I knew from the first page on that this Laymon book was a real big one, probably his best. Although, for the first two thirds I had my doubts if The Travelling Vampire Show was really a characteristic Laymon, for this rather slow-paced coming of age story, while quite atmospheric, seemed to be more reminiscent of the nostalgia infected pieces of Joe Lansdale or sometimes even Stephen King's The Body than of Laymon as we know him. The book could be just that: A coming of age story without much horror or thriller elements, featuring a group of teens who just want to watch a good show, and the book would still have been great that way. However, this doubts were blown away when night fell and the actual vampire show finally began. From that point on, we have fast paced action, thrilling suspense, violence, pulpy eroticism and human nature revealed and ordinary people being thrown back into an atavistic, barbaric survival mode. All the characteristic laymonean elements were suddenly there again and they entered with a bang. The Travelling Vampire Show offers both the author as we have probably never read him before and all the typical, familiar elements, albeit in the most excellent form.