of Erma Bombeck, Shirley Jackson, and David Sedaris before writing this book. For the most part, all the funny bits work, and he manages to create some engaging and quirky characters this way, which is very much needed. The book is otherwise too full of unlikeable caricatures. Bullies so evil they should be in a prison rather than in school constantly endangering the safety of other kids. Neurotic wives who hate their husbands. Narcissistic husbands who abuse their wives and wonder why they won't have sex. Rageful fathers socking their kid in the eye for not cleaning their room. Lonely spinsters with perpetual curlers in their hair shoveling sweets while gossiping on the phone to the neurotic wives who hate their husbands. Snobby inbred Southern aristocrats who run the local historical society but still think the Confederates won the War between the States. Rednecks in flannel clinging to their Bibles and their guns. The cast is nothing but the kind of pessimistic cliches that elitist politicians think comprises most of America. But even when Douglas Clegg tries to spice up the wit and intelligence with the few characters who are not despicable, it feels too self-consciously quirky, the dialogue too self-referential, as if the author wanted to show off how witty he was when he wasn't trying to gross you out or scare the living shit out of you.
Which then circles us back to my main question. Is it scary?
Yes, I suppose it might be considered scary to casual fans of horror. But it's more gross than anything. Drowning in vomit. Scratching oneself to death. Vagina dentata. Blood and guts everywhere. And worse. Oh, much worse. This is one ridiculously splattery, brutal nightmare that will make you run for the showers faster than the Duke boys can drive the ol' General Lee. Fans of Evil Dead will love it.
The final result reads like a small-town zombie outbreak (or ghouls) mixed with the obligatory Native American folklore, a tale of tainted ground, body horror, demonic possession, and splatterpunk slasher mayhem, making this a greatest hits of Eighties paperbacks told with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm through serialized vignettes of unnecessary complexity and multiple perspectives of a bloated cast used for cannon fodder. Whew! It's nothing horror fans haven't seen before, but the whole package is so over-the-top that it's a fun ride, even if it outlasts its welcome. It won't have a lasting legendary cult status, but I can certainly see why it may go through some surges in readership with reprintings and younger audiences rediscovering older extreme horror books. Overall, an impressive debut!
Now, if you'll excuse me, this book gave me a hankering for some ham biscuits and a MoonPie washed down with an ice-cold RC Cola, and I simply must indulge.
SCORE: 3.5 cups of coffee, rounded to 4/5
Well, let's analyze it. It's a small-town evil story, partially a Christmas horror, and (would you believe it?) a Founder's Day horror. Ironic since we have a new slasher movie coming out called "Founder's Day". The setting is a fictional village in Virginia. Now, Virginia is a weird enough place as far as I'm concerned. There's almost the feeling that the whole state is a suburb of Washington DC, yet it also has the heartland Main Street Americana feel of Indiana, some rural Appalachian mountain man moonshine aesthetic, and enough patrician Southern charm to make you drunk just off the smell of mint juleps. Douglas Clegg takes full advantage of this nebulous Virginian identity and makes his town of Pontefract feel almost like a liminal space, a disorienting amalgamation of places from your dreams, with homicidal rednecks living next to some Hogwarts prep school for debutantes and future golf instructors. His writing proves that prose can be accessible without being insultingly childish, and in fact, can be quite beautiful and thoughtful, likely leading to some dog-eared pages and a few underlined passages in your copy.
It's also highly nostalgic for those of us who grew up in the Eighties. The local cinema marquee announces Nightmare on Elm Street 3. "We're the Dream Warriors!" (Sorry.) Kids are working concession stands during winter break or running around in the streets playing football, making snowmen, stealing bones from dogs, assaulting homeless people, and breaking through police cordons of homicide scenes instead of texting their friends on smartphones. You know--old fashioned normal kid stuff. People use answering machines and pay phones, and 9-1-1 is still a novelty. And teenage boys still think they have a chance with Jodie Foster.
Let's talk about the negatives. It was unnecessarily convoluted. Perspective, location, and time perpetually shift back and forth until the reader feels like an ADHD kid watching SpongeBob while playing Terraria at the same time. It took me almost a third of the book to get my bearings, but not before almost having a seizure once or twice. But you know what this means. A chapter ends on some cliffhanger, and now you have to wade through five more chapters featuring different characters and situations, each ending in their own cliffhanger, until you get back to a thread you've already forgotten about. As a result of all this intentional hocus pocus to make an otherwise simple plot that we've all seen before more complex than it is, we get a book that stretches out to almost 500 pages, at least in my version. That's not terribly long for a book you really enjoy, but it didn't have to be "big like King".
