book choice for Saul group.

Isolated town. Newcomer family. Football team that never loses. Sports center funded by a wealthy company. Experiments on kids.

Nothing new but Saul tells the story so well I'm giving him 4 stars. Won't he be thrilled? I also teared up at the end! And who the hell cries over a horror story? Niiiiiice. (bumps fist with Chia)

"And you believed it," Ames replied, his voice hard. "You believed it because you wanted to believe it. You wanted to believe in magic - in a miracle with no price - but there isn't any such thing! There is only science, and experimentation, and a lot of failure before you find success. And there's always a price, Collins." His voice dropped slightly and a cold smile twisted his lips. "Do you really think the lives of a few boys are too high a price for what TarrenTech and I have given this town?"

Ah, yes. Mad scientist stuff here. Science run amok! Turning regular teenage boys into human beasts that crush opposing football teams and, okay yeah, maybe maim and kill a few people along the way. That's what you've got here in this late 80s novel from John Saul. It's not exactly horror and it's not exactly science fiction. It's more a YA and Lifetime than a horror novel. Nothing gory here. 80s high school opera. Not bad, not great. It took a long time for anything really to happen, then it happens fast. Another vintage book for the October season.

I read Creature during my senior year of high school. The best thing I can say about it was it passed the time in study hall.

Unusual story that involves a large corporation experimenting with the lives of the local football team. Unfortunately the drugs players were given had turned them into something far beyond elite athletes.

John Saul might be my next horror author of interest. His pacing was good and I loved his transitions between character perspectives. Yet the crux of the conflict was too fast for me. I wanted even more suspense! The back of the book had some samples of his other work which I'll definitely add to my list. Saul is graphic though and uses it often. I don't know how I didn't have nightmares reading before bed.

I read this in 11th grade. Most memorable book of high school

I wasn't originally planning to write a review but after seeing some of other people's comments I decided to add some of my own points. First of all, I love the premise and, though the writing was a bit juvenile with quite a few typos that I caught, I thought it was well written for what it was. The pacing was a bit off and the foreshadowing quite heavy handed as I already knew what would end up happening within a couple of chapters. I spent the majority of the book wondering when things would start to happen and was disappointed to find that most of the book was just building up for a reveal I knew was coming. I was almost ready to put it away but decided to push through, though, and was rewarded by the climax and the bittersweet ending. The consistent motifs of changing/not changing were peppered heavily throughout the opening chapters especially when describing the boys on the football team. Also, the idea of perfection is heavily blared whenever speaking about Silverdale, almost too perfect.
Beyond this point I will be covering spoiler material so do take caution if you decide to read farther.

The town of Silverdale Colorado is picture perfect; everybody fits into the ecosystem that TarrenTech has built, and nothing goes wrong, that is until the Tanners move in. Quickly the main character Mark realizes he doesn't fit in, even with his best friend Robb Harris who moved there three years prior. Insert multiple references to change and how big Robb has gotten, along with Jeff LaConner's sudden change in mood and you have the first half of the book mapped out for you. Linda Harris breaks up with Jeff which prompts a outburst of rage in which he shakes her, runs home, then after getting in a fight with his mother pushes her down breaking her arm. After this Jeff runs to Rocky Mountain High, a sports center where Marty Ames conducts his research. Jeff is given some sedatives and something to fix the problem and is back to normal the next day. His mother Charlotte doesn't like the change and begins protesting about it which only ends up making her look crazy. Seriously who would think that her son was being used like a lab animal, nobody, right? Sharon Tanner, who has picked up an uneasy feeling about the perfection of the city picks up on this and continues the role as the one chink in the wall that TarrenTech had built around the city when Charlotte is taken away later on after Jef goes completely off the hinges. Jeff acts normal for a while then goes psycho on Mark who began going out with Linda after they broke up. This is the lynchpin of the story as after Jeff runs off to be captured later Mark is brought to the county hospital (the only place in the city not run by TarrenTech) where he is treated for his injuries before being sent to the sports clinic where Ames uses Mark in his experiment. Mark's parents fight over his being sent there and the fighting grows as Mark does and his temper begins to sour. Sharon decides to get to the bottom of everything, steal two rats one normal and another with a growth hormone which she shows to the doctor at the hospital who subsequently gets killed by a tractor trailer "accidently." After a confrontation with his mother, Mark is overcome with rage direct towards his mother with subliminal messages courtesy of Ames. His dog jumps in to protect her and Mark strangles it which snaps him out of the rage momentarily and runs to his room to destroy it. The next day at school Mark begins getting sharp pains in his head which triggers another outburst of rage, and he is sent to the clinic where he is put in a cage alongside Jeff and another failed experiment, Randy Stevens. That same day after learning of the doctor's demise she decides to run away with her children and goes to the school to be told by the receptionist that he was taken away to the clinic. she rushes over there and after confronting Ames gets taken away. Around this time Mark's father Blake is called into his superior's office where he is given the news and a job offer with a large pay bump, after refusing he is also taken to the lab. The boys break out of their cages and Jeff and Randy go after Ames while Mark saves his mother. Blake tries to run away from the guards in the chaos and jumps onto an electric fence. Both boys get shot to death while Mark and his mother escape up to the ski resort. After running for a while Sharon sacrifices herself for Mark to escape. After a few days a funeral was held for all three despite Mark still being alive, which the last remaining Tanner, Kelly, figures out. Mark comes down from the mountain, indirectly kills Ames and the football coach, and interacts with the girls before running off back into the woods.

