This early novel of the author's is an exploration mainly of one character's delusions and homophobia, which lead him into murder. Given his hallucinations, which include the idea that the people on TV are watching him and the radio is either passing coded messages or listening to him, it is clear that his mental state is due to the illness known as paranoid schizophrenia. The general decay of the urban setting, and the claustrophobia of being trapped on a soul-less high rise housing estate, tog...

Horridge is a man rejected from society whose beliefs lead him to stalk someone he thinks is a murderer. This sits more at the thriller/crime end of horror but I would still class it as horror. The psychological element of the book is fascinating and excellently written. I found Horridge to be a repellant but fascinating character and the focus on his thoughts and inner-workings of his mind was very compelling. The book mostly follows Horridge but we also have sections from the perspectives of a...

I love Ramsey Campbell but I did not love this novel. Was expecting something supernatural that never happened. It's a straight-up slasher/serial killer novel which is maybe my least favorite genre of all.

Great story about a paranoid homophobic killer. All the chapters from his POV were brilliant. Seeing his paranoia grow and his warped perspective of the world around him was very interesting and well done.

OK, Ramsey Campbell got me. The Face That Must Die has a reputation: written early in his career, it’s known as the one originally published in edited form due to content matter, and the one maybe partly inspired by Campbell’s mother’s ailing mental health and paranoia. Luckily, a full version of the novel was released in mass market form in the early 1980s, and that’s the version I read. This is a close and personal view into the mind of a paranoid, homophobic (sex-phobic in general, really) ma...

Really interesting perspective into the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic serial killer. A must read for horror fans.

THE FACE THAT MUST DIEThis book deals with madness and I must say, I was left dealing with madness trying to finish this book. The pace was extremely slow, so slow at times I found myself nodding off on more than one occasion. In general, I prefer horror novels to have elements of horror, the type of horror that actually scares you. I for one do not find psychiatric disorders to be scary, especially when the main character spends much of his time doing nothing with the exception of talking to hi...

A pretty solid slasher horror written mostly from the perspective of a deranged person. Campbell's writing makes his paranoia and delusions very engrossing and unsettling at the same time. First time I've read something by Campbell, will be reading more.

4.3 stars. “He hurried back. Walls seemed to shift and advance. Right here, it must be. Wasn’t this passage too short? No, it wasn’t a wall that blocked his way, only fog. The fog retreated before him—then at once yielded up a wall. Staggering crimson letters caught in the web of graffiti spelled KILLER.”― Ramsey CampbellOne of my top five favorite Campbell novels. Nobody does paranoia like Campbell.

The serial killer plot is a simple mechanism for Campbell to engage in his most paranoid prose. Liberated from his Lovecraft/James devices, which I eat up every time as a fan of the genre and him, he indulges in a more viscerally frightening style of horror. One of his finest novels.

This makes the 6th Ramsey Campbell novel I've read (along with a few short story collections), and I'd say this is now my second favorite, Ancient Images still being #1.This is a different story for Campbell, the horror in this story comes from madness, not the supernatural or the cosmic. Instead we experience the paranoia and despising of society by a lunatic which is amusing, even hilarious at times, but is insidiously, and increasingly creepy.Campbell's theme of urban blight and decay, seen t...

Man, this was just bad. I wanted to give it one star, but I just feel like I can't do that to Ramsey Campbell, he seems like such a nice guy. I don't know why I keep reading his books. I really liked one collection when I was about 17, Alone With the Horrors was the title, I think, but really, everything else I've read, god, it's so dorky. He writes this quiet style of horror that I find really boring, the books seem to lose the plot quite often, and he spends a lot of time just dicking around i...

This was actually my first Ramsey Campbell novel. I had read short stories before, but nothing this lenghty. Overall I liked it. It really came across as a typical slasher story. Nothing groundbreaking, but still suspenseful and interesting. Actually the most disturbing part of the book was the long introduction by Campbell where he went into detail about his childhood and about his mother's descent into dementia. Heartbreaking, eerie stuff. It really made the fictional horror tale pale in compa...

Can't decide whether it's a 4 star book or a 3 star book. It reminds me of myself narrating stories to a certain friend. Other than that, it's a good story about a crazy killer. Nothing special but nothing bad either. Solid 3,5 star! But since I can't put half a star I'm writing these lines to remember and change the rating if I feel it's worse than my most 4 stars, better than my 3 stars etc.

I had this book for a very long time and I was very excited to be able to choose it for a Spook season read. I found that I was pretty disappointed in the story telling, the plot and the characters. This is a first time read for this author and will probably be the last.SynopsisRamsey Campbell’s daring look into the mind of a psychotic killer was published in truncated form in 1979; an expanded edition was later published in 1982. The paranoid outlook of the book's main character, Horridge, is a...

More suspenseful than outright scary, it's still one of the best written psycho killer novels. And, good news, Good Readers, the Millipede Press edition is a quality, smythe-sewn paperback that won't fall apart on you. On April 2nd, 2009 there will be a discussion about this title at Eerie Books in Wylie Texas.

I suppose I would have to file this under a classic I was long over due to read. It has been many years since I last read a Ramsey Campbell novel( I read Count of Eleven probably fifteen years ago). I have read lots of wonderful short stories over those years and not sure what took so long to get back to reading one of his novels. If you don’t know Ramsey Campbell is novelist and film critic who is considered one of the greatest living British(or otherwise) horror novelists of all time. With goo...

Told from primarily two points of view, Campbell's book is a thriller about a man quickly unraveling into madness. John Horridge has had a horrible upbringing that has left him both physically and mentally damaged. His solution for this disfigurement is to strike out at those that he feels are wrong about society. But what he hopes will be a simple case of victimisation is thrown off-keel when he ends up murdering the recipient of his abuse, and, as is typical, one murder leads onto others. At t...

The story is told mostly through the perspective of an odious and most likely paranoid schizophrenic called Horridge. This entirely unpleasant man is hate-filled, self-aggrandising, homophobic and racist. He even has a limp and at times feels almost a Dickensian caricature. But the book doesn't let the reader off that easily. We are trapped in the mire of Horridge's psyche and even when we escape for brief respites we see echoes of similar paranoia in the fear or drug-heightened senses of others...