Y'all, this was a good book. It was horror in a classic form. The creepy mood felt overpowering to the point where even I felt the chill of the house and the influence of Cynthia. This is a great read if you appreciate a mood more than lots of in-your-face action.

The characters in this book are very frustrating, it took me so long to read it cuz I kept getting mad LOL but overall it was a solid book

This book was very long and drawn out and I felt like I couldn't really get to know any of the characters very well...my least fav of John Sauls novels. I felt like I wanted to stop reading it because I was getting so annoyed and just done w/it...but I had to finish to find out what exactly was going on. The ending was not what I expected and really did not like it at all.

I found this book at a half price bookstore for one dollar. It has been sitting on my shelf for awhile and I finally got a chance to crack it open and start reading it. It was so engrossing that I finished it in two days!


SPOILER ALERT


There were several elements that made the book interesting. At the beginning, life is wonderful for Matt and Joan. Granite Falls begins a quiet tight knit community. I love how the author portrays the facade that everyone puts out in public and how that is contrasted with the secrets people keep behind the closed doors of their homes as the story unfolds. It is also interesting how the evil presence ("Cynthia") spreads as the story unfolds. Once Matt is caused to shoot his stepfather his life is the first to deteriorate. Saul does an excellent job depicting the isolation Matt feels and how it hangs on him heavier as the story continues.
Saul inserts flashbacks in the story in such a way as to draw you into Joan's fragile mental state. I am unsure if Joan was actually possessed by the spirit of her dead sister, or if she gradually developed an alternate personality that manifested itself as Cynthia. It was a surprise to me towards the end of the story when Joan openly begins switching from one to another.
There is an overall haunting depicted in this story that is unlike others that I have read before. The scent of "Nightshade" (Cynthia's perfume of choice prior to her death) that arises throughout the story as Cynthia begins to appear more openly added an ethereal strangeness to the story that made it more frightening to me. It has been a long time since I read a story that continued to hang on me after I finished reading and closed the book. As Matt's nightmares continue and become more frequent, and the town becomes more hostile towards him, it adds a sort of overwhelmingness (is that a word?...maybe dark heaviness?) that pulls you through the story becuase you need to shed it.


This was a great book and my little review of it does not equal experiencing it for yourself.

My second John Saul book

I read Suffer the Children as a teenager and it stayed with me all my life. This one, however, did not have the same impact. It was well written and easy to read, but just didn't have the oomph I was hoping for.

Creepy book but very good. Not for the faint hearted. A book about two sisters. One sister was the pretty popular, mom's favorite. The other sister was the hated one. Oh, and the evil weird mother. She was the cause of all the misery, but the first sister was the evil one, blamed everything on the younger sister.

Saul is a competent writer. Although his style staggers some when he attempts to get prosaic (I'm thinking of the dozen or so times he tries to describe the pretty sunsets/weather in the book), his craft is not bad. It isn't exceptionally good, but it doesn't grate. It gets the job done, and to that end, I applaud his workmanship.

The plot of this particular tale, however, is nothing more than a hastily strung together conglomeration of stories that have been done to death before him, and done better. Even for a reader searching for nothing more than a good, diverting tale, this book is unfullfilling.

What you have here, essentially, is a ghost story featuring young high-schooler Matt Moore, and his stressed and depressed mother, Joan, both of whom are alternately plagued by Joan's vicious mother, Emily, the spectre of Joan's dead sister, Cynthia, and an entire town's hate and accusations, once the bodies start piling up (or, in most cases, just disappearing).

Rote and tired tales can still be done well, but in this case, Saul has diluted the strength of his story with dull repetition (Matt's inner dialogues of self-doubt, for example, occur far too often and compose a good 1/6th of the 400 pg book), clumsy editing, and a few rather silly plot contrivances (I'm thinking of the final explanation for the deer hunting accident). He does a great job of setting up audience sympathies (particularly when he relates Emily's unmotherly tendency towards violence, and when he shows us the townsfolk's unfounded hatred of Matt), but those sympathies are betrayed by an ending that is watered down and, alternately, unnecessary. Especially the last three pages.

If you want a good ghost story, try King's Bag of Bones. At the very least, don't try here. No offense, Saul. But, hey, you gave it a good shot.

Enjoyable and interesting plot that slowly unravels. In all I would say that the outcome is somewhat predictable as you progress through the story but actually this does not take away from a story that left me feeling satisfied whilst still asking some questions (or what ifs) that made me think about eh story in some more detail. My first John Saul book and I am planning to read some more after this.

Freaky and Good

Best John Saul novel I ever read. Still classic Saul, but freakier and better than most, a fun ride from start to finish.

Another great read about one messed up family!! A family with tons of secrets! The thing that this was missing in the supernatural aspect.....or; was there one?

So with this being written in 2000, it reads like a book from the early 80's in that vein of 'Flowers in The Attic', but Saul wrote unlike anyone else.

When 15 year old Matt's grandmother moves into the family home after losing her house to a mysterious fire; Matt's life is about to turn the fuck up side down, and he will learn things about his family that he would of and could have never guessed!! The creep factor in this one was not as intense as 'The Right Hand of Evil' which i read before this one, but it was still a creepy and fun read. This book was a lot more predictable, and as i got further and further....it all came back to me again. OMFG did that sound like a Celine Dion song!? lol.

Very twisted. How this whole story turned out completely threw me for a loop. 3 stars because there were parts i would drift off because sometimes it didn't really hold my attention. I recommend to someone nonetheless.

WOW. I've never read anything by this author before and honestly picked it up at a thrift store out of curiosity, but OH MY GOD! It is a really great book. It's well written and the plot is well thought out. The ending ties everything up nicely. AND WHAT AN ENDING IT IS! I enjoyed the whole book, but the last several chapters had me on the edge of my seat. Go check it out of a library and read it for yourself. It's a great read.