3 / 5 Stars
'Junkyard' (284 pp.) was published by Zebra Books in November, 1989. The cover illustration is one of the best of any entry in the Paperbacks from Hell era; sadly, the artist is uncredited (I can't make out their signature).
Author Barry Porter published one other horror paperback for Zebra Books; 'Dark Souls' (1989).
'Junkyard' is set in the small Midwestern (?) town of Winsome. In the opening chapter we are introduced to a common plot device in Paperbacks from Hell: a wino / vagrant / bum / Unhoused Person has the misfortune to wander into someplace they shouldn't; in this case, it's the town junkyard. Where the monsters depicted on the book's cover lurk in the darkness.
It's no spoiler to reveal that the junkyard monsters are mutant rats the size of a German shepherd dog. These mutants are ravenous and will unite to take down prey larger than themselves.
In due course we are introduced to a foursome of teens, who have been friends since childhood and who just happen to have erected a makeshift club house, called the 'Pit,' deep inside the passageways of the junkyard.....!
(these sorts of contrivances are a major driver of the storyline in 'Junkyard').
For the teens, their childhood refuge has morphed into a hangout for drinking beer and watching porno VHS tapes. It's also a place to take chicks when it's time for a hot n' heavy makeout session. But of course, what Nick, Larry, Ray, and Mark don't realize is that not only are there man-eating rodents loose among the trash and debris, but that the rats are getting hungrier and more aggressive. And the junkyard is the last place anyone should be when night falls, and the rats come out of their warrens, seeking warm flesh to devour........
I had to struggle through 'Junkyard.' Like so many Paperbacks from Hell, the author laboriously devotes the first three-fourths of the novel to frame the plot and set things up for the climatic confrontation. We get all sorts of adumbrations and foreshadowings and intimations of EVIL !!!!!!!!!!! And there is a lot of padding in the form of telling, not showing, the mental and emotional states of the characters, presumably to get the reader to care about who survives and what will be left of them (the characters, not the readers). I kept wondering when, finally, the narrative would gain some kind of momentum.
At page 222, 'Junkyard' does kick into higher gear, and there is enough gore and action (including the liberal use of flamethrowers) to impart some degree of redemption to the novel for trying my patience in plodding through the first 221 pages.
The verdict ? Like so many Paperbacks from Hell, 'Junkyard' now is selling for exorbitant sums at the hands of bookjackers and speculators. I've seen starting prices of $19, all the way up to $188 (!). If you are a Paperback Fanatic, spending about $20 for this title may be justified, but the novel doesn't have enough impact to justify paying more than that.
