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The book was initially very hard to put down but it started to taper off towards the final few chapters that seemed very rushed.
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The Homing
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Young widow Karen Spellman and her two daughters are leaving Los Angeles to return to the lush countryside of Karen’s childhood, where she plans to marry her high school sweetheart. But something sinister awaits the Spellmans. For here, long ago, a shadowy menace once stalked the innocent. Dormant, it waits–waits for summer’s heat to shimmer over the valley in a suffocating wave; waits for the arrival of its perfect victim.
And now, with the dizzying descent of a nightmare, Karen’s homecoming will become a confrontation with evil, as she struggles to protect her vulnerable daughters from a menace that seems to rise from hell itself–a malign, preternatural force that must satisfy its gruesome thirst for its unsuspecting prey. . . .
And now, with the dizzying descent of a nightmare, Karen’s homecoming will become a confrontation with evil, as she struggles to protect her vulnerable daughters from a menace that seems to rise from hell itself–a malign, preternatural force that must satisfy its gruesome thirst for its unsuspecting prey. . . .
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1,1994
This edition
- Format
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448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
- Published
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April 1, 2002 by Ballantine Books
- ISBN
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9780345454072
- ASIN
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0345454073
- Language
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English
About the author
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John Saul grew up in Whittier California where he graduated from Whittier High School in 1959. He attended several colleges—Antioch, in Ohio, Cerritos, in Norwalk, California, Montana State University and San Francisco State College, variously majoring in anthropology, liberal arts, and theater, but never obtaining a degree.
After leaving college, he decided the best thing for a college dropout to do was become a writer, and spent the next fifteen years working in various jobs while attempting to write a book someone would want to publish. Should anyone ever want to write a novel concerning the car-rental industry or the travails of temporary typists, John can provide excellent background material.
Those years garnered him a nice collection of unpublished manuscripts, but not a lot of money. Eventually he found an agent in New York, who spent several years sending his manuscripts around, and trying to make the rejection slips sound hopeful. Then, in 1976, one of his manuscripts reached Dell, who didn't want to buy it, but asked if he'd be interested in writing a psychological thriller. He put together an outline, and crossed his fingers.
At that point, things started getting bizarre. His agent decided the outline had all the makings of a best-seller, and so did Dell. Gambling on a first novel by an unknown author, they backed the book with television advertising (one of the first times a paperback original was promoted on television) and the gamble paid off. Within a month Suffer the Children appeared on all the best-seller lists in the country and made the #1 spot in Canada. Subsequently all 32 of his books, have made all the best-seller lists and have been published world wide. Though many of his books were published by Bantam/Doubleday/Dell his last fourteen books have been published by Ballantine/Fawcett/Columbine.
In addition to his work as novelist, John is also interested in the theater. He has acted, and as a playwright has had several one-act plays produced in Los Angeles and Seattle, and two optioned in New York. One of his novels was produced by Gerber Productions Company and M.G.M. as a C.B.S. movie and currently one of his novels is in development.
John served on the Expansion Arts Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is actively involved with the development of other writers, and is a lecturer at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference and the Maui Writers Conference and received the Life Time Achievement Award from the Northwest Writers Conference. John is also a trustee and Vice President of The Chester Woodruff Foundation (New York), a philanthropic organization.
John lives part-time in the Pacific Northwest, both in Seattle and in the San Juan Islands. He also maintains a residence on the Big Island of Hawaii. He currently enjoys motor homing, travel and golf. He is an avid reader, bridge player, golfer and loves to cook.
After leaving college, he decided the best thing for a college dropout to do was become a writer, and spent the next fifteen years working in various jobs while attempting to write a book someone would want to publish. Should anyone ever want to write a novel concerning the car-rental industry or the travails of temporary typists, John can provide excellent background material.
Those years garnered him a nice collection of unpublished manuscripts, but not a lot of money. Eventually he found an agent in New York, who spent several years sending his manuscripts around, and trying to make the rejection slips sound hopeful. Then, in 1976, one of his manuscripts reached Dell, who didn't want to buy it, but asked if he'd be interested in writing a psychological thriller. He put together an outline, and crossed his fingers.
At that point, things started getting bizarre. His agent decided the outline had all the makings of a best-seller, and so did Dell. Gambling on a first novel by an unknown author, they backed the book with television advertising (one of the first times a paperback original was promoted on television) and the gamble paid off. Within a month Suffer the Children appeared on all the best-seller lists in the country and made the #1 spot in Canada. Subsequently all 32 of his books, have made all the best-seller lists and have been published world wide. Though many of his books were published by Bantam/Doubleday/Dell his last fourteen books have been published by Ballantine/Fawcett/Columbine.
In addition to his work as novelist, John is also interested in the theater. He has acted, and as a playwright has had several one-act plays produced in Los Angeles and Seattle, and two optioned in New York. One of his novels was produced by Gerber Productions Company and M.G.M. as a C.B.S. movie and currently one of his novels is in development.
John served on the Expansion Arts Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is actively involved with the development of other writers, and is a lecturer at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference and the Maui Writers Conference and received the Life Time Achievement Award from the Northwest Writers Conference. John is also a trustee and Vice President of The Chester Woodruff Foundation (New York), a philanthropic organization.
