The Pet
By Charles Grant
1986 Tor Books
Paperback, 343 pages
I have a bunch of Charles L. Grants books in my To-Be-Read
pile. I’m a huge fan of his Shadows anthologies and have grabbed a few of
his novels, hoping they would be as rewarding. The thing is, his novels are
thicker books than I usually enjoy, so they’re often passed over in favor of
quicker reads. Well, I finally bit the bullet and read one and I’m glad I did.
The Pet is two things: it’s a horror story and a high
school drama. Don has a fucked-up home life and his only comfort in being in
his room with his animal posters and figures of wild beasts. I can relate,
though I had pets as a kid… he’s not allowed to. His school friends are few
and, like all teenagers, he likes someone but isn’t sure if she likes him. Oh,
and there’s a serial killer in the town.
Yeah, there’s a lot going on in this book, but Grant keeps it
focused and moving along at a nice pace. I was really rooting for the romance
to bloom amidst the mayhem, too. (Hey, I’m a sucker for that stuff.) I thought I
had it all figured out about 100 pages in, but I was wrong. Oh, so wrong. The
supernatural is very much at play in the second half of the story.
There’s some decent bloodshed, gripping suspense and urgent
action but none of it will work for you if you don’t really suspend
disbelief. Let yourself go and enjoy the ride. By the way, the book is good
enough that I read it faster than many shorter ones. It kept me eager to see
what happened next. Maybe I’ll pull another Grant book out of the ol’ TBR pile
soon.
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