Rating: 
Summary: Saul's Old Black Magick Will Hold You in Its Spell
Review: I don't normally read horror fiction, but I always make an exception for John Saul's novels. He has a rare talent for decanting the old stereotypic conventions of the genre into engrossingly new American Gothic bottles that always somehow manage to transcend the melodramatics and cliched limitations of his chosen subject area. His latest highly-complex, beautifully-crafted chiller kept me glued to my chair until its gory lightening-and-thunderbolt-from-the-blue denouement shocked me back shuddering into the relative sanity of the real world.Coupled with an offer of employment for her ne'er-do-well, drunken husband Marty, devoutly-religious Myra Sullivan sees her wealthy, realtor sister Joni Fletcher's encouragement to buy a badly run-down, old house in Roundtree, an historic New England community, as a sign from heaven offering a fresh start for her troubled family. Unfortunately, the Sullivan's bright daughter Angel's hopes that a new school in a new environment will transform her life are soon dashed. Once again, she's a total misfit within her peer group: her only friends, her classmate and fellow pariah, Seth Baker, and a mysterious, Cheshire-like cat that apparently comes with her new home whom she names Houdini. Fighting a losing battle against terror and harassment on all sides, what happens to Angel and Seth after John Saul juxtaposes the influence of the Sullivan house with its tragedy-haunted past upon its desperately, dysfunctional modern inhabitants is magical storytelling at its suspenseful best. I should actually say 'MagicK' because...once Houdini leads them to a witch's grimmoire hidden away for more than three hundred years in the Sullivan's basement and then to a safe hideaway where they can practice its teachings...that's what his desperate young protagonists eventually turn to as their only defense against a world where neither their parents nor their peers offer them any welcome, acceptance or personal security. The horrific results of their steadily increasing involvement with Old Magick are literally and completely spellbinding. There are so many strengths to "Black Creek Crossing". Most horror novels require tremendous leaps of the imagination in order to accept their premises. Here, the utterly realistic characterizations...the beautifully-detailed backstory...and the utter 'logic' of the youngsters' actions given the pressures of their situation all combine to create a moving and thoroughly compelling reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READING COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN
Review: I GOT THROUGH THIS BOOK IN TWO NIGHTS ,THAT'S HOW GOOD IT WAS ALWAYS SUSPENSFUL GREAT CHARECTERS GREAT PLOT JUST FABULOUS. I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END BUT BOY THE ENDING WAS GREAT,I NEVER SAW IT COMING. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT AGE OR GENRE OF BOOKS YOU USUALLY READ.
Rating:
Summary: A review from Jamian Snow, author SHROUDED INSANITY
Review: I have been a John Saul fan since the 80's. His writing is impeccable!! I didn't think his novels could get any better...And then comes BLACK CREEK CROSSING. It follows a family's move to a new town for new beginnings mingled with witchcraft and spells. It's a definite must read. John Saul has done it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Endings are a Thing of the Past!
Review: I just finished reading the last book of the Dark Tower series, and needless to say, I was feeling a little scorned from the terrible ending. So, I felt that I needed to change my Author list up a bit, and try to read someone new. I thought that I kept finding and reading stories with crummy endings is because I was reading books from the same group of authors. I jaunted over to my audio book store, asked the clerk for a recovery book to help soothe my pains from the Dark Tower fiasco, and he recommended this book by Saul.
What a huge mistake!
The book starts out slow enough, but once it started to pick up some steam it really started to move. Saul's writing style was a breath of fresh air after reading so many convulated, side tracking, Stephen King stories. The characters were interesting enough, and the storyline was very good. While I was reading, it totally reminded me of how I used to wonder around in the woods dreaming of finding something supernatural or unique. Of course it never happened for me, but happened to these characters in the book.
As I continued to read, I began to like this story more and more. I was so proud of myself for finally finding a winner, instead of all the losers that I had read lately. Angel and Seth were growing as characters, practicing magic, and were finally kicking a little [...], then all of a sudden......
the ending. I could not believe that right after dealing with my post Dark Tower Ending Syndrome, that I read this book. This ending is just as bad and hurt twice as much. I honestly could not remember if I had finished this book a few days later, and went back to make sure. That's how bad this ending is.
It's like this movie I saw once; I think it was called Miracle Mile, or Last Mile, or whatever. Basically a guy picks up a pay phone, and the person on the other end is babbling about nuclear missiles are on their way, and the end of the world is coming. The guy that answers the phone goes running around town, trying to save his friends and family. All of Los Angeles is desperately trying to get away. You watch the main characters struggle for almost 2 hours to get to safety and right as they are almost to safety.....everyone dies; and when I say everyone, I mean everyone. The whole planet is wiped out.
Now the book wasn't quite this dramatic in it's ending, but it made me feel the same way as I did when I watched that movie. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed.
