The Traveling Vampire Show

Estamos en una calurosa mañana del año 1963, en un pueblecito norteamericano llamado Grandville, donde conocemos a una pandilla de amigos de dieciséis años, Dwight, Rusty y Slim, siendo esta última una chica cuyo verdadero nombre es Frances, aunque nunca los usa. Será Rusty quien ponga en antecedentes a sus amigos sobre una gran noticia: El espectáculo ambulante del vampiro llegará esta noche al pueblo para dar una única función en el llano Janks. El interés de dicho espectáculo radica en Valeria, una vampiresa, que obsesionará a los jóvenes, hasta el punto de querer saber realmente si es tan hermosa como suponen. Pero hay un problema, el espectáculo es para mayores de edad. ¿Y qué se les ocurre? Acudir inmediatamente show more al llano Janks para espiar a los feriantes y si es posible ver a Valeria. El día no ha hecho más que empezar, en lo que será el día más terrorífico de sus vidas.

La novela ‘El espectáculo del vampiro’ (The Travelling Vampire Show, 2001), ganadora del Premio Stoker en 2001, está narrada en primera persona por Dwight, en una historia en la que la tensión y el suspense van en aumento página tras página. Los capítulos son cortos y adictivos, no puedes dejar de leer. La trama transcurre pausadamente, calando en el lector, hasta llegar a una parte final excesiva, sangrienta y sorprendente. Apenas si hay algún salto en el tiempo, necesario por otra parte para conocer el pasado de los personajes. Ya desde los primeros capítulos, donde se nos da a conocer el llano Janks, un lugar en el que sucedieron hechos atroces, una zona yerma, con agujeros y cristales por doquier, queda clara la atmósfera en la que se va desarrollar la acción. La carga sexual en la novela es constante (hormonas desatadas) y aparece hasta en los momentos más escabrosos. En cuanto a los personajes, están bien definidos y son carismáticos y creíbles.

Leer a Richard Laymon me ha recordado al alter ego de Stephen King, Richard Bachman, por la falta de escrúpulos y las escenas sangrientas. De Laymon se ha dicho que es Stephen King sin conciencia, algo que me parece excesivo. Laymon no escribe alta literatura; tampoco escribe mal. Lo único que pretende es entretener, sin mayores pretensiones, como si de un escritor pulp se tratase. show less

This has to be one of my favorite go to vampire books. And I think, because when you start it, you expect one thing, and it takes you in a totally different direction. This book leads you down the path so easily, and you follow along happily, just trusting the author to take you where you think it's going to go. These kids want to sneak into the vampire show, they do everything they can to get there, oh yeah, you totally believe it, but then, you get there and you realize that's not where this is going. It turns darker and more sinister as the book goes on and it is amazing. The detail of the Vampire himself vs, the show. I can't put it down no matter how many times i read it. It's fantastic.

This is, by far, Laymon's best work. I have read EVERYTHING the man ever wrote before he died in 2001. Next to Stephen King, no one has played a bigger role in molding me into the writer I have become. Laymon is not for everyone. He's a minimalist, never verbose, and can drum up a shock a minute while still developing characters. He has a penchant for borderline porn. If you're a prude, do not pick Laymon up. If blood and gore aren't your thing, STAY AWAY!

What I love about The Traveling Vampire Show, has nothing to do with vampires. Because, in fact, the book doesn't have any vampires in it until the last couple pages. Not being a fan of vampires, but a fanatic of Laymons, I decided to read this anyway.

This book is about the kids show more Laymon draws so well. Period. Their youthful adventures rival that of any youngsters King has EVER written about. I will forever be a fan of Richard Laymon because of this book. Even when he's bad, he's still rather good.

***** 5 Stars

E. show less

Another problematic Laymon book. I'll give him kudos for writing a page-turner, but once again he fails to write a satisfying or frightening novel.

The narrator spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about whether he will or won't see someone's tits, and then whether he does or doesn't feel guilty about wanting to see them. The amount of constant and unwavering hemming and hawing he does over things that make him feel guilty, or angry, or sad, or fearful, or really any emotion, adds a good 200 pages to the story. Much of these reflections are at length, and serve to remind the reader of something that happened thirty pages ago. The amount of times the narrator rakes himself over the coals for breaking a vase on accident while show more stopping his hornballs friend from sniffing their other friend's mom's panties; the amount of times this whole incident is brought up without any further development or reflection is unreal and mind-boggling. It's like Laymon said to himself, "I'm going to try out this stream-of-consciousness that everyone's talking about" and then handed the pen over to his characters while he went to sip lemonade or buy groceries.

The story itself, about three friends and their varying degrees of personal and sexual maturity, is the perfect story for Laymon, as it finally gives a sensible context for his obsessions with leering at sexual crimes and championing romantic purity. To wit, the teenaged main character's internal conflict over wanting to have sex with everything clashing against his desire to fit in with society is carried a long way by Laymon's constant descriptions of what any given female character's breasts are doing at the moment, much like the internal monologue of any breast-obsessed teenager. Significant opportunities are missed to examine these feelings in any meaningful way, but at least they finally exist as something more than mild pornography.

As with most Laymons, the book drones on and on until it reaches The Big Reveal, which is always bloody, rushed and fails to give any kind of suitable resolution to the stuff he'd spent the first hundreds of pages droning on about. This one is particularly disappointing because it doesn't address any of the interesting dovetails between Laymonic obsessions and his characters, instead wasting our time with a Sexual Preverts Never Prosper moral twist. Given that he'd finally found a platform for all of the things he was interested in, it's disappointing to see Laymon then proceed to steamroll it out of sheer laziness. show less

This was my first book by Laymon - apparently he's much more famous in the UK, etc... than in the US.

It's a tense, well-written piece of horror fiction.

Plotwise, it's like a combination of Pet Sematary and Stand By Me, with a vampire carny thrown into the mix. (The more I think about it, the more parallels there are with both classics).

Three teens decide to sneak into an advertised 'vampire show' that's in town, which is to take place in a field with a bad reputation. When they go to check out the location, they find themselves treed by a rabid dog... and the day only gets worse from there, as they suspect that the sinister members of the show are stalking them...

Most of the book deals with the complex relationships between the teens - show more (the endlessly horny narrator, Dwight; Slim, a tough girl who's a survivor of abuse, and fat, untrustworthy but likable Rusty.... all of them may hold some dark secrets themselves....)
However, the ending is a sex-and-violence filled showdown that doesn't disappoint... show less

Rusty, Slim, and Dwight are paling around and see a flyer for a Traveling Vampire Show. And then it takes almost 400 pages till they even get to the show!

THEN, all hell breaks loose! The book turns into a bloody, violent, free-for-all with some T&A thrown in to boot! It's like two different books! The first 400+ pages is like the Brady Bunch, the last 125+ are just pandemonium! I will say that the first 400 set it all up, but it takes it's sweet time to get to the "good stuff"!

I don't want to say that the first 400 pages are boring, they just are a bit over descriptive! Like the length it takes to describe a character changing his shirt, or cleaning up after a spill, is just too long. A half of that 400 would have worked just as well, show more in my opinion. Still, the ending is pretty sweet!

“I just want to say, if you ever get word that a Traveling Vampire Show is coming to your town, stay away from it. For God’s sake." show less

I had to think about the book a little before writing this review. I went into it expecting full-on horror, which it wasn't. The majority of the book felt more like a coming of age tale with some horror mixed in, particularly towards the end. That said, after I got over the lack of horror, I realized I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I could relate to the kids in the book. They didn't have cell phones and game consoles crowding their lives, and neither did I when I was a kid. The coming of age arc was told in a realistic manner. I think any fan of horror would like this book, just be prepared that there isn't as much actual horror aspect as you might expect.