"CREEPERS" by DAVID MORREL
A Review

I recently received a review copy of “Creepers” by David Morrell. I had orginally found out about the book in 2005 when I was doing some internet research into urban exploration in Kitchener, Ontario. I stumbled across an article written by Morrell about his own urban exploration adventures in Kitchener when he was young. Before then I had no idea that Morrell, most known for his 1972 novel “First Blood” (upon which the movie Rambo was based), was a Kitchener native. I wonder if he ever went to Oktoberfest?

Morrell discussed how he used to sneak out of the small apartment his family lived in, exploring nearby abandoned factories, apartment buildings and houses. It turned out this article was tied in to his new book, “Creepers”. “Creepers” follows a quartet of urban explorers who infiltrate the abandoned Paragon Hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Built in 1901, the Paragon was the pinnacle of haute couture accommodations in it’s heyday. By the end of the 1960’s, though, the hotel and Asbury Park was not the tourist spot it once was and by 1971 the hotel was closed, shuttered and lay that way for thirty years. In the 2000’s, these urban explorers are drawn to the history and one-time grandeur of the hotel, and go to great lengths to see what lay inside, untouched, since the doors closed on the Paragon.

Within the first few pages of the book, I realized that Morrell has done his homework and very likely interviewed or at least spoke with several urban explorers prior to writing “Creepers”. The opening chapters read like so many of the newspaper and magazine articles I’ve read on this counter-culture hobby. All of the urban explorer mainstay facts were there, the things most explorers are sure to say when they are interviewed by a reporter; we’re not vandals, we don’t take anything except photographs, we don’t leave anything except footprints, we don’t smash windows or doors, we don’t loot. The opening conversations read almost like a disclaimer, a quick rundown about what the “rules” of urban exploration. This quartet was the conglomeration of every moral urban explorer I’ve spoken to or read about. Of course, there are others who do not follow these rules, but that’s not the point. Morrell gives an accurate look into the world of urban exploration, teaching the reader about who urban explorers are and what urban explorers do.  They are not criminals. For the most part explorers (or “infiltrators” as the book’s characters prefer) are educated, moralistic individuals with a passion for the history of modern civilization, of where we are, where we have been and where we are going. This is at it’s core an urban exploration story with suspense and horror mixed in, not the opposite way around.

From the point of view of an urban explorer like myself, Morrell easily captured my attention and held it rapt throughout the book. Even prior to the group of explorers entering the hotel, I found myself devouring the pages as his characters describe the history of the hotel – the area of urban exploration I find the most interesting. As the characters infiltrate the building, I found myself wishing that this place were real, that I was there with them, experiencing what they were experiencing. That in itself was a thrill to read.

The story quickly takes a right-turn, sticking with the core background of urban exploration, but throwing in a story of suspense that will keep you riveted. Mysterious happenings have plagued the Paragon Hotel for decades, and these mysteries come back to haunt the explorers as they make their way through the dark, rotting interior of the hotel that has laid untouched since the doors were closed.

The characters are realistic and believable, with reactions to the various situations they find themselves in that make sense. I could easily see myself in their situation, which made the book that much more enjoyable and thrilling. At almost 300 pages, I read the book front to back in just a little over two days.

For anyone interested in urban exploration, I would highly recommend this book as a valuable addition to your library. You won’t be disappointed.