Michael Stewart (5) (1945–)

I read this with my Shelfari reading group and I appreciated this old school 80's horror story.

An athletic super star suddenly becomes paralyzed from the neck down and his life is forever changed. It is changed once again when he is provided with a helper monkey, which he trains to help him out in daily life. From there the story becomes a bit warped and a lot more interesting.

I loved the character development and the pacing. (I am a fan of slow burning stories, so the pacing might not be fast enough for some.) I felt that the dread and tension were sustained throughout the novel and made for compelling reading. There was also a subtext here about animal testing and secret intentions of government entities-this subtext posed questions that are valid to this very day. The ending was the only portion of this book that I had a problem with. Everything was tidied up so nicely that it wasn't quite believable for me. For that I deducted one star.

This was an enjoyable, quick read that I would recommend to horror readers that appreciate 80's horror with a slow burn.… (mehr)

I watched this movie quite a bit growing up, so in a way this hampered my enjoyment of the book, while in other ways it enhanced it. Stayed pretty faithful to the flick George Romero would later adapt for TV time. The story stands as a uniquely twisted piece delving into the scientific link of memory; here Allan is a paralyzed man who has become dependent on a small primate who has been injected with a powerful drug. Together taking the pills they start to live through each other, ultimately creating a dangerous situation. As the monkey is by nature gentle and not revenge filled, and by himself Allan would never act on his buried subconscious hatred, together the primitive impulses were unleashed. So while the tale was as clever as always and something interesting was always happening, there was a flaw that the movie expressed more emotion, more angst, more passion, while the feelings of some of the characters felt a bit more flat and dry on page form.… (mehr)