Rating: 
Summary: THE INFINITE: Definitely creepy!
Review: I keep going back to Douglas Clegg hoping that with each new novel he's finally come into his own; after all this is an author that gets repetitively compared to Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker, so he definitely has some big shoes to fill as the new kid on the block. Unfortunately, the last few books I've read by the author have all felt extremely amateurish and bland without any real linear plot. That is, until I recently finished THE INFINITE. Now I see that this guy is capable of so much more.
THE INFINITE is the third cycle in a series revolving around an allegedly haunted house called Harrow (and I'm sure there will be more episodes to follow). Seems that Harrow is more than merely filled with ghosts and things that go bump in the night, and one man has offered $10,000 each to three talented people to come and test his theory. Of course, these three guests all possess paranormal abilities, rendering the story even more unoriginal. But what the heck -- it works!
Clegg uses his magic and attention to detail in building the generic plot, creating along the way some extremely well-written characters that you can't help but enjoy. In some certain way Clegg manages to keep things simple while moving the tale along in a steady, subtle pace, which ultimately thrusts the audience into a tight (if only too quick) ending and leaving us begging for more. And here's the real damage the author does unto himself: by building the climax at such slow tempo, the average reader feels gypped when finally the "horror" story begins -- only to end less than seventy pages later (see the other reviews for proof). But not me. I completely enjoyed the fact that I was able to use my imagination a bit longer while Clegg cleverly created a very believable setting, uncertain what I was truly being set up for. I loved that each and every one of his characters had flaws, making them that much more human and real. I even found his ending brilliant as it's done and over with before you can even catch your breath, leaving you with an unsettling feeling of chaos. It's evident when comparing THE INFINITE to MISCHIEF (the second in the Harrow series and one that I think you can totally miss) that Clegg has come a long way and finally stands out on his own. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: a good horror book
Review: I liked this book. However, I thought it was a horror book, and it got boring in the first parts of the book. He could have taken some of the charcter bios info out. That being said it still was a very good read and I would tell anyone that likes this genre to read the book. Still, a good horror book
Rating: 
Summary: Clegg's best yet
Review: If you're a fan of horror fiction and haven't yet discovered Bram Stoker Award winner Douglas Clegg, you've got some enjoyable reading ahead of you. Clegg's latest, The Infinite, is probably his best novel to date, and is a good place to start.A kind of riff on Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House, The Infinite tells the story of three psychically-gifted individuals invited by the leader of a psychic research foundation to spend a few days in a haunted mansion in the Hudson River Valley of New York state. The haunted mansion in question, Harrow, has figured in two of Clegg's earlier works, Mischief and Nightmare House. Although The Infinite picks up on story elements and characters common to those two books, it's not necessary to have read them first. What makes The Infinite such a great read is the richness of its characterization. Clegg takes his time setting up the three principles before bringing them together. Cali Nytbird, a young woman who uses her psychic abilities to help the police catch killers, Chet Dillinger, a young man who experiences his ability more as a curse than a blessing, and Frost Crane, a strange man with unhealthy compulsions who has used his ability to achieve some degree of fame all come together at Harrow like tasty ingredients in an exotic dish. Also in the mix are Jack Fleetwood, the leader of the psychic research foundation, his tempestuous sixteen-year-old daughter Miranda, and Ivy Martin, the mysterious woman funding the whole endeavor for her own personal reasons. All of the characters are well developed and fun to read. Clegg does a great job putting you inside the hearts and minds of each character, making you feel his or her pangs and desires. One of the greatest pleasures of reading is getting to experience the world from a new vantage point--if you're a man, knowing what it's like to be a woman in love, or vise versa. The Infinite really succeeds in this and also happens to be quite a scary haunted house book. If you're looking for an intelligent, character-driven horror novel, Douglas Clegg is your man, and The Infinite is the book.
Rating: 
Summary: little originality
Review: In my opinion: The prelude to this book, a dream sequence, is too indistinct, and very disjointed. The first portion of this novel, the development of the characters, is both underdeveloped and written overly long. Much of Clegg's storytelling is dry and little emotion. Unfortunately, all of the really scary bits are only secondary tales, leaving the rest of the story trite. Why didn't Clegg develop more the idea of a house within a house at Harrow? Why did he describe so much the subterranean aspect of the property but never lose his characters in these catacombs? Are pulsating skin covered walls & sex with one's pet dog really that imaginative? Then, the ending is just too happyily-ever-after, with the remaining characters all but getting their nails done together while planning a sleep over. While I was able to finish this book in an evening, I think it's because so much of the plot has been written & acted before, thanks to the King's Overlook Hotel and Jackson's Hill House & assorted B-grade movies.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the horror
Review: Like many of the other reviewers, I read a lot about Clegg and his supposed great talent. I finished the book wondering where all the hype is coming from.
The book had a promising start, and the long sections introducing the main characters added some emotional heft to the hovel.
But let's fact it, most readers of horror books want something scary to happen. With "The Infinite" you are three-quarters of the way through the book before anything remotely scary, or horrifying, happens. Then it's over very quickly. Plus, what does happen really isn't all that interesting.
People can criticize Stephen King all they want, but King, along with other writers such as Dan Simmons, know how to dole out the scares leading up to a big ending.
With "The Infinite" it was all build-up and no pay off.
Rating:
Summary: A chill down the spine!