As far as nitpicking goes there were two instances where the wrong name was used and a couple standard typos which are understandable for a lower publication such as this. Also, I may be biased but this was nowhere near as good as the other book I have read Second Child. It felt like a quick cheap read with some extra story added to make it worthwhile. Overall, 3.5/5 with the major problem I have with it being the overuse of foreshadowing and the simple structure leading a long way to a somewhat worthwhile conclusion.

2.5 star
I've never read, or even heard of John Saul, but this was a pick for my book club. This book was a little dated, but even though the story wasn't something I'd normally read, it wasn't too bad. The book picked up in the second half, and I liked the ending.

My first John Saul book. So, first let's talk about why I've read it and where does it integrate. I have some horror writers that I try to read everything and since are mostly solo novels they are good pallete cleansers between other novels. My first two finds were Bentley Little and Brian Keene. Then was Tim Curran, Richard Laymon and now this guy. I have other writers, like RA Salvatore's Drizzt (fantasy) , or Kikuchi with Vampire Hunter D. After watching a couple of videos and reviews I thought to add a couple more this year. One was Michael & Kathleen Gear (I consider them a one) other was Louis L'Amour, The Conan Books (the ones published not by Howard), Star Wars novels and the last was Gor books. I read them at least one per month, sometimes more. They are "safe" readers/reads.

So, this book follows a family as they are going "up" in life as the husband being transferred to a elite place where the top dogs from that company go. It's a idyllic town that sprang up do to the company and everyone works in the company. The company works in every branch you can imagine . The father is Blake, the mother Sharon, the son Mark & the little sister is Kelly. The boy had some health issues and so it is on small side. Blake wants his son to be on the football team with no avail since the boy is so small. The football team (football as American football not the real football played with feet) is the major focus on that small town and their players are the best in the state. One is Jeff which dates Linda , one of the cheerleaders. Linda is an old friend of Mark and as soon as she encounters she is enamoured by him and we get some teen triangle, love stuff. All good, slice of life. So, when Mark suffers from being small (not going to spoil why) his father puts him in a program for the company and soon he starts to develop some muscles, but his demeanour changes, a lot.

First of all, this is not horror. This is at most a thriller novel, at least is a slice of life. Most of the book is basically dealing with Mark development from a very conscious , heartful and loveable to, well a creature. But since this change only happens around page 200, the first 200 is indeed slice of life. There are some thriller (very small horror) moments.

So what's bad, good, and why should you read or not?
- The character development of both Mark and Jeff are quite good. Sharon is home-wife but when she has to put aside that and fight for her family and son she will be a rabid dog. Blake and most of other workers are quite bland and look like American psycho vice-presidents (all the same ). The evil characters - and there are a couple of them - are truly evil. They will go to where they should go to make their point or goal across. There is no greyness. There is nothing in-between. You are either good or bad.
- The bad, well, the characters are well development but they sure make mistakes and are dumb at times. The changes on Mark were too fast, but since we already were on page 250 what would you expect. I hoped for more romance on Linda & Mark, didn't get one. One thing that upset me, and I am not woke at all, is the other female characters are just boring, submissive housewives. This book was written in 1989 so there's that.
- The Ending was very good and very saturday afternoon flick. I didn't , at least one death and was really what?? I was shocked BUT happy. I don't like writers like Dean Koontz that play safe and you know the main /side characters are not going to die. It's boring an predictable. Here it was not. The ending was interesting but expected.

Should you read?
Having not read anything by this author I Would say it's a nice start. There are way better books out there. Being under 320 pages is small so you won't lose anything. IF you want character development then yes. IF you want action and horror, then don't. 7.5/10

I found the book very enjoyable and a page-turner, with likable characters. The writing is a bit dry, and the book feels like it goes on forever as it wraps up, but it’s still worth the read.

Another quality read by Saul. Excellent imagery and detailed writing throughout to control the reader to never put the book down. Is a classic style horror with a frankenstein ora mixed in, alsoa had an unpredictable ending! 4.9/5

The ending is good, and funny/stupid, and Saul's interpretation of the semi-colon's function is frequently creative. But this is a bad book. The best thing I can say about this book is, I got it very cheaply at HPB but it had never been read and I kept sticking my face in it and smelling the pages. The book is bad, yes, but also somehow comforting. If you took out a hundred pages of pointless exposition and shaved down some of the more egregiously redundant prose, it would be like a cool pulp story with a good, stupid, funny ending. But that's the difference between borderline-entertaining airport novels and good pulp fiction. I would watch a movie of this if it was made in 1996 and featured Craig Wasson as blandly evil Dr. Martin Ames, or blandly complicit football coach Phil Collins, or even blandly hapless sad beta dad Blake Tanner.