Truly a feminist masterpiece. I loved and was blown away by this film (I am beginning to appreciate Lucky McKee), so I was eager to read the novel. I often find myself enjoying reading books after watching the film because I like to fill in the blanks. The switch in perspectives was quite enlightening, particularly in the case of the woman. Learning her motivations are thoughts was quite enriching for the story. This novel was horrifying and brutal without being too gratituous. Perhaps the most terrifying aspect is Chris' rampant misogyny, which his adolescent son shares. It makes me sick that there are truly pieces of shit like them out there, but the ending holds a great payoff. ( )

Ketchum's writing prods at all the wrong places. It's uncomfortable. Oddly, that's a good thing. I'll pass on the movie though. ( )

This book was fucking crazy. Because, I just couldn't wrap my head around the concept. I get some single guy doing this shit, but a family man? And the fucking guy just brings his family down to the basement and introduces them to this savage beast of a woman? Crazy man. Just fucking crazy.

This is the story of The Woman, who gets abducted from her cave, and is dragged back to this man's house, where he chains her up in his basement. Like you do. She's some kind of savage animal-woman. She only speaks a couple words of english, and she's strong as a motherfucker. The man finds out soon enough, as she bites his finger off the first few minutes she's down in his basement.

As the story progresses, we find that the man, sure enough, is a sick and twisted fuck. He got his 16 year old daughter pregnant from pounding that sweet teen pussy every night. He beats the ever-loving shit out of his poor, pathetic wife. And, it turns out that his teenage son is turning out to be just like him. A rapist asshole.

Pretty much anyone can guess what happens in the end of this story. There really are no surprises. Okay, I take that back. There was one surprise. Nothing that had to do with The Woman, but a big surprise nonetheless. But what happens to The Woman is no surprise at all. I saw that shit coming a mile away. That was the only fault I could find with this book. Otherwise, it had me hanging on every word. ( )

First off, I'm a horror fan and if you don't regularly read and enjoy horror, then you shouldn't read this book. On the other hand, if you're like me, then I highly recommend it. This book goes into some very dark places, but that is something I love about Jack Ketchum. He will go to deeper and darker places than many other horror authors out there. Part of what makes this book so compelling is that it delves into the depravity of everyday people. His books tend to bolster my opinion that anyone is capable of anything given the right circumstances. Horror readers should definitely check this out. ( )

I can't say I enjoyed this book. I went into it knowing little more than the cover blurb, so it likely just wasn't my style of book. I tried to review it in detail so that you can decide for yourself if it might be more to your liking.

I found the character development to be all but invisible in the first two thirds of the book. It wasn't until later that I felt anything other than befuddlement of the main character. I felt it was so lacking that I truthfully didn't understand anything about his actions until the climax - and not in a good way. It made it feel like the MC was just a plot device rather than a true character, because his actions seemed so disjointed from his thoughts and, even, how others perceived him.

Because of this, I was completely disconnected from the story because I was too busy wondering if there was a point to it or if it was just going to be little more than the literary equivalent of torture porn.

I think the story could have had a lot more impact if they had focussed on developing the characters more at the beginning rather than leaving it all to the end. I also found the writing style - present tense, constantly shifting between characters view points - to further jilt me from being really able to connect with the story.

There is, however, a story. A story that I think would have been very interesting if not for the poor development techniques. If the tenses and the constantly shifting view points had been better developed, I think it could have really been something special.

Because of how poorly it was handled, however, I didn't find the plot or the characters to be realistic or interesting, and only barely finished. ( )