I can't say it's a bad read. I can't say it's a great one either. I guess it could have been shorter sometimes, but overall I enjoyed it. It's a haunted house story set in my favorite city in the world: New York. Am I finally out of my reading slump?

loved this book, a very unique story line involving strange things that I never though could happen. A def must read

Thought it was going to be scarier

Recently widowed Caroline Evans, who has two children, (10-year-old Ryan and 12-year-old Laurie) remarries and moves into new husband’s home, an old apartment building in New York City called The Rockwell. The kids hate it and want to move back to their old home. The Rockwell has a reputation for being a spooky old building. Ryan dislikes his mom’s new husband Anthony. He finds the tenants in the building (who are mostly elderly) strange and creepy. Soon, one of Caroline’s friends, who was checking on a tenant at the Rockwell, is murdered. Ryan and Laurie start hearing strange voices at night. Then Laurie starts having scary dreams… are they dreams? Or are they real?

This was a really captivating and creepy read! I had a hard time putting this book down, I had to find out what was going to happen next! The setting of the old building was good and atmospheric. The characters were interesting… some were likable, some were weird and scary. The storyline was compelling.

Another dark and chilling read by John Saul.

Was really good with quite a bizarre ending.

"Maestru" al genului horror...

After loosing her husband and barely being able to make ends meet, the main character meets a new gentleman who she ends up marrying. She moves into his apartment building with her two children who all the elderly residents in the apartment building fall in love with. Little does she know that her new husband and the residents of the building have their own agenda for her children. Great book. I highly recommend it!!

My first book by John Saul. I give it a 2 and a half (how can we still not give half star ratings on this website?!) I guessed the plot and everything else pretty quickly but I stuck with the book because I wanted to find out who killed her husband and friend. Guess what? They never tell you!! I really hate books that leave you hanging like that. Probably won't read any more of his books.

Midnight Voices

This is one of the few times that I had to put down a book for a couple of hours towards the beginning. It has nothing to do with the writing style, which is as impeccable as John Saul normally is, but because the family the book is about are so dang likeable that you don’t want to read further and risk learning what bad things are going to happen to them. It’s easiest to just imagine that the biggest issue in the book is that Ryan doesn’t like his new stepfather. You don’t want the other things to happen.

But they do. John Saul takes us through a secret passageway to a world of monsters that could be living in any building in any town. Every city has one of those buildings that is rumored to be haunted or the people are a little off, and this just gives the mind a creative boost to think the worst and another reason to cross the street if you need to walk by it.

The main issue in this book, since it is a review and I have to figure out something bad to write about, is the conveniency that John Saul had to resort to in order to keep the story going. Some things are just a bit too coincidental, such as a keyring with keys that fit into everything or a secret passage with peepholes into rooms and a character being at the right place at the right time to overhear important information. It does come off as lazy.

Regardless, great book, great story, John Saul knocked it out of the ball park once more.

Review: Midnight Voices by John Saul.

This book being a supernatural/ suspenseful/ mild horror, turned out to be thrilling and enticing. The setting was a neighborhood near New York 19s Central Park in a highlighted posh apartment building called the Rockwell House. All rumors about this place were all the inhabitants were cloying, creepy, elderly witches and vampires. The children in the area would pass this building on the opposite side of the street because of fear and their childhood imagines of horror of dead bodies and ghouls. The characters were all well developed, interesting, and spooky to some. The story was haunting with a few young child characters but the author was considerate withholding real graphic details to make the reader comfortable. I did think the ending was too quick and could have been spread out more.

The story started out with the father of a small family going for his usual jog through Central Park early in the morning before he headed out to work. Brad never returned 26
His wife Caroline tries to move on raising her ten-year old son and twelve-year old daughter on a small salary from an antique shop she worked at just barely surviving. Than within a year she meets Tony Fleming and things start to get better for her and her two children 26or do they 26??

All matters seemed to go well and they married but not without stern concerns from a friend and her son 19s hatred toward Tony. Caroline thought with time her friend and son would succumb to their feelings and the evil aura that they claimed surrounded Tony and others at the Rockwell House would subside. Now that they were living at Tony 19s there was an issue with her daughter. She was having nightmares, hearing voices, and being pale and ill which concerned Caroline but at the time not to the point of being in danger. Caroline just placed the blame on her daughter making adjustment to the new home. Caroline is pulled deeper and deeper into a maze of secrets that threatens her two children 19s lives as well as her own.

The secrets and horror are literally within the walls of the Rockwell House and the inhabitants of the building 26..More event takes place throughout the story such as: Rebecca, an eight-year old dies of a slow death unbeknownst to Caroline and her children, another young boy slowly dieing on a gurney in a unknown room in the basement, secret passages throughout the house, new familiar young visitors 19 at neighbors apartments, people acting stranger and some getting younger by the minute, and an album of photo 19s found going back four or five generations looking like the people who are living at the Rockwell House.

Caroline confronted Tony and was taken away when she became aware something was wrong but her son, locked away in his room, is determined to escape the terrors behind the walls and find his mother and save his sister and bring the Rockwell House down 26..

Good read, cross between fantasy/horror/suspense. Forgot how scary John's books can be; on par with Stephen King and Dean Koontz. This time dealing with energy vampies.

I'd give it 3.5. I thought it had a slow beginning but definitely picked up in the end. Also had some parts that genuinely freaked me out.