Bad Ronald

by Jack Vance

Up to his seventeenth year no one regarded Ronald as anything but a rather large, overfed youth, probably best ignored. Perhaps that was the trouble--no one really took a good look at Ronald. Except for his devoted mother, who saw only the son she wanted to see. Who, then, is Ronald? Ronald is that faceless unknown who waits - to take, to grab what he needs, to become the ultimate invader.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Literature

219 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1973

About the author

Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade.

The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth , was published in 1950 to great acclaim. He won both of science fiction's most coveted trophies, the Hugo and Nebula awards. He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery novel The Man in the Cage . He lived in Oakland, California in a house he designed.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

poor Ronald! an introvert, a dreamer, a lonely soul who creates his own intricately detailed fantasy world of wizards and adventure. what's a boy to do when he is left to his own devices, with no mother to take care of him, just a big old house that no longer even belongs to him. well, maybe just keep within the walls of the house, in that secret room, right? surely no one will notice! certainly not the family of four who innocently move into the house, naively thinking themselves its sole residents. little do they know... poor, creepy Ronald is watching their every move through the walls. shudder! maybe Ronald is in your house right now, watching YOU. say his name out loud three times in a mirror and see what happens!

Jack Vance is best known as one of the most elegant and individualistic writers of classic science fiction and fantasy. he is a true original and one of my favorite authors. and apparently, he had a profitable little sideline in MURDER! i'm not too familiar with his tales of murderous mysteries, mainly because they are fucking expensive beyond belief. i don't know how i even got a hold of this one. i should probably sell it, and make millions.

the writing is bone dry, which is typical for Vance. he does not sympathize with Ronald. he does not demonize Ronald either. Vance's portrait of a deranged, murderous teen outsider is dry, sly, a little evil, a lot cold-blooded. this is Vance in his stripped-down, streamlined mode, so no lush description. but lots and lots of skin-crawling, psychological ick. if you are able to find this one, prepare to read a story of murder and rape (molestation actually, ugh) that is creepy beyond belief but written in the style of an ironic and deadly little fairy tale for adults. at times i was reminded of the equally perverted tale of deranged kids, Banks' The Wasp Factory. both books have a lot of palpable tension and eerie weirdness mixed in with all of the darkly comic bits. but Bad Ronald also has two smart young ladies who know how to figure things out and then take care of business, hooray!

the character of Bad Ronald is at times grossly whiny and self-pitying, and therefore incredibly aggravating. sometimes when i add a book to GoodReads, i write a little placeholder, some sentences to remind me of my initial reaction. here's what i first wrote, who knows when:

i bet his face is just really... punchable. especially when he twists it up into that cringing, "boo hoo hoo poor me" expression that he loves so much. it is like he is secretly begging you to plant one on him, if only to get him to stop whinging & cringing.

my gosh, how unsympathetic. perhaps i am just as lacking in empathy and affect as Bad Ronald! apropos of nothing, i have to mention that that italicized bit was also my description of Justin Long, written somewhere else. i cannibalized myself in my own placeholder, huh. and on that note:

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Teenager Ronald is an outcast and spends much of his time creating fantasy worlds rather than studying to become a doctor as his mother wishes. After confessing his involvement in a crime to his doting mother she puts a plan into motion to make sure the police don’t find him.

The writing is very easy to get into and there is a dark and wry humour to parts of the story that worked well. There are some dark and disturbing elements but nothing too graphic. I felt that the story was a bit too drawn out and repetitive for me to enjoy it any more than I did but I’m still glad I read it and I liked the way it ended.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, if you weren't alive in the 1970s to read this book or see this TV movie (yep, this movie was MADE FOR TELEVISION), I just feel sorry for you. It's the story of a 17 year old boy who rapes and kills a little girl. Oops. Fearful of her sweet boy getting thrown in the slammer as he so rightfully deserves, Ronald's mother gets the bright idea of hiding him in a secret room of their home. This works out fine until she has to undergo surgery and dies in the process. Too bad nobody tells the family who subsequently move into the house, because Ronald becomes obsessed with the two young daughters, watching them get naked from the various spy holes he has drilled into the walls.

