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Indlæser... The Hour of the Oxrun Deadaf Charles L. Grant
Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Most of the time, if I've read a book two or three decades previously, I'll usually remember the gist of the plot and two or three specific scenes. That wasn't the case with this novel. I could remember nothing of it, so reading it again, I was essentially reading it for the first time. The first thing that struck me was the writing. Languid, well-constructed, beautifully written. Very much in the Ray Bradbury vein. That's a huge plus. The second thing is, Grant is prepared to take his time and make you wait for stuff. Again, not a bad thing. As long as there's payoff at the end, a slow build can be a wonderful thing. Now, while this novel was marketed firmly in the horror genre, I felt it was really only peripherally horror. It was very much more a mystery with horror undertones. In fact, until the last 20-30 pages, it really didn't have much in the horror area either. The entire book was quite successful in conveying the thinly-veiled threat of ruling body of Oxrun Station, but most of the time, that was it, only threats. And then there's the areas I ended up pulling stars off for, that I must hide under a spoiler tag: The first thing is, the book opens with the death of Natalie's husband. Later, it's explained that he was part of the secret society, but everyone knew his wife (Natalie) would never buy in. So why kill the guy who is bought in, and leave the dangling thread of the woman who is a threat? Why not just kill her at the beginning? Oh, right, because there would not have been a story... Next, you've got this really really important book, the Eye, that basically drops the secret society into a massive tizzy when it goes missing. Why does it go missing? Because the dumbasses decide it's safe when it's stored in public on a library shelf. Seriously. Don't keep it under lock and key. Hell, don't even give it to one of the society members for safe keeping in their home. Put it on a shelf in the public library. You're fucking kidding me, right? Both are plot holes that simply could not be ignored and destroyed the entire book for me. Like I said, a slow build can be a wonderful thing if the payoff at the end warrants it. In this case, it more felt like Grant had written himself into a corner, had a word limit he couldn't surpass, and shut it down quick. So, in the end, it was a well-written, but poorly plotted novel, but it's only the first in the loosely-connected Oxrun Station series, so I'll give a few more a go. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Hæderspriser
WELCOME TO OXRUN STATION Oxrun Station could be a spooky place, especially out by the Windsors', right next to the graveyard. At night Natalie heard eerie sounds out in the fog, among the tombstones, unnatural sounds made by unearthly things. Natalie's husband had been born in Oxrun Station. He loved the town, and served it well-and in return it killed him. Ben's death had left Natalie isolated in a strange town she could not call her own. How strange and how deadly Oxrun Station could be, Natalie Windsor was about to learn. Once each year an ancient ritual was recreated, an ancient pact reinvoked-and Natalie Windsor was this year's sacrifice. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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