Rating: 
Summary: A New Classic
Review: I wish I could give this book ten stars, that's how much I enjoyed it. It's absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys great dark fiction. Kiernan now joins the ranks of Thomas Ligotti and Ramsey Campbell, Clive Barker and Jonathan Carroll, as one of the few great contemporary authors of the macabre. This book's already won one major award (the International Horror Guild Award for best novel) and it deserves it, and the praise it's receiving from critics. Caitlin Kiernan is being compared repeatedly to the masters of the form - Lovecraft. Machen, and Blackwood. Dare to cross this THRESHOLD and find out why. My only complaint is that no hardback edition is currently available.
Rating: 
Summary: Greating writing but weak in some spots
Review: With the October/Halloween theme blowing through, I decided to search for a current addition to the horror genre. This book looked different from the usual ghost/vampire story. One thing I have to say about this book is I almost stopped reading it because nothing was happening. Sure, she can write, she is an amazing writer and does so with great ease. I was very impressed with Caitlin Kiernan's style, however, the first half of this book is really boring. Also, the characters weren't exactly the most likable people. Why should we even care what happens to them? Chance Matthews, a student and rock genuis, is the main character. The first chapter has Chance, her boyfriend, Deke, and there other friend, Elise in this underground tunnel, and they are getting stoned.
The rumor has it that there is something beyond this wall, something evil that could get out and kill, but just what is it?
Well, Elise gets killed by whatever is out there and Chance and Deke spend the rest of the story trying to figure it all out.
They break up and Deacon's new girlfriend, Sadie, comes in to the story. This is the only character with any true goodness. When a teenage girl, Dancy(gotta love these names), gets involved in the whole scheme of where the horror starts, Sadie takes the girl under her wing. She grows to care, while the rest of them are just trying to stay alive.
There is a trilobite(you can find out the meaning of that at the back of the book) named dicranurus, this is the evil of the story. The dark side, the bad guy. It seems that this rock like fossil/creature, takes on somewhat human form, and terrorizes the characters.
About half way through the book, where I almost put it down cuz of the slowness and lameness, is where things started getting interesting. A bit spooky. I had nightmares every night I read this book after this point. Definitely worth picking up, if you don't mind the slow start. Kiernan is an amazing writer who has a great passion for the subjects chosen in the story.
I don't recommend you buy it though. I got it out of the library and paid an overdue fee.
Worth a look just to feast your eyes on some of the best writing I've read thus far.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be missed
Review: Caitlin R. Kiernan is certainly one of the best authors working in the field of horror and dark fantasy today. I have been delighted with her first novel, SILK, and with her short fiction, which is on a par with the works of such modern masters as Thomas Ligotti and Angela Carter. In THRESHOLD, Kiernan gives up yet another expertly-crafted novel of ancient secrets and broken lives, of terrible evils and redemption. In fact I'd say that THRESHOLD shows a substantial improvement in her abilities (and that's saying something, considering how much I love SILK). If you appreciate fine writing with a dark and disturbing twist, you must read this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Really brilliant
Review: As a fan of almost everything else that Caitlin Kiernan has written, I have to say that Threshold absolutely did not disappoint. Her writing is crisp and powerful, her characters astoundingly poignant, and this is one wonderfully scary novel. Few horror writers today have such a superb command of the English language, and fewer of them write such intelligent books. The ending left me breathless. I cannot praise this work highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Threshold - A Novel of Deep Tedium
Review: This is the first book I have come across by Kiernan. I was impressed by her abilities as a prose stylist in some parts of the novel , especially those describing the remote past, however she lacks the ability to describe everyday reality in an interesting way, unlike say Stephen King, who at his (now distant) best, comfortably surpasses her even as a prose stylist. The book is reasonably original, unfortunately that doesn't make it any good, there are some compelling parts to the fantasy, the encounters with the human incarnation of the 'monsters' are for example are excellent, nervertheless, I couldnt help thinking when reading them that Mr King, say, would have done them significantly better.Pacing problems abound, and a distinctive emotional monotony saturates the writing with the the main characters existing in a permanent state of confused fear, while the motivations which lie behind their actions are often totally implausible. Inevitably as a result, the characters seem undeveloped and fail to elicit great interest or sympathy. The author's knowledge and understanding of Beowulf appears to be rather lightweight too, and though the work itself is an excellent choice as a kind of 'sacred text" backdrop to the novel, its considerbale possibilities are wasted in Kiernan's hands. All in all a pretty inept and dissapointing effort, from an author who does give many hints of significant talent and originality.
Rating: 
Summary: some stories never end
Review: When I ordered this book I was quite looking forward to what sounding like a very interesting read. Then the book came and I read it. Even if you don't mind the constant present-tense (which I am not comfortable with) there is still the major drawback that it essentially doesn't end. After 240 or so pages of build-up it appears that some form of time travel is used to negate 90% of the story leaving the central problem untouched. The characters tended to be rather shallow, the story its self was haphazard at best and the ending highly unsatisfying. I would only recommend this book if you have no other option.
Rating:
Summary: A Gothic Gem
Review: Anyone who believes American literature is in any way in decline must be looking in the wrong places. I would refer them to the elegant, astonishing pages of this novel as well to Kiernan's earlier novel Silk and her collection Tales of Pain and Wonder.
(Reviewer Jack Morgan, author of The Biology of Horror.)
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic New Voice
Review: No one should expect the work of a second-time novelist to be perfect, in any sense. Perfection in literature, perfection by novelists, is usually achieved only after many novels, and careers that often span decades, not a few years. Caitlin R. Kiernan seems determined to break that rule. Her first novel, SILK, was one of the freshest, most powerful dark fantasies in years and won multiple awards and universal praise from critics in the genre. Now along comes THRESHOLD, her second novel, which has already garnered Kiernan the International Horror Guild's Best Novel award for 2001, beating out such "old school" luminaries as Peter Straub, Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Neil Gaiman. And the genre critics are in agreement that THRESHOLD is an even stronger novel than SILK, vanquishing any fears that Kiernan might have been a one-hit wonder, a phenomenon so common in horror and dark fantasy. T. S. Eliot wrote, "I will show you fear in a handful of dust." In THRESHOLD, Kiernan shows us a bottomless, spiraling universe of monsters and angels in a single stone, a rock with a few inexplicable fossils that holds the key to the salvation of the novel's protagonists. Kiernan, who has long been outspoken about the complexity and heterogeniety of what most people are content to simply call "horror," has woven another smart, beautiful, terrifying book, which is, in the end, as much about light as it is about darkness. I honestly can't recommend this novel highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Threshold
Review: Well, it's pretty much the best written Cthulhu-mythos story I've ever read, but that's still basically what it is. Bizarre swamp people, ancient subterranean creatures, and angles from beyond space and time mingle in this literary horror novel. It's rather as if Kathe Koja had written _It_. The literary language use is generally clear and incisive, though occasionally overdone. Characters are young Goth-ish and generally loser people; I would have identified with them a lot when I was 21. The nonlinear plot never lost my interest, though I felt disappointment that there wasn't more of a bang at the end. Of greatest interest here is Kiernan's portrayal of paleontology and the tying in of that with ancient horrors -- but she doesn't give readers enough. The intellectual mystery gets lost in the book's artistry -- perhaps inevitable given the right-brain, image-loading writing style, but I wanted to know more about the weird ancient critters, darn it. A significant horror novel, I think, though not without its flaws. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: BORING!!
Review: I best describe this book as 85% boredom and 15% substance . . . try reading 'Exquisite Corpse' by Poppy Z. Brite or 'Frisk' by Dennis Cooper . . . no need to waste time with this one.
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