Douglas Clegg does understand comedy as well as horror, and in this story, he uses it to good effect in order to spice up the characters, especially the main protagonist Cup Coffee.
Yes. Cup Coffee. Get it?
I do believe Clegg takes the humor a bit too far here. It feels like he went on a binge of Erma Bombeck, Shirley Jackson, and David Sedaris before writing this book. For the most part, all the funny bits work, and he manages to create some engaging and quirky characters this way, which is very much needed. The book is otherwise too full of unlikeable caricatures. Bullies so evil they should be in a prison rather than in school constantly endangering the safety of other kids. Neurotic wives who hate their husbands. Narcissistic husbands who abuse their wives and wonder why they won't have sex. Rageful fathers socking their kid in the eye for not cleaning their room. Lonely spinsters with perpetual curlers in their hair shoveling sweets while gossiping on the phone to the neurotic wives who hate their husbands. Snobby inbred Southern aristocrats who run the local historical society but still think the Confederates won the War between the States. Rednecks in flannel clinging to their Bibles and their guns. The cast is nothing but the kind of pessimistic cliches that elitist politicians think comprises most of America. But even when Douglas Clegg tries to spice up the wit and intelligence with the few characters who are not despicable, it feels too self-consciously quirky, the dialogue too self-referential, as if the author wanted to show off how witty he was when he wasn't trying to gross you out or scare the living shit out of you.
Which then circles us back to my main question. Is it scary?
Yes, I suppose it might be considered scary to casual fans of horror. But it's more gross than anything. Drowning in vomit. Scratching oneself to death. Vagina dentata. Blood and guts everywhere. And worse. Oh, much worse. This is one ridiculously splattery, brutal nightmare that will make you run for the showers faster than the Duke boys can drive the ol' General Lee. Fans of Evil Dead will love it.
The final result reads like a small-town zombie outbreak (or ghouls) mixed with the obligatory Native American folklore, a tale of tainted ground, body horror, demonic possession, and splatterpunk slasher mayhem, making this a greatest hits of Eighties paperbacks told with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm through serialized vignettes of unnecessary complexity and multiple perspectives of a bloated cast used for cannon fodder. Whew! It's nothing horror fans haven't seen before, but the whole package is so over-the-top that it's a fun ride, even if it outlasts its welcome. It won't have a lasting legendary cult status, but I can certainly see why it may go through some surges in readership with reprintings and younger audiences rediscovering older extreme horror books. Overall, an impressive debut!
Now, if you'll excuse me, this book gave me a hankering for some ham biscuits and a MoonPie washed down with an ice-cold RC Cola, and I simply must indulge.
SCORE: 3.5 cups of coffee, rounded to 4/5
March 20, 2025
Excellent 80s style horror. Takes a little while to get going but maintains an impressive pace with a lot of wild, gruesome imagery. Some good writing in this one and Cup Coffey is a great character name.
May 2, 2009
First published back in 1989, ‘Goat Dance’ was Douglas Clegg’s second full length novel to be published. With a multitude of different covers for each separate publication, everone of them portraying some grotesque and darkly imaginative artwork, you know exactly what sort of novel you’ll be getting when you pick up ‘Goat Dance’.
True to the cover artwork, Clegg unleashes a multitude of obscene and horrifying moments within the tale that strike great similarities to that of the master of dark imagination, Clive Barker. Clegg time and time again reaches out far into the depths of his creative writing, dragging back with him such monstrosities; you’ll feel truly immersed in a world of corruption on many occasions within this eerie tale.
Set in a small town named Pontefract which is located within Virginia, Clegg starts out his tale with the introduction of the easily lovable character of Malcolm Coffey (nicknamed throughout the novel as ‘Cup’). Coffey is lured back to Pontefract after a serious of haunting nightmares and strange phonecalls that all lead him back to his hometown.
Once back in Pontefract, the dark and evil truth that has been lurking within the town for centuries begins to reveal itself. Good townspeople turn to murderous savages, mutilating their loved ones in the most disturbing ways under the influence of this great power. Coffey eventually seeks help from a collection of old friends to bring an end to the corruption that lies at the heart of the town.
Running the length of the main storyline, Clegg has carefully spun a number of intricate subplots that eventually weave themselves into the main fabric of the story. One of these such subplots is Coffey’s developing relationship with the girl Lily Cammack. Throughout the tale, the reader is invited to be drawn closer to the love Coffey has for Lily, which is so well portrayed that you can almost feel the same love and devotion towards the girl as Coffey clearly does.
Characterization is nothing short of spectacular throughout the tale. For a novel drawing on so many emotional levels, this was obviously an important aspect of the writing process, in order for the storyline to effectively deliver on so many different subtle levels.
