The Cellar

The Cellar
by Richard Laymon

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Book Summary Information

Author: Richard Laymon
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10
ISBN: 0843957484
Number of pages: 309
Publisher: Leisure Books

Book Reviews of The Cellar

Book Review: Fun plot, hollow characters
Summary: 2 Stars

The Cellar is about a woman named Donna and her young daughter Sandy who flee town upon discovering that Donna's ex, Roy, has just been released from prison. The husband is a rapist, murderer and child molestor, and he is now after them both. However, fate seems to be drawing Donna and Sandy to an even worse destination: The Beast House! It is a large house supposedly inhabited by pale Lovecraftian monsters lurking in tunnels deep beneath it's basement. Along the way, Donna meets a man named Jud who has been hired to get the beast out of beast house. They fall in love and it soon becomes them vs. Roy.

That's a very barebones description of the plot. As you can see, it's silly, schlocky, and fun. The book moves along at a tremendous pace, describing action and dialogue and little else. I think I counted two similes in the entire book and every chapter makes certain to end on a cliffhanger.

And yet, there was something that troubled me about the whole thing. Let's take a look at Pg. 267 - 268:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Roy has just sexually molested Sandy and Donna is asking her about it:

(BEGIN EXCERPT)

"Where did he hurt you?"
"He pinched me here." She pointed to her left breast, a barely noticable rise through her blouse. "And he put his finger down here."
"Inside?"
She nodded and sniffed.
"He didn't rape you though?"
"He said later, and he used the bad word."
"What did he say?"
"The bad word."
"You can tell me."
"He said later. He said later that he'd F me till I can't walk straight. And then he was gonna F you. And then he was gonna gut you like a catfish."
"Bastard," Donna muttered. "That stinking bastard." She held Sandy gently, stroking the girls head. "Well, I guess he won't get a chance to do that, will he?"

(END EXCERPT)

I'm not complaining about the level of violence implied here, or even the kind of violence. It's sick, it's sexual, it's horrible. But it's a horror novel. It's supposed to be those things. What I have a problem with is Donna's reaction following the exchange: "Bastard."

Now I'm a 27 year old guy and don't have a daughter, but I imagine if I did and she told me this I'd be speechless, shaking, weeping, just barely able to control myself. Here Donna seems to have very little concept of the weight of what her daughter has just been subjected to. Why? I suspect because the author himself has very little concept of the weight of what her daughter has been subjected to. Please also bear in mind, that this is not me calling into question Mr. Laymon's moral character. Not at all. However, I do see here a certain failure to truly empathize with the suffering of his characters and for me that is the one great shortcoming of the novel. As a result, Donna often comes across as 1) stupid, or 2) a bad mother. Both of which makes me care far less if the monsters get her. Horror hinges upon our ability to identify with the characters (in a good horror story we identify with the victim, in a great horror novel we identify with the victim AND the villain). There are of course exceptions to this. In American Psycho, for instance, the theme of the book is apathy and emptiness-- it's also a satire which, traditionally, underemphasizes character. But The Cellar is not a satire and has no greater philisophical growing out of such exchanges. It's simply poor writing.

Is this a case of me trying to put a round peg into a square hole? Perhaps. The books goal is, after all, to provide a fast plot and gruesome deaths. But it's goal is also to scare the reader. And without that base level of honest characterization, I don't see how one could ever hope to achieve that.

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Summary of The Cellar

Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with video camcorders, these poor sould enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper they go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. Don't even think about going into the cellar.

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