Some nice work is done with the setting, but the main story has little impact.
I'll admit right away that I'm not a big fan of the horror story. I can enjoy a good creeping horror along with the best of them, but in my opinion horror stories are often an excuse for poor writing and a collection of 'shock' set pieces that substitute for an actual story. So The Face-Eater isn't really my cup of tea. Which is a bit of a pity, because I can appreciate a lot of the work that went into the scene-setting and characterisation. Messingham's always had a bit of a problem with characters in his novels, which he manages to make up for with the opening chapters here.