John Farris (1) (1936–)

Good grief what a book. It's isn't really quite deserving of five stars, but it is such a wild ride with such a memorable setting and cast of characters, that I feel I must submit to its power and unremitting center of darkness, even if it is in someways repellent and mysterious. I can remember when I was a young teenager and this book first came out. I shouldn't have waited more than 50 years to read it--but, given its subject matter, perhaps its a good thing. Certainly, if you are a fan of show more horror fiction, there's a whole lot to like here. And, of course, the title is as good as it gets. This book is something no horror fan should miss. It's hard to maintain suspense and terror for the length of a novel, but Farris does it here. show less

What a damn trainwreck. 283 pages. A book I should have barreled through in a day, and instead, it took me far longer than I ever anticipated. I haven't read a Farris book in probably 40 years, but remember the ones I did read with fondness, which is why I decided to seek out a few more and dig in.

This likely wasn't the one to kick off that endeavour.

It takes virtually half the novel for the story to kick in to gear. There's far, far too much detail and description, and characters that are show more given way too many pages (I'm looking at you, Neddie) when, in the end, they essentially add nothing to the plot.

Important scenes have presumably been left on the cutting room floor. Seriously. Stuff happens and I flipped back through the pages to see if, in my boredom, I'd missed them. Nope. Shit happened off-stage. So, instead, we get details of buildings, hotels, tourist areas, bicycling events, but we don't see important, plot-impacting events. What the hell, John?

And then the end comes barreling at the reader with virtually no warning. I think the entire structure of this story is flawed. Things that were held back--presumably to keep the reader wondering, or in suspense, or for sheer shits and giggles--could have been coughed up instead of the confusing prologue we got.

So, yeah, in the end, I'm a touch reluctant to dig into another Farris novel, but I will. Hell, the next one's gotta be better than this one, right?

Right? show less

Farris is definitely one of the more literary quote horror authors unquote...and I say this because this is truly more thriller than horror, but then, for all that, it's a slow-burning thriller.

Reading a Farris novel is like taking a long stroll with a storytelling friend who hails from the south and has a great vocabulary. He'll mete out the story at a languorous pace, but never bore you. He'll fill in details that, while they may add nothing to the story, definitely add to the characters show more or the atmosphere.

In this particular story, Farris details some horrific events and, at times, dips a toe into the supernatural. It's never heavy-handed, it's never unnecessarily gory, but for all its restraint, it seems that much worse.

I'm not going to say that he's one of my favourite authors, because I'm actually one of those crass individuals who enjoy a quicker pace. But, having said that, once in a while, it's really good to slide over to a book with a slower pace.

I quite enjoyed this one. show less

Generally considered one of the top contenders for Scariest Novel Ever Written, All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By is a difficult book to review. A synopsis of the plot doesn't even begin to do justice to the atmosphere of profound unease conjured by John Farris: in fact, noting that it's about a prominent Southern family beleaguered by a voodoo curse makes All Heads Turn sound much less interesting than it is. The particulars of the story aren't nearly as significant as the cumulative show more spell that Farris casts. Yes, his writing gets a little highfalutin in places, and if you're of the belief that horror ought to stick to its meat-and-potatoes conventions rather than aspire to anything more ambitious, this book will grate on your last nerve...but I would urge everyone else to bear with the author's occasional lapses into grandiloquence. Farris will frighten the daylights out of you here; he just demands a bit more of his readers than does the average horror hack. show less