FEATURED CREATURE: Redneck(s), Lee-style



Edward Lee is known for his strange and humorous love of Rednecks. In many of his works they are the stars of the show, doing their demented deeds with a glee only Lee could come up with. Whether it be the deformed Creekers (of...Creekers fame) or the sick psychos of Header (from Header, Header 2, You Are My Everything), Lee has covered just about every redneck aspect there is to cover. But here in Family Tradition, Lee pushes the limits even further, introducing his infamous love of cooking into the mix...and of course, what's a good Lee story without a collaboration from John Pelan (Goon, Splatterpunks)?

Still despite having everything (rednecks: check. John Pelan: check. Cooking: check. A touch of Lovecraft: check. Never-ending gross-outs and non-stop raunchiness: double check) needed for Family Tradition to be Lee's grand opus of redneck horror, the simple truth is that the story is just not up to par with most of Lee's work. Being a huge fan of Lee's, this should have been a great read, but sadly, the book just feels like it was rushed. The plot is simple enough: a bunch of different people, (including some suicidal teenagers, a chef and his twin brother, their girlfriends, AND a rival chef seeking to get rid of his competition) all converge in the area of Sutherland Lake one day. The only problem: the entire Lake's population is after them. Of course the population of the Lake is only two people, but when those two people are Esau and Enoch, two crazed rednecks, you've got a problem. You see, Esau likes to cook...and his favorite ingredient is HUMAN. Cue plenty of sick cooking humor involving human recipes, courtesy of Lee.

The book tries to throw shock after shock at the reader, and for the most part it works. Lee and Pelan are masters of the Gross-Out, and they craft some truly wicked and original scenes of depravity here. The problem is that by the end of the book, the reader is so desensitized it doesn't really matter anymore. Some beginning scenes of shock definitely work well and had me gagging, as did some in the middle, but by the end...well, the ending of the book leaves so much to be desired that all the gross-outs just stopped working altogether. You see, Edward Lee, even when collaborating, has certain traits that all of his work features. One is the constants gross-outs. Two is the constant level of extreme violence and depravity. Three is the ever annoying fact that almost all of his book's endings feel slapped together and rushed. Family Tradition features all of these traits, but the third is the most important one. The book's conclusion zooms by, and it left me so confused I had to re-read it just to catch everything. I love it when scenes move fast, and most scenes here do, but the conclusion is literally blink-and-you'll-miss-it fast. I remember being mere pages from the end (with about three plot lines to still tie together) and wondering how Lee and Pelan where going to pull everything into one conclusion; then they do it and you're like "What?!?!" Goon had the same kind of ending, as did Monstrosity, as did The Golem, as did Slither, as did The Bighead, as did...While I'm a fan of Lee's, I tend to forget most of his novel's endings. Family Tradition, while I'll always remember some of the more original scenes from it, continuous this tradition.

Grade: C

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