In the Night Room by Peter Straub

This book was a sequel to "lost boy lost girl" which I absolutely LOVED. This second book was pretty good, definitely gripping and compelling, but I did not love it as much as "lost boy lost girl". I found out a lot more about Tim Underhill who was not the central character of the first book (not at first, anyway). It explained more about the dead people, etc.

It was similar to Stephen King's Dark Tower books in that it brought author and character together. The difference is that Stephen King was the author in his books and his characters were the protagonists, and in this Peter Straub was not present, and the author was the protagonist. I have a feeling, since I know that King and Straub are friends and have collaborated, that they probably discussed this narrative technique and then worked it into separate books and then discussed how it worked out. It reminds me of how Frankenstein came into being...a group of writers discussing how to do a horror novel, and Frankenstein was Shelley's effort. If I had to pick which book worked it out better, I'd say SK but then I'm pretty biased towards him anyway.

I am pretty certain there will be another Tim Underhill book, though, as there were definitely some VERY loose ends at finish of the book. For example, what is the angel's name? I keep trying to figure it out, but no matter where I add the vowels to make some words, the name doesn't make sense. I'm going to look up on the internet to see if somebody has figured it out and posted it. Then also, Lily Kalendar (Huntress) obviously has some serious potential as a new fiend, or heroine, or both. I feel pretty sure that will get dealt with.

In the end, I was glad that Willy turned out to be who she was, to go with Mark, but it really was kind of incestuous that Tim slept with her, not so much in the fact that he created her (then making him the "father figure") but in the fact that she was his nephew's woman. I will look forward to another sequel, though, and if there isn't one, I probably won't go back and re-read these books. There's just not enough time to re-read books that don't really hit me deeply with so many other books to read once, and then great books to read over and over.