‘The Passenger’ – Jack Ketchum

 


Page Count: 93 Pages

While it hasn’t been a great week, it has been a pretty good week for reading and you know what…? I’ll take that, especially when I’ve got no plans for the weekend other than to keep on reading ;o)

In the meantime, I thought I’d round off the working week with a Jack Ketchum novella that I found lurking in the back of ‘Red’. And…

When Janet’s car breaks down on a quiet road, her only real concern is how long it will take before she can flag down a passing car, any passing car. One lift, from a very angry motorist, later and it couldn’t possibly get any worse, could it? 

Oh, it could. And it does…

Before we get going, I feel like a little advance warning would be useful here. I’m not really going to go into the rape scene, in this post, but it does happen and that’s something that some readers may want to consider before reading ‘The Passenger’. It’s up to you. Ketchum doesn’t make it the focus of this tale but similarly to ‘Red’, it does happen.

Anyway…

‘The Passenger’ isn’t my normal horror fare; as with ‘Red’, there is a note of horror running through a tale that is more of a crime/thriller (from where I’m sat). What it ended up being though was thoroughly engaging and a real lesson in how to write a novella that spirals into violence and then just keeps on spiraling ;o) Ketchum keeps to a relentless pace and isn’t afraid to keep answering the question, ‘what would a depraved person do next?’

It’s a simple approach but one that yields eye-catching results and gives us a plot where seemingly, anything can happen. And it does, for better or worse.

I found ‘The Passenger’ a quick, fun read that held my attention without even having to break a sweat. A novella that is more than happy to throw one sane person into the middle of a bunch of crazies and see how long that person can keep going under intense pressure. Your mileage will inevitably vary based on what I mentioned up the page.

I will be keeping an eye open for more books from Jack Ketchum. After what now feels like a false start, Ketchum is very an author that should be read. Any recommendations?

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