Review: Shirley Jackson, Peter Straub, and now Douglas Clegg. These are the three authors that have managed to take an over used and often mistreated sub-genre in the horror field and find something fresh, exciting, and most of all, scary. It's rare when I find a ghost story that thrills and surprises me at the same time as most of these seem to only re-hash the same tired premise over and over again. Not so with Mr. Clegg's newest novel, THE INFINITE. If you're looking for a well written and scary read to keep you up nights, check this one out.
Rating:
Summary: Jackson + Matheson + Tryon = BLAH!
Review: The first half of the book is mainly a character sketch and he takes dozens of pages to build up backstories that really don't matter that much. Then, as one character approaches the house, street names read Jackson Street (a homage to Shirley Jackson, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE), Matheson Street (HELL HOUSE), and Tryon Street (for Thomas Tryon, THE OTHER, et al.) Clegg wants a little HAUNTING and HELL HOUSE but he ends up with ROSE RED, a terrible "haunted house" story that adds nothing to the genre. And nothing really happens here until the end, which reads like a bad 70s TV movie of the week. I skimmed the last 70 pages which is the WORST thing you can say about any book. This novel reads more like an outline of character sketches with no real plot or narrative drive. I say skip it.
Rating:
Summary: THE HUNT HAS BEGUN
Review: THE HUNT HAS BEGUN...
"His eyes watch you as if you were the one that set him afire..."
This is a patient, excruciatingly relentless haunted house novel that rivals the early works of the great Shirley Jackson. I bought it and was deep into it within a matter of minutes. My tastes run more to pulp, but when it comes to literature Douglas Clegg is as good as it gets in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: THE FINAL NOVEL IN THE "HARROW" TRILOGY!!
Review: THE INFINITE by Douglas Clegg is the final novel that makes up the trilogy (THE NIGHTMARE HOUSE & MISCHIEF) of Harrow House. Think of this particular book as a tribute to Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and Richard Matheson's HELL HOUSE. The newest in the series continues a year or so after the burning of Harrow Academy--where MISCHIEF left off. The house itself wasn't destroyed in the fire that took the lives of several students...only the sections that had been built on to it to accommodate the student population when it was turned into an academy. Since the fire, Harrow House has claimed the life of a sixteen-year-old girl who died of a heart attack while she and her friends spent the night in it to see if the house was really haunted. Now, Ivy Martin (the former girlfriend of Jim Hook's late brother in MISCHIEF) has purchased Harrow House and has spent a large sum of money to renovate the place in an effort to get it back to its original condition. She has also hired a small team of psychics (Frost Crane, Chet Dillinger and Cali Nytbird), led by Jack Fleetwood, to investigate the powers of the house and hopefully to open a portal into the afterlife so that she can once again reunite with the person she loved so deeply. All three of the psychics have their own personal problems and dark secrets to deal with, and this will have a direct bearing on what happens to them inside Harrow House. Jack Fleetwood, who's in love with Ivy, is perhaps the most normal of the team-certainly the nicest. Jack's albatross, however, is his teenage daughter, Mira, who has accompanied him to this mansion of darkness and death in order to get out of school for a week. This will definitely be a vacation she won't soon forget. Not one of these people suspects the danger that they're in as the house lures them into a state of complacency and then begins to gradually play upon their fears and weaknesses, until it's too late and the killing starts with a vengeance. Prepare yourself for a high body count! While not as tense and suspenseful as THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, nor as violent and sexual as HELL HOUSE, Douglas Clegg's novel is still an excellent addition to the "haunted house" genre. He creates a dark, morbid atmosphere within the confines of Harrow House, easing the reader forward to the evitable outcome of death and destruction. Each of the characters is written with detail to the nuances that make us human, if not very likable. Since the house is really the star of the novel, I wish Mr. Clegg hadn't spent the first 140 pages dealing with the history of the three psychics, but rather have started off the novel with their arrival at Harrow House and then filled in the background information as the story moved along. More time could therefore have been spent inside the house where all of the fun actually takes place. I loved the recorded history of Harrow House as presented in the diary of Estaban Palliser (a.k.a. Justin Gravesend) and in The Infinite Ones by Isis Claviger. I found myself drawn into these two writings more deeply than I would've expected, wanting to learn in greater detail about the people mentioned (such as Matilde Gravesend and Aleister Crowley, as well as Crowley's wife, Rose Kelly, and his lover, Victor Neuburg). I hope Mr. Clegg will one day present the complete text of Isis Claviger's book. That would make a most intriguing story. With a beautiful wrap-around dust jacket that has a terrific art design by Franco and a fabulous price, THE INFINITE by Douglas Clegg is a great buy and the perfect addition to your horror collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Supernatural thriller.
Review: The story is of the haunted Harrow boarding school and its deadly past that attracts the PSI Foundation and a wealthy benefactor who has her own reasons for wanting Harrow's secrets found.
We meet three unique individuals in the names of Chet Dillinger, Cali Nytbird and Frost Crane all of whose past histories are wonderfully laid out so we get to know them long before they start their stay in Harrow. I disagree with the Publishers weekly review in that I don't think this part of the book dragged at all, I only wish their was more to the rest of it. I really think more could have been written on the character of Cali Nytbird and her involvement in a murder investigation.
This book was a great escape from the more horrific current events going on around us. If you like the works of King, Koontz and McGammon, you will definately enjoy ALL of Douglass Cleggs books.
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