One of my first horror novels was by John Saul, and I loved it. When I had to pick a horror novel from the 1980s for a reading challenge, I decided to see if his writing still holds up today. It does! I really enjoy books about "creatures," and this one did not disappoint. As with most horror novels, the scariest element is the humans. Also, I have to say the ending full of action and surprises...and even sweet. When you read it, you'll see.

Welcome to Silverdale, where the All-American dream lives in the hearts of dads who want nothing more than see their wimpy kids turn into football heroes. The tech company which lords over the model town obliges, providing the local team with a sports clinic featuring a mad scientist who injects the slackers and the nerds with experimental growth hormones and vitamins, turning stringy teenagers into burly men and eventually something less human.

While the dads, mid-level managers with such paternal monikers as Chuck or Blake, are all in on it, the moms are smarter and more protective of their offspring. Initially the hormones work, but with great power come violent tempers, less human behaviour and actual changes in bone structure. Creature might be easily considered a satire of the American obsession with football and sports heroics in general, all rooted in violent, animalistic behaviour.

Saul is often derided as a hack, a writer so poor a high school kid could churn out novels like his. And they all have toddlers in peril! Well there're no young kids here, mostly just teenagers, and the writing is fine. The plot itself is also alright, similar in tone to something Dean Koontz or Bentley Little might've produced. Where Saul falters is character development, mostly adhering to cliches, none more so than Dr. Ames the mad scientist, who is barely more than a cartoon villain. The sexual roles are also quaint, with dads being dads and moms being moms.

On the other hand, the novel takes a fairly tragic turn towards the end. There's no happy ending here for the main character, Mark the newcomer, who also gets injected with Dr. Ames' cocktail of instant manhood. As if killing his own dog and trying to murder his mom isn't enough, Mark ends the novel escaping into the wilderness, not a kid anymore, but neither a man. Just an animal, another victim, wandering the mountains and forlornly looking towards a life that's now forever lost. Thanks, dad!

Creature, by John Saul, was a fun horror story about a town that appears to be too perfect and reveals the malignant machinations going on behind the scenes. I particularly enjoyed that John Saul would write a person's first and last name several times in the book, which allowed me to follow the characters in the book effortlessly. The ending held a surprising death or two, but it also left me a little sad.

Wow I must say I am torn, it has been 10 years since I last read this book, and I no longer feel it is a 5 star novel. This is the book that got me into books, it is the reason I read today. I think it could still have that kind of impact on a younger person. It's not a child or teen book I just think they are less concerned with the less than original parts of this book. The 'always evil big corporation' the 'too perfect town' these are things I have seen hundreds of times since. I guess I can't say those are the reasons I don't love this book as much as I did. I am not smart enough to come up with a better word, but I am getting to be a bit of a snob. The 'classics' have changed the way I like a book to be written I think. There are new books that capture that style for me, this isn't one of them and so at this point in my life I would give Creature a 3.5 - 4.0 But will still recommend it to anyone who was looking for a great book that, even now, brings some rarely seen twists. And so with all that I must say, for the improvement to my life that books have brought me, I will keep this as a 5/5 in hopes that it might help some one else to see the light, put down their controller and pick up a goodread.

Like reading a great 80s B-rated horror movie

2.5.

A middling potboiler creature feature that isn't bad enough to be entertaining, nor good enough to be worth recommending. In every way it's a product of the '80s horror paperback boom that spawned it.

I’ve read this book many times over the years and I was presently surprised that I had forgotten so many of the details. It made the reading just as suspenseful for me. It has been years since I read it last, but every time I pick up the book it’s like driving back into Silverdale to hangout with the Tanners in this almost too perfect little town.
To me John Saul is a classic horror, suspense, and thriller author. Seeing as how this book was published the year 1989, I guess it is an honest classic. I just really like how he writes. He builds the suspense in a scene and then changes scenes at just the right moment. He keeps the thrill up by revealing just enough horror as you go. His world building and character building are really good. You feel like you’re really in Silverdale, walking the streets, cheering on the amazing football team; an almost too perfect football team. I also love that John Saul pits technology and nature or nature and the paranormal against one another in his books. This is another reason I think his books are classics.
This book will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first “grownup” chapter book I ever read.

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Oct. 2013 Review:
Mr. Saul kept me going with this book! I didn't want to put it down! I first read it in high school and then again last year. The storyline of this book is amazing. There are many twists in the book that will keep you going and wondering what will happen next! Such a great read!

So, so good!!! Excellent idea exceptionally put together. A beautiful book by another master of monsters.

1.5 stars rounded up.

For 300 pages, nothing happens in this book. And then everything happens in 30 pages at the end.

If what happened on page 319, the Creatures being set free, happened on page 150, we might have had a story.

It's almost as if his editor went: "Ugh, John, there's nothing here. Let's wrap it up and try to release it."

Great read! Suspenseful and very well written.

La criatura John saul
Tres estrellas y media

John saul es un autor que se destaca por contar historias algo grotescas de las cuales participan niños.
En la criatura la familia Tanner se muda a silverdale un pueblo bonito que se destaca por niños bien desarrollados y con una alimentación sana. La historia de centra en su personaje principal Mark , el típico adolescente estado unidense que quiere encajar en la escuela secundaria.
En tanto a la trama y su manejo , es atrapante, aunque en un principio no da indicios de una novela de horror, si no más bien de suspenso. El autor detalla bien la trama como si fuera una mini serie de los 80.
Si bien este libro no es de terror extremo me sumergió en una distopia, ¿dónde puede llegar la ciencia , la ética en tanto la medicina y lo que consumimos los seres humanos? A un nivel de un dr menguele moderno, Marty Ames un doctor increíblemente sin escrúpulos, con su empresa millonaria tapando y sometiendo a todo el pueblo a costa de ganancias y beneficios como si fuese una conspiración demoníaca en donde se esconde una trama que da mucho para pensar acerca de lo que consumimos y quiénes están detrás.
Los ajetreos , la desesperanza y la desesperación por los seres queridos de los niños sometidos a estos experimentos fue impactante, lo sentí en carne propia y fue lo que más me motivo a seguir con la lectura.
El final estuvo bien, con bastantes cosas inesperadas.
Es el segundo libro que leo del autor y seguiré con más , por qué la verdad me gustó muchísimo este libro.

AWFUL! Super lame.