i read this book in the 6th grade and nothing could’ve prepared me for what was about to happen. i picked this book up because we had to read a book for our intervention class and the one provided looked so boring. in the bottom of a bin of books sat this one in just a plain black hard cover and it was a wild ride from start to finish but i loved it! it’s such a good read i really enjoyed it for how crazy it was to my like 11/12 year old brain would love to reread it again

On no....

I'm jaded said the reader. But it's a good author, the book has such promise. Promises are meant to be broken. Isn't that the cliche' ? Wishing this was more than a formulaic storyline.

4.9/5

Second Child was one of the best books I've ever read.
It was a while back, but I certainly remember it being a page-turner, and creepy at the same time. It was a great, great book. I recommend it!!

Never heard of this author before I read this book but I think I’ll be looking into more of his stuff. Good book that was disturbing without being too crazy. I enjoyed it, good pallet cleanser between the books in my current series.

una novela de suspenso , con algunas partes de terror , es interesante la historia que se va desarrollando a través de los capítulos con los personajes de Teri y Melissa y su relacion, tiene toque paranormales que están bien escritos aunque no muchos,
me gusto aunque seria un 3.5 estrellas

'A book that made me cry' is the one line review that I would give this book.

I was going through a rough phase of my life when I read this book and desperately wanted diversion. It is one of the few books that made my forget my life for a moment.

I think this book and this author both deserve more recognition than they get currently.

I could not for the life of me put this book down! I found some elements to be too predictable which is the only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5. But even with the predictability I still LOVED this book! I absolutely needed to know what happened to Melissa in the end, I found her character so relatable (like reading about 13 year old me). A definite recommendation for anyone that loves a good horror genre book.

Just finished this tonight. It was.....fine. I've seen far more horror movies than read horror books, but I was an avid fan of fantasy and sci-fi novels in the past, so I know good - and bad - writing when I see it.

This novel had much less supernatural horror than I thought it would be from the description on the jacket. It's 99% child abuse, 1% supernatural story. Not really what I was in it for, but the evil characters were SO evil, that I plunged on through to see their comeuppance.

One of them got a pretty good one (though I expected a great deal more), and the other - the main abuser - ended up with pretty much a slap on the hand for everything she did TO HER OWN DAUGHTER!

What's worse is how deeply clueless the father - who supposedly loves his daughter more than anything, but not in an inappropriate way - is to all the abuse his wife is visiting on their kid. I just....I can't even. It's so bizarre.

Anyways, it was...fine. But I was honestly hoping for something a bit more robust. (Maybe I'm way too used to Stephen King's style of writing horror.)

I don't know if John Saul wrote this as a kind of PSA for child abuse or what, but it was a very odd take. I may have to write my own version of a second epilogue, though, just to feel satisfied about the end.

Second Child is the first John Saul novel I've ever read and it is well-written and entertaining. It starts off strong with a shocking scene. There are a few grisly episodes throughout but it's basically a gaslighting novel with a lovely supernatural undertone. There are two characters in particular, Phyllis and Teri, that were so mean that I found myself hoping that they would receive comeuppance by novel's end. Saul subverted my expectations and the novel ended not at all like I expected, but ended gratifyingly nonetheless. An absolutely solid, engaging, thrilling horror book.

i first read this back in the 90's it was the 1st book of his i ever read i had never even heard of the guy before but this one, this one is my all time favorite of his i've read it many times and i still love it

Despite the fact that I'm not a fan of horror as a genre, Second Child was a page-turner. The suspense was slowly ratcheted up, page by page, chapter by chapter. When horrible things did happen, they weren't indulgent but rather left you pondering their significance. My only frustration was over what was at times the convenient apathy of the characters at the events happening around them.

To my delight, the ending left itself open to interpretation, reinforcing the mysterious nature of the whole story. Saul purposefully doesn't handhold the reader and provide an explanation. In keeping with the spirit of the book, the ending left me wondering about whom the title actually refers to.