9-17-2026 Latham's Last Words: Header by Edward Lee
Welcome to Latham's Last Words, where I give you my last words on vintage horror books I've enjoyed. Let's look at Header from 1995!
The first thing I want to say is I was shocked to learn that a book published two years after I graduated High School could be considered "vintage".
The second thing I want to say is this book is vile. I just don't have any other words to describe it. I'm not new to extreme/splatterpunk horror but this book takes the cake! I guess that's why Lee is considered the GOAT of extreme/splatterpunk. I can certainly see why!
There was not a single character that I liked. Stewart was a crooked cop, although his heart was in the right place. Travis and his grandfather were disgusting backwoods hillbillies. I just did not like any single character. And that is not something I've experienced before. Not saying this made it a bad story, it actually made the story that much more repulsive to me.
One negative thing I can say about the book is the chapters that featured Travis and his grandfather were written in what I'll call "hillbilly speak". Not just the dialogue, but the entirety of the chapters were written that way. Almost as if it was Travis' inner monologue. Then it would switch to "normal" prose and dialogue for the chapters that featured Stewart. I found it a bit disconcerting for it to switch back and forth like that. If it had all been written in "hillbilly speak" with the exception of dialogue of characters that didn't speak like that, it wouldn't have bothered me that much.
I also noticed that in the beginning of the book Stewart referred to his wife as his girlfriend several times, then he mentions taking a second honeymoon. I thought it was just a joke, but then later in the book she started to be mentioned as his wife. A little disappointed about that plot hole surviving the original publication and then subsequent re-publishing.
I would recommend this for anyone who has not read Edward Lee yet, or is looking to get into the world of extreme/splatterpunk horror!
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