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Summary: The Other- a Forgotten masterpiece
Review: I saw the movie over twenty years ago. WHile at garage sale, I picked up the book and was bowled over on its ability to scare and disturb me. Mr. Tryon wrote a masterpiece of psychological horror and a horrifying descriptive narrative on the true nature of evil. I am surprised that this work is out of print. With such junk today, works like this only look even better over time. One of the best suspense/horror stories I have read.
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Summary: The Other & Harvest Home/The Best Horror Novel 's 70's
Review: I've read hundreds of horror books in my lifetime, 39 yrs. to be exact, but very few have fascinated me or stayed with me like this book, called The Other. This is the most realistic horror novel ever written (I have read it 5 times) and I absolutely love it. There are no devils, aliens, or monsters of any kind, just two psychologicaly messed up kids(which one is the evil one? or is it both?) who play an imagination game that goes horribly out of control, awesome twist ending, this book will keep you riveted for hours on end. Mr. Tryon creates characters that are so true to life you swear you met them before or they really existed at some time. This book is intelligent horror written by a late great author who doesn't suffer from verbal diarrhea like some of the popular present day writers. Harvest Home is another novel written in the early seventies that is just as creepy with a stunning ending, I loved it! If you enjoy The Other here are a few books you might want to look up : Harvest Home-Thomas Tryon, Conjure Wife-Fritz Leiber, The Nightwalker-Thomas Tessier, The Manitou-Graham Masterson, The Godsend-Bernard Taylor, After Sundown-Randall Boyll, The Homing-Jeffrey Campbell, For Fear of the Night-Charles L. Grant, The Dogs-Robert Calder, Dead White-Alan Ryan they are all fantastic scary reads!.
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Summary: A Brilliant Depiction of the Darkness of the Mind
Review: In prose as easy as a floating dream with a story as frightening as a pre-dawn nightmare, Thomas Tryon's 1971 novel THE OTHER is one of the three finest horror novels of 20th Century America, easily ranking alongside Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and Stephen King's 'SALEM'S LOT.
Holland and Niles Perry are twins on the brink of adolescence, residing with their large extended family on a comfortably ramshackle farm in 1930s New England. But their lives have been touched with tragedy: their father, killed in an accident; their mother, unable to recover from the shock. Grandmother Ada, Russian-born, has become the backbone of the family. And Grandmother Ada has a game for them to play together, a solace for them in a time of grief. But it is no ordinary game, this. It is one passed down through the blood from generation to generation. And it is through this game of the mind that Ada unwittingly unleashes a psychological horror that consumes everything it touches.
THE OTHER is the first of the several novels Tryon wrote before his premature death and, although the novel HARVEST HOME is perhaps more widely remembered, to my mind it is his finest. The plot has been extremely influential, and some readers may recognize various turns from having encountered them at the less talented hands of later writers who shamelessly borrowed Tyron's ideas. But it hardly matters: the prose is absolutely flawless, dreamy, languid, and seductive even as it begins to unravel into a psychological void from which there is no return. It is a rare reader who will not unravel right along with it--and immediately re-read the novel to see how Tyron has so unerringly cast his spell. Strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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Summary: Thrilling and Suspensful, A Hard to Put Down Book
Review: In reference to "The Other" by Thomas Tryon (1971). This is my fourth time reading this book since I first bought it in 1972. It's gotten pretty worn since then. As the first time I read it I still can't put it down. I enjoy reading it when I go to bed and can't wait to continue the next day. The reason why I'm reading it for only the fourth time since I purchased it is because I had misplaced it for several years. When I moved (again) I found it and started reading it as if I never had. The Other is about twins who's personalities are the complete opposit. You think their are two but in fact their's only one twin who's taken on the personality of his sibling to carry out murderous schemes and revenge. Set in the year 1935, it's accurately describes a typical high class family's life during that time period. The "twins" are sort of Cain and Able. One evil and vengeful one kind and caring.
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Summary: Thrilling and Suspensful, A Hard to Put Down Book
Review: In reference to "The Other" by Thomas Tryon (1971). This is my fourth time reading this book since I first bought it in 1972. It's gotten pretty worn since then. As the first time I read it I still can't put it down. I enjoy reading it when I go to bed and can't wait to continue the next day. The reason why I'm reading it for only the fourth time since I purchased it is because I had misplaced it for several years. When I moved (again) I found it and started reading it as if I never had. The Other is about twins who's personalities are the complete opposit. You think their are two but in fact their's only one twin who's taken on the personality of his sibling to carry out murderous schemes and revenge. Set in the year 1935, it's accurately describes a typical high class family's life during that time period. The "twins" are sort of Cain and Able. One evil and vengeful one kind and caring.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: It's been many many years since I first read THE OTHER. Then saw the film. Was very impressed with both. Would really like to get my hands on a copy of the book in order to re-read it. Recommend to anyone who is interested in the dichotomy of evil.
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Summary: Fiendishly clever
Review: Like many reviewers of this book, I also read it about 20 years ago, having already fallen in love with Thomas Tryon's writing in Harvest Home. From the first page of The Other, the haunting and insistent voice of the narrator grips you, and you are ineluctably drawn into his strange, isolated world. The story of the twins Niles and Holland, with its psychologically devastating twist in the tail, has haunted me ever since I first read it, and having lost my copy some time ago, I am desperate to find another so that I can read it over and over. A real classic of the genre.
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Summary: Find this book!
Review: My dad introduced me to the work of Thomas Tryon. A few months ago he found a handful of books up in the garage that he'd read when he was in high school, and some of Tryon's novels were among them. I cooked through Harvest Home and was very impressed with with his masterful descriptions and breathtaking plot twists/revelations. Then I read The Other... I was completely blown away. You can't miss this book. It's a masterpiece. It's not frightening in a slasher, better-look-over-your-shoulder-type way, but the concept will chill you, without a doubt. It's such a good story, and it's executed so well... It's the best book I've read in a very long time. I would recommend it to anyone who is the mood for a good, haunting, thought-provoking piece of literature. My hat is off to Thomas Tryon... I can't wait to get my hands on another one of his works.
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Summary: A truly great horror story
Review: Once upon a time there was a somewhat forgettable actor named Thomas Tryon who starred in a series of very forgettable movies ("The Cardinal" and a few others). Mr. Tryon wisely decided to forget about the forgettable and sat down and wrote a spooky novel called "The Other". The result is an absolutely superb, un-put-downable, unforgettable horror story."The Other" tells us the story of the Perry twins, Niles and Holland, 13 years old, identical twins born on either side of midnight and thus have not only different birthdays, but, in a true stroke of fictional genius, different astrological signs. They are thus as different as day from night, one friendly and sunny and outgoing, and the other deep, dark and diabolically evil. Their father is dead, their mother imprisoned inside her own creeping madness, and their grandmother, blessed or cursed with the Sight, is unable to stop the horror that is about to engulf the whole family. Two-thirds of the way through the book, Tryon divulges the twins' secret that will literally rock the reader in his tracks. You would think the rest of the book would be an anti-climax after this; fasten your seatbelts, because the real ride is about to begin. The last page of the book will have the reader wondering if Tryon was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and have you guessing for days. Tryon is an excellent writer as well as a great storyteller; he has the gift of understatement, and he knows how to let the horror build up ever so slowly and insidiously until the reader is totally wrapped up and can't escape. He also has a delightful touch with small but telling period descriptions that set the novel firmly in its time frame (do any older readers recall Mr. Coffee Nerves and Belle Sharmeers?). It's a shame this book is out of print because there is a whole new generation out there waiting to discover what a treasure it is. It is, quite simply, one of the best suspense/horror stories ever written.
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Summary: They Don't Make Books Like this Anymore!
Review: This book is a mystery clear to the end. Suspense keeps the pages turning and shock grips you when you discover the secret that twins Holland and Niles share. You read the book taking a very key element of the book for granted, only to find at the end that you have been living inside the mind of one of the characters rather than in the real world. I can say no more without giving the book away, but it is a wonderful read. They don't make books like this anymore!
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