Join me as I review the ghost story "Hellfire" by John Saul for Pride month!

https://youtu.be/-__QAytlGzM

4.5 stars

The old mill has a horrific past, with the exploitation of child labour and the unimaginably shocking and cruel action of one man a century ago. There are unexplained incidents involving the mill which escalate when plans to develop the building begin in earnest and turn into something very dark and menacing as the terrible secrets kept locked away for so long are set free. This will be vengeance on a huge scale.

Carolyn Rogers married Philip Sturgess, the owner of the mill, after her divorce and she and her daughter, Beth, are now living at the Sturgess mansion with Philip’s daughter, Tracy, and his mother. Neither of them welcome Carolyn and Beth and make their lives miserable. I like the twist of Carolyn’s ex and current husband being good friends. The characters are easy to like, or not, as the case may be. Beth is lonely and struggling to fit in to her new life and because of this she believes she has made friends with Amy, the ghost of a child about her own age. Tracy is the stuff of nightmares and takes every opportunity to make cruel fun of Beth.

It’s a powerful story, very atmospheric, with emotions running high and wild, accentuated immeasurably by Luke Daniels’ performance.

The way the lives of the characters all seem to be entwined with the mill and what happened all those years ago is quite creepy. As the story unfolds it begs the question whether actions taken in the past could influence the lives of subsequent generations.

This is my first foray into John Saul’s work, but not my last, and his writing drew me in, the supernatural aspect was woven into the story really well. The ending was totally unexpected and horrifying and given the epilogue I’m surprised there hasn’t been a follow-up. Maybe Mr Saul like to leave the reader dangling, I’ll have to wait and see.

John Saul's books have always been deliciously creepy with just the right amount of morbidity. Hellfire was no different. It was very interesting and I found it extremely difficult to put it down. The story of the old mill grasped my attention, and having a child be the antagonist was very intriguing as well. The ending was surely shocking, and although it wasn't a very happy one, it was amazing all the same.

My aunt used to have piles of John Saul books at her cottage, and I remember reading quite a few in my youth. The vague memories that I had of his books were not good, and my memory did not deceive me. This novel of a haunted mill has mustache-twirling villains, overwrought characters/scenes/prose, and nonsensical motivations (I can only hope that the parents in the book are written as though they are good parents when in fact they are absolutely horrible examples of parenting because 'it had to be that way for the plot to work' – a stupid reason, but at least a literary one – and not because Mr. Saul actually believes that good parents behave the way these ones do.) So ridiculously over the top.

And it's not even creepy.

Great book!! A tragedy and kept me on the edge of my seat. I listened to this book via audible and I couldn't stop listening. It was amazing!!! The characters were well described and the storyline was well defined.

One of my favorite old horror paperbacks. Much scarier when I was younger but still a fun read. Also, one of my favorite John Saul covers.

John Saul is noticeably inferior to many of the big-name writers, and Stephen King has openly criticized his writing, but although his writing doesn't have the same power or finesse as King or Straub or ... must I say it, Dean Koontz ... he is more than capable of turning out a simple and entertaining story that takes us from point A to B. Sometimes, in the case of 'Hellfire', he even manages to scare us - or at least creep us out a little. But the best part of this book is that it continues to shock you - especially in the second half (and even more the ending!!!) with its number of casualties and violent revelations, which are delivered exceptionally well...

Loved this ghost story.

3.5⭐️

A decent horror story. Plenty of deaths, including some unexpected ones, and violence. I really felt for Beth and wished horrible things on Tracy and her grandmother.

*ACTUAL RATING: 2.5 stars*
Forgot to mark this book as finished.

When I first started reading this book, I liked it but as I progressed, I realized it wasn’t what I thought it would be. In the prologue, there were a few things I noticed that reminded me of Stranger Things which kept me interested (I would argue that the Duffer Brothers took some inspiration from this book). I wanted to like this book but I feel like it was too heavily focused on the family drama. There were so many times where the chapters just dragged on and on which made it hard to read. Tracy was a brat and I couldn’t stand her. This was the first John Saul book I’ve ever read and honestly I’m not sure if I’ll read any others.

An amazing read! I loved this book...each twist is mostly unexpected and is very thought provoking!