Stage Fright

by Michael Paine

The author of The Night School raises the curtain on terror. The Imperial Theater has just reopened for business under the directorship of Joanna Marshall. But her first production of a dark drama... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425212823
• ISBN13: 9780425212820
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Another social satiric novel by Paine

Good blue-collar horror is hard to find. "Stage Fright" is one of those as Michael Paine writes stories about working class people, even though they are involved in the arts, and "Stage Fright" is another ghost story by Paine, who seems to be specializing in ghost stories, and dealing with the working world of the artist, much like his novel "Steel Ghosts". In "Stage Fright", Joanna Marshal is seeking information about ghosts in theatres for her college dissertation, looking to start her own theatric group, and striving to create her own identity and get out from under the shadow of her superstar mother. In her research, she discovers the theatres, including the now forgotten Imperial, of Samuel Fulton, millionaire industrialist and all around sleaze. The more research she does, the more she finds that she has the ability to first view, then participate, across time, in Fulton's sleazy extreme S & M sexcapades. As Joanna starts her own theatre company, her obsession with Fulton grows . . . as does her obsession with extreme pain. As her obsessions become more and more cyclical, it becomes clear that Joanna is losing her mind, and the novel's death rate starts to soar. As things continue to go from bad to worse, Joanna begins to isolate herself, become increasingly involved in Fulton's S & M pain parties, and even causes the death of her lover, "Stage Fright"'s requisite moral center, whom she has corrupted. Michael Paine is a rare bird; he writes solid, historically-based, socially-conscious, horror novels. Unlike other writers, Paine has something to say, and is not afraid to say it, and back it up with some historical facts. Many of the people and places either really existed, or are thinly disguised realities. So, unlike other writers, Paine actually knows his history, and doesn't get caught up in weepy nostalgia, or romanticized violence. In addition Paine often tackles controversial subjects for pop horror fiction; the core of both "Night School" and "Stage Fright" is interracial and unconventional sexual relations, slavery, and the bloody violence done to the Africans after they were forcibly shipped here. Yet, despite his tackling of strong subjects, Paine is not a gorehound. He is an old-fashioned storyteller, no six hundred page leviathans-he tells his story, keeps `em short, gets to his point, and then goes home. As with Paine's earlier novels, "Stage Fright" has an almost apocalyptical ending, and it is also set in the same Pennsylvanian pocket universe as his recent work, "Steel Ghosts" is mentioned. While not quite as good as "The Night School", "Stage Fright" is nonetheless filled with interesting characters, and interesting historical background. Paine is quickly carving out a niche as an intelligent and socially conscious horror novelist. "Stage Fright" deserves a better cover, and here's hoping that Paine and his novel don't get lost in the shuffle. This review was originally published in a slightly dif