Cuts
by Richard Laymon
List Price:
Our Price: $3.81
You Save: $4.18 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Richard LaymonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Published: 2008-02-26
ISBN: 0843957522
Number of pages: 301
Publisher: Leisure Books
Book Reviews of Cuts
Book Review: One of Laymon's Weakest by far
Summary: 2 Stars
Of all of Laymon's books that I have read, this is by far my least favorite. It sounded entertaining enough; I like serial killer books, all of the reviews on here made it out to be a great read... I haven't been this bored reading a book in a long time.
Short summary: There's a 17 year old serial killer on the loose, armed with a switchblade. He successfully manages to evade the cops on a cross country killing spree even though he's not at all a bright individual. Meanwhile a pack of teachers who all teach at the same school have more drama going on between them then all of their students combined. Most of the teachers are cheating on their spouses, complete alcoholics, obnoxious, pretentious and violent. Of course there is one who isn't, his name is Ian and he's the quiet silent type - our obvious good guy. Then we have the girl fresh out of the bad relationship and just trying to find a nice guy - our obvious heroine. The young serial killer makes it with amazing speed across the country to our pack of teachers and well, that's the rest of the story.
The biggest problem I had with this book is that I didn't buy into it at all. Our serial killer is such a weak character that he's completely uninteresting. The majority of the book follows him across the country killing people as he goes... but there is no motivation, no quirks or fun things for the audience to get to know him. Perhaps he is supposed to be the epitome of evil, but in reality he just comes across as a dork with a knife that gets lucky. I don't have a problem with the main character of the book being a bad guy, but he's missing anything at all to attract me to the character, for example: the suave brilliant evil of Hannibal Lecter, the sheer insanity and maniacal genius of the Joker, the sinister apathy of that guy in Shindler's List... MAKE THE BAD GUYS INTERESTING. This bad guy was just so boring, and from there we cut back to the teachers. Everyone is miserable; they all quote famous novels and spout off philosophical BS at each other while cheating on their spouses, screwing their students, and whining about this or that. Now there are a lot of interesting characters mentioned on the back, most of them however are only bit players.
Like all Laymon books, love at first site is complete and unwavering. There are quite a few large plot holes, and I personally had a real issue with our leading female character who makes such a huge deal about being pregnant and how much she wants and loves the baby, then proceeds to drink alcohol and coffee on every page she's on. Add to that the realization that Laymon has no idea how women's clothing works (sorry Laymon, but raising your hands in a mini-skirt doesn't have the same effect as raising your hands in a short dress - try one on and you'll figure it out)
In the end what we have is 304 boring pages of empty characters having sex, dying, or lusting over one another. It's really rather sad... There are plenty of other Laymon books to read for a fun time, this is not one that I would recommend.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Goriest Books that are also Great Horror Stories
Old Flamesby Jack Ketchum
Leisure; Published: 2008-05-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Off Seasonby Jack Ketchum
Leisure; Published: 2006-05-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
The Traveling Vampire Showby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2001-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.47
Price in other shops:
Into the Fireby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2006-07-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
To Wake The Deadby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2004-11-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Price in other shops:
Cutsby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-02-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
The Woods Are Darkby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Dead Seaby Brian Keene
Leisure; Published: 2007-07-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.57
Price in other shops:
The Dark Half (Signet)by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1990-10-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Cell: A Novelby Stephen King
SCRIBNER PUBLISHING; Published: 2006-01-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Beast Houseby Richard Laymon
Leisure; Published: 2007-02-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.67
Price in other shops:
Among the Missingby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2000-10; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.91
Price in other shops:
Allhallow's Eveby Richard Laymon
Headline Book Publishing; Published: 1994-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.32
Price in other shops:
Dark Hollowby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-01-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.66
Price in other shops:
Bewareby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-10-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
The Midnight Tour (Beast House Series)by Richard Laymon
Leisure; Published: 2007-07-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.15
Price in other shops:
The Cellarby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2006-10-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.13
Price in other shops:
The Woods Are Darkby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops:
Triageby Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon, Edward Lee
Leisure; Published: 2008-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Savageby Richard Laymon
Leisure Books; Published: 2007-10-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.55
Price in other shops: