Nightshade

Rating:
Summary: Not a classic, but a classic good read
Review: It seems that when I'm at the library or at an airport bookshop before a trip and can't find a book I really want, I turn to John Saul. Problem is, it seems that many of his books are the same and sometimes I get the feeling as I'm halfway through them that I've read them before.

That said, this was a fair book that did keep me turning the pages and make me hope my flight was delayed so I could finish it before I got home. There is enough intrigue and surprises to keep you up at night but also some bizarre plot turns that still leave me wondering.

Worth the read, just for the fun.

Rating:
Summary: Crazy grandmothers and killer ghosts...
Review: Middle-aged parents of a teenage boy are finally forced to bring his mentally ill grandmother home to live. While living with Grandma and her Alzheimer's Disease may bring its shares of trials and tribulations, it seems that Grandma brings along a few other inconveniences to their happy home... her long-deceased daughter! The boy's late aunt carries a great amount of influence beyond the grave. She forces him to kill on her behalf! Or so it seems...

Although Saul still seems stuck on the same character and setting formula that he has used in the past few stories (middle-aged parents, teenaged child, unsavory grandmother in father's family homestead) he does a fair job of creating a story that was difficult to put down. Although it seems to be the same ol, same ol, once again, I found the story entertaining and recommend that dear reader give it a look-see. It's worth it just to find out just exactly how a ghostly aunt, sixteen years in the grave can possibly accomplish such a feat! Find out for yourself, dear reader... I'm NOT telling!

Rating:
Summary: There's Been Worse...
Review: I was undecided on whether to give this book two stars or three. Everything I've read lately of John Saul's has been so bad I wonder why I keep going back to him. With this novel, I remembered, if faintly, why I once enjoyed him. If there were a two-and-a-half vote, I'd give Nightshade that honor.

It's not bad. Luckily, Saul goes into more of the gorier, disgusting scenes he was so good at in 'Second Child'. The storyline, though, was much the same; the family falling apart at the seams, the distrust and suspicion of everyone in town, the old family "secret", the slow loss of sanity of one of the main characters...nothing ever seems to change much in his plots. The names and locations may change, but the basic story remains the same.

Given that, this was much better than his recent efforts. I didn't find myself as bored with the story; in fact, I sped through it in two days to get to the end. If you are a previous Saul fan, you should and probably will read this one. I'll keep reading as long as he keeps writing. Hopefully soon he can come up with a slightly different story.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfull storyline
Review: John Saul has a winner in this thriller. He is a wonderfull writer and I try to read all of his books. This one inparticular is one of my faves. I loved the story line, it was the type of book that once you picked it up you didn't want to put it down. The story ran rather quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Have a good night with Nightshade...
Review: Yes, kiddies, that's right. Have a good night with "Nightshade."

John Saul finaly wrote a decent suspense thriller wherein a clear and satisfactory treatment of each character's motivations, secrets, and history was given. However, I don't believe John Saul knew how to properly introduce the supernatural element he wanted for this novel -- at least one that he felt satisfied with -- which is why the novel was split into three confusing parts: mystery suspense thriller, a tale of demonic poessession, a ghost story where the ghost can act out in the real world, as in "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub.

I strongly believe that "Nightshade" could have done very well, much better in fact, without that hokey ghost.

Oh, the story reads fine as a Norman Bates style mystery; but the allusions to a ghostly presence of a femme fatale is clearly superfluous. The treatment was especially confusing because we did not initially know whether this was a ghost doing all this evil, or an evil ghost working through the mind and body of a live person. Laying this foundation of mystery is all well and good, provided a clear resolution of this matter is achieved at some time later on in the story. However, it was not done. Thus this hazy supernatural veil remains over the entire story, and therefore lending an amateurish cast to the telling of the tale itself -- like a tale told at a firseide at night by an eleven-year old at some summer camp

The action preceding the identity of the antagonist was sufficient to hold the reader's interest, and so the tale should have remained on that solid footing. Adding a ghostly Cynthia character to this story just did not fit in with the overal theme at all. This leaves me to conclude this ghostly element having fallen flat primarily because of this bipolar theme, which left the epilogue at the end looking like a fifth wheel. So, it appears JS was having trouble evolving the Cynthia ghost, which should have clued him in to at least evict this annoying and useless character from the novel earlier on by revealing this persona to be from the anatagonist's psychosis. However, this was not done.

Instead we had to endure another unsteady plunge into the World of the Supernatural. This is indeed sad because it seems to me that JS was heading in the right direction with this story in the last fifth of the book, with his application of the standard psychological thriller theme. But then it seems like JS waffled at the very end and decided to try another stab at the hokey ghostly issue with the highly implausible ending where the boy and his girlfriend both experience the possessive presence of Cynthia the Ghost. I believe Cynthia should have been left as the clear memory that Joan had of her, then stick with the development of the psychosis based upon these memories. That treatment would have propelled the book into the proverbial heretofor unseen heights of greatness.