Pieces of the storyline gradually begin to fit together as the story progresses, until the whole picture is finally clear in an almost apocalyptic reality. Suspense mounts throughout, and with the grand finale drawing closer and closer, Clegg unleashes all hell on the reader, showing his ability to delve into seemingly limitless depths of imagination.
With definite similarities in style with that of Clive Barker and Mark Morris, ‘Goat Dance’ draws heavily upon the human characteristics of well defined characters whose lives are submerged in a world that seems to be more of a nightmare than anything else.
The conclusion is well thought out and executed in a very satisfying manner. As a whole the book seems to take the reader on a journey that is longer than the sum of its 422 pages. This is more than likely down to the beautiful characterisation that draws the reader into each and every one of their lives.
True to the cover artwork, Clegg unleashes a multitude of obscene and horrifying moments within the tale that strike great similarities to that of the master of dark imagination, Clive Barker. Clegg time and time again reaches out far into the depths of his creative writing, dragging back with him such monstrosities; you’ll feel truly immersed in a world of corruption on many occasions within this eerie tale.
Set in a small town named Pontefract which is located within Virginia, Clegg starts out his tale with the introduction of the easily lovable character of Malcolm Coffey (nicknamed throughout the novel as ‘Cup’). Coffey is lured back to Pontefract after a serious of haunting nightmares and strange phonecalls that all lead him back to his hometown.
Once back in Pontefract, the dark and evil truth that has been lurking within the town for centuries begins to reveal itself. Good townspeople turn to murderous savages, mutilating their loved ones in the most disturbing ways under the influence of this great power. Coffey eventually seeks help from a collection of old friends to bring an end to the corruption that lies at the heart of the town.
Running the length of the main storyline, Clegg has carefully spun a number of intricate subplots that eventually weave themselves into the main fabric of the story. One of these such subplots is Coffey’s developing relationship with the girl Lily Cammack. Throughout the tale, the reader is invited to be drawn closer to the love Coffey has for Lily, which is so well portrayed that you can almost feel the same love and devotion towards the girl as Coffey clearly does.
Characterization is nothing short of spectacular throughout the tale. For a novel drawing on so many emotional levels, this was obviously an important aspect of the writing process, in order for the storyline to effectively deliver on so many different subtle levels.
Pieces of the storyline gradually begin to fit together as the story progresses, until the whole picture is finally clear in an almost apocalyptic reality. Suspense mounts throughout, and with the grand finale drawing closer and closer, Clegg unleashes all hell on the reader, showing his ability to delve into seemingly limitless depths of imagination.
With definite similarities in style with that of Clive Barker and Mark Morris, ‘Goat Dance’ draws heavily upon the human characteristics of well defined characters whose lives are submerged in a world that seems to be more of a nightmare than anything else.
The conclusion is well thought out and executed in a very satisfying manner. As a whole the book seems to take the reader on a journey that is longer than the sum of its 422 pages. This is more than likely down to the beautiful characterisation that draws the reader into each and every one of their lives.
November 19, 2015
This book is a bit of a mixed bag. It starts off well, with some good pacing, cracking writing and really drawing you into the characters. The core story is a familiar one with dark secrets and ancient evil, but it's told in an engaging way. It flits between the present and the adolescence of one of the main characters - Cup. This is handled well and doesn't cloud the story.
However the book loses its way as it gets going. It has a King feel to the story with the small town feel and over indulgent journey through the characters' lives. Unfortunately the author's writing isn't consistently as slick as King at his best so the bulk of story really outstays its welcome. I don't mind long books if the content deserves it, but there's too much repetition here, so a lot of it feels like pointless filler.
On a few points I almost gave up on it completely - however it does have some saving graces that kept me going to the end. The story itself is interesting and when it does progress it brings some well thought out twists with it.
And while the writing isn't consistently great in places there are some flashes of genius that are a joy to read. They also bring some really dark and well imagined moments of horror - that are then diluted by their repetition, but they remained strong enough to keep me reading.
It comes together again for the ending and the pace becomes more frantic. As I said at the beginning the book is a mixed bag - I enjoyed reading it, but it required more perseverance than it should have needed.
However the book loses its way as it gets going. It has a King feel to the story with the small town feel and over indulgent journey through the characters' lives. Unfortunately the author's writing isn't consistently as slick as King at his best so the bulk of story really outstays its welcome. I don't mind long books if the content deserves it, but there's too much repetition here, so a lot of it feels like pointless filler.
On a few points I almost gave up on it completely - however it does have some saving graces that kept me going to the end. The story itself is interesting and when it does progress it brings some well thought out twists with it.
