Comments on: The Girl Next Door

By: Bookgasm: Reading Material to Get Excited About » Blog Archive » Old Flames

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:29:01 +0000

[...] away the time, they also violate her, repeatedly, in the most humiliating ways possible. As with THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, this makes it extremely rough to read, but it plants you squarely on Sara’s side — no ifs, [...]

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:17:03 +0000

I’ve got the infamous copy that sports a skeleton in a cheerleader’s outfit on the cover. I can still remember the scuzzy feeling I had while was reading this book, as though I was somehow complicit in what was going on. Still, I couldn’t stop reading, even though I didn’t want to know what was going to happen next. Like the narrator, there was something strangely compelling about what was happening. I think the book is rightly a classic milestone in horror, just for these very reasons. Recently developed as a film, with another movie being made about the real-life crime that inspired the book coming hot on its heels. For another similar book in Ketchum’s bibliography, try Stranglehold, where he does some of the same ratcheting up of suspense and tension past the point of no return.

By: Midnight Premiere » Bookgasm

Midnight Premiere » Bookgasm — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:49:08 +0000

[...] OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS: • THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING DETECTIVE AND 19 OF THE YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES edited by by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg • BLACK RIVER FALLS by Ed Gorman • DARK DELICACIES edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman • DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEAD AND OTHER TALES by Ed Gorman • FLIGHTS: EXTREME VISIONS OF FANTASY edited by Al Sarrantonio • FOUR DARK NIGHTS by Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Christopher Golden and Tom Piccirilli • GHOST TOWN by Ed Gorman • GRAVES’ RETREAT by Ed Gorman • GUNSLINGER AND NINE OTHER ACTION-PACKED STORIES OF THE WILD WEST by Ed Gorman • HALLOWS EVE by Al Sarrantonio • HORRORWEEN by Al Sarrantonio • INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A TRIBUTE edited by Kevin McCarthy and Ed Gorman • THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum • KEEPERS by Gary A. Braunbeck • LADIES’ NIGHT by Jack Ketchum • LIVE GIRLS by Ray Garton • THE LOVELIEST DEAD by Ray Garton • 999: TWENTY-NINE ORIGINAL TALES OF HORROR AND SUPSENSE edited by Al Sarrantonio • OFF SEASON by Jack Ketchum • THE WIDOW OF SLANE AND SIX MORE OF THE BEST CRIME AND MYSTERY NOVELLAS OF THE YEAR edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg • WOLF MOON by Ed Gorman [...]

By: Off Season » Bookgasm

Off Season » Bookgasm — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 12:49:12 +0000

[...] His THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is rightly a modern-day horror classic. No less notorious is his 1980 novel OFF SEASON, now available in “the author’s uncut, uncensored version” from Leisure. It’s not that it concerns cannibals that makes me unsettled. It’s that it concerns children who are cannibals. [...]

By: Bookgasm » The Loveliest Dead

Bookgasm » The Loveliest Dead — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:13:43 +0000

[...] Rant over. I’m a sucker for haunted house stories, and Garton’s – mixing AMITYVILLE, POLTERGEIST and Jack Ketchum’s THE GIRL NEXT DOOR – is a good one. It hooks from the start, lags a bit in a couple of chapters toward the middle and comes back with a vengenance for the end. –Rod Lott [...]

By: Bookgasm » Survivor

Bookgasm » Survivor — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 13:48:04 +0000

[...] Needless to say, a huge twist occurs before her life can be extinguished, and you’re going to react in one of two ways: by tearing through the rest as fast as possible to find out what happens, or by hurling the book across the room. Just before it, I thought SURVIVOR was fairly tame compared to other stuff I’ve read – perhaps one Habitrail away from matching the depravity of AMERICAN PSYCHO – but then that damned page 142 rolled around. I won’t divulge the details, but suffice to say, it’s not something I ever expected to read anywhere, an act that not only puts the “X” in “extreme,” but bolds and underlines it as well. And you’ve still got 230 pages left to go! [...]

By: Bookgasm » Leisure builds solid horror lineup for 2006

Bookgasm » Leisure builds solid horror lineup for 2006 — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 17:12:45 +0000

[...] Later in the summer, giant worms invade in Brian Keene’s THE CONQUEROR WORMS and Jack Ketchum’s infamous cannibal tale OFF SEASON finally gets back in print, and uncensored at that! If you’ve read his equally notorious THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, you know exactly the kind of shocks to expect. [...]

By: Rod Lott

Rod Lott — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:37:48 +0000

It’s funny – I wasn’t aware that this book had such a life to it. It wasn’t until after I read it that I learned of the cult around it.

By: Gonster

Gonster — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:16:50 +0000

I loved this book. I remember vaguely hearing about it years ago, but I just couldn’t find it. then this past September I saw it at a local bookstore and just picked it up. Definitely worth the wait.

By: Rod Lott

Rod Lott — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:45:36 +0000

I agree. But there is that one-page chapter just after they’re leading up to the story’s most brutal moment and the narrator says something like, “I’m not going to tell you about this. I refuse to.”

And then it’s on the next chapter, which picks up directly afterward, leaving it all to your twisted imagination.