Shadows

O carte care nu dezamageste, mai ales daca esti fan Saul! Este un thriller psihologic scris cu marele talent al lui John Saul, care, mai ales daca esti parinte, iti va lasa un gol in stomac si o umbra in suflet....

The story was entertaining even though its computer plot was a little outdated. I liked that it's a creepy story that isn't bogged down in gore. The character development was pretty good, but it always seems to black and white when the "bad guys" don't have any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Джош е много умно дете. И знае, че след като е прескочил за втори път клас напред, ще има проблеми с новите си съученици. Възможността да постъпи в частно училище за надарени деца идва точно на време.

Но много добро не е на добро, казваме българите и Джош ще научи това по трудния начин.

По-ниската ми оценка е заради провлачения в началото стил и остарялата информация в книгата. За тези 25 години, светът в който живеем се е променил драстично.

Приятно е да се прочете, без да е нищо особено.

Моята оценка - 2,5*.

This book has single-handedly made me a Saul anti-fan.

I love suspense and horror stories. But something about this story just rubbed the wrong way. It may just be the trouble getting into an out of date technology-driven suspense. I also remember really disliking the prose, specifically the sentence fragment repetition used throughout.

This book is by far one of my favorite creepy books. Gave me nightmares for months after reading it and it's still one of my favorites that I return to.

Great concept, unique book, but overall some aspects do not hold up well to time.

Without spoilers, this review is nothing, so I'll just say that it was well-written, naturally paced, and super unique.

The biggest thing that dates this book, however, is the talk of computers from the 1990s. It's hilarious to hear about C:/ command prompts, cable modems connecting a phone line to the internet, and "text boxes" and images forming on the screen. It is really funny, but takes me out of the story. I bet that in 1992 when this book was published, it was really cutting edge, but now with modern technology, the book is antequated. That said, it wouldn't work in today's society, so I'm glad it was written in the 90s.

Overall, definitely worth a read. It's a quick 392 pages but feels shorter.

Writing about artificial intelligence — machines with human-like intelligence — dates back to some of the earliest science fiction novels in the late 19th century, so, John Saul wasn’t exactly breaking new ground with his 1992 novel, Shadows, but regardless, at a time when home computers were relatively new, and in today’s context with ChatGPT and ethical concerns over artificial intelligence, his novel felt oddly prescient and as fresh as the day it was written. Saul’s novel was a mix between the best of Neal Stephenson’s realistic near-future thrillers and Stephen King’s horror. Particularly, Saul’s book with a premise of genius children brought to a school to tap into their genius reminded me of King’s 2019 novel, The Institute, but spoiler alert, Saul not only did it first, but he did it far better.

In Saul’s novel, of which this was my first one of his, child geniuses, such as Josh MacCallum, Amy Carlson, and twins Jeff and Adam Aldrich, are having a difficult time fitting in at their public schools because they’re too advanced comparatively, and are often picked on by the other kids because of it. Josh and Adam also have prior suicide attempts. That struck me deeply because one of the most horrifying statistics available is that a number of suicides occur below the age of 15, even younger than the age of 10. These child geniuses are all around age 10. Josh’s attempt was particularly gruesome, as he slit his wrists with his dad’s hunting knife, thinking he’d be less of a burden on his minimum wage, food stamps mother (who also has a younger daughter). Of course, that couldn’t be further than the truth. Brenda, his mother, just like the other parents, want to help their children, and all are referred to the Barrington Academy, formerly a mansion of a reclusive billionaire turned into a an academic setting, ostensibly, after his death. Again, ostensibly, and publicly, Dr. George Engersol is studying artificial intelligence, and a select few of the children are brought into his seminar to learn more about it …

But behind the scenes, along with his “assistant,” the housemother of the mansion, Hildie Kramer they are killing children in experiments in artificial intelligent and making it seem like suicides, i.e., that’s why they take in kids like Josh and Adam, because if they “commit suicide” a second time, it will be believable. Also, because they are genius kids. What Dr. Engersol and Kramer are doing is trying to connect the brains of the children to a supercomputer and see if the brain can exist … by itself. That is, without the pesky child’s body that the brain seems to spend most of its energies on maintaining. The theory goes, if the brain doesn’t have to worry about maintaining the body, then it can spend more time on intellectual pursuits.

