soooo creepy... will make you sleep with the lights on for a while

This was the second book i ever read. I was really young when i did. I took it from my mother's books and it scared me. Ever since i read this i've been into reading ghost stories. I read it again last year to see if it had the same effects and it still made the hair at the back of my neck stand up.

Not my usual genre but quite an engaging read. Kept my interest right up to th end.

The ending drastically took my rating down. Very unsatisfactory, but it still didn’t completely ruin the book. The story otherwise is pretty intense.

A very solid 3 stars.

A young boy named Michael has ghostly contact with the legend of Nathaniel in the small farming community. The same farming community where the unfortunate wives are being told their babies are being born dead...

What was once a legend to keep kids off an old mans property was slowly revealed to be true... something....was out there.

OR... is this Michael’s slow spiral into madness? After losing his father, is this what makes him snap?

Or is the ghost of Nathaniel real? He might be realer then you think.

Nathaniel, was a ghost/revenge story that was different in many ways that I won’t get into because I don’t want to spoil anything for the reader. John Saul is a great author from his time. I really wish I found him sooner.

Nathaniel managed to be even better than John Saul’s The Unwanted! Nathaniel is, while it may sound like a cliché, a definite page turner. Nathaniel is full of suspense and you soon see that Saul is willing to do what many authors aren’t. At times, you’re not completely sure what characters to root for or which ones you can trust. Nathaniel is filled with great characters and creepy plot lines.
After reading The Unwanted and Nathaniel, John Saul has become my third favorite author. For someone who’s pretty picky about what they read, I must say that I love the way he writes. His writing style is amazing and he manages to make each book different. While there are some similarities between the books in the way that he writes them, I don’t feel that Nathaniel sounded too similar to The Unwanted when I read it. Each book was unique and fresh.
I highly, highly recommend you read this book. If anyone has read it, or decides to, I’d love to hear what you think!

Something about barns is just plain spooky. It seems like the last few books that I have read have had barns in them & it has led to some very dark ocurrences.

On that note, Nathaniel was one creepy book. It is another great October read. Many things were disturbing about the plot and very mysterious. I really despised Amos and I hated him when he hurt Shadow. I can't stand to read stuff like that when it comes to animals. I did enjoy the surprise that came at the end with everything coming together. There was not a dull bore moment in this book. Horror at it's best!

My Original Post

Warning: SPOILERS!









I love this book. I have read it so many times that I have lost count. Truth be told, I adore all of John Saul's books but this one seems to change every time I read it. From the supernatural elements to the "what is real" aspects, I love the well rounded nature of this story and I love how it combines a childlike innocence with a very adult nature. That said, here's my review:

Summary: Narrated by the author, told from various characters viewpoints as it directs the flow of the story.

Prairie Bend is the epitome of a small tow. From it's everybody knows everyone mentality to the scary stories that somehow always originate from the founding families. And when Michael Hall comes to the sleepy town with his mother in order to attend the funeral for his dad, he learns of a family he never knew he had.

Micheal's father left Prairie Bend as soon as he was able to, no longer able to stand his own fathers overbearing nature and the fact that his own mother refused to leave her wheelchair. Although he left a sister behind, he promised her that her life would be different than that of their parents. After a visit back, unbeknownst to his wife and son, Michael's father dies in a horrible accident and his immediate family must now come to terms with the fact that this man had many secrets, including his strange parents and the town of his youth.

Michael immediately bonds with his cousins and some of the other town kids but has a strong dislike for his grandfather, who has the mentality of 'spare the rod, spoil the child'. When his mother announces that she is pregnant, the Hal's deliver her to a house that is in desperate need of care-taking and massive upkeep, telling her that it is her house. Gifted to her husband after their wedding. Michael is immediately excited about his new home and even adopts a stray dog which becomes his protector when his grandfathers discipline becomes too much.

One night, Amos Hall tells the story of Nathaniel and his mother Abby who lived out on the plains. One winter, scared and starving, Abby killed and ate her children. The lone survivor of her slow decent into insanity was Nathaniel; now used as a scary story to warn the children in the town t behave or Nathaniel will get them.

You see, babies have a funny way of being born dead in Prairie Bend. And no one but Amos Hall and Doctor Potter know why. Until Michael starts hearing the voice of a boy, calling himself Nathaniel...

Character Analysis:
John Saul is not big on character development. He hands his people to you as is and you watch them slowly follow the story he is imagining for them. Although each book is descriptive and wonderfully written, the characters are fairly as is.

There is, however, something beyond creepy about scary stories that involve children, which is Saul's M.O.

That said, watching what we think may be young Michael Hall's slow decent into madness is terrifying in it's own way, even with a boy written without much substance. Mind you, I don't enjoy John Saul's books because they are profound. I enjoy them as the guilty pleasure books they are meant to be ;]

So readers, what do you think? With Halloween fast approaching, what is on your creepy to read list? Tune in next week for another book review and thanks for following along with me today :]

So, the story was entertaining and a page turner for me as a Halloween/October read, especially after finishing The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons (eye-roll). However, with Nathaniel, it felt like I was reading any other "popular" book written by the authors who have a hundred books on their resumes and a line of ghost writers in their antechambers. My partner believes Saul's writing felt like reading John Grisham.

The story's about a mystery over a boy in a village called Prairie Bend. The plot has some elements that could be considered spooky such as dark barns, mysterious attics, sudden smell of smoke, a weird kid, angry reclusive old men, women who have been torn apart from their children, hardships of childbirth, and biting winters of famine.

Clichés aside, the story was a light reading for Halloween for me who is not scared easily. There is sth that after reading The Other by Thomas Tryon both my reading partner and I noticed in this book and that is we wish that if we watch or read an interview by Saul somewhere, he mentions that he has been inspired by Tryon! I mean, could it possible that he was not?

Scary story - really scary

This book affected me a lot, possibly because I have had two babies myself. In this small midwestern town, people all knew each other and how they were related. When a new woman and her son arrive, although related to residents of the town, they know nothing about the town’s history. They would soon learn.

I read this when I was 12 and it enthralled me. Characters are believable, well-written and keep you engaged through the story. Everyone is a mystery in this book.

I read this book many years ago (early 80's), so I could not give an accurate review. I have it listed in my records as a "very good read".