This is a very good book, I actually finished this awhile ago but didn't have a chance to come on and write my review. It's amazing all the way through, the ending is a little different then what I was thinking it was going to end but it was good. a must read.

When Blake Tanner accepts a promotion at TarrenTech they relocate him to an idyllic company town nestled in the Rocky Mountain. The town is postcard perfect, maybe too perfect. The high school football team never loses. The players are perfect specimens of health and athleticism. It seems the team’s sports clinic holds the key, but a sense of unnerving dread slowly begins to build as the perfect facade begins to fall away and expose a horror beyond imagining.

This was the first John Saul novel I ever read, and it still holds up 25 years later. If you want to know what happens when you try to improve on Mother Nature, Saul reminds us of the awesome (or awful) consequences.

I read this book as a child and spent years searching for it again. I recently rediscovered it and was thrilled to reread it. Though not exactly as I remembered it, it is indeed the book I remember from my youth.

Silverdale, Colorado is almost too good to be true, especially the high school football team. The boys are bigger and stronger than most kids, and the sports center they use for training is state of the art. But is the training and vitamin regimen the doctor has them on really harmless?

I definitely had to keep in mind the time frame when this was written, as much of what happened would never fly the way it did these days. It was still an enjoyable read.

I am very on the fence about this book. On one hand, there are some decent elements and scenes. On the other...

I will say it was an easy and breezy read, perfect for anyone looking for a book to kill time at the airport or wherever, but ultimately, I just thought it was okay overall.

This is my first book by Saul. I'm willing to give him one more chance (especially since a friend already purchased another book by Saul for me to read), but not sure I'll go beyond that.

Interesting concept. Makes me wonder if such research has been done in the past. I felt bad for Kelly but overall it was expected something bad would happen to her family as those doing the experiments would not want their secrets to be revealed.

This was the second John Saul book I read and I enjoyed it a lot more that the first one ( Suffer the Children ). The characters are more developed and easier to sympathize with, at least most of them (I notice a theme of crappy parents/parent in his books so far). The book keeps a good pace going and although there were a couple parts that seemed to be "quick fixes" to elements of the story overall I enjoyed it. The story is a lot darker that some other more well known horror author's stories and its an nice change. I would recommend this book. After reading this book I will for sure be reading another John Saul book. Hopefully the next book will be as enjoyable as this one.

This book was great.

I really got attached to Mark, the main character, who, in my opinion, is a perfect example of a shy, good male character. Most authors don't understand the thin (but still existing) line between a shy, good male character and a girl. He was a pretty much complex character thorn between his father's ambitions and his love for nature and animals. I felt sorry for him at the beginning, but as the story moved on, he became much more admirable than pitiable. On the other hand I hated almost every other male character than Mark. I don't know if it was the crazy town or if Saul wanted to point out that Mark was very different from the people around him, or he just wanted us to sympathize Mark only, but if that was Saul's intention, he captured it well.

Now, the writing could have been improved, and when I say that, I mean that it was great as long as you don't compare it with King's. It couldn't be called a page turner, but I can't say I wasn't interested in what was going to happen. It was average writing, with an interesting story and well made characters. One of my friends said that Saul is one of the best in the horror genre, and I can say I approve (even though I know she said that just to brag because she bought around 6 books by him that she didn't even bother to read... >.> ikr).

All that being said, this was a great read, I'm giving this book 5 stars, and I definitely will be reading more of Saul's books.

I think I would've found this Stepford Wives/Frankentstein knock-off more entertaining as a teenager. As an adult, it reads like a YA novel but doesn't bring anything new to the table.

In the realm of horror fiction, there's Lovecraft, then King, then Koontz, and at the bottom of the totem pole is Saul. He writes about children in peril, but doesn't allow the reader much room to emphasize with his characters; it's all emotional manipulation.

He takes the anabolic steroid scandals of the 1980s and 1990s and weaves them into a story about teenagers being given "synthetic vitamins" and turning into monsters. It's not horribly bad, but it's not good either; it's the literary equivalent of a B-movie.

Un thriller anni novanta, di quelli che piacciono a me, rovinato in un modo orrendo da una traduzione letteralmente "letterale".
Si fa fatica a capire le frasi, a capire il senso...senza contare le chicche come vado a preparare una pentola di caffè.
Quello che mi pare strano è che negli anni novanta non ci sia stata per questo romanzo una revisione della traduzione.
Visto che ne ho ancora molti da leggere di libri scritti in quel decennio, prima di iniziarne uno leggerò il nome del traduttore.

I loved this horror novel! Juiced up mutant high school football player experiments gone wrong and secret lab shenanigans. It screams 80's, so sign me up!

This is a strange book. It's certainly not a good book, but it defintiely isn't *bad*, either. The characters all seem sketched out, no real depth to them, and the writing is similar to a YA horror novel by a not-very-good author. It feels like you're reading a story by Stephen King, written when he was fifteen or sixteen. The women are portrayed as generally subservient to their men, the typical Leave It To Beaver, apple pie housewife, and the few who manage (who dare?) to break out of this role meet with swift and decisive consequences. The author does succeed in conveying a sense of Stepford-y perfection to the town of Silverdale, and the last 80 pages or so are actually pretty action-packed, and move along swiftly. Getting to that point in the story, however, is a bit of a slog. It's a good concept, and could have been a great story in the right hands.