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Ordinary Horror
Frank Delabano is a retired science teacher living an unremarkable life in an unremarkable suburb. But in a sunny corner of his backyard lies his secret treasure: a magnificent rose garden. When his beloved blooms are threatened by a mysterious burrowing pest, he sends away for an organic remedy: an exotic tropical plant guaranteed to be "antithetical to garden varmints but harmless to pets and everything else."
The strange "gopherbane" plants take care of the problem . . . and much more. Building to an unforgettable climax, Ordinary Horror tells an unsettling, richly atmospheric tale of creepily evolving menace.
The strange "gopherbane" plants take care of the problem . . . and much more. Building to an unforgettable climax, Ordinary Horror tells an unsettling, richly atmospheric tale of creepily evolving menace.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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224 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 8, 2021
"unforgettable climax???"
i have forgotten it and i have read it twice. i never did "get" this book. i did not find it scary, even in the "cerebral horror" sense, and i want to know why, please. if someone could explain it to me, i will be waiting by my computer.
come to my blog!
i have forgotten it and i have read it twice. i never did "get" this book. i did not find it scary, even in the "cerebral horror" sense, and i want to know why, please. if someone could explain it to me, i will be waiting by my computer.
come to my blog! 
January 22, 2014
I LOVE this book. I've read it numerous times and have come to believe it's a masterpiece of Weird Fiction. Hackles were raised and frissons were felt. If you like Weird Fiction (which is fiction that asks WTF just happened?!?) it's worth the effort to puzzle it out. Death is an ordinary horror, and the apocalypse will be just one more death (one reason I was attracted to the book was because I've taken to calling death the banal tragedy).
Part of the difficulty is in trusting the author to actually tell you what is going on, and that the puzzling is worth the effort (I'm looking at you, Lost). The key is--in my opinion--that everything he describes is actually happening. The objective information comes through his neighbor, Mike.
Yes, the text is a tad florid; but you get used to it. Also, it's all conveyed from Frank's viewpoint. Frank's inner monologue tends toward circular and repetitive curlycues of approach and avoidance. Information trickles in based on what he sees and hears and what he is driven by instinct to do. Thoughts and theories sort of "intrude" but aren't examined in the way that we've come to expect.
For instance:
He's lost his wife (his only human contact apparently) and is still traumatized by it (especially the suddenness of it). So, one way we know he's feeling anxious or that he's thinking about death is when he thinks about hospitals or words spoken in a room with hospital like lighting.
When the precocious neighbor girl most exposed to the plants (and with whom he's developed a tentative bond) has a seizure; he doesn't think "She's choking!" He describes what it looks like and thinks that suddenly, knowing where the gum she was chewing is very important.
He doesn't say to himself "I feel uneasy, like something is hunting me." He remembers being at the ocean with his wife. Wading into the surf and suddenly becoming aware of tons of fish swimming past his legs. It delighted him at first; but then he wondered, what's chasing them? and suddenly became very afraid.
Like I say, if you want the "objective" explanation, listen to what his neighbor says--he does things like chemically analyze the plants. Oh, and consider why an ambitious, frustrated, under appreciated at work person may decide to have a cookout in winter--in his backyard--right next to the neighbor's rose bed.
Part of the difficulty is in trusting the author to actually tell you what is going on, and that the puzzling is worth the effort (I'm looking at you, Lost). The key is--in my opinion--that everything he describes is actually happening. The objective information comes through his neighbor, Mike.
Yes, the text is a tad florid; but you get used to it. Also, it's all conveyed from Frank's viewpoint. Frank's inner monologue tends toward circular and repetitive curlycues of approach and avoidance. Information trickles in based on what he sees and hears and what he is driven by instinct to do. Thoughts and theories sort of "intrude" but aren't examined in the way that we've come to expect.
For instance:
He's lost his wife (his only human contact apparently) and is still traumatized by it (especially the suddenness of it). So, one way we know he's feeling anxious or that he's thinking about death is when he thinks about hospitals or words spoken in a room with hospital like lighting.
When the precocious neighbor girl most exposed to the plants (and with whom he's developed a tentative bond) has a seizure; he doesn't think "She's choking!" He describes what it looks like and thinks that suddenly, knowing where the gum she was chewing is very important.
He doesn't say to himself "I feel uneasy, like something is hunting me." He remembers being at the ocean with his wife. Wading into the surf and suddenly becoming aware of tons of fish swimming past his legs. It delighted him at first; but then he wondered, what's chasing them? and suddenly became very afraid.