And while the writing isn't consistently great in places there are some flashes of genius that are a joy to read. They also bring some really dark and well imagined moments of horror - that are then diluted by their repetition, but they remained strong enough to keep me reading.
It comes together again for the ending and the pace becomes more frantic. As I said at the beginning the book is a mixed bag - I enjoyed reading it, but it required more perseverance than it should have needed.
April 2, 2023
First up is one of the greatest character names……. Cup Coffey! Maybe I should change my name and become Cup. I love a cup of coffee!
This was a great 80’s horror, first published in 1989.
It’s a small-town horror. Coffey goes back to his small hometown named Pontefract after having nightmares and strange phone calls. Then the dark and evil truth of what has been happening in Pontefract starts to reveal itself.
There was just a touch to many sub-plots and the book did last too long and stretched out. There were some great horror images, gruesome and grossness.
Seven more Clegg’s to read.
This was a great 80’s horror, first published in 1989.
It’s a small-town horror. Coffey goes back to his small hometown named Pontefract after having nightmares and strange phone calls. Then the dark and evil truth of what has been happening in Pontefract starts to reveal itself.
There was just a touch to many sub-plots and the book did last too long and stretched out. There were some great horror images, gruesome and grossness.
Seven more Clegg’s to read.
March 3, 2018
Douglas Clegg. Very prolific, pretty highly revered and currently living in my state, according to his Facebook page. Qualifies for to-be-read status for sure.
And so it was. Goat Dance ended up in my queue almost a year ago as the place to start with Clegg. The author's first novel, a tremendously hokey-gorgeous cover, reviews alluding to lots of gruesome gore, and nominated for Stoker in the time of it's release...all solidifying facts as the place to begin checking out Clegg.
Problem was this...last summer, when I originally started reading it, I had just come off quite a few straight-forward breakneck paced books, most of which were to the brim with gore, which at that particular point in time was exactly what I was looking for.
Goat Dance just isn't that. In fact, it's a bit jarring in it's sporadic storytelling at first, takes a bit to get into.
So, it went back to the shelves, and I picked up something else more suited to my taste at the time.
It circled back around recently, with it cover beckoning to me, and being in the mood for something a bit more in-depth than my usual comfort zone.
My experience was quite different this time around. I still didn't love Goat Dance, but for a while, in the thick of the book, I really thought I might. Honestly, I may even, for the first time ever, think that the hyperviolence at the end of the book, seems to be one of the downfalls...
Let me explain.
The book starts all over the place, telling about 10 narratives at once, from all different media sources. You've gotta pay more attention than one should have to, to get into it. But man, once you're into it, you are into it.
About a hundred pages in, I was completely hooked, mesmerized even. There were moments of literary brilliance, stuff you don't really see in books with ridiculous stepbacks revealing a goat-demon-man in a swirling flame lake of suffering somebodies.
Clegg at his best, is a truly fantastic writer. Maybe one of the best I can think of, from an ability to use words in such an artful way...at times...but this brilliance is only hinted at. I really can't wait to check out some of his later work, as I am sure this is a craft he masters later in his career.
For the thick of the novel, I was totally in. Pontefract, Virginia, it's many, many characters and locations became my second home.
And then, in the final act, where all sorts of nasty hell breaks loose, where I usually am applauding, the whole thing kinda just...falls to bits.
From it's disorienting beginning, it settles into a great groove, but then just fizzles with a mile a minute monster and gorefest. I'm typing these words and almost cannot believe what I am saying.
I'm not sure I've ever felt so mixed on a novel. There's a lot going on here and a lot to enjoy. Plenty of shocks, plenty of gore, plenty of surprises...it's just very non-linear for a very long time. The reader becomes used to this, starts to respect and enjoy it. When it just becomes a relatively standard horror tale for its last hundred pages, you just feel a bit let down. Or maybe even like you're reading a different book?
Anyway, I've somehow gotten to the almost end of my review and not mentioned what the hell the thing is about. So, I'll do that.
Goat Dance is a discombobulated novel telling the many stories of a town called Pontefract, with an evil history. It mostly hones in around one main character, Cup Coffey, but weaves about a hundred subplots in and around him. Cup has been called back to the town by a girl he loved, and really never gave up loving. He arrives to an absolute shit-show of supernatural proportions and finds he is quite tied to it all.
My recommendation is give it a try, you might dig it.... and I'm recommending I give Clegg another try too. But for me, this one was just way too all over the place in the end.
That is not to discredit the author's tremendous writing ability. There were moments where I was moved to almost tears by the great writing.
It's just that writing dissolves into a mish-mash of inside-out men and aluminum toothed vagina-women...which in another novel, would be fantastic. It just doesn't really make much sense here.
originally posted on my blog at http://UndivineInterventions.blogspot...
