What do you think?
Rate this book
Love Lies Dying
She was on his sofa, reading a book. She was a complete stranger. And she was naked... Her name was Zoe, and she had survived a horrific ordeal. Fleeing from trouble and the threat of death, Zoe turned to her best friend, Helen. Driving for three days straight, she arrived cold and hungry on Helen s doorstep. But Helen was at work. Leaving Helen s husband, John, and Zoe together...all alone. Having escaped from a life of terror and violence, Zoe was sure she could hide with them for a while. Just long enough to get back on her feet and her life in order again. John s only mistake was to agree she could stay with them... Because Zoe s past was fast catching up with her. And that past would draw them all into a game of life and death. By letting her stay, John had no idea of the horror that would be visited on them all... For someone had a game to finish a game that could turn very deadly indeed. LOVE LIES DYING You always love, The ones you hurt...
617 pages, Hardcover
First published December 29, 2006
7 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 5, 2017
Damn what an erotic, fun and extremely disturbing novel. It was fairly long, and for most of the novel there were only two characters, but I was never bored.
It seemed like the plot was obvious, saw things coming from a mile away, but the author threw in a few twists and turns that made this a fascinating read.
It seemed like the plot was obvious, saw things coming from a mile away, but the author threw in a few twists and turns that made this a fascinating read.
August 3, 2019
Wow, this book is extremely gripping and exciting. It grabbed me from the start and didn't let go.
Almost all the action focuses on only two characters: John and Zoe, John's wife Helen's best friend. It starts not so innocently when John comes home late from work and finds Zoe laying naked on his couch. Zoe reveals that she is running from a boyfriend who has threatened and scared her and that she wants to hide with John and Helen until she can get back on her feet. The problem is that Zoe's past is catching up with her and John becomes involved in the battle.
As I was reading the book and got to the halfway point, I noticed that we had only seen two characters. Others were talked about and had personalities to love and hate but we had only seen two characters actually there and doing something. A third was introduced shortly afterwards but that was it. It definitely helps in keeping the readers off kilter. I know that was about the point that I started doubting a lot of what was happening and wondered what was true and what was not. There were several points where John was doing things that I wondered what he was thinking. Normally no one should be doing that. However, then I would realize that John was reacting to Zoe with his other head and wasn't thinking. Considering the amount of sexuality that Zoe was oozing off the pages, it then made perfect sense as to what he was doing. In fact, the whole book was very sexually charged. It was also complex in the actions taken and the underlying context. I very much enjoyed the book and encourage others to read it. Much better than RAGE, the previous book I read by Gerlach.
Almost all the action focuses on only two characters: John and Zoe, John's wife Helen's best friend. It starts not so innocently when John comes home late from work and finds Zoe laying naked on his couch. Zoe reveals that she is running from a boyfriend who has threatened and scared her and that she wants to hide with John and Helen until she can get back on her feet. The problem is that Zoe's past is catching up with her and John becomes involved in the battle.
As I was reading the book and got to the halfway point, I noticed that we had only seen two characters. Others were talked about and had personalities to love and hate but we had only seen two characters actually there and doing something. A third was introduced shortly afterwards but that was it. It definitely helps in keeping the readers off kilter. I know that was about the point that I started doubting a lot of what was happening and wondered what was true and what was not. There were several points where John was doing things that I wondered what he was thinking. Normally no one should be doing that. However, then I would realize that John was reacting to Zoe with his other head and wasn't thinking. Considering the amount of sexuality that Zoe was oozing off the pages, it then made perfect sense as to what he was doing. In fact, the whole book was very sexually charged. It was also complex in the actions taken and the underlying context. I very much enjoyed the book and encourage others to read it. Much better than RAGE, the previous book I read by Gerlach.
August 28, 2017
The past haunts the present
This book was good I give it 4 stars because the build up was really slow. There are some parts in the book where I questioned if any person in their right mind would do. This book was good and it really didn't pick up until like towards the end. I do recommend this book it was really good.
This book was good I give it 4 stars because the build up was really slow. There are some parts in the book where I questioned if any person in their right mind would do. This book was good and it really didn't pick up until like towards the end. I do recommend this book it was really good.
July 24, 2015
This is a tough one. My first primal instinct is to just blurt out "It was fucking awesome!!! What a ride!!! Steve Gerlach, may man!!!" But this instinct is solely based on all of the hype I have heard about this book from circles of authors who I really love. And also the fact that the copy I have is the super-rare signed and numbered hardcover edition (Bloodletting Press, 2006.)
