Ravenous, by Ray Garton

Like a lot of horror readers that have been around for a long time, my first exposure to Ray Garton was his classic novel, Live Girls. It fit perfectly into the revolutionary changes that the genre was going through then and the name Ray Garton immediately became prominent in the list of writers that I always bought and read. And unlike far too many others, Ray has never disappointed me.

Ravenous is the new novel from Ray Garton and thankfully, it's available from Leisure Books. For far too long readers had to turn to the often pricey small press to read him. And there's nothing wrong with the small presses...Ray continues to publish extensively in them. But the general readers out there deserve a chance to experience his excellent fiction.

Ravenous isn't the most original book that Ray has ever written. If you want a bold, striking, wildly offbeat novel from Ray, hunt down a copy of his mind-blowing Cemetery Dance Publication, Scissors. Ravenous is a werewolf novel. But that's no complaint. In the proper hands, the old classic monsters will always be fun.

Similar in theme to Live Girls, Ravenous is a sexually explicit novel. Instead of the werewolf virus being spread through a bite, in this book it is spread through sexual intercourse. Or, if you prefer, fucking.

I love horror novels that are set in small towns and Ravenous takes place in one. We meet members of the community, some likable, others not so much so. But they're all due for some very nasty surprises and by the about 3/4 of the way into the book, Ray pulls out the stops and lets the blood and grue flow.

Ravenous is left wide slam open for a the story to continue. Ray's fans had to wait a while, but he finally returned to the characters from his classic Live Girls. Let's hope that we don't have to wait eighteen years to see a sequel to Ravenous.