Can't Hardly Wait
I've been excited ever since I noticed that Peter Straub has a new novel out. I'm even more excited because the Janet Maslin, in this review, hints at something that Straub, alone among horror writers of my experience, excels at:
[...]in addition to the standard-issue frissons to be found here (and one of the most startling involves only a light bulb)[...]
and
With a section of his book entitled "A Rip in the Fabric," Mr. Straub centers his story on the possibility of slipping from the ordinary into an adjacent evil world. To the book's credit, this does not seem drastic.
Man oh man, that's Straub in a nutshell. This reminds me of the classic moment in "The Throat," when a phone call prompts the detective to tell his caller to turn out all the lights in his house and get down on the floor. See, that sounds lame, but I guarantee you that in the book, it's a sock to the gut.
And in "Ghost Story," the moment (I'm paraphrasing all these moments here...I really need to reread these) where Straub somehow manages to create a moment of palpable fear for the reader that seems to come from OUTSIDE the realm of the book...it's really hard to explain, but he does it.
This takes nothing away from, say, Stephen King (it takes much away from Dean Koontz but that's another post.) When King is on, he can be spooky and chilling and all those things you want in a horror novelist. But Straub gets under your skin in an entirely different way. King cajoles you and promises he won't scare you too bad, and anyway why did you sign up for this ride if you didn't want me here. Straub just appears there (under your skin) and scares the living crap out of you and then disappears, and you never know if he's finished with you or not.
I like that in a writer.