Passable - I expected more of this, but in the end it was predictably enough.

A good story but far longer than it needed to be and some annoying typos

Scary and devastating! Evil!

This was my first John Saul, and it was more or less an easy to read book, I'd rank as an average to above average thriller in the same style and genre as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. If Koontz is sometimes referred to as the poor-man's Stephen King, then maybe Saul is the poor man's Dean Koontz? This is one of those easy "beach reads" that flies by quick and is filled with copious amounts of short paragraphs. It almost reads like a screenplay at times. That's not necessarily bad, just know what you're getting into.

The reason King is still the horror master in my mind (and I'd throw Robert McCammon and certain novels of Dan Simmons in there too) is the depth of his characters is so far superior and well developed compared to what I've seen in this one John Saul novel. There's even a poetry at times to King's prose or at least a "poetry-adjacent" vibe in King (and even Koontz once in a while), that was somewhat lacking in this book.

The leaps of logic and far-fetched nature of the plot will require some serious suspension of disbelief. At one point, one of the smarter characters in the book figures out a key password into an old-school early 1980s computer network by realizing it's the acronym of something else in the book that is super obvious (I'm deliberately being vague to cause I like to write very clean spoiler free reviews). Mild almost spoiler: It just seems to me that perhaps the malevolent forces in the book maybe could've covered their tracks a little better?

Semi-spoiler: I did actually enjoy the ending, very dark!

Overall conclusion: I'll definitely read a couple of more of Saul's work. Maybe it's not great - but hey, a fast food cheeseburger once in a while tastes OK.

Literary magic! The flow and easy ramp up to the ending was enjoyable. The characters are believable and behave just as you would expect for the circumstances. It is a medical thriller without "over your head" jargon. It was like watching a LifeTime movie, a good read.

Great read, although I think this was released under another name. John Saul is a go to author for amazing stories and this is one that you will love and find spine tingling.

Hmm. How do I summarize my thoughts about this book which I have been done with for quite a while but didn't add it to my finished reading because of my crazy schedule.

I believe I can sum this up in two words.

It's ghastly.

To say I did not like this book is an understatement. I had written a full review on my website back in February here:

Easton Livingston Review: The God Project by John Saul.

In case you don't have the time to get into a lengthy review, I will simply suggest you avoid this book like the plague. Nothing to see here except a bad story with bad writing and bad pacing wit…I won't start. Just not a good book. Won't be reading another in, like, forever.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I have a little bit of a problem deciding what the main genre is. It is certainly science fiction, but it is also a thriller and a suspense and a mystery. Children keep disappearing in a small town and there is an epidemic of crip death too. The mother of a crib death victim is completely unconvinced that her baby died of normal crib death and starts trying to find out what is really going on. That makes the story a mystery to be solved. Once she starts making some headway in her investigations she and her family and friends find themselves in mortal danger and they start having narrow escapes. That makes it a thriller. It is also a hard book to put down. On nearly every page there is the impression that another aspect to the mystery is about to be solved or that someone is going to get wiped out. That makes it a suspense. I also found some of it amusing too, but in ways that were not intended to be that amusing. I found that in the fact that it is kind of outdated. The mystery under investigation has to do with genetic engineering and a lot of the woman's detective work involves searching computer data bases. The book was published originally in the early 1980's and, let's face it, there have been a lot of progress in both genetics and computer science since then. The quaintness of how these fields were perceived at that time kind of stands out and brings an occasional smile, but it does not in any way detract from the suspense and excitement in the story. If you like science fiction and if you like a fast paced thrilling mystery then do read this book.

Loved this book (but horror is my niche). Used this book to do a compare and contrast with Frankenstein (in college).

It was my ONLY college A in an English class (I SO can't write for beans).

I own a few of Saul's books and do enjoy the stories. I picked this one up as a break from my normal authors but similar genre. The idea behind the story and everything was pretty good, the ending I was glad was not the typical "happy ending" so made me a bit proud that the author did not give in and do what was all expected. However I think it could have been better told. I got in to the story easily enough and finished the book quickly, but about half way through it seemed to peter out and became easily predictable until the ending. Great idea for a tale though!

In Eastbury the children have begun disappearing or dying. Some are dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) while others just simply disappear one day. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but one mother, Sally Montgomery is not going to go away and forget about it. She is on a mission to find out the truth, no matter how disturbing it may be.

This is a horror book by John Saul; the first book by John Saul I have read. This feels more like a Robin Cook medical mystery than a true horror novel, but I have no other Saul experience to base this off of. I'm not sure if I will read more Saul books. The characters were fairly thinly developed and the dialogue felt like a script from some 1970's show. I kept expecting to hear a laugh track whenever a kid objected to a parent's demand. Oh, and this book was published in 1982, and the story shows it's age really badly. It has aged like milk. For example: landlines still exist. 911 did not exist. People smoke in doctor's offices. Doctors freely share medical record information between patients. There's bound to be other things; I just can't remember them all right now.

Anyway. There are a few violent scenes scattered throughout the book, many of which are adult vs. child. The majority of them are nearer the end of the book. There is I think one or two scenes of alcohol use but no substance use. There are no sex scenes in this book. I am giving this book three stars for the underdeveloped characters and the script stolen from the Brady Bunch.

I read this one over 20 years ago, but the ending still sticks with me. The writing is so-so, but I feel the ending was so awesome that it deserves 4-stars.