(no subject)
Urban Gothic by Brian Keene
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I don’ t know why I got so link-happy in the review.
How to describe Urban Gothic? In a word: icky.
The premise: Six white teens from the suburbs are returning home from a concert when they end up lost in the ghetto of Philadelphia. Their car breaks down in a dangerous neighborhood. When they’re approached by a group of black teens who act in a threatening manner. One of the white teen panics, calls them the ‘n’ word, and runs.
Sidebar: This didn’t ring true for me. Believe me when I say that this is not a complete criticism; in today’s schools and society enough white guilt is taught that the use of that word wouldn’t even be part of the active vocabulary of an upper middle class white teen. Not that I think they wouldn’t know that word, I just don’t think it would be used. But perhaps I’m naïve; I just know that my lower middle class friends and I wouldn’t have used it. End sidebar.
The slur has its expected effect though, the white teens start running and the angry (and as we find out later, hurt) black teens chase after them. The white teens head for a creepy, old, Victorian style house at the end of the street. They go inside and the mayhem begins. Almost immediately the way out is barred and one of them is decapitated.
What they find in the house reminded me of the movie Bleeders (http://bit.ly/bYOrPo) a little. Inbred, animalistic freaks that enjoy eating humans begin to hunt them through the large house which has secret passages, sliding walls, and booby traps throughout.
Except this is much, much, much more disgusting and violent. And seriously, perhaps I’m a bit impulsive, but if I was trapped in a house of mutant, cannibalistic freaks with little hope of survival and I had a lighter - well I wouldn’t see much harm in setting the place on fire. Or one of the mutant cannibalistic freaks. Seriously, Let’s Start a Riot! http://bit.ly/UqwYE
I must congratulated Mr. Keene on creating some truly unsympathetic villians though. On the downside, note that I haven’t mentioned a single character name. It hardn’t matters; there isn’t much personality to be found here.
Meanwhile, outside, the black teens who hadn’t meant to scare the kids so badly are feeling guilty. The house at the end of the street, to borrow a phrase from Shirley Jackson, “was born bad.” http://bit.ly/21zGBf. Or at least they know that nobody in the neighborhood goes near it, not in their generation and not in their parents. However, despite the fact that they were called a bad name, they feel guilty that their intimidation sent the other teens charging into the house of unknown evil. They go to an older neighbor’s house to place a call to the police which goes unanswered (not uncommon in this neighborhood). While waiting for help that never comes, they finally decide to go offer what help they can.
Bottom-line: If you want to read about humans fighting for their lives in horrific circumstances, this is indeed the book for you. If that doesn’t appeal to you, give it a miss. As for me *sob* I’m going to go read something by Dr. Seuss or Laura Ingalls Wilder.
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