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Hide and Seek

By: Jack Ketchum
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Gauntlet Press
ISBN: 188736899X
ISBN-13: 9781887368995
Released: 01 Oct 2007
RRP: £16.95
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Customer Reviews

Genuinely scary to this horror veteran - By: Daniel Jolley, 28 Nov 2002
Jack Ketchum is one of horror's most gifted writers & has attracted a cult following over the past two decades that now includes yours truly among its ranks. Why his talent has not been brought to the attention of more horror & mainstream fiction fans is a mystery to me. Hide & Seek, his second published novel, varies significantly from his incredible debut novel Off Season, but it packs just as much of a punch as its predecessor. Where Off Season was horrible & disturbing, Hide & Seek is downright spooky. I have read enough horror to become immune to the scare tactics most authors rely on, but Ketchum managed to reallly give me the creeps in the later chapters of this incredible tale. The book does start a little slowly, with character development taking up the first half of it, but midway through Ketchum cranks up the tension & advances the plot at an increasingly intensive, addicting pace. About thirty pages from the end, I found myself covering up the right hand page with my hand because it was alll I could do to stop myself from jumping ahead & seeing how things played out. I must say that I found myself more than satisfied with the ending. Many authors put their characters through the ringer only to wrap things up with a fairy tale ending. Ketchum is far too honest to back down at the last minute & give his readers what they might want at the end. This honesty & loyalty to both his characters & his readers is what distinguishes Ketchum in my mind as one of horror's most praiseworthy writers.

The story itself seems rather simple & conventional: two young men & two young women go to an abandoned house out in the woods of Maine in order to play a game of adult hide & seek--the house has long been the subject of gossip & rumors but it cannot reallly be characterized as haunted. The idea for this seemingly foolish pursuit comes from Casey, a complicated, fascinating female character. Her constant shows of bravado & risk-taking bother our protagonist yet he never refuses her requests. The first half of the novel establishes Casey's character & background pretty well, so the context of the game makes sense to the reader. When the gang arrive at midnight & commence their game, this novel quickly shifts into overdrive. Having to follow our protagonist around this creepy house in the dark, searching for the hiding places of his friends, got this reader's blood pumping a little harder, but the increasingly scary nature of the game is actuallly no more than a prelude of the horror to come.

The only flaw I can identify in my own mind is Ketchum's level of characterization. He spends a lot of time introducing us to the four players of the hide & seek game, but I never fully came to know them. The complex Casey remains somewhat of an enigma to me despite the revelations we receive about her life & history. A few events seem very important when they happen but are never fully dealt with later on. Of course, Ketchum is mainly trying to scare readers, & to some extent it matters little whether or not we completely understand & care deeply about the players in his fictional universe. The fears Ketchum manipulates here are some of man's most primal, instinctive ones, which makes it almost impossible for the reader not to get sucked into the story & taken along for a wild ride. If you have begun to think that alll horror novels are basicallly alike, Ketchum will surprise & delight you with his refreshing originality, realism, & honesty.