Live Girls by Ray Garton – Book Review
Ray Garton’s Live Girls is an erotic, scary, suspenseful, often-gruesome vampire novel that’s like having a really interesting nightmare you can’t wake from. The characters in Live Girls are your friends and neighbors, the people about whom you start dinner conversations with the words, “Did you hear about…?” Imagine From Dusk Til Dawn with more sex, less action, and believable characters, and you’ll begin to have an idea of what kind of novel Live Girls is.
The high concept for the novel is simplicity itself: A spineless magazine employee, Davey Owen, loses his girlfriend, and in a combination of curiosity and despair, he visits a New York Times Square peep show called “Live Girls.” The performers at the peep show are vampires though, and they have big plans for Davey. The repercussions of Davey’s new “relationship” with the illicit vampire-run sex business affect the other people in his life. He meets a few new folks too.
Besides Davey, Live Girls includes the following characters: Walter Benedek is a newspaper reporter whose sister and niece have been killed by Vernon, Walter’s brother-in-law. (Vernon became involved with the vampires at Live Girls before Davey.) Beth is Davey’s ex-girlfriend, who has left him because she prefers to get beat up by her junkie boyfriend. Chad Wilkes is Davey’s nemesis at the office, who gets the promotion that Davey deserves. And Casey is Davey’s loyal friend, co-worker, and would-be lover.
The other characters in Live Girls are more minor, like the obnoxious boss-lady who sexually harasses Davey, and the owner of a gun store who has helped Davey research some magazine articles in the past. The vampires also have unique personalities, but I’d prefer not to spoil the novel by going into any detail about those characters.
The horror in the book is unabashedly erotic and gruesome. If you’re offended by graphic sex scenes put to paper, this isn’t the right book for you. If you’re squeamish about blood and violence, stay away. If you’re looking for sympathetic vampires who sparkle in the sunlight or who long to have their unnatural lives ended, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
On the other hand, if you like vampires who are evil, and heroes who are overpowered by the forces of darkness, Live Girls is a gem of a book. Ray Garton is a fine craftsman and a compelling storyteller. Live Girls maintains enough suspense and the characters are interesting enough that the book will be a short read for most horror fans, because they likely won’t put it down until they’ve finished reading it.
Live Girls is now one of my favorite vampire novels, largely because of the strength of the characterization and the smooth, competent writing style.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Horror Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Nice write-up, good to know this ’80s “classic” is back in print and garnering new fans. I read it earlier this year for the first time since high school and found it still entertaining and erotic as hell!
http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2010/03/leave-you-with-lethal-dose-live-girls.html