3/5
And so it was. Goat Dance ended up in my queue almost a year ago as the place to start with Clegg. The author's first novel, a tremendously hokey-gorgeous cover, reviews alluding to lots of gruesome gore, and nominated for Stoker in the time of it's release...all solidifying facts as the place to begin checking out Clegg.
Problem was this...last summer, when I originally started reading it, I had just come off quite a few straight-forward breakneck paced books, most of which were to the brim with gore, which at that particular point in time was exactly what I was looking for.
Goat Dance just isn't that. In fact, it's a bit jarring in it's sporadic storytelling at first, takes a bit to get into.
So, it went back to the shelves, and I picked up something else more suited to my taste at the time.
It circled back around recently, with it cover beckoning to me, and being in the mood for something a bit more in-depth than my usual comfort zone.
My experience was quite different this time around. I still didn't love Goat Dance, but for a while, in the thick of the book, I really thought I might. Honestly, I may even, for the first time ever, think that the hyperviolence at the end of the book, seems to be one of the downfalls...
Let me explain.
The book starts all over the place, telling about 10 narratives at once, from all different media sources. You've gotta pay more attention than one should have to, to get into it. But man, once you're into it, you are into it.
About a hundred pages in, I was completely hooked, mesmerized even. There were moments of literary brilliance, stuff you don't really see in books with ridiculous stepbacks revealing a goat-demon-man in a swirling flame lake of suffering somebodies.
Clegg at his best, is a truly fantastic writer. Maybe one of the best I can think of, from an ability to use words in such an artful way...at times...but this brilliance is only hinted at. I really can't wait to check out some of his later work, as I am sure this is a craft he masters later in his career.
For the thick of the novel, I was totally in. Pontefract, Virginia, it's many, many characters and locations became my second home.
And then, in the final act, where all sorts of nasty hell breaks loose, where I usually am applauding, the whole thing kinda just...falls to bits.
From it's disorienting beginning, it settles into a great groove, but then just fizzles with a mile a minute monster and gorefest. I'm typing these words and almost cannot believe what I am saying.
I'm not sure I've ever felt so mixed on a novel. There's a lot going on here and a lot to enjoy. Plenty of shocks, plenty of gore, plenty of surprises...it's just very non-linear for a very long time. The reader becomes used to this, starts to respect and enjoy it. When it just becomes a relatively standard horror tale for its last hundred pages, you just feel a bit let down. Or maybe even like you're reading a different book?
Anyway, I've somehow gotten to the almost end of my review and not mentioned what the hell the thing is about. So, I'll do that.
Goat Dance is a discombobulated novel telling the many stories of a town called Pontefract, with an evil history. It mostly hones in around one main character, Cup Coffey, but weaves about a hundred subplots in and around him. Cup has been called back to the town by a girl he loved, and really never gave up loving. He arrives to an absolute shit-show of supernatural proportions and finds he is quite tied to it all.
My recommendation is give it a try, you might dig it.... and I'm recommending I give Clegg another try too. But for me, this one was just way too all over the place in the end.
That is not to discredit the author's tremendous writing ability. There were moments where I was moved to almost tears by the great writing.
It's just that writing dissolves into a mish-mash of inside-out men and aluminum toothed vagina-women...which in another novel, would be fantastic. It just doesn't really make much sense here.
originally posted on my blog at http://UndivineInterventions.blogspot...
3/5
March 18, 2017
Read this when it first came out and it still sits in my mind as one of the best horror novels written. It comes at you sideways with a complex plot that will keep you on edge.
I have a hard time writing reviews that summarise what's in a book. I'd rather let a reader know that their investment of time will be well worth it... Be surprised and let the story take you.
I have a hard time writing reviews that summarise what's in a book. I'd rather let a reader know that their investment of time will be well worth it... Be surprised and let the story take you.
December 5, 2013
I couldn't finish this book. Gave up because it got to be just too boring and too damn confusing. Author kept jumping around and it was not worth the effort to try to keep up.
January 4, 2024
This book took a long time to get going. Like, a really long time. And it's not a short book. Fortunately for me, I love Clegg's lazily elegant style. He creates a town like Steven King.
And once the horror starts kicking in, it just keeps ramping up, like a combo of Dean Koontz's Phantoms with a, large side of the film In The Mouth of Madness. Not for the squeamish, that's for sure.
And once the horror starts kicking in, it just keeps ramping up, like a combo of Dean Koontz's Phantoms with a, large side of the film In The Mouth of Madness. Not for the squeamish, that's for sure.
August 24, 2015
Ummmm... No.
