Out Are The Lights - Richard Laymon > Reviews > Not His Best

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Probably not
Story	Satisfactory
Characters	Satisfactory
Listenability	A good listen when you've got the time
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Not bad

Advantages:	Scary, and quite original
Disadvantages:	Wanders off topic sometimes

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Out Are The Lights is interesting because it contains one novella and five other short stories. The big story though, is obviously the most important thing about this book.

Although I found it quite an enjoyable read, I thought the storyline was a little cheesy. The plot is that there is a couple of mad people out there who put people into various horrific situations, film them and sell it to a film. company. It all sounds a little "Goosebumps" or "Are You Afraid Of The Dark?" to me. Keeping in mind however, I believe this was written in the early 90's, so this kind of thing wouldn't seem as "lame" back then.
It does make for a good climax to the story. I won't go into too much but I will say that I would be lying if I said my heart wasn't racing at the end.

There is another side to the story too though, and from start to finish the only thing it seems to involve is a husband and wife having troubles, meeting other people and splitting up. There are sex chapters a plenty (As is normal in any modern book these days) but for this book it seems to be sex just for the sake of throwing it in, it doesn't really effect the storyline.

The five short stories are great. My personal favorite is "The Tub", which just sends a shiver down your spine.

All in all Out Are The Lights isn't bad. As a Richard Laymon fan I was quite dissapointed, but it's not exactly the worst book I've read. There are parts of the story I will always remember, but I wouldn't pick it up and read it again, unless it was for one of the short stories.