I wish it were that simple, but it's totally not.
In the introduction by Brian Keene (he also signed the book) he states "You'll remember this moment just as surly as you remember your first introduction to Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum.... and other masters of the modern thriller." That's quite a statement. At over six-hundred pages the book was certainly long enough to be a Stephen king novel. And with the slightly wooden characters engaging in long sequences of bantering (and, in my opinion, redundant and many times unnecessary) dialogue interspersed with sudden and seemingly random moments of excessive, grotesque violence there is very much a Richard Laymon feel to the style. Don't get me wrong I like Laymon, a lot. But Laymon is the only writer who can get away with writing like he does. He somehow makes what would otherwise be mediocre writing very, very good. Don't try to imitate him; you will sound like shit.
Not that "Love Lies Dying" sounded like shit. It just seemed to have this potential that it was almost meeting, but falling short because, well, the author was writing like Laymon. The first 300 pages could probably been cut in a third, at least. A lot of it was just repetitive filler. And while I understand how it's an integral part of the theme and atmosphere of the novel, one can take only so much BSDM torture-porn scenes. I'm only talking for myself there.
And the main character, John, was totally unbelievable. His actions and his words just made it impossible for me to view him as a real person. At first I thought it was some David Lynch-ish technique to create a surreal atmosphere - and it did succeed in that, though I don't think it was intentional. As the story moved on I came to realize that the characters were just badly written. I began to hope that Zoe - the antagonist who is much more interesting than John, though the charcter development on her also needs a lot of work - would finally do something really deadly and gross and terrible that would finally shut him up for the last three-hundred pages I had left.
And what's with the chapters that abstract dream-like scenes with imagery that has little or nothing to do with the rest of the book?
OK. It sounds like I'm totally bashing this novel. It has many, many flaws and not just the ones mentioned above. But here's the thing: I read the entire fucker in two days! I couldn't put it down. At some moments I had to step outside for a smoke and shake my head and go "Wow. What the hell is going on here?" While reading this book and for a few days afterwards the world was skewed for me. There is some ingredient that Mr. Gerlach has up his sleeve that just hooks you. You may be thinking "this book kinda sucks" but yopu can't wait to turn the page, even if you did just kind of skim skim through four pages of ridiculous and unbelievable dialogue.
So, I don't know. I can't recommend it to anyone. I would worry what other people might think of me if I made them sit down and read six hundred pages of bad writing and violent pornography. But despite everything, even the totally disappointing ending, I really liked it. I couldn't put the damn thing down. I really don't know. I'm going to try another one of his books. See what happens. I'm very intrigued by Steve Gerlach's writing even if I can't pinpoint exactly why.
Alex
I wish it were that simple, but it's totally not.
In the introduction by Brian Keene (he also signed the book) he states "You'll remember this moment just as surly as you remember your first introduction to Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum.... and other masters of the modern thriller." That's quite a statement. At over six-hundred pages the book was certainly long enough to be a Stephen king novel. And with the slightly wooden characters engaging in long sequences of bantering (and, in my opinion, redundant and many times unnecessary) dialogue interspersed with sudden and seemingly random moments of excessive, grotesque violence there is very much a Richard Laymon feel to the style. Don't get me wrong I like Laymon, a lot. But Laymon is the only writer who can get away with writing like he does. He somehow makes what would otherwise be mediocre writing very, very good. Don't try to imitate him; you will sound like shit.
Not that "Love Lies Dying" sounded like shit. It just seemed to have this potential that it was almost meeting, but falling short because, well, the author was writing like Laymon. The first 300 pages could probably been cut in a third, at least. A lot of it was just repetitive filler. And while I understand how it's an integral part of the theme and atmosphere of the novel, one can take only so much BSDM torture-porn scenes. I'm only talking for myself there.
And the main character, John, was totally unbelievable. His actions and his words just made it impossible for me to view him as a real person. At first I thought it was some David Lynch-ish technique to create a surreal atmosphere - and it did succeed in that, though I don't think it was intentional. As the story moved on I came to realize that the characters were just badly written. I began to hope that Zoe - the antagonist who is much more interesting than John, though the charcter development on her also needs a lot of work - would finally do something really deadly and gross and terrible that would finally shut him up for the last three-hundred pages I had left.
And what's with the chapters that abstract dream-like scenes with imagery that has little or nothing to do with the rest of the book?