I was really in the mood to read a horror novel due to a cold front moving in that had me experiencing major fall fever. Starting Douglas Clegg's Goat Dance quickly cured me of that. It was simply just a little too much. It's extremely bizarre and entirely too long.
The book had a fairly promising beginning, as it starts out with a young girl nearly drowning in a lake and emerging with something evil inside of her, but the story quickly moved away from her and started alternating between multiple characters in the town of Pontefract, Virginia. I HATE that! I feel that very few authors can successfully feature multiple (as in more than two, or even three) points-of-view and still fully develop the characters and make the plot flow smoothly. (Okay I'm totally talking about Stephen King here. He is THE KING when it comes to his ability to write this way.) I felt a little confused as to who was who throughout the book, with the only characters really making any impression at all were Teddy and Coffey, as I felt they were the only two characters whose personalities were developed enough for a reader to form a connection with them.
Although I was disappointed in this book, but I must give credit where credit is due. There are some truly horrific images that will play out in your mind as you read this. It's also really descriptive, which often makes it pretty grotesque. It made me a little queasy at times, which is hard to do to a nurse! So, if that's what you are looking for, by all means, read this!
Overall, this was just not a very good reading experience for me. I LOVE horror novels, but not this one. It was like a whacked-out, less refined version of King's 'Salem's Lot. Like, really wacked out... It had such potential to be great, but it took a really weird route (what the crap is a "pocket lips"!? Gross!). On a sidenote, I hate to keep comparing this to Stephen King, but he just really sets the standards for the horror genre, so I can't help myself.
☆☆
I was really in the mood to read a horror novel due to a cold front moving in that had me experiencing major fall fever. Starting Douglas Clegg's Goat Dance quickly cured me of that. It was simply just a little too much. It's extremely bizarre and entirely too long.
The book had a fairly promising beginning, as it starts out with a young girl nearly drowning in a lake and emerging with something evil inside of her, but the story quickly moved away from her and started alternating between multiple characters in the town of Pontefract, Virginia. I HATE that! I feel that very few authors can successfully feature multiple (as in more than two, or even three) points-of-view and still fully develop the characters and make the plot flow smoothly. (Okay I'm totally talking about Stephen King here. He is THE KING when it comes to his ability to write this way.) I felt a little confused as to who was who throughout the book, with the only characters really making any impression at all were Teddy and Coffey, as I felt they were the only two characters whose personalities were developed enough for a reader to form a connection with them.
Although I was disappointed in this book, but I must give credit where credit is due. There are some truly horrific images that will play out in your mind as you read this. It's also really descriptive, which often makes it pretty grotesque. It made me a little queasy at times, which is hard to do to a nurse! So, if that's what you are looking for, by all means, read this!
Overall, this was just not a very good reading experience for me. I LOVE horror novels, but not this one. It was like a whacked-out, less refined version of King's 'Salem's Lot. Like, really wacked out... It had such potential to be great, but it took a really weird route (what the crap is a "pocket lips"!? Gross!). On a sidenote, I hate to keep comparing this to Stephen King, but he just really sets the standards for the horror genre, so I can't help myself.
☆☆
July 28, 2011
I quite enjoyed Clegg's "The Attraction" -- a tight, vivid, well-written, character-driven exercise in survival horor what was hair-raising with being mean-spirited. The companion novella that came with it was a nice Victorian pastiche "books one should not open" piece. I had earlier read "The Hour Before Dark," which was unimpressive but readable enough. So I was quite pleased to find Goat Dance so affordable on Kindle, and the sample I downloaded was nicely written.
Unfortunately, this first novel turns out to be a bit of a mess. Parts are very well-done indeed, especially the flashbacks to the Dire Events at a tony prep school and the town's unsavory history. Unpleasant events at a movie theater are also well-handled. But the longer the book goes on, the less controlled it becomes, and Clegg tries to compensate for his unravelling plot with buckets of gore, body fluids, and random grossness. The last third of the book is just a murky, ugly fiasco, and squanders whatever good will we have built up in the earlier sections.
Don't pick this up as your first Clegg experience, and don't completely write him off if you hated this.
Unfortunately, this first novel turns out to be a bit of a mess. Parts are very well-done indeed, especially the flashbacks to the Dire Events at a tony prep school and the town's unsavory history. Unpleasant events at a movie theater are also well-handled. But the longer the book goes on, the less controlled it becomes, and Clegg tries to compensate for his unravelling plot with buckets of gore, body fluids, and random grossness. The last third of the book is just a murky, ugly fiasco, and squanders whatever good will we have built up in the earlier sections.
Don't pick this up as your first Clegg experience, and don't completely write him off if you hated this.
June 26, 2018
I was torn between a rating of 3 and that of 4. Again - I wish we could give half stars. This book was divided into 3 parts. The intro grabbed my attention. I am glad it did so because the first two parts seemed to drag for me and without the prologue I am sure I would have given up. I know I considered it several times. The end of Part Two started picking up the pace. By the time I was in Part Three, I was hooked. Maybe it was my imagination but I detected some Stephen King influence in the story (especially It and Needful Things.) Since I just finished it, I haven't looked to see if there is a sequel yet. I liked the ending and how it allowed for a sequel.
July 8, 2018
It was.. okay. Yep, just okay. It had a very Stephen King vibe to it. (Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m not a King fan anyways.) There were a lot of extraneous characters that seemed more like page-fillers than necessary plot devices. Which is a feature I’ve often noticed in King’s writing: page-filler for the sake of it.
Also, a lot of distracting typos such as ‘she’ instead of ‘the’. Not sure if it was my kindle edition.
That aside it had some nice build-up but once we got to the reveal I was mildly bored.
Also, a lot of distracting typos such as ‘she’ instead of ‘the’. Not sure if it was my kindle edition.
That aside it had some nice build-up but once we got to the reveal I was mildly bored.
June 3, 2017
This book was all over the place. Lots of characters that were difficult to keep track of and scenes that were at once gory and then dreamlike. It seemed like the author was attempting to mix horror with philosophy but the outcome was sloppy and confusing. The end could not come fast enough. Case in point that just because an author, whose writing I like, recommends a book, does not mean I will enjoy it.
June 26, 2017
No matter how many times I have tried to read this book, I can't get past the halfway point before I give up. The story and character dialogue just drag on and on, it's hard to follow and doesn't make much sense, and then there's 'the pocket lips'. Can't get over that enough to continue the book.
February 23, 2015
Ok, honest? I hated it. The main characters are crazy, or nearly so. I need to trust and believe in my heroes. Maybe I am just tired of maggots.
June 14, 2022
There is a learning curve with this book.
At least there was for me. I'm really into small town horror stories, so I welcome large ensemble casts with open arms. But this story, when moving from character to character through the town, felt a little bit all over the place to me.
Have you ever seen the movie Cabin In The Woods? This book felt kind of like that film. There is a lot of buildup, and ultimately the ending is a huge buffet of creep-out and grossness that almost comes out of left field while still making sense.
I wasn't a fan of how similar the "Eater Of Souls"/"Kid Eating Spider" was to other horror icons like Pennywise, I'd hoped there would be a bit more of and identity to it. But it still served its purpose well, and I'd as the debut novel for this author, it was great.
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At least there was for me. I'm really into small town horror stories, so I welcome large ensemble casts with open arms. But this story, when moving from character to character through the town, felt a little bit all over the place to me.
Have you ever seen the movie Cabin In The Woods? This book felt kind of like that film. There is a lot of buildup, and ultimately the ending is a huge buffet of creep-out and grossness that almost comes out of left field while still making sense.
I wasn't a fan of how similar the "Eater Of Souls"/"Kid Eating Spider" was to other horror icons like Pennywise, I'd hoped there would be a bit more of and identity to it. But it still served its purpose well, and I'd as the debut novel for this author, it was great.
Join the RK King readers' list for an exclusive FREE short story, plus inside info, musings, promos and more: RK King Writes
January 12, 2020
If I could give zero stars, I would. Skimmed the last 25% because I could not take anymore of this horrific book. First 50 pages were weird but then it seemed to get better, but by 50% the story was completely unbelievable and gross in every way imaginable! Horror stories do not have to be so disgusting. If anything, I wish I could get my time back that I wasted on this book. Will never puck up another book by this author.
December 21, 2024
3.5 stars. Would’ve been 4 but was very convoluted. Some pretty scary moments. Writing reminiscent of Stephen King.
December 14, 2018
I got several chapters into this and nothing happened. Dude walks around his old town for ages. I still have no idea why. And I won't because it was slow and I could never get through it. I put it down and never picked it back up because I didn't care. An author has to emotionally invest readers in a story. This just annoyed me.
March 28, 2019
My favourite line from this book is:
You get a werewolf with a silver bullet, a vampire with a stake, and for aliens you call in Sigourney Weaver
I really enjoyed this book; it's dark and disturbing and just a touch of the weird in it. It's about a town that is tainted with Evil and the taint is spiralling out of control. It's well written, and since it was originally written in 1989 and this the first time I've read it, it's aged well. You can still enjoy this book 30 years later, and for me that is a sign of a very well written book.
It was almost as if the author took all his nightmares and described them in bright detail for us. The ending jumps between different characters and I'd highly suggest reading the last two chapters in one go; and although the jumps can be a bit disorientating - I think that's the point. Everything is falling apart, everything is going to pot and you are reading faster so that you can get to the end and know what happens and it's just a wild ride.
Yes one or two elements could have been explained slightly better, but I'm nit-picking. I liked this book, but I don't want to tell anyone else in case they read it and think 'She is truly mad'
You get a werewolf with a silver bullet, a vampire with a stake, and for aliens you call in Sigourney Weaver
I really enjoyed this book; it's dark and disturbing and just a touch of the weird in it. It's about a town that is tainted with Evil and the taint is spiralling out of control. It's well written, and since it was originally written in 1989 and this the first time I've read it, it's aged well. You can still enjoy this book 30 years later, and for me that is a sign of a very well written book.
It was almost as if the author took all his nightmares and described them in bright detail for us. The ending jumps between different characters and I'd highly suggest reading the last two chapters in one go; and although the jumps can be a bit disorientating - I think that's the point. Everything is falling apart, everything is going to pot and you are reading faster so that you can get to the end and know what happens and it's just a wild ride.
Yes one or two elements could have been explained slightly better, but I'm nit-picking. I liked this book, but I don't want to tell anyone else in case they read it and think 'She is truly mad'
June 3, 2011
Oh the suspense!!! From the first page to the last page this book is filled with it! Scary, gruesome, great story line, great characters. Yes there were spots that I was kinda freaked out to walk through a dark room ;) A few issues...read this on my Nook and it was filled with places where there was a period and should of been a comma and a handful of words that didn't fit...kinda like when you type something then go back and change the words but don't delete all of the original words first. Not enough to not read this book though. Another thing is the description makes it sound like this book is about little Teddy Amory...and it is, to an extent. The story line is centered around her but a majority of the story is about other characters, the history of the town, and the evil spreading through the town. Every few or so chapters take you back to Teddy and what is happening to her and what she is going through but I personally think the description is a little misleading. This is a wonderful frightening story and would highly recommend to anyone wanting a scare!
June 11, 2017
It sucked me in at the start. Pacing was masterful, with prose that vividly evoked the horror of madness and murder; I especially liked the matricide scene. The premise of the novel, of nightmares unleashed, and the theme that some things in the past or within the self are best left buried or burned, are typical of Horror; but Clegg's very tactile descriptions, at least for about the first half of the novel, have the power of putting the abject before you in all its morbid glory so that sometimes you'll find yourself wondering if you're sadistic for turning the page. But in the middle the effects start to wear off and the story gets kinda draggy. In the later half it starts to feel too much like gore porn. The ending's also a bit confusing; because it wasn't made clear earlier what exactly the rules of this particular paranormal game are, it feels like new rules were added at the end just to resolve the plot.
June 28, 2011
This was my first Clegg novel, and I am very very pleased. Contrary to popular belief, there IS an art to writing good horror. King certainly has the chops for it, as does Dan Simmons and I am happy to add Clegg to my list.
This is a well crafted story from begining to end, I liked the characters, even though some were deeply flawed. Good writing and scares all around.
The key is enough horror without the kitchen sink feeling, and this novel delivered. Eerie, evocative and visceral in perfect measure.
This is a well crafted story from begining to end, I liked the characters, even though some were deeply flawed. Good writing and scares all around.
The key is enough horror without the kitchen sink feeling, and this novel delivered. Eerie, evocative and visceral in perfect measure.
August 2, 2014
This is a great horror novel! It has everything I'm looking for and come to expect from this genre. It made me not want to put it down, and stay up all night reading. Not to suggest that this book is just like/copying/plagiarism, but to give you an idea. For me Goat Dance is the perfect combination of Stephen King's Bag of Bones & Dean Koontz's Phantoms. It has been a while since an author has shocked me, grossed me out, and left me in such a wonderful state of scared out of my mind awe. I will be looking forward to reading more of his work.
May 16, 2014
When I read this book for the first time, I realized that this was what I wanted to write. In your face horror, gore, terror, etc. No censoring the darkness. Clegg’s books fill the space inside your head and outside with dread and dark places. I have enjoyed many of them, but this one was my first and when I was finished I was stunned.
March 12, 2015
I really would have liked to give this book more stars, as the writing is pretty good, and Clegg does a great job of keeping you hooked . . . I just don't think the story was all that good. It gets weirder, darker, and more disturbing as the book goes on, but never really lived up to the potential of the story. If it was shorter, I'd say it's worth reading quick, but it actually took me a while.
April 17, 2012
It started of so slow that I almost stopped reading it. Eventually the pace picked up and it finished pretty strongly. It seemed to muddle along and then jump into the action with no real transition. Overall I like it well enough.
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