Fast moving

I tried, but I’ve just been so bored for the entire journey.
I can’t do it

Nice twist.

disappointing ending

Barely 2 stars. Fairly good idea for a book but the writing didn't have a good flow. It was bland and often trite and gave me a headache. This was my first John Saul book and I'll have to be beyond bored with nothing else to read before I pick up another of his, even though I have 5 more of his in my library. This book could have been a lot better with a minimal rewrite. There just was no flow to the prose.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Nightshade. Years ago, I inherited a pretty impressive collection of John Saul books. (Like, I've never been that loyal to a single author.) But I only read 3 or 4 before they started to all feel kind of the same. It's been a few years, but Nightshade felt like it had a lot of personality in comparison to what I remember of the others. I felt pretty invested in Joan and Matt's family history and mysteries. And I thought the horror elements were set up well too. The overall mix of mental illness or possession or a mix of the two... I think it was just realistic enough to be genuinely scary at times, and not just creepy.

I did not enjoy this book. so much secrecy about what was really going on, and it had a creepy feel to it. not creepy as in scary or "ooh, this is creeping me out in a good way" but more of a dirty creepy "I don't really even want to touch this book" sort of way. the ending was disappointing, and I felt cheated after suffering through the whole book.

Not my normal genre but I enjoyed. I may have to give author John Saul some time.

This is a psychological thriller, not the type of book I normally read, so my review may be tainted by that fact.

The story focuses on the Moore family who live in Hapgood House in rural New Hampshire, a large house that has been in the family for several generations. Fifteen-year-old Matt lives with his mother Joan who loves him dearly and his stepfather Bill Hapgood, who treats him like his own son. After Matt’s grandmother Emily who has Alzheimer’s, sets fire to her own home, she moves in with her daughter Joan. She is a difficult woman and the two have never had an easy relationship. Joan always felt her mother favored her older sister Cynthia who was beautiful, but died tragically over fifteen years ago.

After Emily moves in, she asks Joan to change her bedroom back to the way it looked when Cynthia was alive. Then unusual things begin to happen. Matt who often had nightmares, begins having erotic dreams involving nightly visits from his dead Aunt Cynthia. The tensions caused by Emily’s weird behavior drive a wedge between Joan and Bill and eventually become so contentious, Bill moves out. Shortly after, Bill is killed while deer hunting with Matt and some believe Matt is involved in the crime, although he remembers nothing about the incident. Then Matt’s girlfriends begin disappearing, and his grandmother Emily also goes missing.

I don’t usually read these kinds of books with supernatural beings, ghosts and demons in them, but every once in a while, I try to stretch myself and pick one up. However, I found so much of this book just a twisted ludicrous story about a truly messed up family, I had difficulty finishing it. It is filled with murder, flashbacks, child abuse and incest and I find hard to understand how anyone would find such a book an entertaining read.

i really liked this book !!!! from start to finish i just wanted to keep reading

This Book is called Nightshade, and it is written by one of my favorite authours; John Saul. The book is quite good i thought. The beggining was really slow, but when you realize what's about to happen in the story it really gets good! The book is about a boy named Matt Moore, who has the perfect life. Good grades, tons of friends, loving family, captain of the football team and gets the prettiest girl in the whole school to like him. Matt had it all in till his grandmother came to live with him.

She wasnt like any typical grandmother, in that she had parkinson's diease. The would shout and yell at everyone in the family, especially at his mom. She yelled because she wasnt like her sister Cynthia. Who was gone for atleast ten years, expected to be back by Matt's grandmother, but in reality she had been dead for 10 years. Throughout the book the ghost of Cynthia haunts Matt's mind making him do tragic things he would never do anywhere else.

John Saul puts a clear, but very dark and drery picture inside your head when you read. You can also notice that he is writting not to scare you, but to tell a story about tragic events through Matt's eyes. I recomend this book to anybody who likes a big twist at the end, I would have never thought that what happend, was going to. I also recomend it to anyone who like the topic of ghosts. Its a good book and is easily diseriving of the five star rating I gave it.

Solid, nothing earth shattering here, probably more a 3.5 but round up