Oh, well, it all works out in the end.

[Maartje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh.. My... God! This book took me by surprise completely! I love creepy books and read a lot of them. But this might well be the scariest one I've ever encountered. Never have I hated a fictional character as much as I hate Ronald. This horrible little shit made me even angrier than Guy Woodhouse (Rosemary's Baby), Bud Corliss (A Kiss Before Dying) and Frederick Clegg (The Collector), just to name a few utterly despicable characters.
As a rule, I stay away from books that depict sexual violence, but I was drawn well into the story and characters before I realized that Ronald is -more than anything else- a sexual deviant and pervert. Unfortunately, his character is all too recognizable in real life. Ronald is devoid of any human traits; he resembles what I'd like to call "an entity", obsessed with himself and his own pathetic needs only, f.e. his fixation on food.

This book made me sick to my stomach but still, I couldn't put it down. The idea of an "inside-the-house" stalker is very, very original and executed so well, it's completely believable.

I can't help but give this book 5 stars.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good story but also very disturbing.

[Ashlei A.K.A Chyna Doll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Mark Monday for the great review that got me interested in this book. It was a great read and I would not have found it if not for your awesome review!!!

WOW!!! This has to be one of the most creepiest books I have ever came across. It's from the early 70's(1973) and its just a very scary read. I was iffy at first the book was kinda slow, but its about a young man who is weirdly attached to his mother. He is a Narcissist, misogynist. The whole time he plans and acts out the most terrifying and cruel things to do to girls, I seen him a a person who blamed others for HIS problems, especially women! it was a sad tragic and scary book but i am glad to have got the chance to read it. I looked for a print copy of this book and because it has been out of print for so long i could only find ones that were $200-400!!! So i just got the book from iTunes and a wow am i glad i did, it was a experience to read. I think it scared me the most because it could happen ya know not like Freddy Kruger getting you in your dreams, or a good guy doll coming to life. Some one could be in your house and wait for you and do ANYTHING!!! That essentially was what got me creeped out the most. But I recommend this book to everyone! It's an old book but its well written and has great thriller/suspense quality to it.

Thanks again Mark Monday for the review that got me started on this great book!!!

I need to know did Ronald Wilibey die from the burns?, Did he go to prison?, Is he on death row? (it is California), WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM???.... What happened to the Woods family???... Gosh so many unanswered questions.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1973 suspense thriller is centered on a rather sheltered, socially awkward 17 year-old young man named Ronald, who accidentally kills a young girl. His stern but loving mother seals him off in a hidden room in their old house to shelter him from the law. Trouble is, mom eventually dies, leaving Ronald to fend for himself in his little hiding place. When a family with three nubile daughters moves in soon afterward things get even more complicated.
Like many others, I first encountered Bad Ronald with the cult 1974 made-for-television adaptation starring Scott Jacoby as Ronald and Kim Hunter as his mother. Jacoby's Ronald was presented far more sympathetically than the dangerous sociopath depicted in the book; his Ronald went bad due more to unfortunate circumstances, whereas the book's Ronald is a weird sicko right from the get-go. At any rate, the idea of someone living in your house in a secret room, watching your every move is a really frightening one, and author Vance makes the most of it. Though the dialogue is often pretty awkward (his teenagers do not sound anything remotely like teenagers in real life), this is an unpretentious, creepy-crawly tale that maintains an undeniable grip, right up until the end.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was a thinker far outside the box, very creative, creepy, freaky, and don't read it alone at night. I read this in the 7th grade along with most of the 7th grade class in my school and I seriously suspect that many of us slept with the lights on for a long time. We had one copy of the book and it was passed around. By the time I got it the book was so dog eared it should have been retired but it kept on going, sort of like the energizer bunny. A rape & murder, a secret room, creeping around at night, smart girls with a sack of flour...

