Out are the Lights

like all his books

As advertised. Good condition.

Out are the Lights: And Other Tales (1982) is not Richard Laymon's strongest collection, but then again it is not a collection per se. There are actually two versions of this book, the one with the additional five tales and the one without, so you need to check before you purchase if you really want the shorts. Out are the Lights is a novella, like the title story Fiends which kicks off that collection. Out of the Headline UK editions, this comes in third place or second actually, as I think Fiends (1997) and Dreadful Tales (2000) tie for first place. The trouble with Out are the Lights is not the title story or the additional short stories, it is the number of additional stories, a measly five which are Mess Hall, Bad News, Drinker's Pond, Madman Stan, and The Tub. Fiends and Dreadful Tales offered more for your money and, granted, these are arguably some of his weaker stories, although I still enjoyed them. In the end, think of it as buying another slim Laymon novel.

Out are the Lights: and Other Tales (1982) is a collection from splatter horror king, Richard Laymon. The main story here is the title novella, Out are the Lights. There are also five short bonus stories:Mess HallBad NewsDrinker's PondMadman StanThe TubThis book is similar to Fiends (1997), which also kicks of with the eponymous title novella. This collection is not bad, but not Laymon's best; Fiends contains al lot more bonus stories for you bucks, and Dreadful Tales (2000) is arguably his best offering as far as short story collections go. Hopefully they will release Fiends and Dreadful Tales, or a complete short story collection from Laymon on Kindle one day.

As with all Richard Laymon books, this is brilliant, addictive and very difficult to put down. The novel itself is fairy short at around 230 pages but this just adds to its fast-paced nature.The people who run a local cinema are making snuff-movies using out-of-towners and similar who come into town.I cannot really say much more about the plot because the book is so short and because there are many plot twists, but it is very good.As well as the main story, we also get 5 short stories afterwards, which are all equally good. I particularly enjoyed the last story, "The Tub".

Not the best Richard Laymon I have read, to be honest if this was the first book of his I picked up it would possibly be the last.The plot is relatively simple, a horror film producer lures unsuspecting teens into dangerous situations that results in their death. The onslaught is filmed and released in another state.As with a number of Laymon's offerings there are 2 plots that merge together at the end, expect plenty of sex and splattering gore, just not a particularly great read.Try Island or Beast house as an introduction.

So here we are again. Another day, another Laymon book read.After getting tired of only reading Stephen King, I turned to Richard Laymon. I have read a few of his books now.Blood Games and Funland were great. The Woods Are Dark was a fantastic quick paced survival horror, with an incredibly poor ending. Darkness Tell us & Savage were both a great disappointment to me.So, my friend gave me Out Are The Lights. A collection of short stories and one novella. The main story being the title of the book which is followed by a couple of shorts.I'm beginning to wonder what the craze is about with Laymon. Yes, his books are gory, fast paced and full of sex, but on a storytelling basis, for me, he fails miserably. His work is rushed and his endings do not pack the punch that you want them to.Take The Lights Are Out for example. It starts off well, starts to build and then BANG! Its over. You feel cheated by how it ends. Its like Laymon wanted to write a full novel, got bored, ended the story abruptly and then decided to write a few mediocre shorts to fill the pages.So. With Out Are The Lights, you have a story involving snuff movie makers. The book contains all the traditional Laymon gore, but it doesn't have the intensity that the other books have. Yes, people die unexpectedly and there are a lot of horrible characters, but you question whither you care about what happens.Talking of horrible characters, just about everyone in this story isn't very likeable. Even the good characters are very flawed human beings who only care for themselves. They all commit certain acts that when put in danger, you don't care whither they survive or not. There is a bit of sympathy for the Connie character, but at the end of the day, she is cheating on her boyfriend Dal and she seems to talk a lot about hurting people. She's a bit of a female John Rambo. And I found her too violent to be sympathetic towards.The character of Pete is maybe the only one that is slightly likeable, but even at that, he does some things in the book which are slightly questionable.Another problem that I had with this book is the villains. Laymon is great at creating detestable characters, who you wish ,would die screaming in agony, while bleeding out of every orifice. The villains here are very forgettable. I think the reason for this is that, all the other characters are so unlikeable, the villains just blend into the background.The ending is abrupt and so sudden that you turn your nose up and say "WHAT! WHAT! That was it?" I was more shocked at how bad the ending was, than how shocking it is meant to be. As I said before, the ending comes from nowhere and I honestly think that Laymon ran out of steam, tapped out and quit writing. It all seems so rushed. It has a real 70's B Movie ending to it.The other short stories are so poor, that I am not going to even mention them (Just my opinion, not fact)If you read Laymon and you haven't read this, don't waste your time. Read something better. If you have never read Laymon before, then do not start with this. You will never read another one of his books. Try Funland or something a with a bit more power and feeling.2/5 is a harsh review, but this book just didn't grab me. I will hope to read something a bit more haunting and macabre in the future. Next up, the Beast House trilogy.21/12/12PS: You know when you have a favorite band. You love them, you live your life to their music. Then they start to release albums that are garbage. Just horrible. 10 to 12 songs of absolute forgetfulness and boredom. They keep doing this, but still you buy the albums looking for that one diamond in the rough. You tell yourself that they are going to go back to their roots and do another Master Of Puppets, or another Appetite For Destruction or Another Back In Black. But at the end of the day, its never going to happen. But you stay positive, waiting for the thing that never comes, even though the voice in your head is telling you that their glory days are gone and you need to wake up and smell the coffee.That's how I feel about Richard Laymon and the books of his that I keep buying. I feel like I'm chasing a rainbow. I ain't gonna catch it :(

This book came from my mother’s 80’s throwback pile – a collection of her old horror books that she has given me for pleasure reading. It seems to be a disjointed collection with some being really good reads whereas others seem to fall short.Sadly, ‘Out Are The Lights’ falls into the latter section. I’d put it aside for a while, expecting a really good read on a rainy day, yet it was nowhere near what I had expected.It was fun, yes. It had a great idea behind it, without a doubt. It was executed… not so well. It almost seems as though the author failed to combine the stories lines accurately, with things going… well, everywhere but where they probably should have headed. Then there is the ending. Oh, gosh, the ending. Was that even an ending at all? It is almost as though I’m missing a couple of chapters of the book.Then there is the short stories at the end of the edition I was reading. Again, they failed to blow my mind.Sadly, Laymon failed to make it into my loveable 80’s horror writers.