John lives part-time in the Pacific Northwest, both in Seattle and in the San Juan Islands. He also maintains a residence on the Big Island of Hawaii. He currently enjoys motor homing, travel and golf. He is an avid reader, bridge player, golfer and loves to cook.
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Community Reviews
Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
37(37%)
4 stars
38(38%)
3 stars
25(25%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
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100 reviews All reviews
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I don't know where to start. So much wrong with this book. Holes in the plot line. People going missing in a tiny town, kids missing, and no one notices??? How the author even came up with the idea for this seriously twisted book is beyond me. I kept reading, hoping it would somehow make sense or get better, but it just kept getting worse with the horror and ridiculousness of it and so many things that just don't make sense!!! I can usually find at least one nice thing to say about a book but I just can't with this one. Just awful.
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I knew from the start what I was getting myself into, but I was in the mood for some cheap thrills.
What could have been a terrifying tale of nature gone wrong ends up being just another dull John Saul novel. An ecological horror, The Homing centers on a small town plagued by two evils – a serial killer who likes to kill his victims using insects and a malevolent swarm-like entity that infests the town’s teenagers and controls their minds to ensure the perpetuation of their parasitic beings. As the body count rises, the townspeople must confront the horrifying truth and prepare for the final confrontation with such evil.
I didn’t care for any of the characters, except maybe the dog. They are one-dimensional, feeling more like stereotypes than actual people and always making the worst decisions – the usual “why call the police when you can go straight to the serial killer’s house without telling anyone where you went?!”. The plot is predictable and too repetitive, making it a dull reading. The fact that the dialogue is also subpar doesn’t help too much.
It’s not as bad as other horror novels I’ve read (Graham Masterton’s The Djinn, Alan Dean Foster’s Aliens, James Herbert’s The Rats or Jay Anson’s The Amityville Horror) but it could have been much better. I think the novel would have been significantly better if the author had stuck with just the serial killer, without going into the parasitic life form. It was a bit too overwhelming, and the serial killer was creepy enough to carry the story on his own. * ½ stars.
What could have been a terrifying tale of nature gone wrong ends up being just another dull John Saul novel. An ecological horror, The Homing centers on a small town plagued by two evils – a serial killer who likes to kill his victims using insects and a malevolent swarm-like entity that infests the town’s teenagers and controls their minds to ensure the perpetuation of their parasitic beings. As the body count rises, the townspeople must confront the horrifying truth and prepare for the final confrontation with such evil.
I didn’t care for any of the characters, except maybe the dog. They are one-dimensional, feeling more like stereotypes than actual people and always making the worst decisions – the usual “why call the police when you can go straight to the serial killer’s house without telling anyone where you went?!”. The plot is predictable and too repetitive, making it a dull reading. The fact that the dialogue is also subpar doesn’t help too much.
It’s not as bad as other horror novels I’ve read (Graham Masterton’s The Djinn, Alan Dean Foster’s Aliens, James Herbert’s The Rats or Jay Anson’s The Amityville Horror) but it could have been much better. I think the novel would have been significantly better if the author had stuck with just the serial killer, without going into the parasitic life form. It was a bit too overwhelming, and the serial killer was creepy enough to carry the story on his own. * ½ stars.
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Haunting
This story is pretty creepy. Insects are not my favorite thing but John Saul turns them into ultimate killers. I found it very interesting and haunting the way he gradually had humming as the sound constantly heard. That was so creepy. I love his characters and how teens are usually the focus of danger. Kept me riveted from start to finish.
This story is pretty creepy. Insects are not my favorite thing but John Saul turns them into ultimate killers. I found it very interesting and haunting the way he gradually had humming as the sound constantly heard. That was so creepy. I love his characters and how teens are usually the focus of danger. Kept me riveted from start to finish.
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more like a movie than a book - a bad movie
i want the part of my life back that I spent on this book. seriously bad. no depth. sensationalistic. bad.
i want the part of my life back that I spent on this book. seriously bad. no depth. sensationalistic. bad.
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The worst John Saul book I've read. Can't believe. Even finished it.
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This book is very special to me because John Saul was my first experience with a horror novel. The Homing is one of the first John Saul books I read, which I found when the bookmobile would visit my town once a month. I would stay up late reading these books and then be so scared that it was hard to sleep. I have had fond memories of this novel over the years and I'm happy to be able to re-read it. I remembered many of the scenes and I had a lot of fun.
The most annoying thing to me in the writing was the use of the redundant phrases "she, herself" and "he, himself". I had previously rated The Homing five amazing stars based on my first memories. I have dropped the rating to 4 stars. John Saul has a special place in my reading life. He is a great and kind man, who has always appreciated his fans. I hope he will still write some more in the future. The last novel he published was The House of Reckoning in 2009.
The most annoying thing to me in the writing was the use of the redundant phrases "she, herself" and "he, himself". I had previously rated The Homing five amazing stars based on my first memories. I have dropped the rating to 4 stars. John Saul has a special place in my reading life. He is a great and kind man, who has always appreciated his fans. I hope he will still write some more in the future. The last novel he published was The House of Reckoning in 2009.
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If you do not like bugs or the thought of swarms of bugs, do not read this book. The only reason I finished this book, is because once I am committed to something I see it through. This book was disturbing on so many levels.
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