Review: Urban Gothic by Brian Keene

I finished reading Brian Keene's horror novel, Urban Gothic last night. It was . . . interesting, to say the least. I don't read many horror novels, but thought it might be fun to read one.

Summary: Kerri and her 5 other friends are recent high school graduates, and have just driven to Philly for a hip hop concert. After it ends, they get lost in a very dangerous, urban neighborhood where their car breaks down. While trying to fix it, they get approached by a group of young men who appear to be possible gang members. Kerri's friends get scared, and start running. They enter an old abandoned house on the end of the street for protection. Turns out, this house is much scarier then the "gang" members, who actually meant well. Inside this house lurks cannibalistic mutants, who are ready for their next feast, and there is no way out. All the doors and windows are boarded up, and the group of friends are soon being pursued by many monsters . . .

My Thoughts: This book reads just like a horror movie; think, "The Hills Have Eyes." On the one hand, I thought it was fast paced from start to finish, and action packed. It certainly kept my attention, though I have to say it did not really scare me. I'm more frightened by ghosts than human "mutants" . . . but it was an exciting read nonetheless. The writing was good, descriptive, and detailed. I could really imagine all of the things he was describing. It sometimes made me feel like I was there myself.

On the other hand, this book was repulsive. It was gory, graphic, and full of disgusting sexually explicit scenes and descriptions. Now, luckily I don't have a weak stomach, and can handle these types of things, but I think that many people wouldn't be able to handle reading this. The characters and dialogue were quite unrealistic at times, but the alternate world he created was fascinating, so I was able to overlook that. If you love horror movies, you might like this book, and that is pretty much the only group of people I can recommend this to. Beware that is is pretty brutal at times. I'll probably give this author another try, as he appears to be quite popular in the horror genre. I'm hoping that the next one I read of his won't be quite as gross.

The Bottom Line: Disgusting! Action packed! Not really scary (to me, at least).

Rating: 3/5

Currently Reading: Perfect Chemistry by Simon Elkeles.