Advertencias por incesto, abuso, violencia infantil y animal.

Un retrato de una familia rota y maldita ya desde su pasado, las consecuencias psicológicas y paranormales de los horrores que se siguen cometiendo.

Tiene incongruencias? Sí, pero su innegable encanto de película antigua hace que no lo puedas soltar. Tiene un lenguaje precioso (al menos en inglés), es intoxicante como está escrito, te envuelve en un ambiente de época, que te hace sentir un domingo lluvioso viendo películas viejas de misterio.

Me gustó mucho la historia, dejando de lado los horrores de la época (que le dan su encanto también), es un gran slow burn.

No es un libro complaciente con el lector, sino congruente con su pueblo, su gente y su época. Es muy frustrante que la gente que no se lo merece se salga con la suya, pero así pasa en la vida real y sus personajes son completamente imperfectos como siempre me gusta a mí.

El final fue algo abrupto, no les voy a mentir, pero no me termina de desagradar, creo que queda bien con el estilo del resto del libro.

La verdad disfruté mucho del libro, me dió escalofríos y no lo quería soltar. Leería más libros de él.

Well, the children sure do suffer. It was an intense read, but relies more on gore and shock to scare and it gets old. There are also a lot of plot holes, and characters acting unbelievably dumb. Spoilers ahead!

1. Why haven't they built a fence around the woods so people don't die in there?

2. The first time you know your daughter snuck outside in the middle of the night, wouldn't you look into childproof locks or something?

3. At the end when they mention prosecuting I had to roll my eyes because it would be the most flimsy case ever made.

4. The Secretary. Here's a major spoiler, but I can't believe how quick she is to dismiss the fact that he wanted to rape his daughter and says his wife is overreacting. Also affairs with secretaries are as cliche as you can get.

5. If Rose was so concerned about leaving the girls alone with the housekeeper, why wouldn't she check before she leave to make sure the housekeeper is awake?!

6. Why did no one realize that Elizabeth is always the one to see the missing person last?

3 - 3.5

Not as good as Saul's other books, but I still enjoyed it.

The story centers around a small town where children begin to disappear. The disappearances seem located near the home of the Congers, the rich family in town, who have a big house and lots of land by the sea. There are woods and an embankment where there are plenty of places for children to go missing. There are some horrible happenings in the Conger family's past and a curse. The current Conger family seems nice enough and has two little girls. But one of the little girls, Sarah, had something terrible happen to her a year ago (involving her father) and no longer speaks. Her older sister, Elizabeth, cares for Sarah with great maturity and patience.

I read this book for my Lifetime Challenge (year 1977).

When I was in high school in the late 70's, I read horror novels incessantly. Horror was very big at the time, and I was fully into the craze. If it had a black or metallic shiny cover, I probably read it.

Horror books have certainly changed, and I miss the old-school horror of that golden era. So I wanted to add some horror books into my 1970's reading challenge. I might have read this book by John Saul back when it was first published, but as I read it just now, I didn't remember anything about it. Which was a good thing in terms of not having the plot spoiled.

The story centers around a small town where children begin to disappear. The disappearances seem located near the home of the Congers, the rich family in town, who have a big house and lots of land by the sea. There are woods and an "embankment"--plenty of places for children to go missing. There are some horrible happenings in the Conger family's past and a curse. The current Conger family seems nice enough and has two little girls. But one of the little girls, Sarah, had something terrible happen to her a year ago (involving her father) and no longer speaks. Her older sister, Elizabeth, cares for Sarah with great maturity and patience.

Or does she? What happened to Sarah, and how does it relate to the current disappearances of three other children?

I read this book straight through in 2 days. It really kept my attention and kept me wanting to know what was going to happen. We're pretty much told early on who the guilty party is. But the thing that kept me reading was wanting to see how and when this person would get caught (please!) and if the missing children would survive. I won't spoil it for you except to say this is a true horror novel, so don't expect a Happily Ever After.

What you will get, however, is a considerable amount of gore and horrible happenings involving children. So if that's a trigger for you, beware. Seriously. There's also a strong paranormal element with ghosts and people acting out old curses. I appreciated that there was an actual story here and it wasn't just a grue-fest like Saw. There's stuff involving Sarah's medical care, small town politics, how the parents are coping with Sarah's problems, what's going on with the parents of the missing children, the cop in town, etc. I found it a nice mix of elements. But the horror, when it's there, is definitely very horrific. There are a few scenes that had me grimacing. (In case it's not clear, that's a good thing.)

