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May 15, 2011

Kasia rated it:

I have dreamt about reading this book for months and once I got it I read the sucker in half a day. The good part - it's full of icky, gross horrific stuff that makes horror books fun, the not so good part - I wasn't crazy about it. The character development was shallow and maybe if the six kids who get stuck in the bad part of town at night weren't so stupid and lame, I would have liked the book more. It's hard to relate to someone who acts in a way that gets them in trouble in the first place, More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Shannon rated it:

I am right in the middle of this book. As other reviewers have commented it's gross. You have all the gross out points, blood, menstrual blood, bodily harm, poop, pee, fat people, stink etc. A few of the scenes so far have been a little long for my taste but not anything that I find upsetting. However I am having a hard time finishing this book because I just don't care about the protagonists. At this point I kind of hope they die.

I stopped caring almost as soon as the plot was set up More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2011

Reese rated it:

This was the first book I read by Brian Keene. I absolutely loved it! It was very raw and chock full of absolute terror. Situations and experiences of the characters I would never have thought of before, but written in such a masterful way that you just can't stop reading. Sick as what happens to the characters is, you just keep reading hoping they will find a way out and it will be a happy ending. This is one reason I love the book so much. It's not a happy ending. The people in the " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

William rated it:

3 AND 1/2 STARS

This latest Brian Keene was quite a departure from zombies and end of the world scenarios. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of action and gore (reminiscent of classic Laymon and Ketchum), but although nothing happened that I didn't already expect, it did give me quite a few hours of giddy enjoyment while reading it. One of the highlights for me had to be some of the priceless dialogue made by the mutants regarding their sexual organs and their desire to perfor More...

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Aug 27, 2010

Liz rated it:

I don’ t know why I got so link-happy in the review.

How to describe Urban Gothic? In a word: icky.

The premise: Six white teens from the suburbs are returning home from a concert when they end up lost in the ghetto of Philadelphia. Their car breaks down in a dangerous neighborhood. When they’re approached by a group of black teens who act in a threatening manner. One of the white teen panics, calls them the ‘n’ word, and runs.

Sidebar: This didn’t ring true for More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2010

Chris rated it:

I love Brian Keene's books. The Rising is, bar none, the best zombie book ever written, and Conqueror Worms is the best modern "Lovecraftian" book I've read.

Urban Gothic, to me, fell largely flat. I really just felt like a less impressive version of Ketchum's "Off Season", and, like another reviewer, it took me a long pause between reading the first half and second half to finish it (it's the first Keene book that I haven't been able to read in a day or two).
More...

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Feb 26, 2010

Lincoln rated it:

Just like the cover suggests, Urban Gothic is a haunted house story. It starts out with six suburban teens stuck in a bad city neighborhood when they get lost and their car breaks down. They have a misunderstanding with some of the locals, believing (understandably, from the way their interaction began) that they were gangbangers about to rob them. The protagonists, three boys and three girls, run for cover into an evil-looking abandoned house.

Not all of them make it to the end of t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2009

Logan rated it:

I started reading Brian Keene with "Dead Sea", which I really enjoyed. It changed up some Zombie conventions (species hopping, etc.) and had a realistic, well developed protagonist. While everyone was an archetype, it also acknowledged that flat out, which was funny.

Unfortunately, the past few offerings have fallen flat for me. This book was pretty much crap. As I read, I felt as though I was reading the script of a film that I would decry as symptomatic of the ruinati More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2010

Jacki rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 09, 2010

Mark rated it:

Six friends, white kids on their way home from a hip-hop concert, find themselves in car trouble, deep in a rundown black area of Philadelphia. The wrong choice of epithet leads to them sheltering in an abandoned old house, that contains more peril than anything they might have faced outside. Although Keene is a good writer who drags you along at a tremendous clip, this doesn’t stand up like his other books have and is very similar to “Castaways” (and feels more like a Richard Laymon homage, t More...

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Oct 09, 2011

Marvin rated it:

This flashback to the splatter-punk days of horror novesl is a difficult book to compare to other horror novels. Why? Because all I can think of to compare it to are movies. Indeed it feels like Roger Corman was looking over the author's shoulder and saying "Here some money. Come back in 15 days and give me a script". Urban Gothic ends up being a bloody mixture of movie ideas: The People Under The Stairs meets The Hills Have Eyes meet every other mutant cannibal novel.

