This was my first read from horror master John Saul's vast catalogue. What I can say is that the man can write and has a sure hand for a spooky atmosphere - there was at least one scene in the dark fields that gave me the heebie jeebies.

It was a solid old school supernatural shocker that pleasently killed my time but that didn´t leave a deeper mark in my horror fiction crowded mind. Maybe this just isn't fair because I´m pretty late to the party and Nathaniel was a big deal when it first came out? I really can´t tell, because I only discovered it now and it did what it did but didn´t put anything new or long lasting on my table.
It was decent enough though to keep me interested in Saul's work and maybe I´ll find MY personal little gem in there soon.

Alright, this was a quick one because I guess most readers are already more familiar with the author than myself. Otherwise: Horror fans who enjoy more classic chills without buckets of gore should give this one a try!

There is some good horrific writing in this book but I found the overall story weak and character arcs difficult to understand. The narrator seems to be unreliable at times which is just not my taste. It felt like the main character gets some kind of superpower that was never mentioned before just in time at the end in order to give the reader another twist but it didn't make sense to me. The book flip-flops in its description of the ghost (or "ghost") and I never understood what was supposed to be going on there. I read this book based on the first line, the style and tone of the book was fine I just wanted to understand the details.

Now this one I liked! Had to pick it up every time I was in the bathroom, Ate breakfast while reading it and even finished it one afternoon while sitting on the couch instead of doing anything else. A supernatural mystery in a small town called Prairie Bend. Everyone knows everything you do, everyone gets involved in everyone's life's but know one knows for sure if Abby was real or a scary story. And no one knows for sure if the babies were born dead or not. But someone is burying them in Potter's Field. And just what is in old man Findley's barn? And is Nathaniel real or did Michael imagine him?

”I saw something that night.”

John Saul is a very deceptive writer. The characters that people his stories are ordinary everyday folk doing ordinary everyday things. Even the horror elements are hardly apocalyptic or grotesque (or perhaps I haven’t read enough of his books yet). Instead, it creeps and crawls and worms its way into the reader’s consciousness.

If there isn’t overmuch character development, it’s because the characters come fully formed. These are the kind of people we all know, which makes it so much more disturbing when strange things start happening. We can relate.

”I saw something out there.”

In Saul’s stories, it’s the little things that kill. Nathaniel is no exception; it’s an insidious novel. There are multiple shades of grey here, and my allegiance kept swinging from one set of possibilities to the next. It’s never very clear what exactly is going on (until, obviously, at the very end), and just when you think you finally have the truth of it some new information is revealed to set you back a step or two. This book requires a bit of “reading between the lines”, so come prepared.

That said, it all seems to work in the book’s favour, since reader frustration with character beliefs and perceptions often form an integral part of what makes this a “horror” story. It’s sometimes scary just because you don’t want it to happen.

[He], too, sensed the change in the atmosphere, and suddenly felt his skin begin to crawl.

Even though it’s a slow-burner and the body count isn’t exactly sky high it does read pretty quickly. Things do pick up at around the halfway mark. And In fact, on more than one occasion I found myself literally forgetting to breathe. Needless to say, it gets pretty tense, especially given Saul’s penchant for distressing endings; you never quite know what to expect.

[She] felt a sickness in her stomach as she realized what had gone on in her house so many years ago.

Although this isn’t the most horrific novel by today's standards (it lacks hordes of action scenes and buckets of gore to qualify), it still makes for some darn uneasy reading. The subject matter deals with themes like babies being stillborn, creepy family secrets, paranoia, and such, and there is just enough of a supernatural angle to keep your teeth on edge. I enjoyed it a lot; it packs a psychological punch and it kept me guessing. Also, the prairie was an interesting setting.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he said quietly. “You don’t think I saw anything.”

I picked this up at a local book sale. I haven’t read Saul’s work in years. My grandmother read a lot of his stuff in the 90s. I remember borrowing one of his books from her and giving her Everville by Clive Barker. These authors are world apart. My grandma came away saying she wouldn’t be reading anymore Barker, but I liked John Saul alright and planned to come back to him someday.

Flash forward a good 20+ years, and I finally found some time to pick his work up again.

As a writer, I learned a bit about improving my dialogue herein. Saul’s pretty good at breaking up the monotony in dialogue, and the actions he uses to intersperse the longer discussions vary enough to keep things interesting.

I’d say this is a slow burn, but there really is no point at which the story really ignites. It is good, but it is such a subtle paranormal story.

The payoff comes in the last 30 pages. The pace doesn’t increase, but there were some nice twists and clarifications therein.

All in all, this dude is a respectable and prolific writer. I respect him greatly and look forward to checking out a few of his high watermarks in the new year.

This year (2019) I’m going to spend a lot of my time learning from writers through reading. I always do, but this year I’m making a conscious effort to do so. This was a good start to that endeavor for sure.

Nathaniel by John Saul is, to put it lightly, very familiar territory for him and for anyone who has read several of his books. I seriously think that this book's

largest problem, at least for me, is that I read it as my 27th Saul read. If I would have read it much earlier on I would have thought much more of it but the same

elements keep turning up again and again. Yep, there is a suffering child in this one who is placed in a strange new home with strange new authority figures who are

much more than they seem, and a few of them seem unpleasant from the start. Where would a Saul novel be without some poor kid to be at the heart of the tragedy? Also,

this book seems to do the switch from having a main protagonist to not having one at all which is something I really respect Saul for doing, dozens of times over. There

are other familiar charicteristics as well such as telepathy between Michael (the main, recycled, child character) and the evil force, the sudden tragic death of a

parent (in this case the boy's father) which starts all of this happening, and the provoberial abusive step-somethings. In this one, it is grand-parents.
I suppose that my respect for Saul has fallen very gradually the more I read of him, kind of like how my taste for the cheap Ramen Noodles has declined with each time I

eat them. At first, the cheap thrills are amazing and the feelings are wonderful, but the more you read (or eat if you like that analogy better) them, you realize that

too much of something can leech all of the glory out of it. Things get old, Ramen Noodles are cheap but lose those cheap thrills rapidly like Saul's work, and, unlike

most things on Earth, plots are not good to recycle. Perhaps Saul's name would shine more fiercely from bookshelves everywhere if he realized this a bit more.

Don't expect happy endings when you read a John Saul novel....

Although I found Creature to be a better book, this one was pretty good.

Ok, so this may not be the literary equivalent of a 5-star novel but it was one of the most fun ghost stories I've read in a very long time. (I actually listened to it on cd, but whatever.) The book was originally published in 1984 and is very well-known and well-loved. I'd call it a "classic" as in classic ghost story. I really enjoyed it.

5 Stars all the WAY!!!!
What can I say, I have always loved this man's writing...and i had always read them as they were published, and even knew him for a while when i lived in Seattle. So I think this book, his 7th published horror novel, is my all time favorite of his, well almost, it is hard to say. I will not go into the plot of this book, because this 342 page Ghost / Revenge Fest reads like a frigging 750 page horror Tome! Yes, it is that quick and tense, and visceral of a read....and a damned good one too!
So, here is a link to my video book review that i just posted yesterday on my YouTube Channel; AreYouIntoHorror:

https://youtu.be/zhXib-FcFAk
And please if you have not already, SUBSCRIBE and share the channel with your friends. I would love to hear your comments on what you thought of 'Nathaniel' or what you think of John Saul as a horror author.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, and check out the channel.
Richard.

3,5*

Michael Hall has just moved to Prairie Bend after his father's death.
Michael is drawn to an old barn where he is not allowed to go, where he feels and hears something there calling to him telling him what he needs to do or know...

Some say he is a terrifying spirit, some say he is just an old folk tale to frighten children.
Soon Prairie Bend will come to believe that Nathaniel lives.



This was a good read!!

Nathaniel A very creepy story that blends elements of a horrendous family legacy with ESP, madness and gore set in a backwards midwestern town. This is the second John Saul book I've read and it was much better than the first. It has a lot of elements that felt like influence from Stephen King. I defintately liked the book and would recommend it.