Edward Levy

I was in elementary school when I read this back in the 80s. All I have to says is that this book scared me to the point of madness. NO lights went off, I hid under the covers for weeks. Growing up in the Louisiana swamps did not help matters one bit. I read King growing up, Barker, etc. But the idea of this book really put the hook in me and I have never found anything that comes close in regards to pure fear. I found the story to be fairly solid. The farmer was a terror and even at such a young age I felt deeply sympathetic to the characters who suffered. The wife, the salesman and later on Michael. But as memory serves I feel the timeline and setting was way off. The second half of the story did not feel like it was in the time it was supposed to be. In regards to that....there was no depth. The film was an utter travesty and I mean UTTER. The book is fluff...but it was enjoyable.… (meer)

Wow, so where do I start? First off, How did Edward Levy not raise in the ranks with Steven King? Seriously, this book was dark and twisted. It was an interesting take on lycanthrope. Warning, this book does have rape scenes in them. the book spans approximately 20 years and it does it in a way that makes. It starts off with Farmer Scruggs. He was by far the evilest man, and is what set this entire story into motion. He was an elderly man who pretty much purchased a wife (she was 19) to serve as a maid pretty much. He isolates her from her family and she is NEVER allowed to go into the town. So she is in this home by herself with only one dress…you read that correctly. He only allowed her one dress and she could only wash it when he was in town because he would have flipped out if he saw her naked. Seriously, they never ever have sex because he believes it is a sin. And a couple years of being together she asks him to have a baby….well he punches her because clearly she has to be possessed by the devil for thinking such things.

Not much longer after this a young traveling bible salesman ends up on their farm because his car (which just started being made) broke down. And let’s just say that while Farmer Scruggs may have had issues sleeping with his wife but this salesman did not! Scruggs finds his wife having sex with the Salesman and knocks out the man. Later on he wakes up chained in their dirt cellar and admits to setting his wife on fire until she admitted that they were in leagues with the devil! He then throws the charred wife down with the salesman so that he would have something to eat. Something TO EAT! Scruggs is insane! To make matters worse he literally keeps this man in the root cellar for 15+ years. The man pretty much goes feral and only escapes because Scruggs had a heart attack, fell down the stairs, the guy eats him, and it wasn’t until he was starving again that he pulled on this chains and wood (finally rotted) gave out.

He then goes into the woods, finds a woman, knocks her out, rapes her and then gets bit by a snake and dies alone in a cave. But that was only the FIRST part of the story! The woman gets pregnant but believes it to be her husbands baby. They raise the baby and when he is 6 years old he starts having these dreams and feeling at night. Here comes the whole spin on lycanthrope….At night the beast within him takes over and he escapes from their home and goes on a killing rampage. He kills local farm animals and when his parents find out they do everything they can to help him, including caging him in his room. The book goes on and jumps to when he is 13 and his first sexual arousal which summoned up that beast. Then it jumps again to when he is older. At this point you find out that the beast within was still coming out at night but he was hiding it better. That is until he started killing humans and raped a woman. I won’t go any further because I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, but the ending was fantastic.… (meer)