Rating: 
Summary: An All-New Haunted House But...
Review: Be warned that this 'horror' novel treads into the realm of quantum physics, quantum biology and --gasp -- science fiction.
Lovecraft, at least, would have been intrigued. A Literary Guild selection (rare for an original pb).
Rating:
Summary: An All-New Haunted House But...
Review: Be warned that this 'horror' novel treads into the realm of quantum physics, quantum biology and --gasp -- science fiction.
Lovecraft, at least, would have been intrigued. A Literary Guild selection (rare for an original pb).
Rating:
Summary: a page turner
Review: Having recently finished the "Da Vinci Code", I decided thrillers with an international setting were for me. So I tried "Unidentified." Not only did fit the bill, but it was an even better read! The setup was both breathtaking, and intriguing, and as the book moved deftly between London, Scotland and the U.S., I felt as if I myself were the international traveller. I don't want to give away any of the plot, so suffice it to say that Costello has created a unique and unforgettably scary twist on the haunted house genre, resulting in a page-turner you won't want to put down. And as an added bonus, it really made me think. What a great summer read! (Just don't read it before going to bed).
Rating:
Summary: a page turner
Review: Having recently finished the "Da Vinci Code", I decided thrillers with an international setting were for me. So I tried "Unidentified." Not only did fit the bill, but it was an even better read! The setup was both breathtaking, and intriguing, and as the book moved deftly between London, Scotland and the U.S., I felt as if I myself were the international traveller. I don't want to give away any of the plot, so suffice it to say that Costello has created a unique and unforgettably scary twist on the haunted house genre, resulting in a page-turner you won't want to put down. And as an added bonus, it really made me think. What a great summer read! (Just don't read it before going to bed).
Rating: 
Summary: Good concept, poorly executed
Review: I don't have words to describe this book so I will quote reviewer Peter Orr. "More than anything else, this book reminded me of It Was a Dark and Stormy Night by snoopy, only not as intense.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting idea, poorly done.
Review: I was very dissapointed in this book. I started out very interested since the premise pulled me right in. A house in Scotland that "just appeared" in 1939? Whomever approaches it dissapears? Who wouldn't be hooked in. When I read it though, the house was not mentioned until halfway through the book, there were so many loose ends (What happens with the young girl? Did they all die? To top that off, it read like a first draft. I half-expected to see scribbled notes in the margins and I didn't feel anything but nearly pushed through the book. It felt hurried, forced and lacked any life. No spark, no nothing. It was supposed to be terror filled, a *horror* novel, and I felt zilch, nothin'. Save your money and skip this novel. It is not worth it in my opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: John Deakins for ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE MAGAZINE
Review: Is this a horror novel? Science fiction? Fantasy?
Well . . . The introduction makes passing references to
biophysics, and there are feints at quantum phenomena. Most
social situations are "scientifically" true to life, but you
will find precious little hard SF. Many action scenes have a
"magical" quality to them, but the author keeps pretending
that his anything-goes magic has a quantum scientific basis.
His interdimensional bad guys might as well be demons.
Dreams play a key role. Supernatural aspects and continual
splatter-gore label this horror, but Costello keeps trying to
hedge his bets with science in the wings. His bloodthirsty
baddies, trying to erupt from a multidimensional "house" and
exterminate all humanity are just too powerful in places and
too impotent in others. Supposedly, a few humans can turn
imagination into reality, and since quantum physics predicts
_everything_ is possible . . .
Costello's writing is generally able, but he has to get
off the fence between genres. The plot is thin, thin, thin
in too many places. Why the beautiful photographer has to
enter the "house" and her reporter boy friend has to pursue
her is B-movie plotting. Snatching out an implausible happy
ending is pushing it. The influence of horror, special-
effects, show-everything cinema bleeds through everywhere.
The reader is "shown," as good writing demands, but is never
able to blank out the smell of popcorn.
This is a pretty good quick read, but there is no depth
to it. Accept it on that basis.
Rating:
Summary: British Government File Name: Unidentified
Review: Martin Parks built the House in 1937 in Scotland, no records exist of him, and no plans or approvals for its construction exist, as the work was parceled out to many companies in the UK and elsewhere. Odd occurrences surrounded the house, builders dying and people vanishing if they get too close to it. The army has it under armed guard since it seemed to be able to reach beyond its walls and affect the Earth. All their attempts to investigate it failed with few survivors. Elaina Dali, while sorting commercial files for Gen Tech's genetic projects involving cloning, stumbles across something that frightened her in a file she wasn't supposed to have clearance to see. Elaina steels the papers. A car runs her off the road but she is thrown free and survives. She calls Peter Friedman, who left GenTech over ethical questions, for help. She takes the data to him to analyze. He discovers that it's an alien genetic code to this planet and produces a digital representation of what the being would look like. Maddy Hodges's brother Paul disappears during an illegal rock climb in the Glen Coe Mountains on the military reservation outside Einbank, Scotland. Hodges is a photographer. Colonel Harris tells Maddy that when others went in people close to them got glimpses of their demise. The military thinks that Maddy's connection to her brother might help her survive a trip inside. She was only supposed to stay for twelve minutes but gets caught up in the house's inner workings and Nick Fowles, a reporter, dating Maddy is sent in after her. Sophie MacDonald is a student at a London Academy. She has had psychic visions of the house since she was a small child. Her father Ian MacDonald, a physicist, is murdered in their home and then a friend of her fathers is killed for sheltering her. Sophie barely escapes his home. She knows she must carry the thumb drive, a drive like a CD-ROM only smaller but holds more information, to Glasgow to her father's former research partner Professor Cosgrove. They had been working on the quantum biology theory, the basic principles of quantum physics applied to life. Cosgrove gets Sophie on the base. She helps Nick via telepathy through the labyrinth in hopes of rescuing Maddy. Because the bizarre nature of the story was so intriguing, I couldn't put this book down but I do think that though entertaining it could have been better executed. Usually all the main characters are eventually brought together in a novel but Elaine Dali has yet to meet the others, though she does leak information to the US government and the press. The reader has yet to see the effects of that. Many questions about the house and its bizarre powers were left unanswered making this story far from over.
Rating:
Summary: ...Yawn
Review: Matthew Costello is credited with seventeen novels. Some may even live up to their glowing press. Unidentified does not. Back cover reviewers promise "truly twisted," "gripping, compelling," "deep-down terror," but this purported horror story is mostly just boring. The back cover plot blurb promises a "peculiar house in the hills," shrouded in legends "nowhere near as terrifying as the truth." "[A]n imprisoned force...now...unleashed." A desperate foray into "the very heart of the house to uncover its secrets," all in the face of global terror. The first part of Unidentified is a pastiche of assorted characters and their activities over the course of a few days. The focus never stays on anyone very long, so it's difficult to establish any bond between reader and character or to feel particularly vested in anyone's fate. There are some bloody but underplayed deaths, an anticlimactic car wreck, and a few possibly supernatural but downplayed experiences. Linkages between events are poor to nonexistent, providing little sense of growing menace, let alone impending doom. The "global terror" aspect never really materializes. The "peculiar house" of the plot blurb isn't even mentioned in passing until page 121. The book is more than half-over before any substantial attention is paid to the house. Individual character stories finally start to coalesce, though not well. A bit of ongoing tension at last begins to build, too late for some readers to care any more. Two-thirds of the way through, the book finally ratchets into a higher gear. If this were the first third, it would be a promising beginning. Then it's over, and several plot threads were never even adequately explored, much less resolved. Oh, horrors; a sequel? Any competent high school English teacher will explain that, except to indicate omission of material from a direct quote, writers should use the ellipsis very sparingly or it loses its intended impact. A handful of occurrences in a book like this would be ample. Anything more would be...decidedly annoying and...strictly...amateur hour. With Costello, the ellipsis is ubiquitous. There are enough pregnant pauses in Unidentified to signal a major population explosion. Now there's a horror story: overrun by...rampant ellipses. Instead of increasing the sense of menace, this device becomes almost a joke. While more acceptable, the em-dash is also vastly overused here. What was Costello's editor thinking? Costello shows a firm grasp of most basic writing skills. His house and his unidentified creatures are excellent concepts; too bad he gives them such short shrift. There's a great story somewhere in Unidentified, but bringing it out would require tighter plotting, with a tighter focus on key concepts and characters, and a much tighter rein on all those...tiresome...ellipses.
Rating:
Summary: Unrealized
Review: Matthew Costello's new novel, "Unidentified," opens ominously enough, with a scientist heading to the ocean floor in a minisub to see what he can see. Most horror fans know that what's on the ocean floor will probably not allow the scientist to see the light of day again. But before the reader can get comfortable, the story shifts to another scientist, working for a genetic research company (Gentech) in New York, who stumbles across a secret file that contains DNA readouts unlike any the scientist has ever seen. Unease starts to grow, and she gets up to leave with her discovery secreted away, when...the story shifts, to a young student heading home from her London school, not knowing the danger her father is in. And so on and so on. This pattern of scene shifts maintains itself throughout the novel. On one hand, it could be argued that such a device heightens tension, keeps the reader turning pages, etc., but in "Unidentified," this tool instead makes for a frustrating, choppy read. Costello has a potentially good story on his hands, with its hints at a Lovecraftian horror, a mysterious metal house in the Scottish highlands, a strange town that Lewis Carroll would love, and killers who can crop up anywhere, anytime. Reality is a slippery concept. And Costello can quickly create believable characters (not an easy thing to do), but after he creates them, he rushes to another scene, another character, another place on the globe. For example, the author goes through the trouble of creating a crusty Jacques Cousteau-like figure (Father Farrand) on a marine research vessel who also happens to be a priest. The reader is intrigued about the possibilities of science and theology and, well, horror. All Costello ends up doing is having the character become monster meat. Which is fine, but more could of been done with the character before turning him into chum. Remember the brief, but very effective, appearance of the old Jesuit in the old 1930s movie "Werewolf of London." The old fellow, up in the movie's Tibetan snows, actually had something to say. It would of been nice if Father Farrand would of been given a similar opportunity to say something, foolish or wise, to contribute to the story. Basically, the main problem is that the author simply never allows his story to settle down into a pace, other than the frenetic introductory one established in the first few pages. And that's too bad, because Costello can write. I'm not a huge fan of padded horror epics, but this is one case where another hundred pages or more would of added the kind of texture this novel needed. As it stands now, "Unidentified" reads more like an outline for a potentially good book, with a number of very fine character sketches and scenes to build upon (which is why I'm giving it two stars). But as a finished work, there's not enough here for even a bad novel.
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