Comes the Blind Fury

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and creepy but ultimately unsatisfying...
Review: This is my third or fourth Saul novel and again I find myself a little disappointed. I like his writing style. He writes in a clear, compelling way and his work is really suspenseful and engaging. (You have to give the guy that. He can write a page-turner.) It's just that I never feel very satisfied when I finish one of his books. For me, the horror elements seem too watered down and ambiguous. And often times, they seem to conclude in a Scooby Doo kind of way. (A quick, pat explanation with the suggestion perhaps nothing supernatural ever occured.)COMES THE BLIND FURY has a pretty creepy premise and I had high hopes for it: a young blind girl in the 1800's is accidentally killed when a group of cruel children tease her and she falls to her death from a cliff. More than a century later, a family moves into The House and their adopted daughter, Michelle, begins to have visions of the blind girl, Amanda. Over time, Michelle grows closer to what her parents think is an imaginary friend, but what Michelle considers a real person that appears to her out of darkness and fog. Soon, the lives of Michelle and Amanda start to mirror each other when Michelle is injured and becomes a cripple. Children begin to tease her and she finds herself turning to Amanda as her only friend. But Amanda wants revenge for the laughter she heard as she fell to her death that day. And using Michelle "for her eyes", she starts to kill. (Or does she? Perhaps Michelle is simply disturbed. It's suggested as a possibility.) As children die in mysterious accidents, the family begins to unravel, and the town turns against them... I actually enjoyed this book more than Saul's other novels I've tried, but to me his work is kind of like a made-for-tv movie; sort of cheezy, melodramatic, and without any real graphic horror. I'm giving it 3.5 stars because it was definitely a page turner and had a creepy premise, but I don't know if I'll try any more of his work. Maybe my expectations as a horror fan are just too high (or jaded), but Saul doesn't deliver for me.

Rating:
Summary: Great read.....
Review: This was my first read of his books. I normally like to read Graham Masterton because of his total gory stories, but no one like John Saul can make it more sinister and suspenful. I met him when he came to Portland, OR three years back, and got almost all his books back then signed. He is a nice guy and allowed my wife and I to take pictures with him. I loved this book and read it in one day. A recommended story to John Saul lovers.