I really enjoyed this trip back to 70's paranormal horror novels and want to read some more. It was refreshing that the story wasn't about zombies, the apocalypse, or a dystopian future!

Recommended to anyone who enjoys horror.

What in the actual hell?! That's all that comes to mind with this book. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started this. It was recommended in a book group I'm in. So much of this book was disturbing. Knowing it was written in late 70's, I am still shocked at the awful parenting portrayed in this book. The admissions of the father had me gasping and disgusted.

Children and animals are harmed in this book. I feel that needs to be said for anyone wanting to read this.

So, for my horror YouTube channel; AreYouIntoHorror? i wanted to set a horror challenge for myself for the start of the new year 2020 by re-reading John Sauls entire library of his New York Times best selling horror novels, with this one that started his career in 1977. After having read this when it first came out, i have loved Saul ever since, making him probably my favorite horror author of all time, yes, above Robert R. McCammon and Stephen King. This book disturbed me when i first read it, and still after reading it for the 4th or 5th time, it still does! This is the horror filled, and gruesome first novel of Sauls career, and it still is one of my faves of his. It tells the story of 100 years ago, in a small New England town of a man raping and bashing in the head of his 3 year old daughter on the edge of a huge seaside cliff, ending with him murdering her, hiding her body in a cliff below, then throwing himself to his death.

Jump to 1978. The Conger family now lives in the same house that this man did and children start to disappear. The Conger's; Jack and Rose have 2 daughters....13 year old Elizabeth who is the beautiful, smart almost perfect seeming older daughter and sister to 11 year old, mute and disturbed
Sarah. She has been mute for a lttle over a year now after her father abuses, and beats her in the woods then carries her body back home with him not remembering what happened.

This is a horror novel that deals with severe scenes of an extremely sick and disturbed child that murders, chops, sexually abuses other kids in the town; gruesome scenes of rotting bodies, chopping up a cat then using the corpse of the cat for sexual tortue of another younger boy and other storlines that are truly horrific in details and violent. If that is up your alley then this is a book that you want to start to read, if you have never read John Saul. He has an ongoing writers way of using kids as the bad guys, and he does this best as an author. He wrote over 36 horror novels and all were best sellers, before he retired and lives with his husband bicoastal in both Seattle and Hawaii, it is such a shame that he will no longer write new terror tales to make us scream with horror and fill our nights with bad dreams. Check out my reviews of his books and many others on AreYouIntoHorror? on YouTube.

Thanks, for reading. Richard

Muy buena historia. Logra entretener y mantenerte enganchado. Quizás hay algo de relleno para estirar la historia (a mi forma de ver, innecesariamente) y algunas cosas no terminan de estar del todo claras pero es innegable lo bien que la pasé leyendo. Tiene ese gusto a historia de terror ochentera que pocos escritores del género pueden capturar efectivamente.

8/10

I am a fan of sorts of John Saul. I like his books but they creep me out! His books tend to get under my skin and I forget that I am safe in the natural world, at times. I took this book with me on vacation, so it was hard to finish it as timely as I normally read. Even on vacation I kept thinking about the cave and what dark secrets it held. The creepy factor is multiplied by the fact that I believe in the possibility of this storyline.

Chilling, creepy, disturbing, and quite possibly plausible.......

Ich kann nicht erklären, warum mir die Geschichten von John Saul so gut gefallen. Ich finde sie düster, atmosphärisch und sehr bedrückend, genau wie diese Geschichte hier. Zeitgleich ist alles vorausschaubar, man ahnt wie es weiter geht und es gibt viele Wiederholungen. Dazu kommt die ganz und gar nicht mehr Zeitgemässe Sprache, hier zum Beispiel werden Menschen mit psychischen Erkrankungen als psychisch Gestörte abgetan. Auch Gewalt gegen Kinder und Tiere ist ein Thema, das hier zum Teil ziemlich gleichgültig abgehandelt wird. Trotzdem hat mich dieses Buch gut unterhalten.

I love baby vampires. 4.5

This was another book that I snuck out of mother's closet when I was in grade school. There are only three that stuck with me throughout all these years. Flowers in the Attic, Where Are the Children and Suffer the Children. Flowers in the Attic and Suffer the Children really did a number on my childhood psyche and probably greatly influenced today's love of horror. I didn't remember a lot of this book. The one thing that stuck with me was the cat scene in the well. OK - after the reread I realize now that it was a cave instead of a well but it still terrified and haunted me. I find that the story stands up over time but that I didn't really like the ending of this story. Still it was a nice visit to the past and the cave scenes still chilled this (now) adult to the bone.