Review: Very readable nightmare tale with good drawn good and evil characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 26, 2013
Don't know that many guys with the name of the most famous Rick Springfield song, but the main character in this horror novella, Jessie, is having trouble sleeping. He's got a familiar horror problem faced by those in all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, only it's not Freddy Kruger scaring him while he sleeps. He keeps having nightmares of the Nightmare Man (often not capitalized as 'nightmare man'). I was watching Stephen King talk about horror films and how he felt sequels tended to ruin the horrific elements presented in the original story (somewhat timely considering he just had published a sequel to THE SHINING). The good news for this book is it feels like a fresh nightmare story, not like an unnecessary sequel.The Nightmare Man is drawn fairly well, as is the protagonist. This is the third story by this author I've read and he clearly writes good. I've been somewhat disappointed in the endings of his stories, this one being no exception. I felt like with all the good Nightmare Man setup that the resolution of that primary arc would last longer than a page or two. I'm not going to spoil the story and say what that resolution is, but it seemed way too rushed and didn't match the pacing of the rest of the tale. It warranted more pages for this reader's money. Overall, it's a good story that I liked, but didn't love. I'm certain this author is going to write a story that I love someday because his writing is strong. My favorite stories are ones with satisfying endings and this one doesn't qualify in that department. 3.5 stars, rounded up at Amazon where the stars align a bit differently (this is an "I like it" read over "It's OK"). 1,539 Kindle locations. Approximately 77 pages.