Not tha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2011

Alysha DeShaé rated it:

My full review is here on my personal website. I'll post a few excerpts here, though:

0.5 out of 5.0 stars

The very worst thing about this book is that it is everything. First, it was misshelved in the store – not the books fault, I know, but I would never have bought it if I had known it was a horror book. Second, it’s a horror book and it’s far too graphic for me to sleep soundly after having read it. Third, was it really necessary to describe a deformed giant’s penis in suc More...

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Feb 11, 2010

Kim rated it:

Let me begin by saying that the first book I read of Keene's was Dark Hollow, and I found it to be so original and unique that I instantly took a liking to him. However, I have yet to read a more recent book of his that comes close to the fun of Dark Hollow. Of all of the recent ones (Castaways, Ghost Walk, Urban Gothic,) this one impressed me the least.

I found the plot to be very recycled, i.e. teens in peril go into a forbidden place with mutants, but at least Keene takes the setti More...

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Feb 26, 2011

Michael rated it:

For most people, there's nothing scarier than being lost. That was the premise of The Blair Witch Project, which scared the crap out of me because I could relate to the situation the characters found themselves in. Not the part of being "hunted" by a supernatural creature, but the part about being lost in the woods. It has happened to me. There's nothing more terrifying than not knowing where you are going, if you are constantly going around in circles, going the right way to freedom, More...

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Feb 05, 2010

Melissa rated it:

Being a huge Brian Keene, fan I had been looking forward to Urban Gothic for months before it was released. But it took me almost six months to finish reading it. I got halfway through and gave up. It actually turned me off horror for awhile and made me wonder why I preferred gore and monsters over interesting characters. I don't, what I want is for my horror novels to have it all: fascinating characters that I don't want to see die, monsters and gore. But Urban Gothic focused more on the charac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2009

Sizzlin Miss Kenjii rated it:

The story begins with 6 best friends running through an urban neighborhood to a haunted house. 3 paired off couples. As with most[any:] Brian Keene novel the action waits only for you to turn the page. To say who dies first and who survives would give away a GREAT horror story, so I'll just say that the flesh munchers had crude weapons but imaginative deathes/tortures for their victims. An honorable Ob mention, hats off.

The creature/horror/monster in Urban Gothic are described at be More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2010

Jayme rated it:

This is the first horror novel I've read in a long time. In hindsight, I probably should have eased myself back into the genre. I'm not really sure how to describe this story. Six stupid kids run into an abandoned house to hide and then spend the rest of the night trying to survive a bunch of psychotic mutants who want to eat them for dinner. It's "The People Under the Stairs" meets "Rose Red" meets that creepy episode of X-Files with the inbreds who keep their mutant mother/ More...

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Apr 02, 2011

Kelleynotlp rated it:

*****************SLIGHTLY SPOILERIFIC*******************************************************************

I just finished "Urban Gothic" by Brian Keene. There was a really good idea behind this book: Take the inbred, deformed, cannibal family slasher formula, push it to it's furthest extreme and then place it in the middle of an inner city neighborhood and let the blood fly. Sounds great. The book started with a bang introducing us to one of the horrifying family members More...

1 comment like

Oct 27, 2009

Sarah rated it:

There are days that I want a "mindless" read. Something that takes about a day and doesn't require any thought. And while this "book" (for lack of a better word) fits that description of a mindless read, Urban Gothic is the worst thing I have read in a very long time. It is a paperback version of Saw I-VI. The plot was nonexistent(6 people walk in a house and all but one dies is not a plot), there were no redeeming characters and the story isn't even that scary/creepy. I More...

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Aug 29, 2010

D. rated it:

I used to really like Keene, but after Dark Hollow he seems to have partially lost it (this is based on Ghost Walk and Urban Gothic, Kill Whitey was pretty cool). I didn't care for any of the characters in the book at all, but reading about them being chased and ripped apart by an inbred cannibal family in various ways was fun. Don't expect much story and/or character development, but for what it is the book isn't bad at all.

Oh yeah, Even though this wasn't his worst in this respect (D More...

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Aug 17, 2009

Terry rated it:

Keene goes splatterpunk in his latest entry. Three teenaged couples find themselves stranded after a rap concert with their car dying in the wrong part of Philadelphia. After a run-in with some of the locals ends with the n-word, the teens run for their lives eventually finding shelter in an old Victorian home – which despite its decrepit appearance, is not deserted.

Urban Gothic would be a conventional take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre if not for the unique setting and Keene’s pencha More...

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Mar 19, 2010

L added it

Great title! It grabbed me but the book didn't. I had hoped it would have wonderful characters (or at least adequate) and would scare me. Instead, the characters are rather empty-headed teens (if only I'd known!) and instead of fear I found myself nauseated. If you go for descriptions of disgusting monsters and mayhem, blood and spit and s&it, and stinks, this might be the book for you. It wasn't for me. Life is too short. Great blurbs and he's won an award; I was so, so disappointed. No stars b More...

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Dec 05, 2011

Debbie rated it:

In Keene's horror novel, Kerri and her friends thought they'd find shelter in the old house after their car breaks down in a bad neighborhood. They thought they would be safe but they were wrong. The inhabitants of the house live in the cellar and rarely come out during the day. They don't like intruders and are worse than anything on the streets. Kerri and her friends will fight for their lives before daylight comes and the nightmare won't end there. This gifted author grabs the reader fro More...

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Jan 07, 2012

Kat rated it:

Alright, so the bottom line is that I didn't really like this book. But really only for the fact that I didn't like the hordes of mutant killers & how confusing it got once everyone was separated down in the basement. By the time I got to page 200 I just wanted to be done with the book. The killers were getting more mutated and silly looking that I just didn't care about the book. But since I was so close to being done, I wasn't going to stop reading.

On the other hand, I liked the writ More...

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Feb 21, 2011

Gavin rated it:

Haunted houses litter the horror genre, but URBAN GOTHIC, by Brian Keene, takes the subject and slams it on its head.

Ya see, this starts off as if this is your garden-variety haunted house tale. That is until you meet the residents of the "haunted house". Ya see, this house is full of backwooded-hillbilly-cannibals that are thirsty for some fresh meat. (Oh, I forgot to mention that it is located in da hood.) And these BHC are so grotesque from inbreeding and lack of su More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2010

Jason rated it:

A group of white suburban teenagers decide to go and buy some drugs after leaving a rap concert. En-route their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in a rough inner-city neighbourhood in the dead of night. They are then approached by a group of black teenagers, and fearing they're about to be mugged, run into a large abandoned house at the end of the street. Once in the house they find they cannot get out, and what follows is reminiscent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets The Hills Have Eyes. More...

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Jul 01, 2011

Scott rated it:

THE HILLS HAVE EYES in an abandoned Philadelphia row house. If that premise gets your heart pumping, then this book is for you.

A series of misfortunes on the way home from a hip-hop concert lands a group of friends in the aforementioned row house, where a clan of mutant cannibals dwell in the cellar. I won't spoil any of the plot developments, but rest assured no one's invited in for tea.

Keene wrote URBAN GOTHIC as an homage to hardcore-horror legend Edward Lee, and it sh More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Daniel rated it:

'Who will survive? And what will be left of them?' says the tagline to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The same line could be pasted on the cover of Urban Gothic (copyright infringements aside).

A bunch of suburbanite teens go to a rap concert (see? Your parents always said that listening to rap music would get you in trouble) and afterwards find their car broken down in a not-so-nice ghetto. Following a misunderstanding with a group of black youths, the teens seek shelter in a desolate More...

1 comment like

Nov 14, 2009

Craig rated it:

This was a quick and entertaining read, although I got the impression that Keene didn't expend as much time or thought on it as he has on his previous novels. There were some lapses in logic and continuity that seemed rushed or forced; for example, on page 18 he describes the front door knob as being cut crystal, but on page 63 it's brass. The plot is simple horror film fare about teenagers being trapped in a haunted house, but it's spiced a bit with some commentary about race relations and urba More...

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Nov 25, 2009

DJMikeG rated it:

I've read most of Brian Keene's mass market releases, and this is, without a doubt, the most extreme novel he has written. His first novel, "The Rising", rivaled the mayhem on display here, but didn't go quite as far down the gross-out road. This book wastes no time. Once the violence starts, only about 20 pages in, it doesn't let up for the rest of the book. Its beyond extreme, some passages had me shaking my head in disbelief, and I have a very high tolerance for this kind of thi More...

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