Trapped: A Novel of Terror (2010)

I rarely read a book and think to myself, "they should really make a movie out of this."  Since Hollywood has run out of ideas, they pretty much make a movie out of every book anyway.  But this time is different.  Dear movie producers, pleasepleasepleaseplease make a movie out of Jack's Kilborn's Trapped.  If only I could just see how they make "the pet," my life may very well be complete.

As I mentioned before Jack Kilborn is the horror pen name for J.A. Konrath.  Several of his horror novels were previously unpublished, but the glory of Kindle has made them available for the world.  Trapped was meant to be the sequel to Afraid but even after numerous cuts and edits, the publishers nixed it.  When you download it on Kindle, you get both the original and uncut versions, and the author encourages you to review the book and choose the version you liked better.

I have to be honest, I actually like the cut version better.  Not because of any of the sex and violence that got chopped from it, but the stories just made more sense.  I preferred the army general story to the whole Chinese dude backstory, and Sara being trapped in the box by her sadistic cousin just made more sense than the kidnapping deal. 

Trapped is the story of a couple, on the verge of divorce, who run a sort of halfway house/rehab program for troubled teens.  Unfortunately the center is closing, and a camping trip one of the last times they will have to spend with the kids.  The kids in question are inner-city Detroit fuckups, who have been saved from jail by committing themselves to this program.

Sara and Martin are the couple, and they have brought along their baby, Jack.  Martin knows this island from trips he took with his brother when he was younger, and swears its a good time.  But as soon as they arrive, things start going wrong.  Martin disappears, and when Sara and one of the teens go searching for him, things go horribly wrong.  They discover that the island is inhabited by cannibals, as well as a sick doctor running demented experiments.

I will give it to Kilborn/Konrath, he seriously does his freakin' research for these stories.  The details of the cannibals, torture, surgeries, etc. were amazing and really just sucked you into the story.  I laid awake at night a couple of times, trying to picture the "pet" and Subject 33's torture device.  If loving these stories makes me a sick individual, then get the straightjacket ready, because I can't wait to get to the next one!

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