Hide and Seek
Jack Ketchum | 2007-11-05 00:00:00 | Gauntlet Press | 173 | Horror
Hide and Seek is a book about games. Reckless, dangerous games. Games you might even want to play yourself if you're with the right people. But shouldn't. Not ever. In a small Maine town, a group of thrill seeking college kids finds a game of hide and seek in an abandoned house turning into a reality of stark terror.
Reviews
I really liked this book, and I think it's some of Ketchum's best writing. Every so often he includes a couple of sentences that describe details that I found sublime. The characters and their relationships are complex and interesting, and as mentioned in the other reviews the book might remind you of Stand By Me or Richard Laymon's Travelling Vampire Show. While there are hints of what's to come, the first half of the book is the characters being fleshed out as they spend a summer on the coast of Maine. The Ketchum depravity that follows is up to par. This book also reminded me of Laymon's Night in Lonesome October.
A night of fun trespassing in a haunted house--What could possibly go wrong?
Reviews
The follies of youth - sometimes they lead people to do the strangest things. Sometimes that means impressing people by shouldering less-than-bright ideas that we come up with, and sometimes that means trying to put on lifestyles that we know nothing about. Enter our lead in this story, sitting in his tourist town and noticing how much life is passing him by, and enter our distraction and the friends she courts. Also enter a tale of a house that has a haunting history when we are told about it, and enter Hide and Seek.
As far as Jack Ketchum is concerned, I have to credit him with being one of the most stable character developers I have ever read. When his ideas hit the proverbial blackboard of thought, I can see the people and the little things they bring to the table. Whether they have a nervous tick or some sort of unmentioned OCD that causes them to do some of the oddest things, they have a clarity about them. I also have to credit him with being one of the best set-up men in the business. Many people can place a thing before you and the linearity of it makes you say that it was alright, but Ketchum's paths are anything if straight and the development a reader follows is a beauty to behold. I personally find the way he builds his worlds inciting.
In Hide and Seek, the dance of the characters is nice to watch and the thing they are building up to is something you see coming out of the corner of your eye, and that is good. I personally thought the time spent developing the characters were a beautiful thing, and the temperament of the people involved --- it was honest in its own way. I also liked the own and the way it was defined; a thing rotting from the inside and supported only by tourists, giving it a feeling that does not scrub off easily. The run-down homes and the position of nature - sometimes it feels as if there is a statement involved in that and not just a set-up for things to come. The downside of the whole thing is the "what" that happens, or perhaps the briefness of the "what" that happens. You have an event that transpires, people trying to be better than the best they know how to be, and then, ummm, conclusion (?) I personally did not like that, thinking the ending was a bit rushed for my tastes. Still, I did like the book and thought it was a god read/
If you are a fan of Ketchum, these are the days to pick up books that you would otherwise never see. When Hide and Seek used to look at me it looked from a place I could not reach, and that dollar monument was a scary place. Now it, as well as many of his and Edward Lee's works, are being released once more and it is fabulous. Were it not for this, I would not even be allowed an opinion on the book. If you do not know Ketchum, try out books like "The Lost," "Off-Season," and anything else that catches your fancy. I personally recommend Peaceable Kingdom as a starting point for the short story reader, citing "The Box" and the Stoker Award it won.
So, this is reluctantly recommended, getting gold stars for some of its play and silver stars for others. Regardless, it is a good tale and nice to see back in-print.
Reviews
Simply put: If there were more books like this, more people would read horror. This is without a doubt the scariest book I have EVER read, and I've read 'em all--- King, Laymon, Little, Lee, et al. For the last 1/4 of this book I could literally feel my heart hammering in my chest. Ketchum does something very few horror authors do effectively: he lets us slowly get to know his characters inside and out, so by the time the "action" starts we are ao invested in the characters and the story that it's like we are experiencing the events ourselves. This book is an absolute gem. Don't be put off by the fact that this book costs a little more than your average trade paperback, because it is worth the price of admission and then some.
Reviews
it was a quick and easy read. a bit predictable - reminded me of his offseason&offspring books, minus the gore. not scary.
Reviews
Ketchum did it again, created a story so real that it draws you in and leaves you wondering. The "horror" of Ketchum is that he bases his stories on reality. No supernatural happenings here, just a little pushing of the reality envelope.
Dan is a young kid just floating through life in a sleepy little town, working at a lumber mill, and putting off attending college. Life for Dan is calm and easy until three rich kids from Boston arrive in Dead River. (What a name for a town where horrors live.)
Casey, (who becomes Dan's lover) Steve, and Kim take Dan into their fold and Dan's life becomes less than calm. The three college kids show Dan how to live life with a sense of entitlement by stealing caviar and cheese for picnics on the beach, creating their own nude beach, and shirking the responsibility of a job.
Dan's relationship with Casey is complicated by her hedonism and risk taking. During the course of the summer Dan comes to understand the tragedy in Casey's life that has formed her personality. He doesn't like what it has done to her, but out of his love/infatuation with her Dan goes along with Casey's crazy antics. One being the game of hide and seek in an old abandoned house at midnight. The house just happens to have a dark history, which Dan shared with Casey, Kim and Steve. And it is because of the houses history, which involves the eviction and disappearace of reculsive Ben and Mary Crouch, the removal of tens of abandonded dogs from the house, and the inability of anyone to live in the old Crouch home afterward, that prompts Casey's game. It turns into a very dangerous game for everyone, especially Casey.
Hide and Seek reminded me of The Girl Next Door and Red, other great books of Ketchum's books that have their terror based in reality. If you want to be scared by something other than ghosts, demons, and the such, and want your fright to come from society, read Ketchum.
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