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Post by dem bones on Aug 21, 2008 12:39:55 GMT
Richard Laymon - Resurrection Dreams (W. H. Allen, 1988: Feature, 1990: Leisure, 2005 & Co.) Melvin was definitely the biggest creep in Ellsworth High, and the other kids mercilessly taunted him for his odd looks and weird behaviours. Vicki was the only one to stand up for him but even she had to admit he'd gone too far when he dug up a body and attempted to bring it back to life with the aid of a car battery.
Years later Vicki still has nightmares about Melvin's "joke" and now that she's back in Ellsworth, she knows she'll have to see him again. Recently released from a mental institution, Melvin is acting stranger than ever. His experiments with the dead have progressed and as soon as he can get Vicki - or rather her body - where he wants her, he can realize his most chilling dream of all... Melvin, the school weirdo, livens up the science fair by trying to revive Darlene, recently decapitated in a car crash which also saw her boyfriend burnt to death. Melvin has her strapped to a wheelchair in her cheerleader outfit with her head bandaged back in place. He tries to jump-start her. Not only doesn't it work, but Melvin is committed to the insane asylum for his pains. By the time Vicki Chandler, the one person who used to stick up for him at school, returns to Ellworth a qualified doctor, Melvin has been released and he obviously still has a crush on her. After being hassled by her letch of a landlord (Pollock, a retired police chief) Vicki moves in with her indomitable best friend, Ace. Several young girls have gone missing of late, but with Vicki back on the scene the body count goes through the ceiling. Melvin has at last got his Frankenstein act together and, after Pollock insults Vicki, he sends his love-slave zombie Patricia to deal with him. Vicki suspects that Melvin is behind all the murders and dates him, hoping to worm out a confession. Not my favourite of Laymon's splatter pulps, but it has its moments, and Ace, courageous and loyal, is one of his most likable characters. The re-animation of the charred body of Vicki's friend and benefactor, the aged Dr. Charlie (and his subsequent attempt to rape her in the bottom of a canoe - for some inexplicable reason, the walking dead are total sex maniacs) is truly horrendous and the opening chapters concerning the senior year are well handled. If you like your sex and violence gratuitous and your novels to cram in more gory murders than the entirety of the Friday The Thirteenth franchise, then you will love this to death.
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