Book Review: Light at the End

AUTHORS: John Skipp and Craig Spector

YEAR: 1986

I will admit I bought this book at a thrift shop three months ago and finally decided to read it this week. Why didn't I read this before? It was one of the better vampire books I've read in a long time.

Here you have a line of characters who are depressed, druggies, crime fighters, and so on. The setting takes place in New York. The beginning is about murders in a subway which are from a vampire. An ancient vampire turns Rudy an artist who is a self center bastard. He murders many people on the way. He also torments his ex-girlfriend Josalyn and his friend Stephen. That's just a fast explanation about this punk horror story.

On the cover George A. Romero states "Skipp and Spector give you the worst kind of nightmares." I totally agree its so pack with suspense that you can't stop reading it. I mean you actually feel how the characters feel even the victims in the book. I would say it's definitely the characters that make this horror story. Joseph Hunter another main character is this man who tries to get rid of the slime in New York. He is this troubled guy who can't find peace and hates New York with a passion (almost makes you feel like your reading about the guy from Taxi Driver). He's also very strong he reminded while I read as a Boxer would look like in some Jean Claude Van Damme movie no joke. So anyway Stephen, Josalyn, Joseph and of course Rudy are these characters who are connected by these gruesome murders in the subway. Danny and Chloe including other names are also connected but I enjoyed mostly reading about Joseph and Stephen. Stephen is complete opposite of Joseph; he's this weak, depressed, semi druggie, who is an artist/writer really just a beatnik. I also often wondered if he and Rudy were more than just friends just by how much Stephen values him. But it's the complete opposite with Rudy's feelings about Stephen. With Rudy's character he was self center and homicidal he rather use people and he used Stephen. The authors showed that well in the book how each of them contradicts. Each character was well developed and so was the plot very well developed.

The book was mildly violent some parts worse than others it is a horror book so you get what you get. It really made you feel like you were watching a movie with great descriptions and such. Actually if they made this in a movie I would be the first in line. The book coined the name "New Horror" and "Splatter Punk." If you like vampires, horror novels, and punk (this is 1980s punk) references then this book I highly recommend it.