Rating: 
Summary: Why all the Accolades? This Book is a Bore!
Review: A ghost story with the (supposed) intention of being more cerebral than those told around the campfire, its result is only a lugubrious tale of self-loathing. This book could have been cut by at least 100 pages and still would have taken too long. Mr. McFarland would have done better to drop the attempt at intellectual symbolism and just get on with the ghosts. More words were wasted on the central character's life-long mistakes than the actual spookiness (ha, ha) at hand. If he really wanted to write a successful story of spirits, he could learn a thing or two from Daphne DuMaurier (REBECCA) or Isabelle Allende (THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS).
Rating: 
Summary: Great ghost story!
Review: Dennis McFarland has created a wonderful book which blurs the line between reality and fantasy. His writing is exceptional, and he applies it to a unique storyline, drawing in the reader until they are unaware that there is a line between real and make-believe at all.While I wouldn't call this genre horror, I would perhaps call it a thriller. It is the worst kind of fear that McFarland instills in us, the fear that any normal person can spuratically become un-ordinary, that something, anything can drive each of us over the edge.
Rating: 
Summary: A Surprising Treasure
Review: Dennis McFarland has created a wonderful book which blurs the line between reality and fantasy. His writing is exceptional, and he applies it to a unique storyline, drawing in the reader until they are unaware that there is a line between real and make-believe at all. While I wouldn't call this genre horror, I would perhaps call it a thriller. It is the worst kind of fear that McFarland instills in us, the fear that any normal person can spuratically become un-ordinary, that something, anything can drive each of us over the edge.
Rating:
Summary: A sensitive, beautifully written novel
Review: Dennis Mcfarland is one of America's most gifted young writers. In " A Face At The Window" he has written another beautiful and moving novel. The balance of external drama and internal tension in this book is startling.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning prose, a delight to read and savour
Review: Dennis McFarland writes stunningly beautiful prose, and "A Face at the Window" is no exception. Anyone looking for Stephen King horror might want to go elsewhere, but anyone fascinated by rich, insightful portraits of the human condition (think of E.L. Doctorow) will love McFarland's work. "A Face at the Window" captures beauty and pain and true fear - the fear of finding oneself.
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Summary: Haunting Of The Mind!!!
Review: Excellent modern day horror story, but with the chills similer of an old classic. You will think about this book long after you read the last word
Rating:
Summary: Like biting into an air biscuit
Review: I bought this book on a recommendation from this site and was unfortunately disappointed. The writing was pleasing and evoked many visual images; however, I never found the characters believable or likable. I found myself hoping all the characters would die. I never found anything scary or disturbing about this novel. It touched upon a couple of cliched reasons why people would go "bad"...incest and lack of parental love for example. More than likely I will forget I ever read this book.
Rating:
Summary: This story haunted me.
Review: I found myself really getting to know the characters and I loved the little boy in the story. I remember staying up late immersed in a part of the book where the main character has another encounter with the ghost world. During this part of the book, he is very out of touch with reality, and after I finished reading it I realized I was in the same disoriented state. This book is very unique, because it is not your normal ghost story. It combines the life stories of people who lived many years ago with a person who lives in today's world. Even if you don't normally read ghost stories (I normally don't), you would probably not be able to put this book down! I definately wasn't able to.
Rating:
Summary: A chilling effect and a unique plot
Review: I found myself really getting to know the characters and I loved the little boy in the story. I remember staying up late immersed in a part of the book where the main character has another encounter with the ghost world. During this part of the book, he is very out of touch with reality, and after I finished reading it I realized I was in the same disoriented state. This book is very unique, because it is not your normal ghost story. It combines the life stories of people who lived many years ago with a person who lives in today's world. Even if you don't normally read ghost stories (I normally don't), you would probably not be able to put this book down! I definately wasn't able to.
Rating:
Summary: Not Your Average "Ghost Story"
Review: I have to admit that "A Face at the Window" was not at all what I was expecting. I was prepared to read a "cookie cutter" ghost story. I had not read any reviews, having simply picked this book up at a library sale.
The main character Cookson Selway, an early-retired restauranteur and his wife Ellen, who is a fiction writer travel to England after their daughter goes away to boarding school. Note that this novel is written in what I call "Conversation Form", that is to say that it is written as if the central character, "Cook" is talking to the reader. Prior to leaving American, Cook has an unusual experience which reminds him of a somewhat "psychic" ability he had as a child. A self-described ex-addict [drugs, alcohol] Cook has not had these experiences for years, yet after this daughter leaves for school he has an incident and chalks it up to anxiety over the separation. When he and Ellen travel to England and settle in a very old flat, things begin to get very out of control for Cook. He begins to see and hear things that no one else can see. He strikes up an unusual friendship and bond with Paschal, the hotel's young porter and begins to distance himself from his wife. There are some very spooky appearances, which Cook seems to take in stride and embrace in an obsessive manner which creates a terrific strain on his marriage. There is quite a bit of soul-searching by the main character in this novel, therefore creating a story-within-a-story feel to the novel. A final tragedy finally breaks the obsession Cook has with "helping" the apparitions he encounters and the novel resolves from there. There is a bit of back-tracking in the beginning of the novel, which is truly important later in the story, and the conversational writing style takes a few pages to get used to but overall, this is a very interesting novel, not at tall typical of any ghost story I have ever read. It is much more and well worth reading.
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