Night in the Lonesome October

Last updated
Night in the Lonesome October
Author Richard Laymon
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Horror
Published2001
PublisherFeature
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages480
Preceded byFriday Night in Beast House 
Followed byThe Halloween Mouse 

Night in the Lonesome October (2001) is a horror novel by the American author Richard Laymon. Released in October 2001, it was one of several books in the author's catalogue published posthumously, following his death in February of the same year. The title is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe poem "Ulalume".

Contents

Plot introduction

Ed Logan is a 20-year-old student at Wilmington University. His girlfriend has dumped him, and feeling dejected he goes on a late-night walk to a doughnut shop. As the long October night drags on, he finds his odyssey disturbed by numerous odd encounters with street violence, sexual predation, and homelessness.

Style

In terms of genre, like a lot of Laymon's work, Night in the Lonesome October is closer to crime than supernatural horror. Laymon is most often associated with "splatterpunk", a subgenre of horror fiction that came about in the 1980s and focuses on extreme and transgressive material. Laymon in particular was known for the presence of sexual violence in his stories, although Night and some of his other later books are notably more muted in this respect.[ citation needed ]

Reception

Along with The Traveling Vampire Show , Night in the Lonesome October is often considered to be one of Laymon's best novels and a sign of an improved phase of his writing following a creative decline in the late 1990s. Publishers Weekly referred to it as "one of the eeriest, and one of [the] most immediate, horror novels of recent decades", before lamenting the loss of one of horror fiction's "rarest talents." [1] Charles De Lint of F&SF wrote that while the book is "written in a plain, simple prose", it will "prove to have surprising layers" the "further into the book one reads". [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horror fiction</span> Genre of fiction

Horror is a genre of fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten or scare. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which are in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Kirby</span> British writer and illustrator

Ronald William "Josh" Kirby was a British commercial artist. Over a career spanning 60 years, he was the artist for the covers of many science fiction books including Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> American magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

Charles de Lint is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris.

Splatterpunk is a movement within horror fiction originating in the 1980s, distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence, countercultural alignment and "hyperintensive horror with no limits." The term was coined in 1986 by David J. Schow at the Twelfth World Fantasy Convention in Providence, Rhode Island. Splatterpunk is regarded as a revolt against the "traditional, meekly suggestive horror story". Splatterpunk has been defined as a "literary genre characterised by graphically described scenes of an extremely gory nature."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tor Books</span> United States book publisher

Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group, a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese science fiction novels in North America.

<i>1632</i> (novel) 2000 novel by Eric Flint

1632 is the initial novel in the best-selling alternate history series of the same name, written by American historian, writer, and editor Eric Flint and published in February 2000.

Richard Carl Laymon was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles L. Grant</span> American novelist

Charles Lewis Grant was an American novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror". He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, Deborah Lewis, Timothy Boggs, Mark Rivers, and Steven Charles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Windling</span> American writer and editor

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Lindskold</span> American speculative fiction writer (born 1962)

Jane M. Lindskold is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels.

Brian James Freeman is an author whose fiction has been published in magazines and anthologies including Borderlands 5, Corpse Blossoms, and all four volumes of the Shivers series. His first novel, Black Fire, was written under the pseudonym James Kidman. Published in 2004 by Leisure Books and Cemetery Dance Publications, the book was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, one of the major awards in the horror genre. His work has been nominated for several awards in the horror genre over the years. Cemetery Dance Publications recently published his Blue November Storms, a new novella, and The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book, which he wrote with Stephen King expert Bev Vincent. Acclaimed horror artist Glenn Chadbourne created over fifty unique illustrations for the book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cemetery Dance Publications</span>

Cemetery Dance Publications is an American specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992. They later expanded to encompass a magazine and website featuring news, interviews, and reviews related to horror literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Bowes</span> American writer

Richard "Rick" Dirrane Bowes is an American author of science fiction and fantasy.

Chaz Brenchley is a British writer of novels and short stories, associated with the genres of horror, crime and fantasy. Some of his work has been published under the pseudonyms of Ben Macallan and Daniel Fox. Chaz also serves as one of three hosts, with Jeannie Warner and John Schmidt, of the podcast Writers Drinking Coffee.

<i>The Cellar</i> (novel)

The Cellar is a 1980 horror novel by American author Richard Laymon. It was Laymon's first published novel, and together with sequels The Beast House, The Midnight Tour, and the novella Friday Night in Beast House, forms the series known by fans of Laymon as "The Beast House Chronicles." The Cellar is an example of a splatterpunk novel, containing much extreme violence and gore, as well as adult themes including rape, incest, paedophilia, and serial murder. Laymon is often associated with this genre.

<i>Blood Games</i> (novel)

Blood Games is a 1992 horror novel by American author Richard Laymon.

Jill Bauman is an American artist. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award five times and nominated for the Chesley Award several times. Her art has been exhibited at the Delaware Art Museum, the Moore College of Art, Art Students League of New York, the NY Illustrators Society & and the Science Fiction Museum of Seattle. Bauman has created hundreds of book covers for horror, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and best selling books including 23 of the Cat Who... books by Lilian Jackson Braun during the 1980s and 1990s.

<i>The Traveling Vampire Show</i>

The Travelling Vampire Show is a 2000 horror novel by American author Richard Laymon.

<i>The Tooth Fairy</i> (novel) 1996 novel by Graham Joyce

The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy and horror novel by English writer Graham Joyce. It was first published in the United Kingdom in paperback in 1996 by Signet Books, and in hardcover in the United States in 1998 by Tor Books. It is about Sam and his friends growing up in Coventry, England in the 1960s, and a mischievous fairy who torments Sam.

References

  1. "NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER by Richard Laymon".
  2. De Lint, Charles (March 2002). "Night in the Lonesome October / In the Dark". F&SF . Retrieved 1 October 2022.