A 'Did Not Finish'... 'Video Night' – Adam Cesare (Black T-Shirt Books)


If you've visited the blog this week, you've probably gathered that it hasn't been the best week for getting books read. Not a bad week for watching 'Doctor Who' but books? I've read a couple of bits but nowhere near what I wanted to. Work demands have gone and stepped up a gear, recently, while everything else isn't letting up either. It's all do-able but doesn't leave me a lot of time for reading so if a book doesn't hit the spot quickly then I'm not going to stick with it for long. More often than not it's not the book's fault, I just need something off it that perhaps it's not built for. Which leads me onto 'Video Night' and this post... Have some blurb...

Who better to repel a body-snatching alien invasion than a group of teenage horror nerds?

Billy and Tom are best friends, but each knows that at the end of the school year they'll be moving in different directions. But why not go out with a bang and throw one last video night? They can invite some girls over, order a pizza, then maybe try and fight the alien infection that's taken hold over their suburban town.

It's The Breakfast Club meets The Night of the Creeps in this slime-drenched '80s horror romp.

On paper, 'Video Night' has everything that I'm currently looking for in a horror book. A little slice of nostalgia served with a generous helping of particularly icky body horror. I don't ask for a lot and 'Video Night' gave me just what I was after, no complaints there and if this is what you're after then you could do a lot worse than give this book a go.

So far so good then but where it fell down for me was that basically, the build-up overstayed it's welcome. That's not the book's fault to be fair, reading time is at a real premium for me and I needed things to move quicker than they were. Nine times out of ten, I love a little build-up and general world building and I can see why Cesare took that approach here. The atmosphere is great, I just needed things to be happening as well and that's why I put the book down in the end.

There's a lot to recommend it though, just not for where I am at the moment. And there was enough there to make me finally order 'Clown In A Cornfield'. I'll just make sure that I'm in the right mood (and I have plenty of time to read it) when I do pick it up.

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