Still I give three points to "Nightshade" because at least JS explained the characters and their motivations in a satisfactory and compelling manner, and he also allowed the good guys to win this round. Overall this book is a good read, and if you can filter out the weak treatment of a ghostly presence within its pages, you might come to see it as a reasonably good thriller with good character development.

Rating:
Summary: corny
Review: Eh. The main adult character, Joan, was too stupid for words. Who's going to let a nasty cruel mother ruin her home, huh? Get real. They had the money, they could have put her in a home. Too unbelievable. My second John Saul and my last. His stories are corny.

Rating:
Summary: John Saul is back in top form.
Review: I won't rehash the plot of this novel, but I will say that this is the type of story where Mr. Saul's talent shines supreme. Get ready for child abuse, incest, gruesome deaths, and a fine sense of supernatural dread if you pick this tale up. If you enjoyed the early Saul novels but were turned off by "Right Hand of Evil" or "The Presence" you will want to pick up this novel. This is classic Saul, dark, mean and impossible to put down!

Rating:
Summary: Dark Secrets, Dark Minds
Review: The Hapgood family is seemingly perfect until Emily Moore moves in with them. Then things start to fall apart at a break-neck pace. Bill Hapgood is shot to death while he and his step-son Matt are out on a ritual hunting trip. Matt is accused immediately and is ostracized by everyone in town, except his mother, Joan. He is forced to deal with his grief and remorse for something he may or may not have committed. He isn't sure because before, during, and after the accident, his long-dead aunt is haunting him. Perhaps making him do things that he would never think of doing, such as killing his step-father in a homicidal rage. He isn't sure because he can't remember. All he can remember is the heavy perfume called Nightshade, a pair of arms holding him while he's aiming his rifle at the deer, and a seductive voice telling him to do it.Joan Hapgood, in the meantime, is forced to deal with her husband's death, Matt's involvement in the case, and the ghosts of her past. Mainly, those of her sister, Cynthia, and her mother, Emily. Saul weaves their relationship into a tightly woven knot of pain, which slowly unravels until Joan is completely insane and all the dark family secrets are revealed to Matt in one explosive climax.I read the last two-thirds of this book in one day, never quite sure if the ghost of Cynthia Moore existed or if it was a figment of Joan and Matt's imagination. The last two chapters were throughly creepy. It wouldn't surprise me if this book were made into a movie.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: The book had it's ups and downs. The pace was sometimes too slow or fast, but was mostly at an understandable level. What I disliked about the story was that a lot of things stayed kinda the same from around chapter 10 to about chapter 23. But that was a little more than made up for with how John Saul could keep your attention at not only what was happening throughout the story, but how the characters were thinking, like the confusion and how Matt tried to sort things out through out the story. A lot of the time, you are made to believe that Matt really did committ the crimes, but sometimes you are suspicious of a few other characters. So then you wonder, "who is the murderer"? The story will leave you thinking, "what if there were really situations like these?", and this type of situation is a bit disturbing...kinda.

One more thing : This should be in the "Thriller, Mystery" section, rather than the Horror section.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been better!
Review: I have been a fan of John Saul for over 10 years now and have read some of the greatest suspense novels ever penned by an author. Books that have had me up late at night turning the pages and refusing to turn off the lights because I was so enraptured with the story (SECOND CHILD, DARKNESS, GUARDIAN, THE HOMING, NATHANIEL, THE RIGHT HAND OF EVIL). So it saddens me when I have to say that NIGHTSHADE was not one of them. I am really lost here because the book seemed to just drag and it's only 308 pages long. The story has a great premise in dealing with the paranormal and the past coming back to haunt the present. NIGHTSHADE deals with a family, the Hapgoods, who after a fire allow the mother of Joan Hapgood, Emily, to come and live with them. Emily is extremely abusive and mean and suffers from Alzheimer's. Emily cares only for a daughter, Cynthia, who died years ago, but Emily feels that Cynthia still comes to visit her. Tragedy strikes young Matt who is blamed for the incident and then he too starts to have these visitations from Cynthia. The past starts to become mixed with the present and lives will become changed forever.

As good as that might sound, Mr. Saul failed to deliver the suspense. I felt that the book's suspense was just told to me without any build up at all. I felt no sympathy for the characters in the beginning, so when lives were lost I could have cared less. I didn't feel that the delivery of Emily's hatred was real to me. If you've read SECOND CHILD you know what I am talking about. I felt very emotional reading that book and it felt that Mr. Saul was trying for the same feel in NIGHTSHADE, but missed the mark. If the author spent more time building these characters, this wouldn't have happened. This book ranks in the bottom half of his oeuvre for me, but I have confidence that this is just a fluke. I will continue to read Mr. Saul's books, but I can't see anyone spending $26.00 on this novel. Wait for the paperback or just check it out from the library. In the meantime read one of the above books I listed. They are real treats and will keep you up ALL night.