Like I say, if you want the "objective" explanation, listen to what his neighbor says--he does things like chemically analyze the plants. Oh, and consider why an ambitious, frustrated, under appreciated at work person may decide to have a cookout in winter--in his backyard--right next to the neighbor's rose bed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2024
I first read ORDINARY HORROR back at the beginning of the millennium when it was a new book. I liked it a lot then but this time around my opinion improved considerably. The protagonist -- and sole viewpoint -- is a 70-year old widower in a Texas suburb where people and perhaps reality itself are under siege by a relentless enemy. I'm the age of the protagonist now and I understand the book's subtext, or at least one of them: the isolation that age brings as one loses familiar things and people, the increasing sense of being an alien among strangers. Searcy also expertly mines the uncertain familiarity of a neighborhood, the feeling that just on the other side of that 3/4" inch cedar fencing there might be monstrous things unfolding.
Based on the reviews here, I think ORDINARY HORROR is a divisive book, probably because it is among the most subtle of modern horror novels that I know and the style is more literary than expositive. I deeply appreciate horror that aspires to be more than a good story and this book is a terrifying tale with plenty of other, less obvious points. In the hands of the right director, it would make a terrific film, though it would be a challenging one to make.
Based on the reviews here, I think ORDINARY HORROR is a divisive book, probably because it is among the most subtle of modern horror novels that I know and the style is more literary than expositive. I deeply appreciate horror that aspires to be more than a good story and this book is a terrifying tale with plenty of other, less obvious points. In the hands of the right director, it would make a terrific film, though it would be a challenging one to make.
March 23, 2009
Although I appreciate the attempt at what I suppose the author intends to be a "literary horror" novel, the few interesting passages did not make up for the lack of engagement for this reader. Lacking in character and plot, the uneven style feels more like a fiction workshop experiment than something an author would want to publish. Told from a third-person limited point of view, I did not care anything for the main protagonist. Nor did I understand much of the action and meaning behind the more surrealist passages. Just not for me, I guess.
February 1, 2011
Intrigued by the blurbs for this book (slow-burning lit horror), I was kind of surprised at the vehemence of the bad reviews elsewhere. It is dense and rather microscopic in its detail, but the tone and style really sucks you in - if you want to go there. Genuinely disturbing. All atmosphere, all the time, which is alright by me!
Read
July 6, 2011This book made me feel such tension, waiting to find out what was going to happen. Honestly, I don't know if I even understood the end, but aside from that, I loved reading this and have already bought another one of his books.
August 19, 2016
I did not get this book and I can't tell if that's because it went over my head or if because it just wasn't a good book. I'm leaning towards the latter, but that might be my pride talking. However, the writing was unnecessarily convoluted, as though the author was trying to be profound but ultimately this reader found the prose more confusing than revealing. Permit me an example of what happens after the MC sniff's his finger:
Immediately he holds his finger away but keeps the other hand to his face, grasping a thought, trying to hold it and not daring to move until it's retrieved and played out: a picture of a dust storm. One of those huge ones he' seen in books or magazines rolling across parched landscapes like something solid, a mud flow or even an animal, vast and inescapable like some Japanese movie monster about the houses an farm equipment, so big it's possible to imagine people in its path on the ground - people not situate in an airplane or removed to some elevation with a camera - unable to recognize it, not being able to tell what's happening, its extent too great for it to be distinguishable, exactly, from surrounding features it has replaced or engulfed. How difficult to resolve this. The thought of it. Not quite to see it because it's too big
It goes on from here, the description of the guy smelling his finger. But you can see what the reader has to deal with. Now, it is VERY possible that this is profound in a way I don't understand. But boy, it seems like it would have taken a lot of work to understand it and the whole book was pretty much like this.
Don't ask me to try and explain the end.
Immediately he holds his finger away but keeps the other hand to his face, grasping a thought, trying to hold it and not daring to move until it's retrieved and played out: a picture of a dust storm. One of those huge ones he' seen in books or magazines rolling across parched landscapes like something solid, a mud flow or even an animal, vast and inescapable like some Japanese movie monster about the houses an farm equipment, so big it's possible to imagine people in its path on the ground - people not situate in an airplane or removed to some elevation with a camera - unable to recognize it, not being able to tell what's happening, its extent too great for it to be distinguishable, exactly, from surrounding features it has replaced or engulfed. How difficult to resolve this. The thought of it. Not quite to see it because it's too big
It goes on from here, the description of the guy smelling his finger. But you can see what the reader has to deal with. Now, it is VERY possible that this is profound in a way I don't understand. But boy, it seems like it would have taken a lot of work to understand it and the whole book was pretty much like this.
Don't ask me to try and explain the end.
