lost boy lost girl - A Novel by Peter Straub - REVIEW

lost boy lost girl - A Novel by Peter Straub

The book jacket states:

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR lost boy lost girl

"A strange and wonderful webwork of a book. It's a murder mystery, a ghost story, a haunted house tale, a serial killer tale, while also being an examination of the ways in which family ties bind us and hold us down, and how those ties can be loosened. It's funny, and heartwarming, and genuinely scary, and unsettling all at the same time. It left me asking,"How the hell does he do that?" - while also wanting to force other people to read it and ask if it had the same effect on them." - Neil Gaiman

Ok, Mr. Gaiman...here's my response to your challenge. And now that I've finished the book, let me use YOUR OWN words to say...I think the only way anyone should read this book is if you are FORCED to do so by Mr. Gaiman.

The quip on the jacket makes it seem like THE PERFECT BOOK. Haunted house, ghost, murder, serial killer...how can you go wrong? Well, Peter Straub went horribly wrong. At just 281 pages, this book isn't long enough to comprehensively cover ONE of these subjects, much less ALL OF THEM. The result is a choppy, disjointed montage of bits & pieces of interesting fiction. But all thrown together in a haphazard, disorderly fashion. None of these multiple subjects is ever actually explored with any depth or insight. The potential of the many stories lines is recognized and then rapidly discarded into a jumble of WTF? Nothing in this story is brought to a satisfying conclusion. Mr. Straub even takes the beauty out of a "possibly" satisfying love story by conjuring up scenes of distasteful sex. The participants are not of this world any longer...can't it just be nice...without dragging all that other bullshit into the picture? He insinuates that by pursuing this angle in the afterlife that the victim somehow regains dignity and control of the situation that happened when she was alive. Give me a break. This book had potential to be at least good, but slid down into absolute trash. Don't waste your time on this...do something useful like cleaning the toilet instead. It will be more resourceful and undoubtedly more satisfying.

lost boy lost girl by Peter Straub gets an EYEBALL DOWN from JudgedByJody!