Tread Softly

by
Richard Laymon

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Tread Softly

by Richard Laymon, Richard Kelly

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 760 ratings · 50 reviews

Two families have come to the California mountains expecting a fun weekend camping trip. What they will find instead is terror in the form of a violent psychopath and his mother, a powerful witch.

Published (first published 1987)

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Mar 06, 2012 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

The book is sectioned off in three parts. The first bit is the two families off on their vacation, and it starts the story off really well, with engaging characters of surprising depth. I honestly cared about what happened to these people and was desperately afraid something horrible would happen to them. I mean, it's a horror novel, bad things are gonna happen, and I was keeping my fingers crossed this wouldn't be something with a high body count because I liked these people. It wasn't perfect...more The book is sectioned off in three parts. The first bit is the two families off on their vacation, and it starts the story off really well, with engaging characters of surprising depth. I honestly cared about what happened to these people and was desperately afraid something horrible would happen to them. I mean, it's a horror novel, bad things are gonna happen, and I was keeping my fingers crossed this wouldn't be something with a high body count because I liked these people. It wasn't perfect (every chick over the age of 16 is super ridiculously hot, and the reader is constantly reminded of their "taut thighs" and "flat, tanned stomachs," regardless of whose perspective the narration is coming from), but I was honestly enjoying it up until the attack that leads to the second section. Or, well, the immediate aftermath, which essentially consisted of "well, guys, Karen's been raped, beaten, and knocked unconscious by some crazy dude, but Nick killed him with the hatchet so I think we're all ok here. No worries, everyone just go back to sleep." I... what? Are you serious? Get that woman some medical help!

Part two features everyone at home, and jumps to various people as they suffer through strange accidents, each one adding fuel to the fire until pretty well everyone is too afraid to do anything. It's the twelve-year-old boy (ok, twelve-ish; I'm a little fuzzy on his exact age) who reads up on curses and comes to the conclusion the best and only way to stop it is to go directly to the source.

Part three is where we really start to fall apart. I spent most of the time going "...wait, what? What just happened?" and re-reading to see what I had missed. And 99% of the time, I hadn't missed anything, it simply wasn't there. It's like Laymon had all these ideas and ran out of paper, so he had to squish 75 pages of action into 35 actual pages. It was rushed, and choppy, and scenes would cut off abruptly, never to return. I'd have to content myself with a throwaway line explaining what had happened several pages later, once the danger was already over. Backstories and events that had been brought up as significant, as foreshadowing, were dropped and never mentioned again. Basically, the bottom piece of bread in the sandwich was flimsy, full of holes, and I think there might have been a few moldy spots on it. Which sucks, because the rest of the thing had potential to be really tasty, but it only takes one bite of fuzzy green to ruin the whole thing.(less)

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Jun 20, 2011 Joe Stamber rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, kindle

Richard Laymon... in your face horror, right? Well, not this time. On my Kindle, this book was called "Tread Softly", but it was definitely the same book as "Dark Mountain". Two old buddies, 'Nam veterans, take their families into the mountains for a camping trip. Laymon has carefully selected a diverse bunch of characters to create a variety of relationships and conflicts. To be fair, Laymon is usually pretty good at creating a bit of back story for his characters before he plunges them into pe...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Sarah Jordan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Aus einem spannenden Campingausflug wird ein echter Alptraum. Zwei Familien aus Los Angeles trampen durch die Wälder Kaliforniens und erzählen sich am Lagerfeuer Gruselgeschichten. Aber dann wird eine dieser Geschichten Wirklichkeit und die Familien werden von grausamen Hinterwäldlern überfallen. Erst scheint es so, als hätten sie die Chance zu entkommen, aber dann sucht das Böse sie heim und der Fluch breitet sich aus...

Handlung & Stil.
Ich habe mich auf dieses Buch unglaublich gefreut und d...more Aus einem spannenden Campingausflug wird ein echter Alptraum. Zwei Familien aus Los Angeles trampen durch die Wälder Kaliforniens und erzählen sich am Lagerfeuer Gruselgeschichten. Aber dann wird eine dieser Geschichten Wirklichkeit und die Familien werden von grausamen Hinterwäldlern überfallen. Erst scheint es so, als hätten sie die Chance zu entkommen, aber dann sucht das Böse sie heim und der Fluch breitet sich aus...

