Jack Ketchum is one of those horror writers whose name no one will ever forget. All the Ketchum novels I have had the pleasure of reading all left me haunted by the horrors that he not only inflicts on his characters, but the pain and suffering he puts his readers though, making them fell paralyzed and helpless. THE GIRL NEXT STORE, made me think twice about making stupid decisions in life and making my daughter an orphan. When I saw the film adaptation, it was the first horror film that made me cry. THE LOST was just a messed up novel from beginning to end, and now the third novel I’ve read of Ketchum’s OLD FLAMES, curtsy of Leisure fiction will hit shelves next month.
OLD FLAMES is comprised of two stories, the first being OLD FLAMES it’s self, and a bonus novella of Jack Ketchum’s previously published story RIGHT TO LIFE.
OLD FLAMES has a very basic plot that normally I think if anyone else tried to write it, the story would be flat and boring. However Ketchum can take even the basic story and make it into something full of mystery and make the reader feel not so comfortable with the story’s main character. OLD FLAMES is about a woman named Dora , who has a good life when it comes to a career, but has a lot of trouble finding the right man. After countless efforts to find the right guy for herself, her friend recommends trying out the Old Flames agency to help her track down her high school sweetheart Jim. She finds out he is happily married and living in California with his wife and their two children. But that won’t stop her from trying to get back into his life. She then jumps on a plane from New York and heads out to California to track him down, she just so happens to know where he works and sets it up so they bump into each other at a bar. He notices her right away, and seems very happy to see her, even inviting her back to his home to meet his family. She hits it off with his family very well, and soon becomes very close to them. But her real reason for being there will soon be revealed, and the plot takes a turn similar to that of the movie FATAL ATTRACTION.
RIGHT TO LIFE, the second story in the book, is about a women named Sarah, who is in a relationship with a married man who just so happen to get her pregnant. She realizes that having the baby would ruin his life with his family so she decides to make an appointment at a local clinic in the New York City to have the pregnancy terminated. However, her decision is cut short when she is kidnapped by a couple dead set against abortion, and is held captive by them in their basement, while they wait for the her to give birth. But this is no ordinary kidnapping as she is psychically and psychologically tortured, and is turned into the couple personal slave, performing not only household duties but sexual ones as well.
I’m very tossed up between the two stories. I liked both but have a lot of issues with RIGHT TO LIFE. OLD FLAMES on the other hand, although it comes off as a somewhat predictable story; is Ketchum at his best. There really isn’t anyone who can write like him, and I don’t think this story would work so well if someone else wrote it. It’s a basic Fatal Attraction story, but it is written so well, that you just can’t help but keep your eyes on the pages from beginning to end. It’s well rounded even though you know the outcome will be limited to a certain fate for each of the characters involved in the story.
RIGHT TO LIFE is also very well written, I’m not going to take that away from Ketchum. My problem with the story is that in reality if you held a pregnant woman captive and did the things to her that her captives did in this book, most likely she would lose the child, especially when her pregnancy was in the first stags of development. I’m not sure if Jack Ketchum has children or if he is even married, but there are a few things in the story that make me question his knowledge of pregnancy. I may be looking into it too much, but being a father, and a husband. My wife made sure we were both educated on the do’s and don’ts of being pregnant. So I look at some of the abuse in this story two different ways. Either Ketchum was showing us that the kidnappers themselves were uneducated, or mainly Ketchum just figured it didn’t matter and sacrificed realism for a shocking story. Feeding a women Tuna sandwiches is a big no-no when pregnant, fish in general is. But doctors stress the fact about how tuna is something that you just don’t eat. There is also the fact that Sarah was strapped down and beaten, put in a closed box, deprived of sunlight and supplements, things that a women and her baby need, and then there is the X-frame and the torture that Sarah’s body went though while being strapped to that thing. That’s a lot for not only an expecting mother to go though, but a developing baby in the womb; the chances of an expected mother miscarrying under such stress are very likely. So while I found RIGHT TO LIFE to be a very well written and shocking story, I didn’t find it to be a believable one. But the storyline is a clever one.
Overall, OLD FLAMES is a decent novel. Ketchum is a true master of the genre, and is one of the best horror writers out there. He is one of the only horror authors that can show the reality of human being and the mothers that hide inside us all and when the madness takes over how crazy and vile we can become. Although I really felt that the realism of RIGHT TO LIFE made the story more of a fantasy than a real life experience for me, I still got that shiver in my spine and the pain in my eyes when envisioning the horrors that were presenting themselves on the page. OLD FLAMES, although it had a very basic storyline, I really enjoyed, simply because it was written so well.
For big fans of Ketchum’s work, this book is must buy, especially if you’re a collector of his work or have not read the stories. For first time readers of Ketchum I would recommend reading some of his other novels first, before diving into this one. Ketchum is a brilliant writer, but his other novels are much better than this one.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