What is wrong with the modern day author? It's seems like they are all striving so hard to come up with new and creative endings, that it is interfering with their writing skills. These endings are terrible. The endings don't have to be happy, where everyone lives happily ever after, but they should have some type of satisfactory conclusion. Everyone dying is so boring and unfulfilling. Imagine if all stories were that way,
"As Sam waves goodbye to Frodo, suddenly a loud explosion rips open the sky above. A giant meteor comes rushing down to our travel weary heroes and before Gandalf can cast a spell to stop this fiery behemoth, it smashes down upon them, killing everyone instantly. Oh,the humanity"
THE END
The rest of the book is really, really good. Just don't read the last 10 pages. Do yourself a favor, and mentally write your own ending to this story. Any ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Hated this book -still hate the author
Review: I read one of Saul's books about 15 years ago, I hated it, but somehow I convinced myself to try this one. Never again. I mean it this time.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts Slow, Ends Good But Still Falls Short
Review: I thought maybe, when I picked up this book, that John Saul might be able to break away from his mold. But as usaul this book is as formulated as all his others. Abandoned house, small town with dark secrets, outcast teens, and etc. It seems redundant to read the same book over and over, with just small changes. The ending was pretty gruesome but predictable. It was all pretty much predictable. I like John Saul's books, but ever since The Presence, they have been so overly predictable.
Rating:
Summary: Started out great, left me wishing I hadn't read it
Review: I was intrigued by the beginning of the story, a mysterious house, a troubled family, a close-minded community, talk of ghosts and sinister happenings.... and the end just left me cold! I was not happy with the way this book ended. I've never read a John Saul book, is this the way things always end? I may not be picking up a book of his again. I can think of so many ways in which the book could have ended that would have left readers satisfied, or at least not sorry to have read the book. Very dissapointing...
Rating:
Summary: Story has been done to death!
Review: I was very disappointed with the book for many reasons. First, the story is cliche and has been done to death - black cat, haunted house, witches and magic. Secondly, I didn't feel that the characters were believable. An example is the Marty Sullivan character, a loser and a drunkard with an attitude - the guy you love to hate. His wife is very religious and very proper. Towards the end of the book there are a couple of times where she yells at him and he shrinks like a raisin and takes it from her. This is just not believable in a character like Marty Sullivan. The end was surprising and very abrupt - but also not believable.
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Summary: Not his best work
Review: I've been reading John Saul's books since I was a teenager. I think perhaps I would have liked this one better back then. The writing style and plot seemed very juvenile to me, along the lines of an R.L. Stine book. Younger fans might enjoy this book, but it didn't hold my interest at all. Toward the end of the book, I was scanning through paragraphs quickly just to filter out the main plot and get it over with.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's give thanks to a masterful storyteller
Review: Let's take a moment and give thanks to John Saul. The dark fantasy genre is somewhat similar to country music. Singers like Shania Twain and the Vichy Chicks will come and feed at the trawl, get fat, happy and successful, and turn their back on the genre. So, too, with authors who make the monthly nut with dark fantasy, but just long enough to get the notoriety and fortune to turn their back on the genre that jump-started their careers. Saul continues, in the words of Bear Bryant, to "dance with the one what brung him," doing yeoman's work in the genre and doing it quite well, thank you. Saul's latest offering is BLACK CREEK CROSSING, and it has all of the elements that make the genre, and Saul, great. You have the Sullivan family, for one. The Sullivans are a family in crisis. Marty is the alcoholic father who can hold a beer bottle longer than he can a job. Myra is the clueless mother, using religion as a crutch rather than as a tool of strength and fortitude in an imperfect world. And then there is Angel, the not quite pretty 13-year-old daughter, trying to rid herself of the invisible "kick me" sign that is psychically hung around her neck. When an opportunity comes for a fresh start in a different town, the Sullivans jump at the chance. Roundtree, Massachusetts seems to be the answer to all of their problems --- a new school for Angel, a new job for Marty and a new house that they can buy at a below market price. The house, located at Black Creek Crossing, has some history to it. It seems that the last family who lived there --- a husband, wife and teenage daughter --- experienced a bit of a tragedy, to wit, the murder of the wife and daughter by the husband. This does not deter the Sullivans. Almost from the minute they move in, though, things begin to go amiss. Marty is having trouble on the job and Angel immediately becomes a target at school. Angel is soon befriended by Seth Baker, another social outcast who has much in common with her. She also finds a black cat --- or maybe the cat finds her --- that seems able to enter and leave her house at will. The discovery of a mysterious, ancient book in the Sullivans' new home sets Angel and Seth down a path that appears to lead to their salvation. There is, however, a terrible price to pay in the end. While BLACK CREEK CROSSING has many elements that will be familiar to longtime fans of the dark fantasy genre, it will most certainly appeal to those readers who are just beginning to encounter the genre and, by definition, Saul's work. Saul's ultimate strength in BLACK CREEK CROSSING, however, is his ability to explore the world of adolescent angst, to get into those areas where the triple gratings of school, friends and family rub the skin of the psyche raw. Saul writes like someone who has been there and remembers it all too well, even if it was decades ago. It is this ability coupled with Saul's masterful storytelling that make him, and BLACK CREEK CROSSING, worth reading. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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