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glenvisceration's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 rounded up to 3. Didn't really gel with me.
It's clear from the beginning (especially from the introduction, which I'm not sure every version has) that we're supposed to empathise witb or at least understand Lee and his shellshocked mind. I found that concept hard to get from this book for two reasons.
1. The majority of the story seems to be told from the perspective of a group of heavily dislikeable and fairly uninteresting characters (the victims) who basically all had the same personality in varying degrees. The story spent so long with them that it found it hard to actually get to know the veteran and his story. It largely felt less like a story about a man broken by war having a psychological break and this group being the unfortunate victims of a someone that needed help and more like a group of fuckheads being terrorised by a one dimensional bigfoot that knows guerilla warfare strategies.
2. When we are with Lee, he tends to be spending that time remembering his time in veitnam, which in theory would be where we are taught to sympathise with his position, but instead mainly shows us that he, and a lot of his comrades were just simply horrible people with little to no remorse or empathy themselves. Even when you get an insight into their thought processes, there's little there to give you much to empathise with.
It was fairly enjoyable as a mindless thriller but knowing that's not what it was going for in its core concept made it disappointing. It feels weird to say this given the obvious stylistic difference but everything Ketchum tried to achieve here, David Morrell already did better in First Blood.
It's clear from the beginning (especially from the introduction, which I'm not sure every version has) that we're supposed to empathise witb or at least understand Lee and his shellshocked mind. I found that concept hard to get from this book for two reasons.
1. The majority of the story seems to be told from the perspective of a group of heavily dislikeable and fairly uninteresting characters (the victims) who basically all had the same personality in varying degrees. The story spent so long with them that it found it hard to actually get to know the veteran and his story. It largely felt less like a story about a man broken by war having a psychological break and this group being the unfortunate victims of a someone that needed help and more like a group of fuckheads being terrorised by a one dimensional bigfoot that knows guerilla warfare strategies.
2. When we are with Lee, he tends to be spending that time remembering his time in veitnam, which in theory would be where we are taught to sympathise with his position, but instead mainly shows us that he, and a lot of his comrades were just simply horrible people with little to no remorse or empathy themselves. Even when you get an insight into their thought processes, there's little there to give you much to empathise with.
It was fairly enjoyable as a mindless thriller but knowing that's not what it was going for in its core concept made it disappointing. It feels weird to say this given the obvious stylistic difference but everything Ketchum tried to achieve here, David Morrell already did better in First Blood.
ncarter5069's review against another edition
4.0
Ketchum amazes me. This is the first book I’ve read of his, however, I have watched the film product of his screenplay with Lucky McKee called The Woman. He describes pain in such a way that you feel it, memory as if you were there, and the shocking truth of primal human nature that nobody wants to face. If you’re squeamish, don’t venture further into Ketchum’s work than this book, especially the movies he’s inspired. The greatest reason I appreciate Ketchum is for his shock value. Stephen King has called him “a horror writer’s writer,” and that’s the best way to put it.
“Tell the boy for me… tell him his daddy just got mean. That the war did that. Tell him he used to do combat – with civilians, with the police, whatever – that he’d go out looking for it, to set things up, in bars, places like that. You know. Tell him that was what I got to be. And that was why I couldn’t be with you out there. Explain to him, you know? When he’s old enough” (Cover, Ch. 1).
Jack Ketchum’s Cover is the story of a Vietnam vet whose necessary solidarity is disrupted by a famous writer, his two loves, a photographer and a couple of the writer’s old friends. The author describes the campers as rich, bringing the best quality tents, shotguns for casual hunting, and expensive photography equipment. Lee, simultaneously standing as our protagonist and antagonist, feels invaded by them being there. He’s paid to grow and tend this field of marijuana; his alcoholic rages have driven his wife and son away from him; and he has these terrible flashbacks of his time in the war – taking fire, endless blood, and the depravity of the choices he and others made.
By creating this tortured soldier, Ketchum has created a man reduced to merely his ability to survive rather than maintain any sort of quality of life. By the some light, the author paints a killer, unhinged and entirely too quick to draw blood rather than rationalize. “One day he’s in Nam, coming out of a hot LZ in a light chopper, antiaircraft fire all around, and the next night he’s standing in a Seattle bar,” (Cover, Ch. 11). Ketchum fuels his fire of a story with this terrible truth of Vietnam veterans being exposed to such terrible depravity who are then dropped back into society without as much as a job handed to them. America expected them to adjust without problem, when in actuality, the unnatural acts of violence they were exposed to drove a spike through who they once were and their notions of society were buried with their fellow soldiers.
