Old Flames

Old Flames
by Jack Ketchum

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Book Summary Information

Author: Jack Ketchum
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06
ISBN: 0843959991
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Leisure Books

Book Reviews of Old Flames

Book Review: Great writing, just ok premise
Summary: 3 Stars

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ketchum has some of the best and most readable prose that has ever been produced from the Horror genre.

This paperback edition of OLD FLAMES comes with the additional RIGHT TO LIFE, which has been printed elsewhere, but was new to me. So on with the show:

OLD FLAMES is a take on the fatal attraction story, and much like Ketchum's other works, we are dealing with someone who is clearly on the slippery slope to insanity when we first meet them. She is likeable, and we can relate to her current situation. When she decides to pursue her old high school sweetheart, I think anyone who's been burned by love can feel for her attempt to return to the safety of one of her relationships that actually made sense. She refuses to be a victim (shown again in an altercation she gets into at a bar, where she puts her money where her mouth is to a potential assaulter).

Of course where the more mentally unbalanced elements come in is her ferocious drive to see to it that her goal of winning back her ex is accomplished. Fans of Ketchum's extreme horror may be disappointed, but this is still a story that takes a familiar idea and pushes it just a tad over the line of most writers. Not that far by Ketchum standards, but still more than most.

The brisk pace and short length of the story are really in the end the setbacks. At it's length, there is no deep metaphor or theme deconstructed here; merely a straight forward thriller. Something that would make a good episode of an anthology show, but not enough meat for a film. No one can accuse Ketchum of wasting words or dragging his story on, but on the other hand I'd really like Ketchum to build up a rich, complex story that had something larger to say on the human condition. Still, a better than average stalker tale.

RIGHT TO LIFE, as others have said, is on a more familiar theme for Ketchum of torture, humiliation and human confinement. Readers of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, or several of his shorts that appeared in PEACEABLE KINGDOM will find a story that compliments his other explorations of this particular nasty subject, but on it's own is not something that will go down in history as the end all.

That isn't to say some of the more horrific imagry and descriptions won't stay with you for a bit on a purely visceral level. Once again Ketchum is in his 'one giant leap over the line' element of extreme depravity, and several passages will make you stop and think 'good lord, Ketchum has thought this out pretty well. You sick boy!'. There is something darker to be shown about the heart of man in this story as well. Where a lesser writer would just create a nasty plot to be filled with deranged people doing deranged things, Ketchum has once again struck deeper bedrock in the nature and mental motives of those who are out to fundamentally control others and do what they would like with them. Not merely for the sake of physical pleasure and sadism, but to see another human being mentally broken and completely subjugated.

I found this aspect to be more unsettling than the individual acts of horror themselves, because there are people you walk by every day on the street who have this kind of mentality, and for whatever reason have not yet acted on their impulses and nihilistic life philosphy. Although what was laid out was wrapped up with satisfaction, we really aren't dealing with that complex of a story aside from some briefly touched on elements of the dark side of humanity.

I have no regrets reading this 2 story set. Nothing felt flawed, simply not enough felt built up signifigantly either.

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Summary of Old Flames

Featuring a special afterword by the author explaining the origins of the story!

When her lover betrays her and dumps her coldly, Dora's mind begins to crack.

She tracks down her old high school love to recapture what she might have had.

He's married with a family now, but Dora isn't about to let that stop her....

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