Effigies by William K. Wells

 

EFFIGIES was a book I picked up while thrifting. Even though I don't read the genre as much anymore, I used to be quite the horror girly. It's a shame I didn't keep some of my older ones with the cool cover art because a lot of them are worth pretty serious money now. But look at that cover art. Look at that hand-painted cover and the gothic font. I NEEDED this book.

I'm actually kind of annoyed about this book because it started out really good. There's some great dynamics at play here: people who consider themselves "native" to the town and don't like the way that society is changing and passing them by; rich city people who want to take advantage and basically ruin everything about the town that drew them there in the first place; and hippies who are resented by virtually everyone even though they're doing the least damage just because they're different and don't do things by the book (aka the bible).

Things get weird when this one lady finds a finger in a box left on her doorstep. And then there's talk about Satan and demon children and weird science and everything starts to get quickly out of hand. I lost interest in this book around page 100, when the bad sex scenes started pouring in. This is a dude that does not know how to write good sex scenes, or portray women in a healthy way. The passage where the husband is describing his wife made my eyes roll so far back into my head that I'm going to have to book an appointment with a proctologist to find them again. And if I never see the phrase "rudimentary breasts" again, I will burn some cute bookmarks on an altar of special edition paperbacks to the book gods.

Should have been alarmed when I saw that some horror reviewers I trusted said, "Better give this one a miss," but I like finding things out for myself because I'm stubborn. So I found out myself that I should have given this one a miss. Oh well.

1.5 to 2 out of 5 stars