From traps to crossbows to shotguns, the blood flows throughout the pages of cover, but Ketchum is quick to bring it back to the shock of the war and its effects on Lee. “And he stayed dead for days… stayed dead until they sent him home amid a pile of GI coffins,” (Cover, Ch. 29). While some readers would argue Lee’s final choice is the climax of the novel, I would argue that his final vision of the war stands as the final blow of the book; the shocking truth behind his fellow soldier, nicknamed Sprinkles, in a specifically grotesque massacre of a Vietnamese town. I won’t be revealing that vision, for it is for you to read and find out – but I can say that it’s probably the bluntest description of violence I’ve ever read in a novel.
All of that being said, Ketchum leaves you with questions: How do we, as readers, feel about sympathizing with a cold-blooded killer? How do we feel about war and its effects on the human psyche? And lastly, by creating a man driven to violence by his past, does Ketchum condone murder in his books, or simply employ violence to shock readers into realizing greater truths about themselves and the world around them? I stand by the latter.Cover gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me.
“Tell the boy for me… tell him his daddy just got mean. That the war did that. Tell him he used to do combat – with civilians, with the police, whatever – that he’d go out looking for it, to set things up, in bars, places like that. You know. Tell him that was what I got to be. And that was why I couldn’t be with you out there. Explain to him, you know? When he’s old enough” (Cover, Ch. 1).
Jack Ketchum’s Cover is the story of a Vietnam vet whose necessary solidarity is disrupted by a famous writer, his two loves, a photographer and a couple of the writer’s old friends. The author describes the campers as rich, bringing the best quality tents, shotguns for casual hunting, and expensive photography equipment. Lee, simultaneously standing as our protagonist and antagonist, feels invaded by them being there. He’s paid to grow and tend this field of marijuana; his alcoholic rages have driven his wife and son away from him; and he has these terrible flashbacks of his time in the war – taking fire, endless blood, and the depravity of the choices he and others made.
By creating this tortured soldier, Ketchum has created a man reduced to merely his ability to survive rather than maintain any sort of quality of life. By the some light, the author paints a killer, unhinged and entirely too quick to draw blood rather than rationalize. “One day he’s in Nam, coming out of a hot LZ in a light chopper, antiaircraft fire all around, and the next night he’s standing in a Seattle bar,” (Cover, Ch. 11). Ketchum fuels his fire of a story with this terrible truth of Vietnam veterans being exposed to such terrible depravity who are then dropped back into society without as much as a job handed to them. America expected them to adjust without problem, when in actuality, the unnatural acts of violence they were exposed to drove a spike through who they once were and their notions of society were buried with their fellow soldiers.
From traps to crossbows to shotguns, the blood flows throughout the pages of cover, but Ketchum is quick to bring it back to the shock of the war and its effects on Lee. “And he stayed dead for days… stayed dead until they sent him home amid a pile of GI coffins,” (Cover, Ch. 29). While some readers would argue Lee’s final choice is the climax of the novel, I would argue that his final vision of the war stands as the final blow of the book; the shocking truth behind his fellow soldier, nicknamed Sprinkles, in a specifically grotesque massacre of a Vietnamese town. I won’t be revealing that vision, for it is for you to read and find out – but I can say that it’s probably the bluntest description of violence I’ve ever read in a novel.
All of that being said, Ketchum leaves you with questions: How do we, as readers, feel about sympathizing with a cold-blooded killer? How do we feel about war and its effects on the human psyche? And lastly, by creating a man driven to violence by his past, does Ketchum condone murder in his books, or simply employ violence to shock readers into realizing greater truths about themselves and the world around them? I stand by the latter.Cover gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me.
jcj10000's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
xombieky's review against another edition
3.0
This was a mid tier read for me, as you can tell from the read dates I put it down for a long time and it took a bit to want to come back to it. I did like the premise but I think Ketchum could have done so much more with this novel. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as I know Jack has some amazing novels out there to choose from.
sunnysky's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I loved this concept- it’s amazing!
And the author did a great job making the ’bad guy’ very 3 dimensional. The vet was wonderful, so sympathetic and yet never once did I feel like he was the victim or that what he was doing was okay. I loved reading his point of view, and I wish he could have gotten the help he needed.
As for everyone else… ugh. I will admit to being biased- I do not like polyamory. I don’t believe it can really work with everyone content- and the few people I’ve known who’ve tried it in real life? Well by the end two pair off and leave the third high and dry.
Polyamory is a huge part of this book. They go on and on about how the wife is okay with his girlfriend, and he can fuck her in front of her and she’s totally cool with it. It was made bearable by the fact that it does show the wife’s insecurities, it felt more real that way-but those insecurities never amounted to anything, so it fell flat by the end.
It almost felt like wish fulfillment, and I love how even the girlfriend is like, ‘if he did that to me I’d go crazy so I don’t feel like you love him’, and the man is like ‘I know it’s wrong but we’re all so happy so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts’ 😑
What’s worse, is that I don’t understand what was so appealing about the dude. Both of the woman are super successful, pretty in their own ways, and it’s stated that they both have backbones- and constantly stated any man would be incredibly lucky to have just ONE of them- so why are they okay in this relationship? Because he’s adventurous? They’d be bored with anyone else? There are PLENTY of adventurous men out there, and a lot who won’t constantly have to have a mistress.
The thruple ruined this book for me, made me feel utterly disgusted, and the spoilers below disappointed me so much I cannot rate this book higher even if the vet was phenomenal and the writing quality was good.
Everyone in the thruple lives *shocker* and are now living together and the girlfriend is expecting a baby. Yay. Happy ending. It’s Unrealistic. In the end the man will probably end up leaving his wife for the pregnant model because she weighs more in his heart or ‘for the baby’, or the women will pair up because their sick of his bullshit and probable new mental health issues.
And the author did a great job making the ’bad guy’ very 3 dimensional. The vet was wonderful, so sympathetic and yet never once did I feel like he was the victim or that what he was doing was okay. I loved reading his point of view, and I wish he could have gotten the help he needed.
As for everyone else… ugh. I will admit to being biased- I do not like polyamory. I don’t believe it can really work with everyone content- and the few people I’ve known who’ve tried it in real life? Well by the end two pair off and leave the third high and dry.
Polyamory is a huge part of this book. They go on and on about how the wife is okay with his girlfriend, and he can fuck her in front of her and she’s totally cool with it. It was made bearable by the fact that it does show the wife’s insecurities, it felt more real that way-but those insecurities never amounted to anything, so it fell flat by the end.
It almost felt like wish fulfillment, and I love how even the girlfriend is like, ‘if he did that to me I’d go crazy so I don’t feel like you love him’, and the man is like ‘I know it’s wrong but we’re all so happy so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts’ 😑
What’s worse, is that I don’t understand what was so appealing about the dude. Both of the woman are super successful, pretty in their own ways, and it’s stated that they both have backbones- and constantly stated any man would be incredibly lucky to have just ONE of them- so why are they okay in this relationship? Because he’s adventurous? They’d be bored with anyone else? There are PLENTY of adventurous men out there, and a lot who won’t constantly have to have a mistress.
The thruple ruined this book for me, made me feel utterly disgusted, and the spoilers below disappointed me so much I cannot rate this book higher even if the vet was phenomenal and the writing quality was good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Rape, and War
Minor: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy
The rape, pedophilia, and sexual violence all occur in flashbacks, and are not done by the Vet. They are short but graphic.archaicrobin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I’m not really sure what to say about Cover. A traumatized Vietnam vet slips into a mentally I’ll killing spree when some Rick tourists stumble upon his weed farm. This book is very gruesome, lots of gore, and violence both in the present and in Vietnam flashbacks not to mention a graphic rape scene of a child which I’m not sure why that wasn’t tagged as a warning.
I didn’t really get much out of this book. I can see there is some commentary on the tragedy of the Vietnam war, but beyond that this novel really is just a visceral, disturbing book. It’s well written but I can’t say I enjoyed
I didn’t really get much out of this book. I can see there is some commentary on the tragedy of the Vietnam war, but beyond that this novel really is just a visceral, disturbing book. It’s well written but I can’t say I enjoyed
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Mental illness, Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Death, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, and War
thehorrordude's review
4.0
Ketchums novel about a Vietnam vet who returns home suffering from PTSD is an engaging and fast paced thriller/horror story. It follows Lee the vet who returns home from the war and lives in the woods with his dog suffers nightmares and torment from all he did and saw whilst tending to his crop of cannabis plants. We meet a group of highly successful people who go to the woods for a weekend retreat and stumple across Lee and his plants. Lees doesnt see this group as the harmless people they are and is transformed back to Vietnam. The hunting commences.
This was very good, you feel sorry for Lee and also hate him for what occurs in this along with the group on the weekend away who are not just one dimensional as we learn their backgrounds and history as the story progresses. Its violent but not overly so, one chapter about some war crimes committed against a village was pretty hard to read but other than that its an action packed story of cat and mouse where in the end nobody is a winner.
This was very good, you feel sorry for Lee and also hate him for what occurs in this along with the group on the weekend away who are not just one dimensional as we learn their backgrounds and history as the story progresses. Its violent but not overly so, one chapter about some war crimes committed against a village was pretty hard to read but other than that its an action packed story of cat and mouse where in the end nobody is a winner.
drakaina16's review
3.0
Not as good as I've come to expect from Ketchum, but I get that this is one of his earlier novels.
kmk182's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this one. Not horror like most Ketchum, but a tale about a Vietnam vet who lives in the woods farming marijuana plants. When some weekend campers come into his turf for some fun, he goes on the hunt.
verkisto's review against another edition
4.0
Jack Ketchum was one of those authors I read back in the '90s, in my horror boom. He was considered to be one of the best, so I read a handful of his books. They didn't make a huge impression on me, but I enjoyed his lean style. I read Cover, and remembered some of the details of the book, but not the story itself. I'm really pleased that I'm re-reading his stuff (and didn't give up on him after Off Season), because I'm finding that he really is one of the best.
