Everyone has different signs that tell them they are enjoying a book. Some people will read it all in one sitting. Others will stay up to all hours, too drawn into the story to put it down. For me, I know when I'm enjoying a book when I can't wait to go to bed at night and delve between the pages (I do most of my reading in bed). As I go along, reading a few chapters each night, it starts to feel a little like going to visit an old friend, a friend I look forward to seeing every day. And when the journey is over, and the story is read, I feel a little pang of loss because I'm forced to say good-bye.
It felt like this with Savage.
I wasn't sure about this one when I started it. A kid runs afoul of Jack the Ripper and winds up following him to the United States in a bid to end the madman's monstrous ways. Okay... But it's Laymon, so I picked it up. I'm not a huge fan of most period pieces, but Laymon weaved a compelling tale complete with a likable protagonist, who, for the most part, made me forget the era the story was set in. That, and I do find Jack the Ripper lore interesting, even if this was a completely fictionalized account.
I also enjoy the occasional western, so I got a kick out of it when Trevor (the main character) ends up in the American west, hot on the trail of the Ripper. You get bandits, and horses, and gunslinging and all the other goodies readers have come to expect from a western story. But you also get some pretty vivid gore, which would satisfy any true blue horror fan.
If I had a gripe with this book, it would be Laymon's habit of over using certain words. I'm happy to report he only used "rump" on occasion, but he did seem to enjoy overworking the terms "considerable" and "passel" to name a few. I also found that some of the expressions his characters used (especially Trevor) were a bit hokey, and felt more like a cliched version of people's speech patterns in the 19th century. That, and Trevor's pattern of speech was an odd mish-mash of posh Victorian English and Western slang. I realize it's because Trevor is telling the story years later, and he has probably been somewhat Americanized while at the same time holding onto his British roots, but I still found it slightly distracting.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, especially to Laymon fans. But if you don't enjoy a good Western yarn, you might want to skip it, because the last 3/4 of the book is a little cowboy heavy.
Unfortunately, I have moved on to Cuts, and I have to admit, it's not like visiting a friend at all. It's more like a visit from the in-laws... Oh well.
