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Title: HORROR SPECIAL OLYMPICS CONTESTANT.
Review: Peter Straub breaks the cardinal rule of fiction writing with this loser: SOMETHING BETTER HAPPEN IN THE FIRST 5 PAGES. Nothing much happens in this book for 66 pages....a character sees a ghost briefly. Whoopee. Then two kids 'cross-over,' like they were catching the bus to school.Fiction exists to give you vicarious experiences, lessons, and feelings. GHOST STORY reminds me of schizophrenics with 'happy feet,' who wander aimlessly about the asylum's grounds, and bump into fences and trees. The queerness of the spectacle quickly decomposes to boredom.Good horror should be identical to what you experience when you put your hand up your girl's leg and discover something that shouldnt be there. Something that immediately puzzles and alarms you.Straub (and King, lately) remind me of horror writers who've crossed-over to the Special Olympics or Kiddie Ride section of literature.
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