BOOK REVIEW: LITERARY STALKER BY ROGER KEENE

There a few descriptive words that have the ability to make me reach for a packet of painkillers when reading a book, in the vain hope to stem an oncoming headache.  One of these words is "meta", hell I can feel the cold shiver running up my spine to give me a literal painful brain freeze.  In my experience in at least 80% of the cases of a horror novel being described as meta, is just an excuse for the author to write a self-indulgent scree of nonsense that is neither as gripping nor half as clever as the author thinks it is. 
 
Literary Stalker by Roger Keen is a mother of all of meta novels, I'm getting a headache just thinking about how I am going to describe the story within a story within a story etc. etc.  To the point where I am almost tempted to use one of my most hated phrases in review "I don't want to talk about the book for fear giving it all away" tempted, but I'll not go there without a fight. 
 
Right here goes,  Nick Chatterton,  the narrator of the novel is using the plots of classic genre films as the templates for revenge killings of all those people who dared to slight him. But and here comes the killer meta bit,  he’s not actually committing the murders, they are just the plot of his latest book The Facebook Murders, and, take a deep breath here, the story of Literary Stalker is the story of the composition of that novel-within-a-novel.
 
The Facebook murders are actually being committed by Jago Farrar, Nick’s alter ego and narrator, and Jago himself is writing a novel – Social Media Avenger – based on his murders, which is narrated by Miles Hunniford.  Got that, are you sure because I'm not going even to attempt to clear that up.  I needed to go for a lie down after typing that up. 
 
My tone so far in this review may sound a little a dismissive, which it is, and it isn't, you see I'm trying to be meta with this review and write it in the style of the persona, that so many people mistake me for having.  A meta-review for a meta-book that sounds like someone trying to divide by zero, doesn't it? Maybe I should stop before I create a review paradox. 
 
In all seriousness, though Literary Stalker is an ambitious book and one that for the vast majority of its length works exceptionally well.  This is a rich and slightly darkly comic novel that has a lot to say about the not so new culture of social media and the instant unearned quest for fame and validation.  Taking its inspiration from Theatre of Blood the classic film of artistic revenge on critics, Literary Stalker is no mere rehash of the film.  Keen litters the narrative with insightful jabs fame, and the desire to be a creative in a world where everyone is a critic.  Keen could have taken the easy route and written this a straightforward novel with a linear narrative, but Keen isn't your average writer, and his use of a story within a story multidimensional narrative is more than just a gimmick, it takes reading experience into a whole new level of cleverness.  Don't get me wrong there are a few occasions where this reviewer was scratching his head wondering what was going and just who was doing the killing and whether or not the murders were real or only part of one of the "fictional elements" of the of the book.  But that is a by and by, for when the final page was turned over,  everything had fallen into place, and the sheer genius of this novel was laid bare for all to see. 
 
One of the strongest elements of Literary Stalker is the way in which Nick Chatterton, who could be described as the real narrator of the book is handled.  Straight male authors have been using characters who are gay for as long as books have been written, and it always doesn't work. However, Keen's portrayal of Nick comes across as being extraordinarily authentic and more importantly extremely sympathetic.  Nick feels human rather than some poorly written cypher who is just there to pin one of the narrative threads on. 
 
Literary  Stalker is a book that will be instantly recognisable to many readers when they read the back cover synopsis, however, this is a unique reading experience that really has to be read to be believed, compelling, funny and disturbing, Keen has written a novel that will challenge the reader as much as it rewards them.