Rating: 
Summary: Bizarre and disturbing
Review: A very strange, haunting novel. In The Deceased, Tom Piccirilli manages to unfurl a story that is part fantasy, part horror, part examination of a writer's motives and responsibilities to his fans, himself, and his creations.
On the anniversary of his family's massacre, an author returns to his isolated childhood home to investigate the muddled truth of what occurred there when he was a child. In the process he faces the ghosts of his family, animal people in a forest that he created through supernatural forces, and a little girl who may or may not merely be a character in his father's final novel.
The creative force of an artist takes on a life of its own in The Deceased, which is a wonderfully offbeat, chilling, and provocative story. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Superior horror fiction
Review: Doug Clegg and Tom Piccirilli have quickly become my two favorite horror writers. Piccirilli toys with conventions with a sure hand, and in The Deceased shows why he's one of the genre's best. In a looming secluded house, Jacob Maelstrom must discover the secrets to his murdered family and find out what bizarre role he played in their deaths. The ghost of a writer continues weaving tales that affect the living, the woods are full of haunted half-human creatures, and two young women must suffer through Jacob's torments with him. Piccirilli's stylish manner makes this a full reading experience, that draws the reader down into the surreal, insane world of the damned. This is powerful horror fiction at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: Much better than it looks or sounds.
Review: Everything about this novel is misleading. From the nondescript cover art and the generic title, to a back cover summary that makes it sound like a hundred other tired tales of terror. It even begins in a fairly standard way.Jacob Maelstrom is a writer of horror novels, himself the son of a more famous writer. He finds himself drawn once again to his childhood home -- the place where, over a decade ago, his sister killed the rest of his family and herself, leaving only him alive. It's been done before, right? It may seem so, but what follows takes the story in entirely different directions. Family secrets are revealed, other players are introduced, and the book becomes an exploration into the very nature of creativity. Where does it come from? Where does it go? When does the fictional become real? The answers lie within the old Maelstrom house, if you care to spend the night with Jacob and his uninvited guests. Piccirilli's excellent prose goes a long way in carrying the story. I'm always happy to see someone who really knows how to use the language, rather than one who is merely adequate. THE DECEASED is a fine novel of chilling horror, suspense, and eroticism.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Haunted House Tale!
Review: Great supernatural story involving two women who decide to visit a writer one night in his haunted home. His family all had their heads chopped off by his sister and they're not too pleased about it. This book creeped me out so much in parts that I could only read it during the day...who knew a wheelchair could be that darn scary? I should also add that this is by far one of the best written horror novels I've ever come across. Not your average 'meat and potatoes' writing style that one usually find in the genre. I highly recommend this book...horror at its best!
Rating:
Summary: Instant Horror Classic
Review: It's no wonder that Tom Piccirilli is nominated this year for the Bram Stoker Award. This guy is a real treasure. His literary style is unlike any other in the horror genre today. True, it's not an easy read, but if you take the time to let his words sink in, it truly is a frightening and disturbing read. This is Piccirilli's best work since his amazing novel, DARK FATHER.
Rating:
Summary: A bizarre and terrifying novel
Review: The Deceased is one of the strangest and emotionally charged horror novels I've ever read. One thread of the story is simplistic on the surface: a man goes back to his childhood home on the ten year anniversary of the murders of his family. But even before he gets there the plot twists and coils like mad and we meet up with ghosts, insanity, ax killings, a strange breed of creatures living in the deep woods, and other assorted weirdness. Piccirilli manages to blend all these elements into a convincing tale of terror, deathless love, and possible redemption. Definitely give it a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Weird, wild stuff here, kids
Review: The potentially excellent plot of this story is hindered from ever being realized by the author's ornate writing style. The book did not raise any fears within, simply because of the hideous overtones of "artistic" writing. The characters are not well developed, and the story reads very slowly. There are times in the plot when you are not sure which character is where. Tom Piccirilli's books will not be gracing my bookshelves any time soon.
Rating:
Summary: HALLUCINATORY HORROR
Review: This book disturbed me. It was very creepy and unpredictable. The storyline was kind of hard to follow but eventually the writing made me forget what a storyline was! With ghoulish, incestruous siblings creeping around the corner (of the house at the protagonist of the story returns) and a lake outside with strange creatures lurking in the woods trying to mate with humans, Piccirilli twisted my mind pretty well. (And that damn turtle!) But what was really bothersome to me was the shifting between reality and fantasy and the living and dead. I will definitely look for Piccirilli again in the future. I must say that if it is a traditional horror story you're looking for, then only half of that is here. But if you'd like a swirling ride into madness and horror, then look no further.
