A review by gareth_alan
Brides of the Impaler by Edward Lee

4.0

A friend of mine gave me this book over 10 years ago. It went onto my bookshelf and I kept meaning to read it, but I kept reading other things instead. All these years later it caught my eye, so I decided it was time to get it read.

I'd never read Edward Lee before, but I knew that he is an extreme horror writer, so I expected lots of over the top violence, which there wasn't much of to be honest, except for everyone getting impaled on sharpened broom sticks. I didn't expect it to be so raunchy though. They were going at it almost every other chapter.

Lots of writers who write extreme horror and sex scenes do it for shock value or just for the sake of it and it just becomes gratuitous and you can smell it a mile off. Edward Lee manages to do it with rhyme and reason. It's all part of the story and properly explained, so it all makes sense as to why people are getting impaled and erm...having a total sex fest. He doesn't go over the top, or use cheesy euphemisms. He gets the point across, allowing the story to keep flowing naturally.

I haven't said what the book is about have I? This is my first review, so bear with me. Yes. It's aboot a couple, Cristina and Paul, who move into their dream house where inside some mysterious force is attracting and manipulating her. There's some bizarre murders being committed around the city with victims being found impaled. There's some crazy homeless girls who have been taken under the wing of a scary vampire nun, and there's a nutty priest and some cops trying to figure out what's going on. And it all ties in with the the story of Vald The Impaler.

It was a fairly slow paced book, so it took me a little while to read it. But it's one of those that are worth it. The story moved along nicely, the characters were likeable enough, maybe the last couple of chapters seemed a little rushed, but overall, twas a decent read and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. Will check out more of Edward Lee in the near future.