by Edmund Plante
1988 Dorchester Publishing
A lonely single mother seeks company from men at a local bar. She is brutally raped, which results in a son. Her invalid mother blames her for the attack, and she can't quite find her own love for the child. As a toddler the child is kidnapped, and she finds herself horrified and relieved in equal parts.
Years later the child resurfaces, and recounts living in a state of constant sexual abuse by his father while living in abandoned houses. The mother still can't quite offer him the mother's love he needs, and fears for her other children, while the child is torn between needing his mother's approval and following the path of his father.
This would be a pretty effective drama or thriller, in equal parts emotional and exploitative. Making the rapist a tree demon and the son a telekinetic waters the whole thing down.
You know the rule about not saying "It's like something out of a bad movie" in the middle of your bad movie? The same goes for horror novels. Plante drops a similar line at least five times, twice name dropping Stephen King and even mentioning Carrie. Not only does this destroy any suspension of disbelief, if you want to stop in the middle of your horror paperback to ask the reader "This is like Stephen King, isn't it?", you're not going to like the answer.
Seriously, Seed of Evil was written by Edmund Plante? And it wasn't a pseudonym?
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