Rating:
Summary: Another power fantasy
Review: This is the third novel by Tom Piccirilli that I've read and I've got to say that whether you love his work or hate it, you've got to admit that he is an original. His fluid poetic voice will either grab you by the heartstrings or push you out of the narrative. This isn't commercial fiction but a unique blending of fantasy, horror, and mainstream literature. The Deceased follows a young man's emotional derailment as he returns to the childhood home where his entire family was murdered. He has the power to create a new life form out in the nearby forest, and as his creations and creativity distort his mind, so distorts the world around him. Caught up in all this oddity are two women with plenty of problems of their own, who might either fall prey to this new strange world or help our protagonist fight against it. Piccirilli sweeps the reader into a constantly changing landscape where dreams and heartache, history and heartache all fuse into one. A wonderfully odd novel.
Rating:
Summary: Startlingly original horror
Review: Tom Piccirilli is one horror author that makes me scratch my head in confusion. This author has won at least one Bram Stoker Award, the plum prize of those authors who write horror, for one of his novels. "The Deceased" is the third Piccirilli novel I have read, with the other two being "The Night Class" and the entertaining western "Grave Men." Of these three books, "The Deceased" ranks as the worst. Come to think of it, I wasn't that impressed by "The Night Class," either. The western novel was quite amusing, but if this author's other horror novels resemble "The Deceased" in any way, shape, or form, we are all in a lot of trouble. "The Deceased" is an unmitigated mess of a story, with a murky plot that becomes nearly impenetrable by the time the reader reaches the conclusion. "The Deceased" is a tale about a horror writer named Jacob Maelstrom. Jacob's father Isaac was an enormously influential and famous horror author, well remembered and still beloved by legions of fans despite the fact that he died horribly some years ago. Several people wrote books about the strange incident that claimed the lives of not only Jacob's father but the rest of his family as well. Jacob survived, somehow, and still carries the memories of the day his sister took an axe and killed the family. Now, Jacob feels a call to return to the scene of the crime, to the Maelstrom mansion where it all began. In the course of Jacob's immersion into the memories of the house, he encounters the ghosts of his insane sister Rachel and his sadistic, wheelchair bound brother Joseph, along with images of his mother and father. Out in the forests and ponds surrounding the property, Jacob recalls the "muses," some type of supernatural creatures roaming around the grounds. If the dangers of the Maelstrom house threatened only Jacob, perhaps everything would turn out for the best, but two unexpected visitors in the form of a depressed graduate student and the girlfriend of Isaac Maelstrom's agent turn up at the house. This appearance by two outsiders means that other people will face the terror of Jacob's trip down memory lane. I simply do not understand the appeal Piccirilli's books have for many horror fans. That's not to say that I think every aspect of this book fails: once again, Piccirilli does create several engrossing scenes, especially the opening experience with the fan and the flashback to a day Jacob, Rachel, and Joseph spent at a pond on the mansion's grounds. These scenes work, and work well, because Piccirilli definitely possesses a gift for the English language. Yes, this guy can write better than most authors you will come across in this genre. Regrettably, the stylistic acumen of the author fails to make up for the poorly constructed organizational structure and uninspiring characters found throughout "The Deceased." This story simply fails to satisfy on nearly every level, and its hallucinatory sequences, piled one on top of another, bored me. I don't mind reading books or watching films that like to mess with the readers head a bit, but anything that attempts to do so needs to contain something concrete for the reader to use as a touchstone. I don't think this story provides such a touchstone. Instead, the story zooms off the tracks every few pages. I am not ready to give up on Piccirilli just yet. I know he can write stories with coherent structures (like "Grave Men"), and I am hoping some of his other horror novels contain just such an organized plot. I am beginning to think they don't, though, if many of the reviews I have recently read are true. In a way, Tom Piccirilli's horror novels remind me of Douglas Clegg, another writer who uses surrealism in his books. The only difference between the two is that Clegg makes the hallucinatory scenes secondary to his plot. With Clegg, you might scratch your head a few times, but at least you know where you are going. Piccirilli, as far as I can see, throws out everything EXCEPT confusing weirdness. "Hexes" or "A Lower Deep" will be up next for me, but not anytime soon. I need to take a break from this author's horror novels for a spell.
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