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a fan, like me, of the 1974 TV movie adaptation of Bad Ronald, you may be in for a surprise when you read the original novel, which has recently been reprinted by Fathom Press under their Savage Harvest imprint. The central idea is creepy in both versions, but this novel is a LOT darker than the TV movie, which was very much a sanitized (but still good!) version of the story. While the movie does follow the events of the book fairly closely, in the book, Ronald is far more evil and twisted, and deserved to be scorned. Jack Vance really gets into Ronald's head and you see how truly warped he is. It moves along at a good clip and never overstays its welcome. The characters are well-written and I really enjoyed the writing, which is clean and efficient. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing a new movie adaptation that's as dark as the book!

[Jeff Flotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I searched high and low for this book. Apparently it has been out of print for a while. I used my university connections (I work for Pitt) and discovered that the University of Indiana's library had one copy. I placed my request and within a week or so the copy was sent to Pitt's library and I picked it up.

It was so worth the hassle! Entertaining the whole way through. I've always wanted to have a secret room like Ronald, though never imagined it to be under the same circumstances. This is a very creepy story if you think about it happening in your own home.

I also scoured the internet for a copy of the made-for-tv movie. Got my hands on that too only to find out that it pales in comparison to the book.

The eerie, straggly, dirty Ronald Quimby makes one big mistake and has no other option than to stealthily live captive in his own home. You'll see why he's become... Bad Ronald.

[Snood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review because it's a very well-written and gripping novel, but I would never read it again and I can't imagine myself recommending it to anyone. It's similar to Nabokov's Lolita in that regard as well as in subject matter. Almost all of the story being told from the perspective of a sexual predator/murderer, especially one from Ronald's vantage point, makes for very unsettling reading and kind of makes me want to take a shower. It never gets to the point of feeling exploitative but if you're at all sensitive to this sort of material, I would recommend steering well clear of this.

[Douglas Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

First up is a very dark and disturbing novel from the dark and disturbing early 70’s (1973) written by Jack Vance called, “Bad Ronald.” Now I first came to know of this book, because it was made into a made for TV movie that was covered on Sam Pancake Presents The Monday Afternoon Movie podcast, which Gentle Readers have heard me mention several times before. I very much also recommend the movie, although it is difficult to find, and of particular note to the Gays, the title character is play by Scott Jacoby, who played Dorthy’s son Michael on The Golden Girls, and who was kinda of a babe.
The book opens with Bad Ronald celebrating his birthday with his only remaining parent, his mother. Right off the bat we see this relationship is off, not Norman Bates off, but these two living alone together has definitely warped Ronald’s perception of the world. We quickly learn that he has an enormous appetite for food and girls.
Without spoiling too much, Ronald commits and awful crime and after he confesses it to his mother, her solution is to hide Bad Ronald in a secret room of the house until she can save enough money to escape with her son in the middle of the night. I guess this plan might have worked in 1973 but when Ronald’s mother has a life threatening emergency one day at work, Ronald is soon left to fend for himself, but luckily, he’s a resourceful boy!
This was a hard to find book, at times it was difficult to read, and it would never be published today. This was written when rape was freely used as a plot point and not a trauma enduing event. So I only recommend this one to people who like their stories DARK. The book is written in 3rd period objective, so we get sentences such as, “Ronald wanted to….,not, “I wanted to..” but even with that being the point of view, this is one of the most disgusting and unlikable protagonists I have ever encountered. So why did I “like” it? The plot is so creepy that it’s just fascinating to read and difficult to turn away from. Plus the 70’s setting and writing style is so gritty and unique. And long time Arts Journals! readers know I am obsessed with this time period.

[Horace · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first. Hello Goodreads. I plan on spending a lot of time on this site. Call it a late New Year’s resolution.


I was familiar with this material through the fairly well-known 70s TV movie starring Scott Jacoby. The plot – about a mama’s boy who accidentally murders a neighborhood girl and is hidden in his own home by his overbearing mother – left quite an impression on many people.

The source novel, however, is a much darker beast than the TV movie. Here, Ronald isn’t just bad. He’s a vicious and sadistic sociopath, pedophile and rapist. One of the more interesting aspects of this novel is how much more disturbing it is in the #metoo era. This was penned in the 50s but the way Ronald regards young women could be right out of the worst writings of some entitled incel cult in 2019.

Vance won’t win any awards for fancy writing. But he’s an efficient and economical storyteller. I’m also not sure he’s all that great at writing dialogue for teenage girls. But he certainly nails the family dynamic of the era. Where the book really excels though is in its depiction of the creepy and despicable Ronald. He does a skin crawlingly terrific job of capturing the sexual entitlement ethos and sociopathy of the character.

Anyone looking for a good slightly off kilter thriller with some terrific period detail should enjoy this one. Be aware though that the sexual content, though hardly explicit, is extremely disturbing.

If you enjoyed the movie this is definitely something you should look into reading.

[Jeroen Verkroost · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is very probably the worst work of Jack Vance. It is a hardboiled horror story that would be a bad script, even for a 1950’s B-movie. If you are not adamant about reading everything Vance ever wrote, give this one a miss.

The normally colorful descriptions and use of language are mostly absent, there is no character development whatsoever, the plot is both immediately obvious and yet after the introduction fails to develop up until about ninety percent of the story is finished. At this point Vance, probably having reached an agreed number of words, speeds to the conclusion.

*Spoilers*

The story is one of abduction, imprisonment and rape of innocent young women by a protagonist best described as a two-dimensional bogeyman with a completely improbable way of thinking and acting. The whole story is happening in a house where he lives hidden, eating a young man’s portion of the food every day, without anyone ever noticing. Even though he has a complete room hidden beneath the stairs, the new owners of the house never wonder what is inside all that space. There are just many, many improbabilities.

Vance was not usually happy with much of his work. In this case I think he would be completely right to be unsatisfied with the fruits of his labor.

[Harlan Vaughn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just want to put it out there that this book is now available as an inexpensive download for Kindle on Amazon... as are all of Vance's other works. It was the allure of the $75 print copy that made me download it.

As others have said, the writing is very, very dry. Vance does a great job of handling the insider/outsider perspective right up to the very end - there was no mention of Ronald's point of view in the last ten or so pages, making what could have been excellent rising tension rather anticlimactic.

In any regard, it was well worth a read, if only for the antiquated phrases and the empathy placed upon this creepy teenager. I almost felt bad for poor Ronald, er, I mean... Bad Ronald.

The story has great continuity, and Vance handles the close details of Ronald's existence well. I would have liked more showing in the final scenes, though - especially the one leading right up to the ending (!).

[Dave Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what you'd expect of Vance if you know him from Dying Earth and Lyonesse. And it's gruesome, not at all for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. One thing I liked was the confounding of expectations. Nowadays a story like this would have a moral rightness built into its structure, but Vance didn't have any truck with sentimental universes. In his world there is no guardian angel for nice characters (certainly not the author's job, that) and what happens, happens. And that's quite refreshing to see, but I wouldn't bother to re-read it.

[Aaron Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another example of fantastic 70's horror.

[HattieB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a weird book. It's strange to read such an old book about a character who is essentially what we'd define as an incel, and yet this book was let down by a weak ending. I'm rating it for the quality of the writing and not for the character of Ronald himself.

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bad Ronald is a 171 page mystery novel by Jack Vance first published in 1973. The draft title of the book was "Something Awful." It is a difficult book for me to review because, although it is well written, it is not only improbable but involves a main character who is a sociopathic seventeen year old boy who rapes and murders young girls when he is not eating or busy creating his fantasy world of Atranta.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...

Ronald is completely selfish and has no sense of empathy toward others. At one point he wonders if it is wrong to rape but decides that since it is so much fun it must be a good thing. He also sees himself as being very special. "He deeply resented the terms 'sex offender', 'deviate', 'murderer' when used in connection with himself. Such words simply didn't fit the case; they implied a vulgar ordinary criminality which Ronald was far above and beyond." After Ronald rapes and then kills a young girl, his overly protective mother hides him in her house in a secrete downstairs bathroom so the police cannot find him. But soon she becomes ill and dies.

A new family with three teenage daughters buys the house. Barbara is "blonde and cute." Althea is "a girl of interesting attributes." Ellen is beautiful and "Her hair, fine brown-gold like Althea's, seemed to glow of itself; her eyes were transparent gray; her skin, golden from sunlight, seemed to luminesce with health and cleanliness." Ronald is intrigued by the three young sisters so decides to remain at the house in his hidden bathroom downstairs while he spies on the family and steals their food. It is very creepy.

If you don't mind reading about this sort of thing you will find the book to be well written and suspenseful. Vance avoids gory details and does not dwell on the violence. The dialog is perhaps not as realistic, witty or snappy as Vance can be but it is perfectly adequate to the task. Oddly this is the only Vance novel that has been made into a movie. (The Man in the Cage was an episode in a TV series.) Vance completists will probably want to give this one a try. Others need to decide for themselves. It seems more like a horror story than a mystery to me and I later noted that in an interview Vance himself stated, "I don't have any feelings of hatred, or passion toward Bad Ronald; of course I do feel sorrow at the plight of the girls, but that's why it's called a horror story."

My copy of this book is the Spatterlight Press paperback edition, a high quality trade paperback that I highly recommend.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of a TV movie on this crime novel amazes me. It's not typical TV movie fare. And yes, it was msde into a TV movie in the 1970s. (Greg Gutfeld often mentions it on his Fox News Tv show.)

Indeed, it’s a criminal procedural, with the author showing the “progress” of a serial rapist-murderer from boyhood to young adulthood.

What makes the book interesting, and the tale tolerable, is the voyeurism of what amounts to a fantasy plot: The likely lad dreams of a fantasy land, as in Narnia or Middle Earth, and romantic adventures therein. As if to mirror this obsession, his mother secrets her son in a hidden room, which goes undetected by the police and the unhappy family that moves in after the criminal's mother dies. This "hidden room" idea is a romantic notion of teenage boys. It signals psychological disturbance (literal withdrawal on top of emotional withdrawal, tantamount to withdrawal from all responsibility), and provides a whopper of a story.

[Hector · Rating 1 out of 5]

A turd of a book. Vance wrote dozens of absolutely fantastic sci-fi/fantasy books, and even very good mystery/suspense stories, but this is probably his worst effort. The main character lacks any compelling trait, and his crimes, while cruel, seem mundane somehow. The final part of the book lacks any tension, asthings plod to their inevitable end. At least Howard Alan Treesong was a crime lord; Ronald Wilby doesn't seem to have the energy or the imagination to get beyond being an annoyance, just with homicidal tendencies. But hey, we do get all those descriptions of the food Ronald stole to keep himself fed, so that's a few pages filled.

[Jaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ljudbok

[BRNTerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to review the novel then give my opinion on the two films that were based on it.

THE NOVEL: I really like the idea of a hidden room in someone's house. He could only hear through the walls then had the idea to drill peepholes so he could actually see the occupants. He knew everything that was going on, pretty much.

People in their reviews describe Ronald as lonely and strange but we only met him a week before the first murder and I didn't see any of that. Nothing about him leading up to the first murder made me think he was odd or different. He seems pretty passive and easygoing and a definite mamma's boy. She dictates his future and tells him he's going to be a doctor and he goes along with it without expressing an opinion.

I don't like that Ellen and Duane figured out that Ronald kidnapped both sisters or understand how they come to that conclusion. No one had seen or heard from Ronald since Carol was murdered many months before yet they knew he was behind the disappearances? And Duane figuring out there was a hidden room is one thing but to know it was built around bathroom? Nope.

The ending was silly and could have been so much better. I really wish Ronald had gotten away with his dirty deeds but it wasn't to be. He could have gone on to anonymously terrorize the neighborhood and there could have been a sequel or three. The ending of both films were better than that of the novel.

None of the rapes are detailed at all.

THE FILM: The only way the film was better than the novel was the ending, with Ronald crashing through the wall and running outside. It's more believable than that of the novel. I don't understand why he didn't just escape through the trapdoor in the lair, down into the crawlspace, then outside to freedom when he saw Althea staring back at him though the peephole.

Also in the film the girl he likes, Laurie Matthews (Laurel Hansen in the book), is the older sister of Carol, the little girl he kills. In the novel they aren't related.

Actress Lisa Eilbacher played oldest daughter Ellen. I know and like her in the so-bad-it's-good Charles Bronson film Ten to Midnight.

You can watch Bad Ronald here, part 2.

Méchant garçon-

There's a French version from 1992 called Méchant garçon and you can watch it here. I don't speak French and have no idea what's being said but I watched it anyway. It wasn't good. It's boring for the most part and not suspenseful. Ronald was played by an actor named Joachim Lombard.

The film's in French until the new British family move into the house, then the rest of the film has French subtitles. It opens with a black screen with white credits rolling. During that we hear a female screaming and struggling with someone. Next, Ronald's at home talking to his mother, likely confessing something. Soon after that Ronald's in bed crying, remembering what he'd done. He was at the beach one night or early morning and it looks like he attempted to rape a girl. She has long curly brownish-red hair. She got away, fell and hit her head on a rock and died.

There are only two daughters, Mary and Stephanie, husband and wife, and the husband's French assistant, Christine. Christine is kidnapped and raped at least once and there's nudity. Stephanie is kidnapped and taken into the lair too while Christine's there but I don't think she's raped. They chose to have Ronald rape the adult instead.

Unlike in the book and US television version, Ronald escapes the house after his mother dies. He flees to a dock and tries to steal a boat but it wouldn't start, so he goes back home.

The only other interesting part was at the very end after Ronald fled the house after the mother sees him in the kitchen and slings a pot of hot water in his face. The next scene was of the camera moving slowly down the hallway of a hospital. Ronald narrated the scene. They show him in a hospital bed with much shorter hair and ointment on his burned face as he looks into the camera. I guess he was telling us what happened after he fled, or what he was thinking by committing those crimes. That epilogue of sorts wasn't in the book or US film version and I liked that we (meaning those who speak French) got some knowledge of what happened to him afterward.

You can read my full spoiler summary on the novel here.

[Justin Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Bad Ronald in a book about bizarre or inexplicable things that have appeared on TV. As someone who hosts a podcast about bizarre and inexplicable things on TV (Tread Perilously! Blatant plug!), you can imagine how I might have gotten my hands on a book like that. Bad Ronald sparked my interest, because it sounded like hall-of-fame bad movie Hider in the House made on a '70s TV budget with '70s TV sensibilities. For someone like me, this was irresistible.

Long story short, my co-host and I tracked it down and did an episode on it, but that's obviously not where this ends. Because like a lot of movies back then, Bad Ronald was based on a book. But not just any book -- this bad boy was written by Jack Vance, whose pulp SF series Tschai: Planet of Adventure had enraptured me as a kid. I had to read this thing.

First, a word of warning. Anyone coming to Bad Ronald by the route I did is likely to be shocked. The TV movie is pretty tame all told, and Ronald's villainy is at first accidental, and then implied to be the result of his sanity fraying while he lives in the walls. In the book, this guy is a monster from the word go.

Which is what made this book unexpectedly resonant. Ronald is a socially-awkward outcast who lives in a fantasy world of his own making that he wants to turn into a novel. In most books, this is our author insert. Not so here. Vance is careful to imply that Ronald's status isn't due to his appearance, but rather the idea that he holds himself above others and never bothered to engage with his peers on their terms. In modern parlance, he never bothered to develop a personality.

Using a YA style common in the era, Vance sketches a character that could be hosting a fascist YouTube show today. Ronald is a disaffected nerd enraged at a world that refuses to recognize his mediocrity as genius. He looks at the female characters in the novel as prizes to be won. His victims are objects, then toys, then obstacles. And finally, they're garbage.

In depicting the horror in that slightly-archaic but spare narration, Vance lets it stand on its own. He's somehow showing us a villain that would be ubiquitous 50 years after this novel was published. Bad Ronald was always compelling, and it's unfortunately more relevant now than it has ever been.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charakterizovat tuhle knihu jedním slovem, tak použiju „nepříjemná“. Je to tuším jediná kniha, která by se z Vanceho díla dala zařadit mezi horory, ale jelikož to v sedmdesátých letech frčelo, tak to Vance prubnul taky. A vzniklo něco, co literárně nedosahuje nějakých převratných kvalit, nebudete se ani klepat děsem, ale rozhodně se to daří vyvolávat odpudivé pocity. (Překvapivě na základě téhle knížky i vznikl televizní film, což dokazuje, že v sedmdesátkách byli lid fakt otrlí.)

Hlavní postavou knihy je ryzí mamánek, který sice kouká po holkách, ale nemá moc šanci, takže se raději utápí ve svém vymyšleném fantasy světě (který hodně připomíná dílo samotného Jacka Vanceho). A při jedné cestě večer domů narazí na malou holku, kterou znásilní a zabije. Má to být dokonalý zločin, jenže i když má hrdina o sobě velké mínění, realita je jiná a tak je za chvíli jasné, kdo vraždu spáchal. Má jedinou šanci – schovat se. Naštěstí bydlí ve velkém domě a má schopnou maminku, takže není problém nějaké místnosti důkladně zamaskovat a ukrýt ho tam… alespoň než matka vydělá dost peněz, aby měli na cestu někam, kde budou oba v bezpečí. Jenže matka umře a Ronald zůstane v domě sám.

Než se do domu nastěhuje nová rodina.

S třemi nezletilými dcerami.

Ano, dál si to dokážete domyslet.

Říkal jsem, že to není příjemná knížka.

O to víc, že je to celé psané a popisované Vanceho neemočním až ironickým suchým stylem, který kontrastuje s tím, co se děje. Spíš jen konstatuje, než že by se snažil čtenáře nějak šokovat, což jen podtrhuje fakt nemilý pocit z téhle knihy. Doplněné tím, že hlavní postava není žádný génius zločinu, ani ďábelský zabiják. Jen má prostě pocit, že má plné právo na to, co dělá.

Tenhle kontrast je ještě doplněný jinými postavami, které působí jako by vypadly z naivního dětského dobrodružného příběhu, včetně geniálního mladého pátrače, čímž se z toho stává tak trochu temná pohádka pro dospělé – což je Vancovi hodně blízké.

[beaf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a disgusting book. Jack's trademark dry irony misses the mark here, where he uses the guise of a horror novel to make the reader spend altogether too long in the mind of a disturbing and totally unsympathetic character. Ronald's awful thoughts and deeds are given expression to a degree and with a tone that go beyond being just lurid descriptions of evil, to a point that feels intended to titillate. From the moment early in the story when Ronald rapes an 11 year old girl and subsequently kills her, I knew my opinion of Jack Vance was going to suffer from reading this.

Rape is repeatedly and casually referred to by the narrator as "lovemaking," even when the narrator is describing the thoughts of the raped as she reflects upon the act. And, as is common in Vance's books, rape is downplayed and whitewashed, as though it really isn't that bad. The act of reading this kind of thing brings low both the reader and the author.

This story makes explicit two themes which are found throughout Vance: a foreground misogyny, and a lower-key racism, the latter only evinced here when Ronald learns that a black family is thinking about buying the house in which he's immured and he flips his lid about it, because they're black. Which, by itself isn't damning, because it's Bad Ronald having these feelings, and we already know he's Bad, because that's the tentpole of the plot. But if you've read enough Vance you know he repeatedly and positively expresses the idea of keeping races separate, so this one small expression of racism in this book serves more as a wedge that expands the notion that Ronald is a surrogate for Vance's nastier thoughts.

Even in this tale where the titular Ronald serves as protagonist, the ever-resourceful stock Vancian Hero character makes an appearance here in the form of Duane.