Like Hide and Seek, Ketchum takes about half of the novel to build up the characters before subjecting them to the horrors of the second half of the book. Also like Hide and Seek, there's nothing supernatural about this story; it's more a thriller than a horror novel, but Off Season tagged Ketchum as a horror writer, so that's how casual readers who know him would think of his work. But in actuality, Ketchum's fiction goes deeper than that.
This is the second novel of his that goes beyond the typical slasher story, making it more about the characters and their complexities than about the killings. It was pretty easy to determine from the start of the book who was going to survive the ordeal in the woods, namely because of the way Ketchum established his different characters, but that's okay. The story was really about Kelsey, Caroline, and Michelle and the unusual relationship they shared.
In addition, Ketchum takes the time to develop Lee, his antagonist, just as well. Ketchum doesn't take the easy way out, making him some random psycho; he gives him a fully-developed background, developing his character as much as he does his protagonists, going so far as to make him a sympathetic character. He takes the time to develop Lee as a battle-scarred veteran, one whose emotional stability is hostage to his memories of Vietnam. He's removed himself from society because he recognizes that he's a danger to others, and when this group enters his territory, it triggers those memories. Ketchum doesn't paint Lee to be a character who can be forgiven for his actions, but we can at least empathize with the events that led him there. It also makes for an unexpected ending that seems to break the rules of storytelling. Instead, it forces the reader to re-examine who the antagonist and protagonist of the story are, and realize that Cover follows those rules better than they realized.
Ketchum makes an effort to create a good reason for the group of campers to encounter the antagonist, but it felt a little forced, a little clumsy. I'm sure groups of famous people go camping, but there was something about how the trip was squeezed in among all of their busy schedules that made it feel out of place to me. The story isn't about how they got together, but what happened once they were, so it's a minor quibble, but it did stand out to me.
Cover has a lot of violence, but it doesn't strike me as gratuitous or splatterpunk-ish. It does have a good story of survival, and I'd recommend it to readers who like horror, thrillers, or survival stories. I would hesitantly recommend it to people who like character-driven stories; it definitely shines in its characterization, but it's probably more extreme than the usual character-driven fare.
Like Hide and Seek, Ketchum takes about half of the novel to build up the characters before subjecting them to the horrors of the second half of the book. Also like Hide and Seek, there's nothing supernatural about this story; it's more a thriller than a horror novel, but Off Season tagged Ketchum as a horror writer, so that's how casual readers who know him would think of his work. But in actuality, Ketchum's fiction goes deeper than that.
This is the second novel of his that goes beyond the typical slasher story, making it more about the characters and their complexities than about the killings. It was pretty easy to determine from the start of the book who was going to survive the ordeal in the woods, namely because of the way Ketchum established his different characters, but that's okay. The story was really about Kelsey, Caroline, and Michelle and the unusual relationship they shared.
In addition, Ketchum takes the time to develop Lee, his antagonist, just as well. Ketchum doesn't take the easy way out, making him some random psycho; he gives him a fully-developed background, developing his character as much as he does his protagonists, going so far as to make him a sympathetic character. He takes the time to develop Lee as a battle-scarred veteran, one whose emotional stability is hostage to his memories of Vietnam. He's removed himself from society because he recognizes that he's a danger to others, and when this group enters his territory, it triggers those memories. Ketchum doesn't paint Lee to be a character who can be forgiven for his actions, but we can at least empathize with the events that led him there. It also makes for an unexpected ending that seems to break the rules of storytelling. Instead, it forces the reader to re-examine who the antagonist and protagonist of the story are, and realize that Cover follows those rules better than they realized.
Ketchum makes an effort to create a good reason for the group of campers to encounter the antagonist, but it felt a little forced, a little clumsy. I'm sure groups of famous people go camping, but there was something about how the trip was squeezed in among all of their busy schedules that made it feel out of place to me. The story isn't about how they got together, but what happened once they were, so it's a minor quibble, but it did stand out to me.
Cover has a lot of violence, but it doesn't strike me as gratuitous or splatterpunk-ish. It does have a good story of survival, and I'd recommend it to readers who like horror, thrillers, or survival stories. I would hesitantly recommend it to people who like character-driven stories; it definitely shines in its characterization, but it's probably more extreme than the usual character-driven fare.