Handlung & Stil.
Ich habe mich auf dieses Buch unglaublich gefreut und dachte, dass es mir sicher gut gefallen wird - wie vorher alle von Laymon. Leider hat sich dies als ein Fehler herausgestellt. Aber nun möchte ich euch natürlich auch sagen, wieso es mir so gar nicht gefallen hat. Und zwar fängt das Buch eigentlich noch ganz nett an. Die Charaktere wurden von Laymon dieses Mal wirklich in den Vordergrund gerückt und man hat recht viel von den beiden Familien erfahren. Da ich das von ihm bisher nicht gewohnt war, fand ich das erst mal interessant. Leider ging es mir irgendwann total auf die Nerven, denen beim Wandern oder beim am Lagerfeuer sitzen 'zuzuschauen'. Bis mindestens zur Hälfte des Buches passiert kaum etwas und irgendwie hat mich das mehr an Stephen King als an Laymon erinnert. Wenn mal etwas passiert ist, was wichtig für die Geschichte war, dann waren das nur kleine Andeutungen. Allerdings waren diese nicht wirklich subtil oder spannend oder sonst was dargestellt, sondern typisch Laymon eben. Irgendwie kam es mir in diesem Buch vor, als hätte er versucht, etwas zu sein, was er nicht war.
Diesem Buch fehlte es an Laymon. Natürlich waren in den ersten zwanzig Seiten schon zweimal Nippel im Spiel und Sex gibt es in dem Buch auch, aber das meine ich gar nicht. Mir hat das 'OMG' oder 'Was geht denn in dem vor?' gefehlt. Nicht einmal hatte ich mich gefragt, wie dieser Autor eigentlich tickt und was in seinem Kopf eigentlich schief gelaufen ist, dass ihm so was einfällt. Und das war sonst immer der Fall. Weder Bewunderung, noch Ekel, noch Kopfschütteln mit fettem Grinsen im Gesicht. Nichts von alldem war da. Leider. Am einfachen Stil an sich hat man den Autor natürlich wiedererkannt, aber es war einfach eine absolut langweilige Geschichte, der es bis über die Hälfte einfach an etwas Großem gefehlt hat. Und es tut mir sehr weh, so was sagen zu müssen.

Charaktere & Schauplatz.
Wie bereits erwähnt waren die Charaktere dieses Mal recht schön ausgebaut. Man hat mehr erfahren, konnte viele Dialoge lesen und man hat einfach mehr Zwischenmenschliches gefühlt, als in seinen anderen Romanen, die ich bisher gelesen habe. Die Schauplätze konnte man sich eben vorstellen, besonders fand ich es jetzt aber nicht. Die Atmosphäre an sich hat mir keine Angst gemacht, was aber vielleicht auch einfach daran liegen mag, dass mir das Buch an sich schon viel zu langweilig wurde. Da konnte ich mich nicht mehr mitreißen lassen.

Sonstiges.
Die Thematik an sich, die dort behandelt wird, ist schon nicht mein Fall. Aber davon wollte ich mich nicht hindern lassen. Ich werde alle Bücher meines Lieblingsautors lesen, auch wenn es da noch ein paar gibt, die Themen beinhalten, auf die ich verzichten könnte. Allerdings hoffe ich, dass die nicht so ein Flop sind, wie das Buch. Leider kann ich es nur bedingt empfehlen und zwar an Leute, die es eher subtiler und zurückgehaltener mögen. Laymon geht hier nicht so zur Sache, wie er es sonst tut und daher wäre es für Laymon Einsteiger vielleicht sogar ganz ok. Andererseits vielleicht auch so langweilig, dass sie direkt beschließen, nie wieder was von ihm zu lesen. Entscheidet selbst.
(less)

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Oct 06, 2012 TJ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pretty good fare from Richard Laymon! "Dark Mountain" details the story of two families who go on a camping trip deep into the woods only to find themselves threatened by an old crone and her beast of a son. Laymon does a great job making the reader feel part of the camping trip and setting the stage for the encounter with the creepy duo. The book really takes off though once the families return home and find that they may be dealing with a curse.

