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Book Review of Beast In View

Beast In View
maura853 avatar reviewed on + 542 more book reviews


Interesting example of 1950s psychological thriller. If you enjoy Hitchcock movies such as Vertigo, Marnie, or Spellbound, you might enjoy this.

Sadly, I've never warmed to Vertigo, and I had the same problem with this: its psychology seemed wild-eyed and over-heated, but at the same time, somehow, very innocent; its thrills were rendered obvious by 60+ years of similar "big twists."

As an unsettling glance back at life in mid-1950s America, it is the literary equivalent of a rather nasty fly caught in amber -- be prepared for casual racism, sexism, homophobia ... But it's clear that Millar was a talented writer, and captured the world just as it was.