Rating: Summary: Haunting! Review: As an avid reader of Saul's books, I must say I was pretty impressed with this book even with it being one of his earlier writings. I've read some of the less desirable reviews and wondered if it'd be worth my time to read. Let's just say that I'm glad I went for "glory" and read it anyway. This story was very good and a wonderful page turner.
Rating: Summary: Haunting! Review: As an avid reader of Saul's books, I must say I was pretty impressed with this book even with it being one of his earlier writings. I've read some of the less desirable reviews and wondered if it'd be worth my time to read. Let's just say that I'm glad I went for "glory" and read it anyway. This story was very good and a wonderful page turner.
Rating: Summary: UNSEEN RAGE Review: Cal and June Pendleton, along with their adopted 12-year-old daughter, Michelle, leave their urban lives in Boston for the peaceful, slower paced life Paradise Point has to offer. Despite the idyllic name and New England locale, Paradise Point is seething with secrets. Set in 1980, the locals fear the century old story of a 12-year-old named Amanda who was blind. Taunted by her peers, Amanda is forced off a cliff to an early death. Amanda's travails parallel those of Michelle. The former honor student who had no demerits or other negative marks on her previous report cards in Boston does an about face in Paradise Point. Michelle initially makes friends quickly with the local children and shines in the class she attends at Paradise Point. Things change for the worse for her when June gives birth to Jennifer and stories about Amanda and her shadowy history crop up. Michelle, like Amanda is injured in a fall from a cliff. Cal rebuffs her and no longer has anything to do with Michelle. Despondent, Michelle turns her affection to a mysterious doll she finds in a closet. She names the doll Amanda and suddenly...Amanda's fury grows. Several younger children with whom Michelle has made friends die in bizarre accidents. Michelle herself has "foggy vision" when she is with "Amanda." She claims to have met the original Amanda who died in 1880 and that she and the dead child share the doll named after her. But was Amanda real? Was a blood stain really in the potter's shed on Michelle's property? If so, whose blood is it? Who left the mysterious sketches? Was Amanda really dead or had she somehow been reanimated? Was Michelle imagining things? The parallel travails of two girls, separated by a century in time makes for some very riveting reading.
Rating: Summary: One of Saul's classic tales. Review: Comes the Blind Fury is one of John Saul's early classics. It contains all the elements that the writer's fans expect and love...a dysfunctional family, teen (or pre-teen) angst, a gothic/small town setting, a dollop of the supernatural (that would turn technological within a few books) hidden within a mystery that goes back into the town's early history, and murder. Once again a troubled family moves to a small town in the hopes of starting fresh. Sadly their adopted daughter's inner emotional turmoil attracts the restless and revenge thristing spirit of a blind girl that met a tragic end nearly one hundred years ago (hence the title). As the girl's sanity weakens the spirit grows stronger and the bodies began piling up. Saul's fourth novel (following Suffer the Children, Punish the Sinners, and Cry for the Strangers) is one of his best, a tight and polished thriller that delivers the chills. Recommended.
Rating: Summary: I think this books is a great early effort Review: I'm sure other reviews have given the premise for this story so I'm just going to say that this book really rocks in that the emotions seem totally real but I think the father shouldn't have been so withdrawn. Highly recommended for all ages.
Rating: Summary: A must avoid if you are more than 12 yrs old... Review: I've just put the book down. I'm dumbfounded. The target audience of this book is surely 12 year olds. Anyone over that age, or who has read any decent suspense literature (King, Barker, Koontz -- if you don't know who they are, you'll probably like this book.), is going to be bored out of their minds. The plot is predictable, and the characters one-dimensional. A Summary of my opinion of the book: If it was a best seller, the books I publish in the future will be on the NY Times Best Seller list for eternity!
Rating: Summary: good beginning, but..... Review: lost it after that. The book started out with a good story line but in the middle and end it just left me irritated and disapointed. DID Cal ever figure out how much he had hurt Michelle with his behavior? Did he ever fugure out that she died thinking he did not love her? Cal was very unlikeable to me and seems to have gotten off too easy. If he was so afraid of kids then why was he not afraid of his newborn daughter? Did Jeffs mother ever blame the family for her sons death? Perhaps I am putting more into the book than it deserves but I do not like to be left with unanswered questions and I would have preffered to hear more about the blind girls life.
Rating: Summary: It was a divine book! Review: This book about an ancient hate in a modern day setting was the BOMB!!!!I totally loved it!It will always be my favorite books.I've read all of John Saul's books and that is the best one of tham all.
Rating: Summary: Off the mark Review: This book has lots of spooky elements - a ghost, an indestructible doll, an old man with family secrets, automatic drawing, a mysterious stain that won't go away. Any of these ingredients might be a good core for a thriller, but they don't come together in any meaningful way. Throw in a well-adjusted child turned instantly neurotic, a maladjusted dad, whose fragile psyche could never have survived medical school, and an ineffectual mother and you've got motives as murky as the fog that heralds the ghost's arrival. The plot revolves around "little children" who - at 12 - inexplicably speak and act like eight-year-olds. There isn't enough reality here to make the supernatural aspects effective.
Rating: Summary: One of Saul's Best Review: This is by far one of Saul's best books. Scary and thrilling, this book is what a horror novel should be. Saul is a hit or miss author, but this is one of his earliest and best works. It is a great place for a reader new to Saul to start. You will not be disappointed.
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