Laymon does his usual outstanding job creating m...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Daniel Russell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reads-since-the-big-move

Here we have a classic slice of eighties Laymon (unfortunately for the characters, who would have literally killed for a mobile phone to be honest) but not without its share of problems.

Two families go camping.

Okay...camping. Let's see how many Laymon books involve going camping (or thereabouts):

The Woods Are Dark
No Sanctuary
Darkness Tell Us
The Lake (I think)
Blood Games...any more?

So as you can see, just within Laymon's work alone, there's quite a lot of competition regarding camping horror! I t...more

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Aug 14, 2010 Terry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dark Mountain is one of those books which follows a group of campers (here two families) and a group of killers (a witch and her deranged son) and the reader sits back and waits for the two to intersect. It's a classic formula (and one Laymon used in The Woods Are Dark), but what makes this a different read is that the true horror sets in after the intersection and the campers return to civilization.

It's not Laymon's best book, especially in terms of pacing, but it's worth sticking with.

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Oct 04, 2010 Kechelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, read-and-reviewed

Richard Laymon was born Chicago Illinois, January, 1947 and died February 14, 2001. Throughout life he published over sixty short stories and over forty novels. Dark Mountain was published in 1992.

Two families take a camping trip in the Californian Mountains planning to hike and enjoy a scenic vacation.

What they didn’t anticipate, was that there would be two others up in the mountains watching their every move. A deranged man whose lusts for the opposite sex are unquenchable and his mother an...more

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Mar 10, 2011 chucklesthescot rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, fiction, 5-star-reads

Two families go camping together in the mountains but tragedy strikes when one of the women is raped by a perverted madman who lives in a cave with his witch mother. The madman is dead but the witch puts a curse of them that follows them as they go home, with accidents and disasters happening to them. They know they are going to have to go back to the mountains to deal with the witch before her curse kills them all.

I loved this book! The family dynamics were good with the resentful daughter not...more

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May 11, 2009 DJMikeG rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another slam bang page turner full of gore and nastiness from the late Mr. Laymon. This one isn't quite as disgusting as some of his other works ("Come Out Tonight"), and definitely has many problems. That said, its relative lack of truly reprehensible sexual abuse is a welcome reprieve after reading (or in the case of "Come Out Tonight", attempting to read) some of his other, more intense novels. All the themes and characters aren't realized to their full potential, but in Laymon's slash an...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Carrie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an okay book, I probably wouldn't recommend it. A little too unrealistic for me. I would not consider it a scary book. If anything it did have a lot of thrills, but nothing that really creeped me out.

It's about 2 families that go camping in the woods and get a curse put on them by a witch. After they return from the woods they start having all these freak accidents that could potentially be fatal. They decided to go back the woods and fight the witch...

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Jan 06, 2013 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2013, thrill-crime

Mal ein anderer Laymon, definitiv. Die Protagonisten haben Sex, ja, aber sind erstaunlich prüde. Um nicht zu spoilern kann ich nur sagen: es sterben erstaunlich wenig Menschen und das auch noch überraschend unbrutal.
Sehr ungewöhnliches Buch von Laymon, aber dennoch sehr gut! Die Geschichte ist spannend und besonders gut fand ich auch, dass es endlich mal MENSCHEN in den Hauptrollen gibt, nicht bloß hirnlose Schlächter und Vergewaltiger ;).

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Aug 08, 2012 T.R. Braxton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A chilling read. I could have without the superfluous and gratuitous sex scenes. Also, I realize I am far from understanding everything about women, but it strikes me as highly unlikely that a woman would want to have sex with her boyfriend shortly after being raped. That is what happens I what I believe to be the most riduclous passage of this otherwise solid book.

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Feb 24, 2010 Trudi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: richard-laymon, horror, survive-this, pulp-is-king, uber-graphic-extreme, 2010-reads

Even when Laymon isn't at his best, I still find myself turning the pages and unable to put the book down. This is dreadful, compelling stuff -- trashy but satisfying, everything a pulp-riff-page-turner should be. For me, Laymon is the equivalent of a greasy cheeseburger and fries -- consume in moderation and enjoy!