OK. It sounds like I'm totally bashing this novel. It has many, many flaws and not just the ones mentioned above. But here's the thing: I read the entire fucker in two days! I couldn't put it down. At some moments I had to step outside for a smoke and shake my head and go "Wow. What the hell is going on here?" While reading this book and for a few days afterwards the world was skewed for me. There is some ingredient that Mr. Gerlach has up his sleeve that just hooks you. You may be thinking "this book kinda sucks" but yopu can't wait to turn the page, even if you did just kind of skim skim through four pages of ridiculous and unbelievable dialogue.
So, I don't know. I can't recommend it to anyone. I would worry what other people might think of me if I made them sit down and read six hundred pages of bad writing and violent pornography. But despite everything, even the totally disappointing ending, I really liked it. I couldn't put the damn thing down. I really don't know. I'm going to try another one of his books. See what happens. I'm very intrigued by Steve Gerlach's writing even if I can't pinpoint exactly why.
Alex
June 18, 2013
This was a bloated, convoluted, verbose, piece of writing. It was like a sadistic soap opera and not in the hot Spank-Me-Daddy, I-want-your-body, kind of way.
The first 300 pages could have been deleted, scratched, erased, eradicated, destroyed, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, used as toilet paper or fed to the hounds. Take your pick.
You may be asking why I finished reading it then. Well, it's because I paid for it and I wanted my review to be valid when I called this read a craptastic, crapulous, craptatious, piece of crap.
I'm gonna spoil it so BEWARE;
John has a wife Helen
They couldn't have babies.
Work always got in the way.
They barely communicated.
Sex was non-existant,
John come home from work one day to find a naked Zoe on his couch.
She Claims to know Helen.
John is checking out her body, lusting like he doesn't have a wife.
She tells this story of being abused by a guy named Ricky and Helen is gone to make some call to see if he's tracked her.
Helen never comes home.
John isn't too worried. He's got a naked lady in his house.
Zoe and John go out to meet the wife and realize she has disappeared.
Zoe end ups cuffing, sexing, and beating the hell out of him.
All the while explaining that she just flips sometimes because of how Ricky treated her.
She even pierces his genitals.
So it's safe to say she's missed a few brain cells.
This dominant/submissive act goes on for a while.
John is gullible to the point of idiocy and ridiculousness.
And although there is a little spin at the end this read was UN-redeemable.
I DID NOT LIKE IT. Waste of time. It was, for lack of a better word, stupid.
The first 300 pages could have been deleted, scratched, erased, eradicated, destroyed, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, used as toilet paper or fed to the hounds. Take your pick.
You may be asking why I finished reading it then. Well, it's because I paid for it and I wanted my review to be valid when I called this read a craptastic, crapulous, craptatious, piece of crap.
I'm gonna spoil it so BEWARE;
John has a wife Helen
They couldn't have babies.
Work always got in the way.
They barely communicated.
Sex was non-existant,
John come home from work one day to find a naked Zoe on his couch.
She Claims to know Helen.
John is checking out her body, lusting like he doesn't have a wife.
She tells this story of being abused by a guy named Ricky and Helen is gone to make some call to see if he's tracked her.
Helen never comes home.
John isn't too worried. He's got a naked lady in his house.
Zoe and John go out to meet the wife and realize she has disappeared.
Zoe end ups cuffing, sexing, and beating the hell out of him.
All the while explaining that she just flips sometimes because of how Ricky treated her.
She even pierces his genitals.
So it's safe to say she's missed a few brain cells.
This dominant/submissive act goes on for a while.
John is gullible to the point of idiocy and ridiculousness.
And although there is a little spin at the end this read was UN-redeemable.
I DID NOT LIKE IT. Waste of time. It was, for lack of a better word, stupid.
May 14, 2012
Slow start and unbelievable male hero. He should be more sure of himself and suspicious.
Yesterday I struggled some more and during my daily RSS-skimming I read http://bookriot.com/2012/05/10/abando...
and recognized there are books, which I had left abandoned and this might be one of them.
I read Autopsy 1: Flesh of the Dead and liked it, but of course it is much shorter.
And I went to the trouble to get Rage as a used paperback, as there is no ebook edition yet.
So maybe Rage is better? Maybe not. I'll read and see.
In the next days I will skip fast through the chapters on this one to see the big twist at the end or whatever.
So far only one star.
And it stays at one star. There are two twists, one I guessed, one I did not see coming but both did not do anything to make the story interesting for me.
Also with one twist guessed and the rather obvious ending no real surprise. No spoiler from me, but how to describe what could have been without spoiling? No, nothing comes to mind without revealing plot.
