This was a great story. I didn't realize that Bram Stoker wrote this until I found it on Project Gutenberg. I remember seeing the movie years ago with Amanda Donahoe in it. It's a pretty creepy story, involving love, jealousy, and some wicked cool supernatural monster stuff. I've decided that Bram Stoker was seriously disturbed...

2.75 stars.

A really fascinating story idea with clumsy execution. Certainly not in the same class as Dracula, but worth a read if you come across this on some dusty bookshelf.

When I got to the racist description of an African character, I was tempted to stop reading. I now wish I had. The rest of the book is a muddled mess with characters acting for arbitrary reasons that I don't think made sense even when it was written. I know social mores have changed in the century since this was first published, but marrying a woman to protect her but then keeping the marriage a secret is just plain stupid.
The Ken Russell movie based on this is enjoyable (and not hideously racist), but this book is just terrible.

Since Dracula is one of my favorite novels, I thought exploring more Stoker novels might be fun.

I was wrong. Apparently, Stoker was a bit of a one-hit-wonder and this particular book was written when we was addled by Syphilis. If you like detailed accounts of the world's most intense staring contests, pretty worm women, or religiously empowered kites, then this book is perfect for you. Everyone else, however, should probably skip this one and just reread Dracula a few times.

Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker doesn't exactly live up to its blurb: In a tale of ancient evil, Bram Stoker creates a world of lurking horros and bizarre denizens: a demented mesmerist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves' a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string; and all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim...


I picked this one up in my search for a book with "white" in the title to help me complete my Color Coded Reading Challenge. White was looking to be a difficult color. The first book I picked out, Eight White Nights, I just could not finish because it was going nowhere fast. Lair looked to be going the same way. It's an interesting idea...ancient evil in the form of a great white worm (in the old sense--a snake/serpent or dragon) which can take on human form and lure men and women to their doom. Add in one heir to a local estate who is slowly going mad and for whateve reason wanting to control the girl he "loves" with hypnotism--to what purpose, we don't know. There is also a mysterious gathering of birds that creates havoc in the region until a giant hawk-shaped kite is flown to scare them. Could be a good story. But from the moment Adam Salton comes home to England to meet a great-uncle he never knew he had and gets involved with these local inhabitants, it's a long-haul to anything creepy or vaguely interesting happening. Salton takes long walks in the countryside. He talks with his uncle's elderly friend a lot. There's A LOT of talking. We have disjointed episodes where Adam is talking with his uncle's friend and then suddenly is out on walk and then just as suddenly back in the house to talk again.


I am glad I finished this one, though (and not just because it finishes off the challenge). The ending was good enough to make the read worthwhile. One might say a very explosive finale (pun intended). A couple of caveats for those who may be considering the book: It is not all that creepy, except, perhaps, in the final scenes. If you're looking for horror along the lines of Dracula, I don't personally think it matches up. Also, if you read an unedited copy, you're going to find the N-word sprinkled all over the place. In a very derogatory manner. Of course, it reflects the times--but you should be prepared. My version--from the library--had been "fixed." My main personal quibble with the story is that you have the hypnotist doing mental/psychic battle with Lilla, the girl he supposedly loves. This goes on in the first third of the book. Lilla is supported by her cousin Mimi. But then, all of a sudden, Mimi marries Adam--supposedly to make her safe from the white worm and we leave Lilla abandoned. Literally. We don't hear of her again until the final 20 pages of the book. After being so concerned about her cousin--a concern her husband shared up to this point, she suddenly leaves her alone. Did she think the hypnotist would just quit stopping by? I did not get that all.


I can't honestly say that this is an all-time favorite. I don't think I'll ever read it again. It had the makings of a really good story. Rumors are that Stoker was going a bit mad himself when he was writing this....I wouldn't be surprised. That certainly may explain the disjointed scenes. Two and a half stars out of five.

One of the worst books I've ever read