Zo's Book Reviews: The Traveling Vampire Show

 

So...uh...trigger warning cause this book I'm reviewing is pretty offensive...

The Traveling Vampire Show is a novel written by infamous author Richard Laymon. The book follows three 16-year-olds on an idle summer day in 1963. The narrator, Dwight, and his best friends Rusty and Slim (a tomboy), find flyers for an exotic vampire show. They make a journey to a local clearing called Jank's Field in an attempt to sneak a peek at Valeria, who is billed as the world's only living captive vampire, but they are attacked by a dog and separated, leading to a series of misadventures. Meanwhile, Dwight's attractive sister-in-law Lee purchases four tickets from the show's frontman, Julian Stryker. Later that night the group is reunited and attends the titular Vampire Show, where they discover a sinister plot involving the 'vampires'.

Speaking on the plot itself, it involves a lot of the sexual awakening of the teens...and it's a lot. Like, it's kind of disturbing how the author describes each situation, and remember we're talking about kids here...so it gets pretty offensive and awkward if you're not prepared for it. There's also quite a bit of rapey moments here, and a lot of nudity...and some abuse that had me cringing. Again, it can be off-putting if you're not ready for it.

Other than the strange sexual stuff that happens throughout, the author really does have a knack for creating atmosphere and is genuinely good at creating scenes. The conversations between the characters felt natural, it felt real and reminded me of the stuff I used to talk about with my friends at 16. There were also some very good moments of tension that had me on the edge of my seat. Really, this book was hard to put down because of it. Every chapter moved quickly and every moment led into the next organically. I was quite surprised and it was enough for me to swallow my pride and power through the rapey and gross sexual stuff. Like, I get it, they're hitting puberty, it's normal stuff right? But it felt kind of creepy at the same time... Another gripe I had was that the story kind of plods along with very little action happening. There are moments where literally nothing happens and it feels like a waste of time.

Then we get to the end where everything happens...and I mean everything. The violence, the blood, the gore, the guts, the...well, the extreme visuals of violence and sexual stuff comes to it's most fucked up conclusion. There's some weird boner moments (is Laymon just obsessed with boners...?) that happen during the ending that almost made me yeet the book straight out the window. I had to remind myself this was on my Kindle and I had more books on there so...that stopped me. Like, I can't talk enough about how awkward the sexual stuff was in this book. It feels like Laymon was trying to create a coming of age story, but made it way too adult-oriented in the sense that this could be a very awkward read for everyone.

In the end, I think it was entertaining when it wasn't focused on the teens' sexual awakening and simply told a tension filled story about a weird vampire sideshow. The scenes crafted are good, the writing is solid, the actual scares are great, and the misadventures will remind you of your own childhood...but for God's sake all the other stuff is just very off-putting and I felt happened way too often. A book that really could've been something amazing, in 2020, is just offensive in the end. But I gotta say, the way Laymon writes is pretty damn solid. If you like your horror extreme, then check it out.

Final Score: C