The characters are rather dull and the main male person is simply stupid.
As I did only fastforward through the pages reading here and there I do not consider this finished but abandoned.
Consider this a warning not to waste your time.
Grab a Cody McFadyen instead or a Mo Hayder.
But due to the underlying theme I am still looking forward to "Rage".
Yesterday I struggled some more and during my daily RSS-skimming I read http://bookriot.com/2012/05/10/abando...
and recognized there are books, which I had left abandoned and this might be one of them.
I read Autopsy 1: Flesh of the Dead and liked it, but of course it is much shorter.
And I went to the trouble to get Rage as a used paperback, as there is no ebook edition yet.
So maybe Rage is better? Maybe not. I'll read and see.
In the next days I will skip fast through the chapters on this one to see the big twist at the end or whatever.
So far only one star.
And it stays at one star. There are two twists, one I guessed, one I did not see coming but both did not do anything to make the story interesting for me.
Also with one twist guessed and the rather obvious ending no real surprise. No spoiler from me, but how to describe what could have been without spoiling? No, nothing comes to mind without revealing plot.
The characters are rather dull and the main male person is simply stupid.
As I did only fastforward through the pages reading here and there I do not consider this finished but abandoned.
Consider this a warning not to waste your time.
Grab a Cody McFadyen instead or a Mo Hayder.
But due to the underlying theme I am still looking forward to "Rage".
July 22, 2014
I have a hard time giving this book 4 stars because it had so many problems. But in the end, it was hard to put down and I did enjoy it.
My first observation is how difficult it is to read a book where the protagonist can't connect the dots when they are right in front of him. Listening to his naive and gullible thoughts is beyond painful. My biggest criticism of this book is that characters do not behave using any semblance of rational thought and quite frankly, it's hard to follow along when they aren't making any sense.
The second biggest problem is the egregious use of fluff in the story. This could have been edited down from 600 to 300 pages without materially affecting the main plot or character development. There were probably 20 pages worth of John repeating the same nonsense about getting the villain.
In fairness, Gerlach's stories tend to hook you early and are page turners. I won't spoil the story, but it was more well thought out than I anticipated, which was nice surprise. Some of the twists of course are quite laughable and obvious. Although the twists were pretty good, they only worked because the author used some outrageous tactics to unreasonably withhold necessary information from the reader.
Maybe I'm just giving Gerlach love by Laymon association, but I think he'll continue to get better and I'll keep reading his books. I'm going to file this one under guilty pleasure.
December 1, 2010
Negatives:
* Predictable plot development
* Long winded (at least 1/3 of the book was unnecessary)
* American spelling instead of English (this is a pet hate of mine...are Australian authors ashamed of being Australian?)
* No depth to the characters and characters do not develop during the story
* Surrounding areas are not described in a way that allows you to easy imagine...very bland
* Dream sequences have no relevance to the story
* Reads like someone is speaking in monotone
Positives:
* Ended with a good twist that I did not see coming
* Easy-to-read language
* Contains a moral (with a sick and twisted delivery)
* Predictable plot development
* Long winded (at least 1/3 of the book was unnecessary)
* American spelling instead of English (this is a pet hate of mine...are Australian authors ashamed of being Australian?)
* No depth to the characters and characters do not develop during the story
* Surrounding areas are not described in a way that allows you to easy imagine...very bland
* Dream sequences have no relevance to the story
* Reads like someone is speaking in monotone
Positives:
* Ended with a good twist that I did not see coming
* Easy-to-read language
* Contains a moral (with a sick and twisted delivery)
February 27, 2014
Very good horror read bordering on extreme horror turf. If you loved Laymon you will love this although, having said that, Gerlach does have a voice of his own - and what a voice that is turning out to be in the Horror literature scene! Steve Gerlach is one of those authors at the top of my "grab as soon as it's released" list and that says exactly what I think of this author in a nutshell. If you like your horror to have an edge then this will fit - like a glove.
December 8, 2010
Finally got around to reading this one and though subtler than I was expecting, I was very pulled in(despite being told ahead of time about a particularly big twist element to the story)by this amazing and accessible novel by the author of another powerhouse, RAGE. Can't wait for more, highly recommended to those not squeamish about violence or hard sex themes.
June 25, 2013
I really think the storyline had alot in common with Laymon but the execution varied greatly. This was a very long book, but it managed to keep me going. Was worth it cause the ending was great. Twisted and disturbing read nonetheless.
April 28, 2013
I loved this book and I loved Zoe even more.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews