The Wicked Heart in Read with The PikeCast

Mar 19, 2024 Daniel Stalter rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nostalgia, ω-physical-shelf, fits-of-nostalgia, pulp-horror

The Wicked Heart read like a promising rough draft. I can see how that would make it an ideal candidate for The Midnight Club Netflix series. Some cool ideas are swimming around in this book, but the plotting and characters leave a lot to be desired. Pike is known for methodical and twisted plots with complex and engaging characters. This book comes close but ultimately misses the mark on both counts. The plot was kept moving at a steady clip, but the characters felt rushed and ill-defined. I kn ...more

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Aug 04, 2022 Thomas rated it liked it · review of another edition

Another month, another Pike book to get through. I held it off a bit but here we are. Of what I've read. this is the longest at 240 pages, so I wasn't looking forward to it. In the end, it was good, but it showcased the little issues I've been having his his YA stuff during all this. I'll give more of a cap on it once I finish all this in October though.

For now, the book itself. Dusty Shame is a teenage serial killer, who has been killing innocent girls at the request of a voice that is compelli Another month, another Pike book to get through. I held it off a bit but here we are. Of what I've read. this is the longest at 240 pages, so I wasn't looking forward to it. In the end, it was good, but it showcased the little issues I've been having his his YA stuff during all this. I'll give more of a cap on it once I finish all this in October though.

For now, the book itself. Dusty Shame is a teenage serial killer, who has been killing innocent girls at the request of a voice that is compelling him to do so. He's a mess of a person already, with a mom in a vegetable state due to alzheimer's and a dead dad. Meanwhile, Shelia's friend Nancy has been kidnapped, and she must figure out what is going on. Her friend Dusty seems cool at least.

This is probably the best written one so far. Off the bat, it is more poetic with the prose, with some solid sentences. The situation is already interesting and the writing sells it. This is one of his more emotional ones, I really felt what everyone was going through even in cases where it wasn't as interesting.

Shelia has a thing with this guy Matt and thankfully he's not a full asshole like so many boyfriends in these but they were fairly whatever with their on and off stuff, yet we're meant to care deeply about this. And it kinda works with how it's written but many is it over dramatic.

Dusty's section are the best parts, he's sympathetic so there is a tragedy to him as he has to do these terrible things. This a different kind of POV than I'm used that and that worked to make this stand out. Shelia's seciton are mixed, they work in being a contrast but she is kinda plain. It becomes a thing with her and a cop tying to figure this out but all know who it is. Despite that, it is fun with them finding the clues and such.

The latter half becomes more about this so it does falter a bit around then. Then we get into where this is all going. Oh man, it goes to an odd place and it's weird. I love the odd idea it settles on but it did get to be too much. Again things get overly complicated, and too long. This does not earn the length at all, this could have been the usual 90s YA length, it has to pad the word count to get to where it is.

It's more of a me thing due to my attention span but it still really could have been shorter, as it is it becomes a slog. The explanation behind all this, veers a bit into an iffy trope and it doesn't commit to it anyway so it's weirdly vague. The ending is mixed, the solution is a bit too easy but carries heavy emotion to it that worked. But the ending itself is super rushed, despite the last chapter being labeled an Epilogue, it doesn't feel like we as the wrapup isn't much.

Also the cover has nothing to do with anything. As a whole, this is an odd one. It is mostly good with pretty solid writing and an interesting premise that is decently compelling, as Dusty is interesting. But it gets a bit overly complicated and goes to some odd places, with an ending that doesn't quite feel satsyfying.

With this one, you can feel Pike trying to rise above the usual fare as always, with the deeper writing, but he still falls prey to the flaws of some of those, by not being as in depth or tight as it could have been. The ending problem is one I tend to see but usually they will have the excuse of just trying to be a fun quick romp . This is clearly not trying to be there, so it feels like it's caught in the middle.

This is November 1993, so Pike wasn't in full churning mode yet, thus this feels high effort. But you can see him rushing things by the end despite, again being 240 pages. So yeah, a mostly good one that drops the ball a tad, when it could have been great. Still, it can go in the middle of my ranking, in the camp of solid in some ways, a bit weaker in others. Still, that writing was good.

Whew, that;s that. Next time is our last randomized one before Midnight Club. With it, we go froward to the churn period with one even he isn't big on. See ya then. ...more

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Jul 19, 2024 Zackman rated it liked it

This book had some interesting material, but I think it would be stronger if Pike didn't decide to stretch out the descriptions of so many mundane details. ...more

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