Book Review - Deadly Friend

Book Review

Deadly Friend

PLOT - Peter is just about to graduate high school. Besides his regular problems of being painfully attracted to one of the most popular girls in town, being harassed by a local group of thugs, and feeling awkward and completely out of place...his beloved young brother Bobby was mysteriously killed in a rock slide right near a place in the woods the kids call Dead Man's Cliff. Heartbroken over this sudden loss, Peter begins to slowly see life change around for him for the best after the girl of his dreams notices him and the two begin to date. It isn't long before the truth that maybe Peter's brother's death wasn't exactly an accident. That maybe some of those thugs that bully him did have something to do with it and covered up the accident. One by one these teens are brutally murdered as the spirit of an angry little boy begins to haunt the town.

LOW DOWN - I'm a huge fan of Wes Craven's Deadly Friend, and quickly I learned that the movie was actually based off a much darker novel written a year or so before the movie was released. Wanting to read it, I searched Amazon and Ebay and the first things that popped up was this novel with the same name. After reading the plot and noticing it was written by a different author I saw that it was simply just another book that went by the same name. Still, the haunting image of the little boy laying in a casket couldn't get out of my mind. Just a few weeks ago I went up to NH to visit Ruth, the old woman who owns a barn in the middle of nowhere who sells thousands of VHS tapes and old books. I decided to swing by there one last time after pretty much clearing her out of all her tapes this past year with a few friends. Wanting to check out the last of her thriller and horror novels, I went up there one last time and cleared her completely out with some gems. Mostly paperbacks that are out of print based off movies. My first visit I was lucky enough to get the actual Deadly Friend novel that the Wes Craven movie was based off (which I'll be reviewing in the future) while grabbing as many horror books as I could I noticed the cover to this one and remembered it right away. This was a quick read for me, roughly it's 350 pages. It's a very straight forward story that's written well and has a very good story. I found the whole ghost story very interesting and the murders even better. My one complaint is the ending. I loved the twist and believe it or not didn't call it until the last three pages, but found it a little rushed and the ending line cringe worthy. I think another five or so pages to wrap up loose ends would have made this book perfect. Deadly Friend is a fun read and worth checking out!

Four stars!