Night in the Lonesome October by Richard Laymon
47North. 2001.
One of the notions about the horror genre is that it's filled with stories that require people to made bad decisions in order to succeed. Don't go in the basement. Don't split up. Call the police. Advice that goes unheeded and leads to tragedy.
Ed Logan, is a college student recently dumped by his girlfriend. In his grieving for his dead relationship he makes a lot of bad decisions, but since this is a first person narrative, we are privy to the thought processes that lead him there. Ed being 20 years old, there is an inner logic to many of his decisions that, while still bad ones, almost make sense in hindsight looking back to being a former 20 year old whose love life had its bad bumps. At any rate, his choices keeping steering him from the safety and potential of a new relationship with a more than suitable young woman and into late night walks that bring him into the bizarre nocturnal world of the town he lives in, with a creepy old woman in spandex on a bicycle, homeless people with unusual eating habits, a extremely threatening sexual predator, a house stuffed with disturbing memorabilia, and the other girl, a reckless free spirit who has a hobby of home invasion.
The characters are all delightfully rendered and the book is a real page turner. There are some real dark moments within its pages, but Night in the Lonesome October is more amusing than frightening. I loved every page of it
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