Right To Lifeby Jack Ketchum
Synopsis: Sara inadvertently becomes pregnant during her adulterous affair with the married Greg; as Greg declines to destroy his family, they decide on an abortion. As they make their way to a Manhattan abortion clinic Sara is abducted into a car by two declared Right to Lifers, and drugged into unconsciousness. She awakes naked and captive in a basement, which becomes a torture chamber.
A pretty typical brutal Jack Ketchum tale that speeds along with rapid pace and plenty of horror. I think it sort of lost it's way though, as the whole Right To Lifers bit just got left by the side of the road really. The psychopaths want the baby, but then eventually they don't really care about it anymore and just concentrate on torture not caring whether the unborn child lives or not. Seems to go against their whole reason and the point of the tale. I thought it would be more of a whole pro/anti abortion debate but that ends up as sort of the subtext to a tale of kidnapping and torture.
Still though, it's a gripping and solid horror tale without the abortion debate and not for the weak as per his usual M.O. Ketchum pulls no punches. It's violent and shocking. But it's not that one-dimensional as there is excellent character building and I found myself really pulling for Sara and repulsed by the kidnappers. It's very realistic and the psychological horror of it all is disturbing.
It's very short (a novella actually) and I think it could have been beefed up into a much longer story by possibly following Greg and what he was doing to find and rescue Sara. He's pretty much gone after the first few chapters.
The last Ketchum tale I read missed the mark a bit, but this one is more like what I've come to expect from him.
7.5/10