[Litio Broie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha llevado años terminar de leer esta novela, y no precisamente por ser aburrida.
Tras ver la película supe que era la adaptación de una novela de un corte mucho más siniestro. Esto, por supuesto, me llevó a buscar la dichosa novela por todas partes, pero habían dejado de editarla y hacerse con una copia era muy difícil y muy caro. Y entonces la editorial Valancourt reeditó este y otros muchos libros, en general de la misma época y con un contenido escalofriante.
El primer cambio respecto a la película se da casi al principio de la historia, y es brutal. No debería serlo, cosas así aparecen mil veces en las novelas que leo, pero por alguna razón esta vez es muy desagradable. Creo que en parte se debe a lo realista que resulta y en parte a los pocos detalles, que dejan demasiado a la imaginación del lector. Esto continúa durante toda la novela.
El final podría haber sido el que es o cualquier otro, y habría resultado igualmente adecuado. Esto es también muy extraño, pero dada la historia habría bastado con la mano del autor para asegurar un final satisfactorio. Por supuesto, el que hay lo es.
Recomiendo ver primero la película y, en caso de realmente querer darle un giro retorcido y desagradable a la historia, leer el libro.

[Zachary]

Gosh, what to say about this book. I'm not familiar with Jack Vance yet, but I listened to a podcast which referenced a made for TV movie about a home invasion, and I found out it was based on a book. I liked the podcast, so I read the book, but I did not expect this.

The premise is that a young man with a domineering mother rapes and kills a neighborhood girl. She hides him from the police behind the walls of their house, and he spends his time developing illustrations, maps, and a story for a fictional fantasy kingdom. His mother dies a few months later. The new occupants of the house include a trio of teenage sisters that arouse his evil interests once again. Meanwhile, the older brother of the girl he killed has fallen in love with the oldest of the sisters and has begun studying criminology.

The book it most reminded me of was Psycho, which was written in conjunction with the Hitchcock film, but Bad Ronald itself actually references another work called Gormenghast, which also features a skulking murderer as its protagonist. All three books follow the villain, and the villain is almost immediately unsympathizable, but the horror and suspense of their plans keep you reading. If you like stories about disturbed young men (e.g. Stephen King's Apt Pupil), you'll like this, but it's much more jarring than a simple murder mystery about hidden passages.

[Souad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une belle histoire , le genre d 'histoire dont je me régale le plus , un style simple et non pas ennuyeux , les actions se passent vite ,un petit résume , une maman cache son fils qui a commis un meurtre (tuée et violée une jeune fille ) alors pour qu il ne va pas au prison , elle choisit de le cache chez elle dans sa maison , comme ça les polices ne le trouvent pas.
Par malchance cette maman tombe malade et meurt , et son fils reste seule dans sa cachette , qu il modifiée pour qu il puisse regarder ce qui se passe a l intérieur de la maison par un trou , la maison est vendu a une famille qui ont trois filles , Donald le fils la femme meurte recommence et tue Barbara , puis altea ....
Mais l'ami de la dernière fille arrive a dévoile le secret de Donald le criminel qui vole la nourriture et qui a fait disparaitre les 2jeunes filles .
La fin ne m 'a pas plus comme je suis de ces gens la qui aiment toujours que le mal se triomphe , j aurais aime si ROnald tue le reste de la famille ou au moins la 3eme fille , puis les polices ne trouvent pas ROland , puis ils décident de quitter la maison pour la céder a une autre famille .
Bon je ne me suis pas lassée de la lire , je vous le revommande.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Saw the TV movie from 1974 first and didn't really think the book would be anything special. Boy, was I wrong. While it's common for movies to be quite different from their book origins, this one's massively different.

Ronald is an entirely different character in the book; the movie version features a very watered down, diet version. I know that was intentionally done but it's shocking how different the two are. In the book, and no spoilers, Ronald is bad, like in the title. In the movie, Ronald is accidentally bad, scared, and shy.

I highly recommend giving this a read. It's a great thriller and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. For some dumb reason, I put the book down shortly after starting it. When I picked it up again, however, I couldn't put it down.