Shadows

Rating:
Summary: You think that the power can change you?
Review: Excellent reading, in this book you will see how a super intelligent kid have many more problems that a normal kid, everybody thinks that if a kid is very intelligent he or she has everything to be happy, but that is true?
I have to tell you that this book has some parts that could be written better, but those things doesn't take any of the five stars that I gave.
The book will keep you changing page after page, and at the end you will be able to answer my question: You think that the power can change you?

Rating:
Summary: One of the creepiest books I have ever read!
Review: I loved this book and it is the best Saul book I have read. this was an "Oh my God", couldn't put down book! I will read it again some day!

Rating:
Summary: adventures
Review: I thought that the book Shadows was really great. My mother got me into John Saul books, so when I was in the library looking for a book to read during leasure reading time I seen thew book Shadows by John Saul. So I checked it out. Most of the time i don't read books I just look at them to make it look like I'm reading, but this book I really gottan into. After reading your book it makes me want to read a few more of your thrillers.
That was a grat book.

Rating:
Summary: Fast reading, small plot.
Review: Like most of John Saul's books, this is a fast read - I managed to do it in under 4 hours. Unfortunately, it seems as though that's about all the time it took to actually write the book as well. With very little character development and a plot that goes from "point A" to "point B" with a single twist visible a mile away, this one's better than most, but not as good as it could be.

Rating:
Summary: Nice little time waster
Review: Regular readers of John Saul usually know what to expect when they pick up one of his novels; A small town setting, teenage protagonists with attitude issues and a malevolent technological experiment that is the work of some out of control corporation that threatens the peacefullness of the small town. Believe you me, Shadows does not stray very far from the formula.

Josh MacCallum is a ten year old with an attitude problem. He's constantly getting into fights at school, talks back at teachers and hates the fact he is living in a boring little desert town. His problem is that he is too smart. The curriculum at school is a joke to him and he is excluded and teased by his fellow students because of his superior intellect. His mother and principle decide to send him to a private school called The Barrington Academy for young students with gifted minds like his own. For the first time in his life, Josh feels like he belongs. But then a mysterious series of student suicides leads Josh to believe that the academy may not be all it is cracked up to be. Are all these suicides coincidental or is there something more sinister behind them?

Shadows is quite entertaining athough it doesn't offer Saul readers anything new. The book takes a while to get going but once we learn the forces at work behind the child suicides it becomes quite interesting. Fans of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the Harry Potter novels ought to enjoy this one as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: A prime example of a master story teller's work
Review: Saul's orginial work is so well written that it will pull you into the story so fast that before you realize it the afternoon is gone and you're left shocked that the story is over. "Shadows" is about a group of extremely gifted children that at a young age find themselves outcasts from their peer group. They find themselves shipped off to the Academy, a school designed for children like them. But deep in the core of the Academy, hidden behind the every day smiles of the people who run it is a very deadly cause. The cause is the search for artificial intelligence and the doctors are very close to achieving their goal. Outside of those who know about the true purpose of the Academy, people are starting to get suspicious. Eight student deaths in the past five years, seven of which were "suicides". How have the doctors achieved AI? What were the casaulties of this remarkable achievement? This story is an excellent story to curl up with... as long as you have the whole afternoon free because you won't be able to put it down!

Rating:
Summary: John Saul had done his homework very well...but I doubt...
Review: Shadows is really great. Every detail in this novel shows that John had prepared well before begin the first line. I appreciate overall of it. I read this book many years ago but it is still alive in my head. But, well, when he said (by means of using his characters) "everyone knows that comitting suicide is wrong, but why?", it's supposed that he should give some answers to it, whether his own preference or something else. Moreover, I doubt whether gifted children are really hated by their classmates...

Rating:
Summary: Better than most of his books!
Review: Shadows was the first John Saul book I read, and I hungrily tried to read all of his other books in the library. However, none were as clever or as satisfying as Shadows. Yes, the character development is lacking, but the plot is very exciting and very well written, giving the reader inside knowledge that Josh, the protagonist, only discovers at the end of the story.

Mysterious details and character motives are all clarified by the end, without leaving any subplot unfinished. (For an example of such problems, read Orson Scott Card's "Lost Boys.")

Saul's other books are all formulaic, with unbelievable events striking innocent teenagers in small towns, who then "turn bad." This one is a bit different. The "evil" encountered at the Academy that Josh attends is actually plausible and even believable, unlike the science-fiction / ghost story elements of most of his stories. It is also fascinating to read this book set (And written?) during the beginning of the computer craze. What would people turn to in order to create a powerful computer? This book explores the possibilities. It is MUCH better than a typical John Saul book.

Rating:
Summary: Better than most of his books!
Review: Shadows was the first John Saul book I read, and I hungrily tried to read all of his other books in the library. However, none were as clever or as satisfying as Shadows. Yes, the character development is lacking, but the plot is very exciting and very well written, giving the reader inside knowledge that Josh, the protagonist, only discovers at the end of the story.

Mysterious details and character motives are all clarified by the end, without leaving any subplot unfinished. (For an example of such problems, read Orson Scott Card's "Lost Boys.")

Saul's other books are all formulaic, with unbelievable events striking innocent teenagers in small towns, who then "turn bad." This one is a bit different. The "evil" encountered at the Academy that Josh attends is actually plausible and even believable, unlike the science-fiction / ghost story elements of most of his stories. It is also fascinating to read this book set (And written?) during the beginning of the computer craze. What would people turn to in order to create a powerful computer? This book explores the possibilities. It is MUCH better than a typical John Saul book.

Rating:
Summary: A BOOK THAT ONLY JOHN SAUL FANS WILL LOVE...
Review: This is a yet another formulaic horror story by the author of multiple bestsellers in this genre. Plot driven, with little character development, and a prosaically written narrative, the book is mediocre fare, at best.

This time, the horror takes place at The Academy, a school for gifted children. When ten year old, whiz kid Josh McCallum tries to commit suicide after enduring the endless taunts of his less gifted classmates in a mainstream school, his single mother enrolls him in The Academy, thinking that she has found a haven for her gifted son.

There, Josh feels at home, meeting other extraordinarily gifted children and making friends. Run by a Dr. Engersol, the resident mad scientist, and presided over by an ostensibly motherly woman named Hildie, Josh is, at first, taken in by the seemingly comfortable atmosphere of The Academy. Soon, he finds himself becoming friends with a precocious, freckle-faced redhead named Amy.

When a mysterious suicide takes place at the school, it is quickly swept under the rug. Josh and Amy shortly find themselves enrolled in a special seminar run by Dr. Engersol, where it is obvious all is not what it seems. Josh and Amy's idyllic and brief relationship soon comes to a grinding halt, when Amy is caught in the vortex of Dr. Engersol's madness, and Hildie is revealed for what she really is. It is up to Josh to set things right, a substantial burden for any ten year old, no matter how smart.

All in all, this is a book that only dedicated fans of author John Saul will love. All others will find it to be nothing more than a quick, throwaway read.