The Lost

Once I got going on this book I tore through it. This is definitely what I call a "porch book" - In the summer, I can sit and read for hours on the porch. Unfortunately, it's still pretty cold out, so I wound up reading it in bed when I should have been sleeping.

This is very well written splatter horror. Ketchum knows how to ratchet up the tension until the characters explode into violence and the blood flies. His characters are never good people and this book is populated with amoral and awful people, some of whom are sympathetic nonetheless.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Ketchum’s “the Lost”. Reading Jack Ketchum is almost like a guilty pleasure; he goes places most authors are afraid to go. I love following the protagonist’s descent into madness throughout the book that ends in a very disturbing way. This book has an explosive opening and a grand finale and the middle is a great preview into the psyche of a very troubled and quirky (at times & even entertaining) individual. Ketchum has the ability to write these characters that you want to hate but at the same time you want to keep reading about them to see what they do next, that is the way this book plays out. For some reason I always put off reading a lot of Jack Ketchum, but when I do I am always ready to read show more more. Like I said it is a guilty pleasure.
One reviewer was upset about discrepancies in such areas as gas prices and underage drinking laws, do not let trivial and menial items like that prevent you from reading a great book. show less

In this often times brutal and graphically violent novel set in the 1960s, Ray and two friends were out on a camping trip. While they were there, Ray shot and killed two women he thought to be lesbians at a neighboring campsite just to see what it would be like to kill them. Tim and Jennifer, the two friends, decided not to betray him, and there was not enough evidence for the police to nail Ray. Four years later, Ray is a drug dealer living large while working at his parents' motel. Ray is basically a worm of a person, a small man who stuffs his cowboy boots to make himself look taller. He's loathsome in almost every way possible, but yet remains a well-drawn character, not an easy feat to accomplish. The two cops investigating the show more case won't let it go, and are determined to pin it on Ray. Much like many other Jack Ketchum novels, the writing is visceral and violent, but he employs the violence more effectively here than he has in other novels. The voice he uses is strong and the action flows at a strong pace. Ketchum's writing is professional and enjoyable to read. The novel had some flaws but overall a solid piece of horror and suspense.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street show less

This was a great book!!!! Character development was outstanding and the front row seat to a cold-blooded killer going over the edge kept my avid interest. Not my usual type of book, but Ketchum is a fantastic writer and I will be getting my hands on some more of his stuff!

I hate Ketchum. The stories are too brutal and horrible to enjoy, but the writing compels you to keep reading.

In the early 60s, Ray Pye, a young sociopathic drug dealer shoots two women in the woods for "something to do" and he gets away with it. Four years later we catch up with Ray, the cops who tried to bring him down, his two friends who were present for the murder and a few additional females brought in to showcase Ray's madness. I was thoroughly unimpressed with this novel.

I think the author was trying to describe the desperation people feel when they experience loss. Some folks take to the bottle, some to sex, some rebound and some just plain go crazy. However, it takes a solid three hundred pages before the story picks up and quite frankly it was a challenge to finish. I think Ketchum is a pretty solid writer in the horror fiction show more genre, but this book was disappointing. show less

I hate Ketchum. The stories are too brutal and horrible to enjoy, but the writing compels you to keep reading.