Rating: 
Summary: A good debut horror novel
Review: Scott Nicholson's first widely published work, "The Red Church", is a good first novel. It's better than most "first" novels I've read in the horror genre. It's entertaining, but does have its faults.The book centers around an old church that until recently had been used as a barn. A relative of the church's original preacher offers a large sum of money and re-opens the church. However, this church worships the Second Son of God. The church is haunted by a bell tower creature and ghosts of those who died on church grounds are seen. Eventually, the ultimate battle of good versus evil occurs in the great climax of the book. The main problem, although not a major one, with the book is the author's over-description of past events, inhabitants of the area, etc. While a little description is necessary, at times the author seemed to delve too deep in the history and it did little to enhance the story. However, overall the book is entertaining, complete with a few eerie moments (the communion scene being one of them) -- a good novel, especially for an author's first foray into the world of fictional horror.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice first novel
Review: Scott Nicholson's THE RED CHURCH was a nice first novel, although at times the God-bashing was a bit much for me. I enjoyed the setting and the realism he brought to the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Good debut.
Review: Scott Nicholson, The Red Church (Pinnacle, 2003)
The Red Church is not your average horror novel; we'll get that out of the way at the beginning. Yeah, there's the monster ("with wings and claws and livers for eyes," maybe the best half-sentence description of a monster since Stephen King unleashed Pet Sematary on the world twenty years previous). There's the dysfunctional family who can't pull together to save their lives (literally). There's the bumbling backwoods cop and his sexy partner. Well, sexy if you like buff women in uniform (and don't we all?). All the standard stuff.
But then there's the Church of the title, and that's when things start gettin' weird.
Archer McFall is a descendant of Wendell McFall, who built the Red Church two hundred years previous and was hanged by his parishoners, who suspected he had truck wit' de debbil. His ghost, according to local legend (I should mention that "local" is rural North Carolina), still haunts the place. Archer went out to California two decades previous with a bevy of local beauties to form a new church, the Temple of the Two Suns (or Sons; the spellings are interchangeable throughout the novel, though whether that's intentional or the product of Pinnacle's notoriously lax editing is unknown). Only one of the seven girls who left with him, Linda, ever returned. She married a Baptist, settled down, had kids. But now Archer's back, and Linda, like the rest of the descendants of the people who hanged Wendell all those years ago, is drawn to the Red Church. Members of Archer's fledgling parish start dying. Sheriff (whose younger brother died in the Red Church's belfry not long before Archer took off for Cali) has to investigate, right?
That's where it starts getting into Frank Peretti territory. The Temple of the Two Suns and the local, more traditional Baptist sect are polar opposites to one another, Jesus pitted against God's Other Son, as Archer believes himself to be. As you can probably surmise, this book could have been really, really bad. Nicholson never gives in to the temptation of the altar-call, though, and whether the book is truly intended as Christian allegory or not, the peace-and-light message is kept within the action, integrated into the characters rather than Peretti-style ("let's stop the action and ask the folks if they've been saved, shall we?"). He also never quite takes the edge off the book's Christian leanings, either; the scene where the child remembers the pastor's repeated savings of his soul tread very close to sounding like the kid's covering up child molestation, without ever tipping its hand. The whole thing has a wonderfully creepy quality to it whenever the religion question pops up.
Where things fall apart is, unfortunately, at the end. The book's climax has something of a deus-ex-machina feel to it, and is generally confusing all the way around. This probably stems from its being told from the POV of one of the characters; no doubt actually being in the scene would be confusing as all get-out, but did Nicholson have to confuse us with it, as well? To his credit, when cleaning up after everything, he does explain one or two things, and he doesn't pull too many punches. But the confusion of the climax and its rather too easy method of resolution do leave enough of an aftertaste that we had to knock a point off. Still, Nicholson's debut novel does hint at better things to come. *** ½
Rating: 
Summary: Love/hate
Review: Some people seem to really hate this book. Maybe because "horror" gives people different types of expectations. I loved this book. I hope Nicholson does as well with the next one. Even if you end up hating it, you won't be bored.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Read Red Really
Review: Sorry, but this is a rather sad novel, even though it is someone's debut novel. I have to confess to not being able to finish it because it is indeed so bad. The plot is predictable, not very suspenseful. The characters aren't very likeable. The dialogue is terrible. The things the characters do are stupid. The central idea itself isn't bad, but would have been handled much better by a stronger, first-rate novelist. It's hard to believe this book even got published. I cannot in good faith recomment it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting story
Review: The Red Church is about supernatural happenings centered around a religious cult in the mountains of North Carolina. The concept is pretty original, and I like Nicholson's writing style. I'm not crazy about all of the characterization, though. Some of the characters show a surprising lack of common sense when it's convenient to the plot, and at times Ronnie, a young boy, seems much older than he's supposed to be. There are some very good scares in this book, and the plot kept my interest. The only thing I really disliked about the story was the very end of the book. There are a few tacked-on paragraphs after the story is wrapped up that are at best pointless and at worst a bit of a cop out. But I'm definately looking forward to reading more from this writer.
Rating:
Summary: Place, atmosphere, and a concern for detailed portraiture...
Review: THE RED CHURCH is an impressive first novel by a young horror writer who's sure to make a name for himself if he continues to produce work of this caliber. North Carolina native Scott Nicholson has clearly been influenced by some of the most accomplished veterans of the genre--Stephen King and Robert McCammon most notably--and has wisely borrowed and imitated the elements that work best in his own style, and, for the most part, left behind those that don't. What impressed me about THE RED CHURCH right off is the easy self-assurance of Nicholson's voice. First novels frequently cop a tone that is either excessively overbearing or else downright noncommital. Nicholson manages to hit a sweet spot somewhere right in the middle. It helps Nicholson greatly that he already knows much of what's important to him as a writer--place, atmosphere, and a concern for detailed portraiture head off the list. It's clear that he goes after those things with almost every word he puts on the page. Equally important to Nicholson as his many literary influences are his rural Appalachian surroundings. With a simple but impressive use of language, Nicholson makes his world lilt and dance to its own dark breezes and shadows. If there's one major flaw in the otherwise vivid and skillful Red Church, it's that it doesn't end nearly as well as it begins. After he manages to create such a rich, self-sustaining fictional world peopled with mostly interesting and complex characters, it's slightly disappointing when Nicholson allows himself to get bogged down with the mechanics of tying his plot together. The first two thirds of the novel read like the real living, breathing thing, and the last third feels a little too much like a flow chart. This is an understandable misstep in a first outing, however, and is easible forgivable, especially when the reader considers the reason why the ending feels a little disappointing: because of how good the writing is in the first place. Scott Nicholson is a writer to keep your eyes on. He's a man with considerable talents, not the least of which is an heightened sense for the subtleties and mysteries of good old-fashioned storytelling. I look forward to picking up his new novel, The Harvest, which will be published this fall by Pinnacle Horror. It'll be great fun to see where he goes from here.
Rating:
Summary: Very good debut
Review: The red church was a great read. I read 4 chapters as soon as I picked it up. All the elements of gore. Mutilated corpse,walking dead,hideous monsters (the belfry monster)even cannibalism.
Even with all that, the ending was a bit of a let down.A mud monster? Oh well, Can't wait to see what Scott's next novel will be.
Rating:
Summary: Very Original
Review: This book is unlike any horror novel I've read thus far. It has an original flavor to it. Over 100 years ago a minister (Wendell McFall), who preached that God had a second son who's mission was to undo Jesus' "Good News", was murdered by his congregation because his lunacy lead to the sacrifice of a small child. Now the church (that was painted red by the preacher) is haunted by a dark spirit. And the townspeople are being murdered by some monster. A new preacher (who is the grandson of Wendell McFall) returns to see that the "Second Son of God" is restored to his rightful glory. Sound a bit confusing...it is a little. But the action starts at the beginning of the book and never stops. The book deals with the supernatural. There is no mystery about who's doing the killings and who's going to be killed, but it is a unique horror story. I've never heard of the "Second Son". The character Archer McFall (who is supposed to be the second son incarnate) clearly states he is not the devil. I give this book three stars for its originality. On a scare level of 1 to 5, I give this book a 3 as well. Hell House by Richard Matheson is still scarier.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't Deliver
Review: This book sounds great, but sadly doesn't come close to what it could be. The author repeatedly leads the reader and then does not follow through. It almost seems that the author is too concerned about offending people and is afraid to go to the place he wants to go with the plot. He skirts around things and does not provide enough hard fact and detail to support his story. Either you "go there" or you don't, but make it clear. Disappointing read.
| 