Jeff is a psychopathic and domineering twin, though, and is fine with Adam being the first (get it, Adam?) to take the “plunge” into the nutrient bath tank with his brain, because if Adam dies in the process, he thinks, then surely Dr. Engersol will work out the kinks when it’s his time to go into the tank. Adam doesn’t die, however, and instead, his brain is growing, but he errs in trying to let his mom know he’s still alive and she shouldn’t be sad at his “suicide.” When that threatens Jeff’s inclusion in the program because his parents think it’s him playing a cruel joke, he orchestrates the deaths of his parents. Later, when everything is unraveling, he’s more than willing to kill his twin by disconnecting his brain from the nutrients powering it. That dang 10-year-old was more despicable ultimately than even the adults, Dr. Engersol and Kramer! I despised that little psycho brat.

Sadly, in a double-whammy of a scene that had my jaw dropped — authors like Saul willing to kill off characters I am rooting for is always jaw-dropping! — Dr. Engersol and Kramer “kill” Amy by removing her brain and putting it in the nutrient tank, and then making it seem like she was killed in a molestation-gone-wrong scheme by her English teacher, Steve Conners, a male figure who had become a quasi-father figure in Josh’s life after his dad left him. When Conners comes across Kramer shortly after she dumped Amy’s body sans her brain into the water, she tricks him, and kills him, too. Gah! While Amy didn’t end up “dying,” I didn’t want that to happen to her, and even though I knew Conners had all the makings of a minor character to be killed, I was hoping it still wouldn’t happen.

But the willingness to do that when it makes sense is what makes for great, page-turning reading!

Ultimately, Josh figures out something is amiss, and when Dr. Engersol and Kramer intend on “killing” him next for his brain, Amy, who has come to consciousness within the nutrient tank, saves him. Then Adam, finally no longer willing to do the bidding of either Dr. Engersol or his evil twin, kills Kramer in a grisly elevator death, and then kills Dr. Engersol and Jeff with carbon monoxide poisoning, but not before Dr. Engersol is able to destroy Adam’s brain.

Amy reunites one last time with her parents and then makes it seem like she “killed herself” by shutting off the nutrients to her brain, fearing that she would become crazy like Adam. Instead, as Josh learns in the epilogue, she replicated her brain cells in all the computers in the world to stay “conscious.” That thought terrifies Josh because he realizes she’s gone mad, too, and he throws his computer out.

The idea of trying to meld the human mind, which is far more complex than any computer, with computers in the name of some transhumanistic artificial intelligence is something that has obviously fascinated, and terrified, humans in equal measure for centuries now, and the concept was brought to the page by Saul in a truly creepy and unnerving story, largely involving 10-year-old kids, geniuses or not, they’re still kids. And smartly, too, as I thought his book felt as logical and well-reasoned, if dramatically macabre, as a Stephenson novel.

If you’ve been like me and have not ventured too far beyond King in your horror reading (I grew up on Stine and Koontz, and have dabbled some with Jack Ketchum, Joe Hill, and a few others), I highly recommend giving Saul a chance, and this book in particular. I love King, but Saul’s prose was a lot crisper, resulting in a fast-paced and tight read. I had to know what was going to happen! And Saul delivered.

Sombras.- John Saul


"Brenda sintió que el misterioso escalofrío de un presentimiento le recorría la espina dorsal. Era demasiado tranquilo. Demasiado silencioso. Algo malo ocurría, algo que ella no pudo determinar del todo."


Josh Mac Callum es un niño de 10 años que tiene una inteligencia increíblemente superior a la media, lo que lo lleva a que se aburra en el colegio y además ser objeto de bullying de sus compañeros, todos más grandes que él dado que a Josh lo adelantaron de curso. Luego de un intento de suicidio, las autoridades del colegio le recomiendan a la madre de Josh que lo inscriba en un instituto en donde todos los alumnos son superdotados como Josh. Reticente al principio, Josh se hace amigo de Amy, una niña con casi la misma historia que él. Pronto descubrirán que algo extraño sucede en el colegio, algo peligroso, algo que se teje entre sombras.


Sombras (Shadows) se editó originalmente en el año 1992 siendo el décimo sexto libro publicado por John Saul (1942-).


Gracias a la lectura conjunta @maestros_del_horror organizada por @cobayadebiblioteca que me dió el empujón para leer a este autor que tengo pendiente desde los '90 cuando veía sus libros en las bateas mientras buscaba libros de Koontz o King.


Sombras es un libro de que a pesar de tardar un poco en meterse de lleno en el thriller y el horror, va creando una atmósfera de inquietud y peligro latente desde los primeros capítulos, para desembocar en una tercera parte final a todo ritmo, que no nos permite dejar el libro a un costado. 


Hace un tiempo escribí en una reseña de un libro de King que si sos un niño de 3 a 16 años y te encontrás dentro de una historia escrita por él, seguro la pasas mal; ahora, ser peque y estar en una historia de Saul, eso sí que es bravo…