Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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Four guys and five girls spend a weekend together at a luxury Oceanside mansion in Mexico. There is white sand and rolling surf and it sure should have been very nice, but what with the explosion and the dead phone lines it is hard for the gang to keep up that holiday spirit. The main character in Weekend is a young girl called Shani. She has known Kerry, Angie, Robin and Lena for years. Park is like a brother to her and Sol is a guy with, perhaps, a little bit of a dark past. He certainly gives the impression of being quite handy with his switchblade. Then there's Bert. Bert might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he is a big, lovable lug with a heart of gold. He is also quite amusing. Flynn is the new guy. He's from England and so none of the friends really know him that well. Given the chance, though, Shani would like to get to know him considerably better, but, as the story progresses she has grounds to worry that he might not be quite what he seems to be. The Luxury mansion belongs to Robin and Lena's parents who are very wealthy. The girls' father works in the music industry. Neither he or his wife are there for the weekend and he has left his daughters in charge. Money can buy a great many things, but it can't buy good health, which is a pity, because Robin is in urgent need of a kidney transplant and is on the bottom of the waiting list. Until last November Robin had been a very healthy, very vibrant and very in love with Park. Then, overnight, her world was turned upside down and everything changed for her. Now she has to rely on a dialysis machine Park is with Angie. Park isn't the only one to have changed partners. Until recently Sol used to be Kerry's boyfriend. Now Lena is his preferred smooching companion. It is then, perhaps, not surprising that there is a little bad blood between some of the parties concerned. In a lot of ways Weekend is more of a mystery story than a work of horror and you end up wondering what happened to Robin, why did it happen and who, if anyone, was responsible? If all of that is a mystery though, so are more present events: why has the rest of the class not turned up and why doesn't Robin's dialysis seem to be working as well as it should do? Most of these things, and more, remain a mystery right until the end of the book, which is 190 pages long, by the way. To be honest none of these things, alone, would have been enough to keep me interested in the book, but a rather unusual Indian also features in the proceedings. He seems to know a lot more about what is going on than anyone else, talks in parables and has an uncanny ability with animals. His ability with animals seems to rub off on a couple of the other characters too. Without the Indian, I might have got a little bored by Weekend. Mystery alone is seldom enough to keep my interest. Red-skinned guys, though, who have strange powers and friends that wear feathers can make all the difference. |
