Where Stars Won't Shine by Patrick Lacey REVIEWED

I keep apologizing for my reviews getting sparser and sparser, but this will be my last apology. I'm simply going to read and review books when I can. Things show no sign of slowing down for me, so I will simply get back to this just being a hobby and reading at my leisure. Turning it into this workman-like thing has certainly gotten to me and somewhat extracted the joy of reading.

So let's get back to it.

Patrick Lacey and the joy of reading. They rhyme for me. His books tend to be exactly what I am looking for, true love letters to horror fans, with as many creatures, gory deaths and crazy stuff as he can pack into the pages. He tends to be a bit tongue in cheek, and very scant in his prose, all the fat chopped away. Where Stars Won't Shine does that exactly, but I bit more seriously in tone than he usually goes for. 

Hell, there's even some sociological commentary to be seen here. It's not heavy handed or anything, but it's a nice edition to Lacey's writing. 

The book has something to say about how we, as a society, tend to glorify perversion and morbidity, exploded by the internet, asking the question: how far is too far and how much of this encourages the producers of this content to continue.

Where Stars Won't Shine follows a gang of folks to the town of Marlow, the hometown of the disappeared infamous serial killer, Tucker Ashton. They're all there for various reasons, all delved out in the various subplots present, but most interesting to me is Zeke Evans, who runs a website dedicated to serial killers, and idolizes Ashton. This later takes a wild turn in the story that makes for a lot of fun towards the end of the book.

Our group, finds not only Tucker, but that Marlowe is not all it appears to be, with noone and nothing being quite of reality.

I enjoyed WSWS a good deal, but couldn't help but feel it was not too far off in tone or subject matter than Lacey's other recent works, Bone Saw and Practitioners, a novel he co-wrote. This is not to say it's not well worth reading, I am huge fan of Patrick's and recommend each of his books. 

The slightly more serious tone, digging into tough topics as child abuse, loss, grief and trauma is a welcomed addition to Lacey's repertoire; but the gore and outrageousness are never far from the limelight. 

If one can say anything about Lacey and this, his newest offering, is that the ability to turn something fairly standard in the horror novel world (both the serial killer novel and the small-town horror novel) into something new and imaginative, with vibrant bursts of creativity marbled throughout, is ever-present. 

Give this and all of Lacey's work a read.

4/5