I don't like comparing Jack Ketchum's novels. While his style is basically the same, he approaches each of his novels differently. I like that. This is still horror, to me; because, he takes real life crime and turns them into words on a page that are as realistic as the crime itself. He puts his own twist on the crimes the story is taken part of. This is one of those stories. The beginning of the book he puts you right in the mix. The pulse-pumping, sweating, heart-racing horrific acts. Then he...

Good characters, but a really loose plot. I enjoyed the middle section of the book when Ray and Katherine were engaged in mind games.I've been having trouble with Ketchum's particular brand of senseless violence as I get older. It might also have to do with the seemingly constant barrage of real life violence that is perpetuated out of simple angst.

More "True Crime" than straight-up horror, THE LOST is the same sort of tale that Jack Ketchum has written a dozen times before, only better. Most Ketchum novels are inspired by the real-life exploits of murderers, rapists, and the mentally deranged; but some of his other books feel rather callous and, for my money, come dangerously close to being exploitative. For example, take THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, which simultaneously manages to be both nauseating and perversely titillating. To what extent are

Right off the bat, The Lost starts with a bang (pardon the pun). Ray was a nutcase when he was a teenager and blew two girls away that were camping. His two friends, Tim and Jennifer, were sheep when they watched him do it and just stood there with their mouths open. They didn't turn him in. They didn't try to stop him. Nothing. Why did he do it? Just to see how it felt. Four years later, Ray is still just as big of a nutcase. The only difference is that he hasn't killed anyone in those four yea...

This book showed a very dark side of humanity. It started out fast and never slowed down. I thought the characters were well done and the book was written from several different perspectives. The setting (the 60's) added to the story and I enjoyed the cultural references from the time. It was a disturbing and uncomfortable read and the ending was perfect for the book. 5 stars for me!

The Lost is certainly in my Top 5 Jack Ketchum novels. Ketchum is the undisputed master of crafting the tale of human evil. He knows the darkness and he will take the willing reader to the depths of hell.

Ketchum delivers (as always) a fast-paced and entertaining horror and suspense tale with great and memorable characters, where the line between good and evil often gets very blurry and the events are not so predictable. Great read, easy to recommend.

The LostJack Ketchum(c)2001Leisure Edition 2008Pages: 394I've heard a lot about Jack Ketchum (especially recently), even discovered he has a couple of movies out. My only experience reading Jack is in the book Triage with Richard Laymon (the reason I bought the book) and Edward Lee.The other day I saw a youtube clip on his movie, The Girl Next Door. Now THAT is a movie I want to see, but I like to read the book first. So, I jumped online to goodbooksnz and went hunting and ordered The Girl Next

I have just written a long review on this book, but it didn’t save 😡 so here is the short version. Jack Ketchum was a very intelligent author and you feel as though you are watching a movie....this book was no exception! I’ve not seen the movie to this book, and tbh I didn’t know it existed. The storyline was great but I found it to be filled with too much detailed information about things which were not important, or relevant, which for me, made the book very long. I was wishing that it would h...

Wtf did I just read? Once again, I love how Ketchum can mess with your emotions in a book. You sympathise, you hate, you pitty and then you are just friggen disturbed and shocked and swear your next read will be a children's book with lots of pictures. But you keep going back. You keep going back. Again and again.This book starts with a bang. Pun intended. People often associate horror with paranormal and ghosts. But for me true horror comes from human actions. A psycho teenager that reminds me

3 STARS

I'd say that Jack Ketchum has slowly been growing on me, except that I've liked his writing ever since I first began reading Off Season, his 1980 novel about cannibals attacking vacationers off the beach. The thing about Ketchum is, his stuff is so violent, so visceral, and downright tragic that his books are somewhat exhausting. I read the sequel to Off Season, the better, equally violent Offspring, and from there moved on to The Girl Next Door (1989), a novel that probably deserves its own art...

Stephen King has called Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door one of the best books ever written. Previous to that, Ketchum was the horror world's best-kept secret, the Einsturzende Neubauten of scary stories: influential to just about everyone working in the field, unknown outside it. Now, thanks to one offhand sentence in one very widely read treatise on how to write, Jack Ketchum has become collectible overnight. Don't try to find a copy of The Girl Next Door unless you're willing to pay [a lot]

I had an epiphany when I was reading this book.I've turned into a reading-slut!Just give me a moment to explain:A few years ago, I was fairly committed to 400+ page books, mostly in the crime and thriller genre. I would read before I went to bed and over weekends, or when nothing was on TV that interested me. Books were usually a week or so commitment.About two and a half years ago I got a Kindle as a gift. It opened up my world - I mean in a huge, huge way. There are so many brilliant authors o...

This hard cover is one of 1500 copies published and is signed by Jack Ketchum.The book was made into a film in 2006 produced by Lucky McKee, Ketchum's sometime writing partner.In "The Lost", the year is 1965, the place is the New Jersey lakes region and 19 year old Ray Pye tries to thrill kills a couple of girls out camping by shooting them, due to assuming they are a lesbian couple. One dead one on life support. His sheeple friends, Jen and Tim, help him cover up the crime.We take up four years...

Ketchum is mostly known for his gritty horror, his brutal and quick-paced violence, and his uncomfortably close exploration of deviancy. Here, all these elements are amped up to 1,000, but only in glimpses that interrupt the taut tension that runs throughout.The narrative is rife with madness and monstrosity of a bleak kind, a diatribe against the cultural decay of its 1960s backdrop. Crowning it all, in true Ketchum fashion, there is humanity, in its imperfect grandiosity, as deformed as it is

Many people equate horror with the supernatural. I find that the actions of real people can be just as horrifying as any ghost or vampire. This book was a difficult read for me because I have lived the terror of not knowing when potential violence will become real violence. Horror is not the anticipation of terrible things, it is knowing full well that it is going to happen and there is nothing you can do at this minute to stop it. Terror is seing the door opening and not being certain whether t...

Gripping, intense novel from Ketchum about a group of young misfits in the late 60's who participate in the murder of two women and how their lives, and the lives of two policemen on the trail of the primary culprit, evolve four years after the murders. It had me riveted from the beginning and never let up the pace. The characters have substance and real emotions, interacting with one another in such a way that they all end up converging in one place in the grim, bloody climax that does not disa...

A really disappointing outing from Ketchum.The plot, simple as it is, gets going in a hurry. Central character Ray Pye senselessly kills two young female college students in his small town in the presence of two acquaintances whom he convinces to help him to cover up his crime. The police know Ray is the perpetrator but just can’t prove it. Speed forward four years and Ray is a narcissist with sociopathic tendencies ruling over a coterie of late teens to whom he deals drugs and appears cool. The...

This is my fourth Ketchum novel, and I have yet to be disappointed. Jack Ketchum can create some of the most realistic and disturbing characters. The Lost literally starts off with a bang and definitely gets your attention. You immediately know who the bad guy is—and that guy is Ray Pye. He shoots two young women (while his friends Tim and Jennifer watch) at the beginning of the book. One dies and the other is on life support. Four years later, the second victim dies, and it seems Ray has gotten...