Castaways (Leisure Fiction)
by Brian Keene
List Price:
Our Price: $3.93
You Save: $4.06 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.54 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Brian KeeneEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-02
ISBN: 0843960892
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Leisure Books
Book Reviews of Castaways (Leisure Fiction)
Book Review: Keene meets Laymon meets "Survivor"
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not the first time that reality television has been the basis for a horror novel, right off the top of my head there is Jim Brown ("24/7"), Steven (Steven Swiniarski) Krane ("The Omega Game"), and Rob Heddon ("The Condemned"), still, if you think about it there is still some life in the ol' gal. Besides, these novels are just a variation of "The Most Dangerous Game" type of story.
"Castaways" is a reality show in which a bunch of people are stranded on an island and each week somebody is voted off. Sound familiar? Yeah, sure it does. The primary characters this time around are the girl next door Becka, the bald boy next door Jerry, the foul-mouthed and cranky wrench monkey Troy, overage beach bunny Patricia, uppity Welshman Stefan, and the morose and moody Matthew.
The novel starts out with Becka almost drowning and Jerry staying with her as she works her way back to shore. They're in no hurry, Stefan has won again. After they reach the shore, Becka and Jerry get together with Troy and several of the others and they decide to form a temporarily alliance to vote somebody from Stefan's group off of the island.
What they don't know is that during the whole time that they've been on the island, they have been watched, and the watchers have decided that it's time to put their feet down and destroy the invaders. Meanwhile there is a traitor in their midst, and this one is human, and he's there on a mission. All of this comes together as the cyclone Ivan overruns the island.
The creatures that are watching the show's cast and crew are, or once were an offshoot of the human race, but have over the generations devolved into a primitive, and barely functional form of hominid. They have overpopulated the island, destroyed their food source, and interbreeding has destroyed their gene pool. Mean, tough, and carnivorous, they decide to kill the men, and breed the women. Then there is the wild card. One of the cast members, and it will come as no surprise as to whom, turns out to be a homegrown terrorist from the "Sons Of The Constitution" who is both unstable and a fanatic. Who besides being the typical paranoid, sloganeering, ANTI-constitutional, and anti-patriotic cartoon that most of these nimrods are, he also dirty, dead dog dumb, crafty, but stupid, as even when one of the survivors of an assault tries to tell him they are under attack he can't out think his own idiotic, and fanatical paranoid psychosis. Thankfully Keene gets just as tired of him as we are, and kills him off, but not before thischaracter kills others, and causes the deaths of even more.
"Castaways" ends up being a piece of fan-fiction, as the island creatures are based on the monsters that inhabit the "Beast House" novels of Richard Laymon, and that would either be good news or bad depending on how you feel about Laymon's writings. "Castaways" is a definite improvement over Laymon's misogynistic rape fantasies, and second-rate characterizations.
"Castaways" is a return to form after Keene's last few novels like the padded Kingesque "Ghouls", and "Ghost Walk" and "Dark Hollow" with their almost British obsession with witchcraft. Still, the novel is not without its flaws, it has a few chapters of filler, there is the ignorant homegrown terrorist who is just annoying, the deaths could have been strung out somewhat instead of having a massacre in the middle of the novel, and then there is the unnecessary death of a character near the end, I was rooting for her. It also could have been possible to develop some of the characters more, as most of them are just names that parade across the pages.
Still, I found myself compulsively reading this novel, and there are some good things, like no unnecessary flashbacks, the three main characters, which you end up liking, even the foul-mouthed Troy grows on you. The monsters are better than the sexual boogiemen in the Laymon novels, craftier, meaner and not the sexual caricatures that they originally were. Not as good as Keene's best, and he has set himself some pretty high standards to live up to, as the book seems rushed, but better than average, and better than his last couple.
Now that he's done the zombie novel, and the "Survivor" novel, it's time for him to create a "Survivor" type show in which a bunch of people are dropped onto an island full of zombies and the eventual survivor wins. Now that would be must see tv.
Summary of Castaways (Leisure Fiction)
Contestants on a Survivor-like reality TV show find the dangers are too real when they're stranded on a deserted island with inhuman creatures out to kill them.Horror Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Horror Books
Let the Right One In: A Novelby John Ajvide Lindqvist
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2008-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Textby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1982-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Oxford Bookworms S, Stage 4)by Robert Louis Stevenson
Oxford Univ Pr (Sd); Published: 1991-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Oxford Books of Prose)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-11-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.00
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, Book 3)by Stephen King
Penguin Audio; Published: 2003-08-26; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $149.99
![Thinner [UNABRIDGED] Image](/images/Thinner-UNABRIDGED-0140862668-X.jpg){kind=small}
Thinner [UNABRIDGED]by Stephen King
Penguin Audio; Published: 1996-09-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The Crow: Temple of Nightby S P. Somtow
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 1999-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Brains: A Zombie Memoirby Robin Becker
Eos; Published: 2010-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.23
Price in other shops:
The Strain LP: Book One of The Strain Trilogyby Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan
HarperLuxe; Published: 2009-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.45
Price in other shops:
Prince of Darknessby Barbara Michaels
HarperTorch; Published: 2005-04-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.58
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Urban Gothicby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2009-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Dead Seaby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2007-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.16
Price in other shops:
The Conqueror Wormsby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2006-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops:
Jack's Magic Beansby Brian Keene
Deadite Press; Published: 2011-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops:
Ghoulby Brian Keene
Dorchester Publishing Company; Published: 2007-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops:
Ghost Walk (Leisure Fiction)by Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.01
Price in other shops:
Dark Hollowby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2008-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.15
The Risingby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2004-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.30
Price in other shops:
City of the Deadby Brian Keene
Leisure Books; Published: 2005-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops:
Take the Long Way Homeby Brian Keene
Deadite Press; Published: 2011-03-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.66
Price in other shops: