''Billy'' is a 1990 novel by
Whitley Strieber
Louis Whitley Strieber (; born June 13, 1945) is an American writer best known for his horror novels '' The Wolfen'' and '' The Hunger'' and for '' Communion'', a non-fiction account of his alleged experiences with non-human entities. He has mai ...
. The novel tells the story of the abduction of a child and the terror of his experience.
Plot summary
Barton Royal is an overweight man in his 40s who is obsessed with boys. He lives in Los Angeles but travels out of state to find and abduct a suitable young boy so he can be his "father". When he spots 12-year-old Billy Neary in an
Iowa
Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
shopping mall, he follows the boy home, abducts him late that night, and drives back to California with Billy strapped into the back of his
Aerostar minivan
Minivan (sometimes called simply a van) is a car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows . The equivalent classification in Europe is MPV (multi-p ...
. The narrative includes glimpses of Barton's miserable childhood, especially the
physical and
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
he suffered at the hands of his father and his recollections of what he has done to other boys before Billy.
Billy tries to escape and also manages to make a few telephone calls, both on the road to and from Barton's home. Barton's behaviour switches between extreme violence and interludes of self-delusion. Billy finds his way into Barton's dungeon, his "black room", and discovers the remains of many other young boys. Billy's father beats the police to Billy's location, just barely preventing Barton from torturing and killing him.
Reception
Critical reception for ''Billy'' was mostly positive, with the Atlanta Journal praising the novel but the Chicago Sun-Times panning it, saying Streiber failed to "walk the fine tricky line between fiction about monsters and monstrous fiction.".
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
gave an ambivalent review, rating it a "C" and stating that "For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like". The Dallas Morning News called the book "chillingly real", Newsday stated that Barton was "the most repulsive villain to appear in a popular novel in a long time". The Sun Sentinel also praised ''Billy'', citing the book's realism as a highlight.
See also
*
Pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...
References
Novels by Whitley Strieber
1990 American novels
Novels about child abduction
Novels set in Los Angeles
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