- Hardcover: 282 pages
- Publisher: St Martins Pr (March 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312105150
- ISBN-13: 978-0312105150
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,153,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
With unusual insights into the cruel extremism and vulnerability of adolescence, this suspenseful thriller of psychosis and serial killing follows the parallel stories of a young murderer and the boy he might have been in the quiet Southern California town of Bohemia Bay. After several years of street life and wandering, Lupe Diaz arrives in Bohemia to settle a score with his older brother Sal. Lupe blames Sal for his brutal castration (cauterized by blowtorch) at the hands of a gang. As might be expected, Lupe's psychological scars are far worse than his physical ones and he finds comfort in collecting a ghostly gang of victims. The drug-peddling Sal has a gang of his own, a group of gay runaways he shelters in his Bohemia Bay house. Elsewhere in town, Mike James, a bright, artistic high school student, finds an outlet for his thirst for action in a group of semi-delinquents from the local alternative school, led by an ex-con, ex-biker turned Bible-thumping Peter Pan. When some gay-bashing pranks bring Mike into contact with Sal and the dangerous Lupe, the three gangs collide with murderous results. Laidlaw ( Kalifornia ) peoples Bohemia Bay with colorful multidimensional characters, both teenaged and adult, and tells their grisly story with evocative prose in a penetrating, convincing voice. Clever plotting and a lively pace fortify an imaginative, offbeat and often unnerving tale.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The Southern California turf of two gangs becomes a nightmare area for teenaged Mike, whose parents purchase a home in an affluent community. One group, misfits collected by the religion-spouting Hawk, pits itself against the young gays headed by the drug-dealing Sal. Rivalry turns to terror and violence upon the arrival of Sal's younger brother, a physically and psychologically damaged murderer who steals the key to Mike's new home. The author of Kalifornia ( LJ 12/92; Word of Mouth, p. 216) misses his target here in an uneasy blend of suspense and the rite-of-passage genre. Despite his novel's surface characterization and lack of tension, Laidlaw is an interesting writer whose style somewhat redeems this cautionary tale. For comprehensive modern fiction collections.
- Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the buy,
By Tyler (Centerville, OH USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Orchid Eater (Hardcover)
I have been wondering what the Orchid Eater was ever since I discovered the titles hidden in the game of half-life. I looked it up on here for about a month or so and saw that no one had read it. That gave me the idea to tell everyone how good it is. It is awesome, and brilliant. However, if you do not prefer to read crude language, then for heaven sakes DON'T READ IT! But, if you want a really good read, written by a guy that has also written the stories for several famous PC games (like Half-Life), then read it, trust me, you will like it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breath of fresh air,
By D. Lynch "repetitious" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Orchid Eater (Hardcover)
I'm an avid reader, but lately I had lost interest in many books. Everything I was reading began to run together, and no book left an impression on me. Then one afternoon, I went into my classic game collection and pulled out Half-Life, booted it up, and took a walk down memory lane. BUT, upon playing this classic game again, I discovered a small hidden room I had missed the first time through, and inside were a few books on a shelf, one of which was titled "The Orchid Eater". Out of sheer curiousity, I checked it out on Amazon, and sure enough, it was a real book. THEN, I found out that the writer of Half-Life's storyline was also the writer of this book, and I decided that I had to get "The Orchid Eater".This book was everything I needed - something completely different to break myself away from the monotony of current writers. I just wish I'd found it a little earlier, since it was written a few years back... Anyway, the book is very exciting, one of those stories that is truly hard to put down. Laidlaw has a fantastic way of adding great detail, but never dwells on those details long enough to get tiring. Instead, he continues very strongly with the storyline and the characters at hand. His writing style is very modern and quite refreshing, and this book is a great example of that. There's a new twist every chapter, and in a story revolving around the activities of two seperate gangs, twists prove to be very exciting. At the beginning of the story, the tales of the two main characters couldn't seem more different, but they soon begin to grow together, until the two stories converge into a brilliant sequence. I'd rather not give an entire description of the story, becuase it would take forever and it would ruin it for other readers, but I will end with: Buy this book if you like modern writing full of exciting twists... a LOT of twists. Highly recommended. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the buy,
By Tyler - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Orchid Eater (Hardcover)
I have been wondering what the Orchid Eater was ever since I discovered the titles hidden in the game of half-life. I looked it up on here for about a month or so and saw that no one had read it. That gave me the idea to tell everyone how good it is. It is awesome, and brilliant. However, if you do not prefer to read crude language, then for heaven sakes DON'T READ IT! But, if you want a really good read, written by a guy that has also written the stories for several famous PC games (like Half-Life), then read it, trust me, you will like it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Characters Make Up for the Plot,
By NDHF - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Orchid Eater (Hardcover)
The Orchid Eater shows author Marc Laidlaw as a writer with great skill for prose in the service of a unique premise. With remarkable rapidity, he describes the characters of Bohemia Bay, one of those sun-soaked, skin-deep towns of Southern California that Laidlaw writes so well about. At the forefront is a study in contrasts:Mike, an aimless and oversexed teen who feels his affluent, sheltered life is holding back his artistic vision. The true artist, he feels, must know suffering. And Lupe, same age as Mike, whose existence is nothing BUT suffering. A lifetime of mutilation, neglect, and buried rage has made a killer out of him, as he returns to Bohemia Bay for revenge. We also meet an ex-Hell's Angel-turned preacher to the town's delinquents, Lupe's unseemly brother Sal, and a smattering of Lupe's victims, who appear as a ghostly gang when his rage runs wild. The color and imagination that Laidlaw shows in describing these characters is the book's true appeal, as the plot's rarely motivated by common sense. The resolution at the end of this book is thin at best, and it's hard to see how Mike grows through the unusual set of events caused by Lupe's mayhem. But I'll often accept a minor payoff for some rich, interesting setup. The book reads quickly, as as serial killer stories go, it's pretty good. If you're interested in Marc Laidlaw from the Half-Life series of games, check this one out first. |
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