November 20, 2015
This story had a nice leisurely pace. Not in a bad way, but in a way that let's you know something is building. I was expectant, and certainly getting into it (it's something of a very subtle Little Shop of Horrors).
But then came the end. Couldn't make heads or tails of it. This was the epitome of the ambiguous ending (which I don't necessarily mind). But if you're someone who needs the ends wrapped up tightly, this one might frustrate you.
Overall, the trip was worth it.
But then came the end. Couldn't make heads or tails of it. This was the epitome of the ambiguous ending (which I don't necessarily mind). But if you're someone who needs the ends wrapped up tightly, this one might frustrate you.
Overall, the trip was worth it.
December 20, 2018
This book was given partly as a joke as we were having terrible problems with gopher,but it was not scary and way too wordy and descriptive for me. A chapter did not even make sense. My curiosity was piqued so kept plodding along hoping for the answer to the question of what was the ordinary horror? Skimmed the last 1/4 of the book and never did fiqure it out! definitely not my cup of tea!
October 18, 2019
Searcy touches very lightly on several horror themes in this murky little book. Civilization is half creating stability and normalcy, but in the end it's all lighting fires to fight the darkness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 2, 2023
An incredibly slow burn and purposefully opaque with concern to the details of its plot, two factors which account (I assume) for the strongly polarized reactions people have to this.
Mostly just writing this review to commit to the record my interpretation of what happened, because it was driving me a bit crazy that I couldn’t find anyone else having done so online and I wanted to compare notes:
Basically, the blooming flowers (which have a preposterously long life cycle? Or at least a long cycle in terms of when they bloom?) attracted a predatory alien species which had not visited the earth in maybe thousands of years. This species had some sort of ability to cloak themselves from human vision whether by high speed movement or some ability to know ahead of time where people are going to look, and slowly begin picking off pets and then people. Truly no idea what exactly is implied by the ending which has apocalyptic implications (are the predators everywhere?) and also raises the possibility the flower pollen had some sort of hallucinogenic effect that was making everyone act strangely. This might all be very wrong! But it’s all at least inferred from stuff directly in the text.
Totally possible too that a literal interpretation (even to the loose degree I’ve done here) is beside the point, and it’s just meant as a long, creepy and melancholic tone poem. That’s honestly the level I enjoyed it on, though, again, I still feel compelled to seek out other people’s thoughts about it on the level of basic plot lol
Mostly just writing this review to commit to the record my interpretation of what happened, because it was driving me a bit crazy that I couldn’t find anyone else having done so online and I wanted to compare notes:
Basically, the blooming flowers (which have a preposterously long life cycle? Or at least a long cycle in terms of when they bloom?) attracted a predatory alien species which had not visited the earth in maybe thousands of years. This species had some sort of ability to cloak themselves from human vision whether by high speed movement or some ability to know ahead of time where people are going to look, and slowly begin picking off pets and then people. Truly no idea what exactly is implied by the ending which has apocalyptic implications (are the predators everywhere?) and also raises the possibility the flower pollen had some sort of hallucinogenic effect that was making everyone act strangely. This might all be very wrong! But it’s all at least inferred from stuff directly in the text.
Totally possible too that a literal interpretation (even to the loose degree I’ve done here) is beside the point, and it’s just meant as a long, creepy and melancholic tone poem. That’s honestly the level I enjoyed it on, though, again, I still feel compelled to seek out other people’s thoughts about it on the level of basic plot lol
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2023
I remember this book. I remember reading it, and being so excited for the story. I turned page after page, only to be completely unsatisfied at the end. I went back. Re-read. Surely there was something I was missing. Surely that was not it. Except that it was. I sat down and wrote a letter to the author. For two hours I wrote in silence asking all of the questions the book has roused in me. And then as I finished the letter, I realized the true genius of the book. The true horror of the book.
I never sent the letter. But I never forgot the book.
And now I want to read it again.
I never sent the letter. But I never forgot the book.
And now I want to read it again.
August 10, 2009
So far, I'm liking it. It starts off creepy. I'm afraid it's losing steam or something, though. I think it's enjoying the idea that horror is most horrific when it's in your peripheral vision rather than in your face far too much, but who knows. 90% of this book is build-up and I have a hard time believing that the 10% of "the big reveal" will be at all satisfying.
September 4, 2007
i liked it. i think most people did not.
March 9, 2010
Horrifyingly Ordinary.
November 19, 2012
If there is such a thing as literary horror, this book is it.
November 17, 2023
Oddly, although I read this in October, I plucked it out of a mountain of books at random and understood it was literary, not horror, despite the title. On one level, this story is excellent and for the first few chapters I was engrossed by the strange plant Mr Delabano puts in the ground, but by the halfway point I felt bombarded by a sense of isolation. No doubt this may be what the author intended, as the book is about the isolation of suburban life, but the style weighs heavily and didn’t seem to follow any path. The pace varies, plodding, sometimes enjoyable. If you’re looking for riveting and exciting, this may not be the book for you. It’s more one of social commentary. The writing likely deserves a 4/5 even though the author goes too much in to the minutiae of Mr Delabano’s life, but my personal enjoyment lingers around a mere 2. As for the grand payoff I’d heard about, I was disappointed. At one point, I wondered if the old man would end up killing his often unwelcome neighbours, but this didn’t happen. A lot is obscure. I’m sure there are many passages that will speak to some but bore and confuse others. You’ll never really know if the strange plant influences Mr Delabano’s neighbourhood, or if he is simply going mad under the weight of loneliness.
December 23, 2018
I'm sort of loathe to give a negative review for something I finished and, to the book's credit, reasonably enjoyed, but Searcy's writing leaves something wanting. The vignettes into a senile mind are like great bay windows overlooking a vista of fog, paranoid images twisting in the mist. While the writing has deafening crescendos of madness, where the reader isn't quite sure if the horror is real or imagined, it's a little too easy to lose any semblance of story in Frank Delabano's sort of hysterical and aging ideations. Toward the end, the reader isn't sure what's happened, but not in the satisfying way some thrillers achieve.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2020
This might be the weirdest book I've read in a while. I'm not sure I understand it entirely , but it had me constantly thinking, so that's a bonus. It was very creepy in an underhanded way, which is the kind of horror I think ultimately succeeds for its staying power. I did really like the book overall, but there were just a few too many spates of florid overwriting that got on my nerves, so I had to dock a star for that. Still, I'll be looking into more of this author's work.
September 21, 2019
Generally this story holds together well. It's very wordy and that can make the plot hard to follow, but I'm a speed reader, which helped. In essence the story's message, the unintended consequences that result from a suburbanite introducing one species to "naturally" eliminate another, is an important one; had the author trimmed the verbiage by maybe a quarter, the point would have been much more impactful, a stronger entry to the "literary horror" subgenre its title suggests.
September 7, 2017
Atmospheric and well written, this literary American Gothic novel starts off strong with a constant sense of dread. The writing is full of tension, but as the story moves along, you soon realize that the plot is somewhat meandering and the payoff leaves a ridiculous amount to be desired. Much respect to the author though for making seemingly inconsequential suburban life so quietly terrifying.
December 22, 2019
I enjoyed this story. The fact I am entering my 7th decade made the story more relevant. An elderly man being confused and making his way each day the best he can. Some days were harder than others in the story. The fact that his neighbor, a young girl, was feeling the same made the story scarier.
I found this book by good luck. I love browsing the shelves of the library. It was my Lucky Day.
I found this book by good luck. I love browsing the shelves of the library. It was my Lucky Day.
June 9, 2020
Nope. No. What did I just force myself to finish?! I wanted to like it so bad. I like the writing style, I like the point of view. But gah! It went nowhere, it wasn't scary, creepy, or even interesting. No climax at the end. Just no thank you. 3 stars for using good words strung together.
April 8, 2024
eerie, slow paced horror. i imagined it all very quiet and dark, with a creeping menace in everyone’s mind but remaining unspoken. author does not tell us much about anyone’s motivation: for instance why is frank cutting the dost ruffles off of his furniture? horrible.
September 15, 2019
Not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn't horrified.
November 17, 2019
Stopped reading. Too slow.
January 21, 2020
Boring. Couldn’t even finish
January 1, 2025
I guess I didn’t get this book? I don’t know what the ending even meant. I did not have any feelings of horror.
January 28, 2009
The best kind of horror work is one that affects you psychologically. Ordinary horror does a great job of setting the groundwork (no pun intended) and building and building and building to a staggeringly creepy climax... but that is all it does. Its why this story is "ordinary", why it fails to collect the coveted 5th star. I do get chills just thinking about some of the stuff going on in this novel (especially the child dictating the events over the model neighborhood, ooohhh). Searcy gets a past because it was his first book and he's from Dallas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2013
Dear lord, where to begin. The first chapter starts out okay, and the bit about the little girl was just beginning to become interesting. Then it just devolves into ridiculous ramblings. I mostly skimmed the book from about page 50 on searching for any sign of a plot. The synopsis indicates there's an "unforgettable climax", but I have absolutely no idea what happens. Just as another reviewer asked, can someone who liked it tell me what the heck this "climax" was?!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews