Rating: 
Summary: A Superior Debut!
Review: I am often disappointed by first novels; usually they promise us steak but serve up hamburger. This time though, Joseph Nassise has not only served up the steak he's given us filet mignon! Riverwatch is story of the culmination of a terrible war begun in a time before mankind was preeminent and brought to its climax in smalltown USA. Nassise has plenty of talent for plot, pacing and dialog. This novel is a grabber and should keep you turning pages long after your spouse tells you "enough already go to bed!!" If his next book (Heretic) is as good look for Mr. Nassise to take his place among the likes of Clark, Laymon, Clegg, Little, et al. Buy this book, stay out of dark places and enjoy a thoroughly good horror novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Superior Debut!
Review: I am often disappointed by first novels; usually they promise us steak but serve up hamburger. This time though, Joseph Nassise has not only served up the steak he's given us filet mignon! Riverwatch is story of the culmination of a terrible war begun in a time before mankind was preeminent and brought to its climax in smalltown USA. Nassise has plenty of talent for plot, pacing and dialog. This novel is a grabber and should keep you turning pages long after your spouse tells you "enough already go to bed!!" If his next book (Heretic) is as good look for Mr. Nassise to take his place among the likes of Clark, Laymon, Clegg, Little, et al. Buy this book, stay out of dark places and enjoy a thoroughly good horror novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great - enjoyable, could have been better!
Review: I finished this book in a couple days - loved the concept of an eternal struggle between these two "immortal" races, but the book could have been so much better. The best way to describe the writing is to call it simple. Each chapter was very quick and the 4 main characters had no distinct differences to make me really care for one or the other. There were some hints about the cop's background that I thought would come into play but didn't. The construction worker guy was never really developed, and he was the most likeable of all of them. And what happened to Blake? He disappeared from the entire book!!!!!
I'll probably purchase Nassise's next book, but I'm hoping it's a bit "deeper" than this one.
All in all, a cool idea that could have been much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Riverwatch
Review: I give this novel four stars for the story. It was very interesting and a great idea. But, I noticed several dangling modifiers and in paragraphs I noticed that the author picked up on a particular word and used that word several times. Also, this author used the word "some" repeatidly. Then again, "some" people might not notice these things and the book is a good read, no doubt about it, but not five stars for the above mentioned reasons. Also, the author has a tunnel dug through rock under a river for three hundred feet leading to a concealed room. When the room is opened, the novel's characters later find that there's another door leading out into a cemetary. Why would anyone drill through three hundred feet of rock to a room that has another door leading out? Beats me.
Rating:
Summary: What a Debut!
Review: I have never been a big fan of the horror genra - but Nassise may have got me hooked! Riverwatch not only kept my interest level high - it kept me awake at night and my mind racing when I didn't have time to read wondering what Nassise had in store for his characters in the chapters I had yet to get to! Nassise did an excellent job developing his characters, I felt very connected to Jake, Sam and Katelynn - it was as if they were living down the street from me - Nassise's magic with the written word really brought the characters to life - they were real. Overall this is an excellent read, scary with some very interesting humor thrown in when you least expect it! I would have been O.K. if Nassise had chosen not to include Chapter 22 - I didn't feel it added a great deal to the story line and would not have missed that chapter had he left it out. I look forward to reading the next book Nassise writes be it horror or otherwise - maybe I'm not actually hooked on horror, but rather, just hooked on a great, new, up-and-coming author!
Rating:
Summary: Ravenous Evil!
Review: I loved this book! Nassise has written one of the most viscerally terrifying and brutal horror novels in recent memory about a small town which finds itself terrorized by ancient, ravenous evil that preys upon it's citizens in the dead of night. Jake Caruso and his construction firm find a hidden tunnel and stone chamber and they mistakenly unawakened Moloch, a ancient winged creature with taste for human flesh and blood and thirst for terror.Moloch's is not mindless monster but intelligent evil that enjoys killing his victims and considers human race as cattle for slaughter!
This creature was the last of his kind and it was imprisoned centuries ago by being called Elder;now it's loose and all of the citizens of the sleepy town of Harrington Falls will face the wraith of this monster as it slaughters and devours all of it's victims and savors their terror and pain! the only ones that can stop it are:Jake Caruso and his friends Sam and Katelynn who has a psychic link to the beast!Nassise's debut horror novel puts him in the leagues with King, Little,Koontz and Clegg as he describes in relish the horrifying
carnage that this monster does to it's victims.This novel is not for faint of heart or weak of stomach! If ever a book screams for the silver screen this chiller does as Our heroes battle to death a ancient hideous evil that leads to sad but truimpant climax!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad
Review: I won't go into too much depth here, as I'm sure it would only lead to spoilers. Not that it would matter much. You already know everything there is to know about this book as you've read it before. You know what the characters are going to do and what they'll say. You'll know who will die within the first 50 pages. Expect to groan a great deal. Expect to groan more often than you flip pages as the story goes on. Expect to know the outcome of the action very quickly. Expect to know the full backstory before you read it. Don't expect outstanding writing skills, as writing takes an absolute backseat to simple action narrative. Least of all, don't expect any maturity over time in the characters, don't expect any intelligence in them, and don't expect to relate to more than their hobbies. As a matter of fact, you might not even be able to tell one from another based on personality, as they say the same things. The only real difference is the backstory. Do yourself a favor, track down a copy of Michael Talbot's The Bog, from the 80s. The story is almost exactly the same, only the care given to the changes in the characters sets it far above this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Bad
Review: I won't go into too much depth here, as I'm sure it would only lead to spoilers. Not that it would matter much. You already know everything there is to know about this book as you've read it before. You know what the characters are going to do and what they'll say. You'll know who will die within the first 50 pages. Expect to groan a great deal. Expect to groan more often than you flip pages as the story goes on. Expect to know the outcome of the action very quickly. Expect to know the full backstory before you read it. Don't expect outstanding writing skills, as writing takes an absolute backseat to simple action narrative. Least of all, don't expect any maturity over time in the characters, don't expect any intelligence in them, and don't expect to relate to more than their hobbies. As a matter of fact, you might not even be able to tell one from another based on personality, as they say the same things. The only real difference is the backstory. Do yourself a favor, track down a copy of Michael Talbot's The Bog, from the 80s. The story is almost exactly the same, only the care given to the changes in the characters sets it far above this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Where are these good reviews coming from?!?
Review: I'm scanning over the first couple of pages of my paperback copy of Riverwatch, and I'm reading these positive reviews by authors and newspapers, and I'm thinking...there must have been some mistake by the publishing house, and the reviews of RiverDANCE got mixed in w/ the reviews of Riverwatch, and being that I find Riverdance insufferable, I can safely say that Riverdance is "Nasty, vicious, and perhaps most insidious of all, seductive" (to quote the blurb on the cover by the Midwest Book Review), in comparison to Riverwatch. I would rather watch a five hour documentary about Michael Flatley's toe fungus than watch a 90 minute film adaptation of this book. There HAS to be a mistake w/ all these positive reviews...
Why is it so bad? Well, it isn't so much bad as it is groaningly repetitive and unoriginal. I guess a bad book is one w/ plotholes the size of a galaxy, nonexistent climaxes, and childish grammar mistakes. This isn't bad that way, this is bad as in you've read every single sentence that is in this book before in some other book. Every piece of dialogue is lifted from an 80s horror flick or one of the bad episodes of the X-Files, like "Let's end this" or "Die, damn you, die!" Oddly enough I was yelling the same thing, but I was yelling it at the nondescript, everyman characters, who you WANT to see get eaten. These are nobodies, distinguished only by their job or their pets or the timing of their bravery. The italicized POV thoughts of the characters merely repeat what was narrated before, or they are stupid and generic thoughts that no one thinks in a flight or fight situation. The author does the incredible job of creating lowest-common denominator characters who are also paradoxically distant from the audience due to the cliched and "all-too-aware-that-its-a-horror-book" narration. Was this book meant for teenagers? Only people younger than 15 could find anything fresh in this book, yet its too gory and potty-mouthed for kids. A previous reviewer says that you'll groan alot reading this book. That's an understatement. You'll groan more often than a cow giving birth to octuplets in a 48 hour labor. This book just reads like a rough draft, no tightening of the narrative, no specification of the characters, no ding-dong on the cliche-o-meter that forces the author to brainstorm a different scenario or conversation between his characters.
The speculative fiction concepts are a cross between Lovecraft and Graham Hancock, with no new spin. The old good race, conveniently humanoid, that helped man build the Pyramids, vs. the old evil race, conveniently demonic, who eat people. Conveniently, only one of each race remains. Because of course, a story about two frozen-in-time antediluvian warring races being reawakened by mankind, and the two ancient forces renew their epic battle over the earth, indifferent to the destruction they rue upon modern civilization, w/ mankind having to defend its own existence to either the indifferent "angels" or ravenously hostile "demons", that's too ambitious and it's not cliched enough. Read Mountains of Madness instead of this. Moloch's a pretty nasty deity, to whom the Canaanites sacrificed their children in burnt offerings. Child sacrifice is what makes the beast so scary and horrifying--this is gutted early in the novel.
I can only recommend this book to two people, 1.) people who have been in a coma for 70 years, and have not read H.P. Lovecraft or seen a single movie ever and 2.) parents who have proto-goth teenagers who want to be "kewl" and hip to their teen's interests while encouraging them to read, so you get them a horror book that is rated R, but lacks the depth and storytelling of a Harry Potter book.
Rating:
Summary: An Ancient Evil Awakens...
Review: Jake Caruso is a contractor commissioned to restore the old Blake family mansion, Stonemoor, to its previous state of grandeur. However, when his team discovers a huge tombstone-like block guarding the entrance to an underground passage, all construction inevitably ceases for the time being. When a disgruntled employee decides to break into the underground chamber in hopes of finding treasure hidden within, he unwittingly unleashes terror upon the town of Harrington Falls, and meets his own demise. Shortly thereafter, several barbarous murders take place. An evil plagues the small mountain community, and no one is safe. Sam Travers writes role-playing games and works nights at the local nursing home, where he has befriended a resident named Gabriel. During Sam's long graveyard shifts, Gabriel entertains him by telling him stories of times long since past. Stories of "the Age of Creation," before primitive hominids had evolved into humans, and when two ancient races known as the Elders and the Na' Karat, or Nightshades, ruled the Earth. Katelynn Riley is a graduate student working to complete her thesis for her sociology degree and is thus delving deep into the town's past. A past that she discovers has more to it than meets the eye. Furthermore, Kate wears around her neck a red stone that was given to her by Jake. A stone that he found deep within the underground passage at Stonemoor. Ever since she has worn the stone she has experienced terrible nightmares in which she can see through the eyes of a ravenous beast, as though she is indeed the beast herself. Is there more substance to what Gabriel has been telling Sam than mere amusing fictional tales? Is there more to Gabriel himself? How does Kate's stone provide some unseen link between herself and the unleashed creature? Will these three friends be able to combine their knowledge and willpower to defeat the awakened Nightshade, Moloch, before they lose their own lives and the lives of others? Will they even be able to overcome the doubts their more rational mind inflicts upon them? This is an outstanding debut novel! Joseph Nasisse does a great job of combining a little bit of fantasy with all the cliched elements of horror that fans of the genre know and love, and he adds some twists and turns so that the reader doesn't get bored along the way. The characters are very well developed, and the plot is spellbinding and cohesive. I loved how all of the characters were flawed in some way, making them innately human and three-dimensional. Though this book didn't keep me up at night, scared to turn out the lights, it did have some intense moments that were somewhat frightening. There is some gore, but that is kept to a minimum. My biggest complaint is that the story line surrounding the Blake family was underdeveloped. Furthermore, expect a few editing errors sprinkled throughout the novel. However, neither detracts from the plot. This should be a must-read for horror fans! Joseph Nasisse is a welcomed new voice in the horror genre, and I definitely look forward to picking up whatever novels he produces in the future, as his talent and skills should only be fine-tuned from here.
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