Ancient Paperback Review: Into The Pit by Warner Lee.

Man. This is a really hard one to review.

Into The Pit was released in 1989 by Pocket Books, in the thick of the horror paperback boom. It was the first book released under the pseudonym Warner Lee by the author B.W. Battin, who'd already put a few books out under that name.

The fantastically lurid cover art and some decent reviews of this led me to pick it up. 

It's got a very EC comics vibe going for it, telling the story of Jason McGwire, a successful landscape architect. Jason is living it up with his second wife, Nyssa and his infant son, Michael. He's living a real American dream, with a nice house, a thriving business and day dreaming about playing baseball with his son in a few years.

Problem is his first wife, Glenda, was a mentally ill witch who attempted to murder him, withheld children and participated it witchy group sex rituals before dying in a housefire. Now, She is attempting to reach him from the other side, to drag him and his son...INTO THE PIT...

The first half of the books, I was thinking I was upon a hidden gem, an unsung horror semi-classic. Not necessarily up to par with the seminal classics of King or Simmons or something like that. But maybe something to sit with my favorite Laymon? At least, close by him?

No go on that. He's sitting closer to Christopher Pike on this one. It's a hell of a build-up to an incredibly tame, ultimately lame pay off.

The book jumps between two timelines very frequently and very successfully, a feat that isn't often accomplished. The writing is strong, the characters are believable, the story is never boring. It's got a lot going for it.

The thing zips right by at 280 pages, but here is the huge problem. It zips right to an unfulfilling, underwhelming finish. There's no big payoff. It's incredibly mundane overall, with no gore, grue, or excitement. We get hints of a tentacled creature, a bunch of ALMOSTS and a couple scenes of raunchy sex. Outside of that and some limited profanity, this could have very well been a young adult book. 

Far from what that great cover art suggests with it's ghastly ghoul hand and blood red font proudly oozing the title.

By the time the book reaches it's final third, you start to get the vibe that the author was tired of writing it, haphazardly wrapping up the story in a rushed, neutered fashion.

And it's an absolute bummer. The expectations with such a cool cover, with such promising first pages, with strong writing...to just be let down into a soft, flavorless happy ending...with the obligatory THERE'S GONNA BE A SEQUEL moment right at the end. It's just so pedestrian.

Guh.

I will give Warner Lee/B.W. Battin another try, especially since I already bought the two books that proceed it. 

But, first impressions are everlasting...

3/5.



Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 5, 2017 at 7:48 AM

    Damn! That sounded awesome at first... Glad you told me that it was a lame payoff though, guess I'll avoid it :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 5, 2017 at 8:23 AM

    It's not necessarily terrible or worthy of avoiding. It's just not worth seeking out either. If you find it for cheap, give a spin. I can almost guarantee that you have ready worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownAugust 5, 2017 at 9:24 AM

      I might do that! Have a pile of books to read at the moment though. Just started 'The Shining', currently reading 'Ghost Story' and haven't quite finished 'Bird box' yet... oh and I'm itching to start Necroscope.

      If only I had 3 more brains that could do it all at once...

      Delete

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