Now it is unclear whether Herbert set out to shock his readers from the outset as this was still the seventies and readers hadn’t experienced anything quite like this before, or this was in fact a clever prediction of where the culture of horror was heading and wanted to give the audience something more graphic than other writers of his generation. It grips you in all the right places, makes you hold your breath in abated horror in others and makes you almost mentally sick in others, unless you’re the kind of reader who doesn’t flinch at babies getting ripped apart being described in vivid detail. It does read a lot like watching a horror movie. With being quite a short novel, it isn’t surprising that the fast pace of the book means you can read the whole thing in a few short hours but don’t let that detract you from enjoying the experience of this novel. His style was easy on the eye and although fairly basic in places you could see that he knew how to use pace and atmosphere to his advantage. This was James Herbert’s first novel and while it isn’t a masterpiece by anyone’s standard you could quite clearly see he was a writer with some promise.
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