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Oct 03, 2009 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, 2009

Why do people go camping? Don't they know there's always a crazy old witch and her retarded sex-starved son living in a cave somewhere? And you know they're just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting campers. Terrific! But there's good news. After three-hundred pages there's always a happy ending.

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May 11, 2010 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a very summery-fun type of book. It wasn't my favorite of his... The ending felt a little rushed. It was still a fun read, just not his best work. It followed the same lines as Darkness, Tell Us. It was a fun, summer thriller set primarily around a fateful camping trip.

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Feb 24, 2013 Wesley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was as good as expected, great storyline, characterizations, flow, and as usual, graphic description. You begin in the woods with two families on a camping trip and mayhem ensues when they discover an old woman, who is a witch and her psychotic, rapist son. After plenty of drama, the two families speed off back home now realizing they have been cursed.
Then when they arrive home its coincidence after coincidence and the parents of the families start to believe the young boy in his theor...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Chichi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Just finished this and all i can say is wow! Again, Richard Laymon's trademark: sex, gore, witches. I enjoyed the book more because there was less sex than usual and this reduced distraction from the story line itself. Crazy character building. Loved it!

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Mar 15, 2011 Newt cox rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, own

This is the first bad Laymon novel I have read. Starts off like a 80's era slasher film. But then morphs into a curse/witchcraft film. Badly paced. It takes to almost half way thru the book for anything to happen.Avoid this one. I paid a buck for it and felt ripped off.

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Jul 27, 2009 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There wasn't really anything scary about the book. The 1st chapter was a little spooky but only because I go camping. It was a fast read; about 2 days. It would have been a good beach book or even a book for a few nights of backpacking.

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May 16, 2010 Horrorfan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great relationships and some unexpected twists. I had fun getting through this book. I was pleased with the way the 'crazy' old woman turned out. I thought these "strangers" were going to be more sick and twisted.

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Jun 16, 2009 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really loved this book. It was full of suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat as I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I can't wait to go back to the library and see what other books they have by this author.

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Sep 03, 2011 Bateman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As is said in some other reviews, not a whole lot happens in this book. Laymon may have been attempting a different style of fear-inducement in this novel, but it just didn't work. I kept thinking I was reading erotica instead of horror. I see no problem with mixing the two, but maybe Laymon was just really horny when he was writing this one.

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Oct 17, 2010 Nevertaken rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: richard-laymon

I think I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. Not expecting it to be in two parts is one thing that bothered me, especially since I preferred the first part. The ending felt very rushed, and just bothered me because I didn't expect it to end in such a way. I kept expecting more gore than I got, and I think things like that I had previously heard about the author effected my expectations. It's not like I thought the book needed more gore, just the goriest part was quite tame, and I ke...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Mauro Saracino rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

mortalmente lento e noioso, ad oggi il romanzo peggiore dell'autore. I personaggi sono vuoti e senza uno straccio di carattere, le poche cose che accadono banali e per niente avvincenti. Il lieto fine, poi, è stato un colpo al cuore.

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Aug 31, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kind of disappointed, the setup in the beginning didn't really flow very well into the latter half of the book for me. It was an okay read but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

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Jan 19, 2012 Donnaigh added it · review of another edition

Shelves: stopped-reading

I couldn't keep reading.
Too cliched, too padded out. The characters were too many and not interesting enough.

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Aug 30, 2010 Sonya Higgd rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This isn't the most scary book, but I found myself drawn to the characters and cared about what happened to them.

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Dec 05, 2009 Corey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good Entertaining read but cliched and not realistic. First book read on my Kindle so that was the only pleasure.

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May 17, 2013 Tracy Clayton is currently reading it · review of another edition

Just starting this. I have really liked all the Beast House books he wrote so looking forward to this one.

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Jul 27, 2012 Ashleigh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loved it! I love everything I can get my hands on by Laymon. Definitely not for those who do not like gore!!

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About Richard Laymon

Richard Laymon was born in Chicago and grew up in California. He earned a BA in English Literature from Willamette, and an MA from Loyola University. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, and a report writer for a law firm, and was the author of more than thirty acclaimed novels.

He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier,...more

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