Janet Hall's husband Mark dies in an accident while visiting his old hometown, Prairie Bend, (where his parents live). So Janet leaves their home in New York and goes to Prairie Bend with her son Michael for the funeral. (Janet can't understand why Mark visited Prairie Bend, he didn't tell her he was going there, and he hasn't seen or spoken to his parents for years.) Janet meets Mark's parents (Anna and Amos) who tell her Mark owned a farm. (This is a surprise to Janet since Mark never told her anything about this.) Janet eventually decides to stay in Prairie Bend and live on the farm Mark owned. She is very happy when the townsfolk all pitch in and help her fix up the farmhouse. She likes the friendliness of the people and finally feels like she belongs. (Janet always wanted to live on a farm.)

Janet has an eleven-year-old son, Michael. He has made some new friends but he doesn't seem to be getting on well with his grandfather Amos, who is a very strict man. Amos tells Michael to stay away from old Ben Findley's farm (an anti-social hermit who doesn't want to be disturbed.) But Michael keeps feeling a subconscious pull to go to Findley's farm, especially his barn. Michael keeps hearing a voice calling to him from the barn... the voice says its name is Nathaniel. But according to the townsfolk Nathaniel is dead...

This book had great atmosphere and settings. The barn and farm were eerie. I liked some of the characters, Janet and Mark's sister Laura. And some I didn't. I thought old Amos was horrible and mean, especially to Michael's dog Shadow. I liked when Shadow got back at Amos later on in the book. I wished some things (that confused me) in the plot were explained a little better though...

DNF @ 40%. The book started out fine- very atmospheric, and included a creepy farm in the middle of nowhere, family secrets, people dying, a recluse farmer, and a ghost child. The narrative plodded along at a decent pace, and even revealed that the ghost was real, not just in the main character's head. What I really didn't care for was the deflection and control of the family and the way the grandfather started belt whipping the ten year old main character. Then, a baby was killed at birth by the family. Both of these instances made me feel uncomfortable enough that I knew I could not continue. That, combined with the fact that the grandmother and grandfather knew everything but refused to share, and left everyone else in the dark regarding the ghost as a form of control. I have also heard the ending is unresolved. No thank you!

This is one of my favorite books of John Saul! It's about a young widow who arrives in a small town with her young son. They soon find themselves having to move in with the in-laws after her husband is mysteriously killed. But that is only the beginning as their are whispers of a ghost named Nathaniel who is buried out in a Potter's Field graveyard. But the real question is "Who is Nathaniel?" and why are so many tragedies happening in the small town. I found myself devouring this book in order to find out more about Nathaniel. Highly recommend this!

John Saul's themes of young people in peril continue to stress me out. Which is to say that his work is vivid and visceral, and Nathaniel is no exception. Both ghostly and ghastly, this saga thrilled, terrorized, and delighted me.

Told in a straight forward, easy-to-read manner, Saul's Nathaniel had me gripped in the first few pages. It's always a good sign when you form visceral gut reactions to characters, so much so that you want certain things to happen to them. I'm immediately invested. The pages flipped by as if time had stopped. The book had just the right mixture of creepy and scary. It would make a great movie. I discovered this book by accident in a Little Free Library, and I'm glad I did.

Yes another Saul book that I have recently finished. Guess I am kind of on a Saul kick. He has so many awesome books out there. I didn't realize until I joined Goodreads online how many books he has actually written. Also the fact that he lives in the Seattle area is a bonus since I'm in the same area. And of course I was not disappointed in this book of his. I had read some not so great reviews of this book, and there is only one thing I didn't like about it which is it was not as captivating as some of his other books. Don't get me wrong, I still absolutely loved the book just some parts of the book were slow going compared to other parts of the book.



In this book a woman finds out her husband secretly went and visited his home town. The way she finds out is that when he goes there he dies while he is there (don't worry that is not a spoiler, its the whole premise for her to go to this small town). So she up and leaves New York for this tiny farm community where her husband grew up and fled as fast as he could. Since she has no where to go, she decides the best thing for she and her son is to settle down in the small town. His family he fled lives there and she is curious about what drove him to leave. A legend by the name of Nathaniel surrounds the town and scares all the generations living there.



There are personal mysteries to be solved as well as whether this Nathaniel really exists and why he haunts the small town. Mystery abounds in this book and it is worth every second to get to the conclusion.

Meh...totally hated the ending.

Fun story with a little spookiness. Not gonna give me nightmares or anything but it was a fun read.

Michael y Janet, su madre, llegan a Prairie Bend, un pueblito en donde se crió su Mark Hall, el esposo recién fallecido de Janet. Allí se encontrará con esa familia que no habían conocido y… empezarán a ocurrir cosas muy extrañas. Voces que intentan hacerse oír, y que sólo Michael logrará atender. Un secreto muy oscuro y una maldición que recae sobre esa familia.

En lo personal me ha gustado mucho. Aunque debo admitir que no supera a El hijo de la mente (opinión mía). Aun así, se disfruta este libro. Con personajes como Michael, uno de los principales; Ryan, su primo; Amos, el abuelo (a este lo odié demasiado); Anna, la abuela; Ben Findley, un vecino con una historia con la familia Hall; Sombra, un perro hermoso (mi personaje favorito ❤️). Desde luego, Nathaniel (el personaje «principal»).


PD: Ese final… me recordó mucho a Inception (solo en cierto momento).




3,7⭐️

I listened to Nathaniel on abridged audio. I of course, prefer unabridged audio but I knew I'd never actually get through the book and this is the only audio version available. I was disappointed in the ending. It seemed like the story was built up really well and then just crumbled at the end without a satisfactory conclusion. I often have problems with Saul's endings, but it should be noted I was listening to abridged version and may have missed something. However, on my initial reading in the 1990's I also remember not being happy with the ending.

Nathaniel was chosen as the June 2011 Group Read in the John Saul LitGroup. Feel free to join our discussions anytime - we're always reading a John Saul book!

It was a good read, interesting and kept my attention. The ending however, was total rubbish.

Truly a great book! It's creepy, in the original sense of the word. You don't want to read this one alone at night. Make sure you have A LOT of time to read this one, because you will want to finish it in one sitting. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down. It will have you in it's grip right up to the twist at the end!