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barefoot_james's review
4.0
I like the books of Manly Wade Wellman and Stephen King better; however, this is a very good story.
Three teenagers have an encounter with an ancient evil. One of them is killed, another is crippled, and the third loses some of his sanity. Years later the third individual returns to the town with his family and discovers the evil is still there.
The story has lots of flashbacks and some flashbacks within flashbacks. It also has more exposition than I would like. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
Three teenagers have an encounter with an ancient evil. One of them is killed, another is crippled, and the third loses some of his sanity. Years later the third individual returns to the town with his family and discovers the evil is still there.
The story has lots of flashbacks and some flashbacks within flashbacks. It also has more exposition than I would like. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
bhender3's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
okiebookworm88's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
verkisto's review
1.0
This novel was the first book published after Dell ended the Abyss imprint, but still had contracts for horror novels from that line. (This book doesn't have the Abyss logo on the spine, nor in the inside cover, but the flyleaf still has the Abyss blurb.) By now, the horror boom was ending, Abyss wasn't the gangbusters imprint the publishers had hoped for, and it was time to come to terms with that. The Children's Hour is an appropriate title to represent all that, because, frankly, it's not that good.
The story is a blend of Stephen King novels. It's set in a small town, and the main villains appear to be vampires ('Salem's Lot), the main character is a writer, dealing with his own demons and at one point becomes a threat to his family (The Shining), and the main baddie is some demon from another world or dimension that thrives on children's beliefs, and everyone fighting it calls it It (It). It's a bunch of derivative ideas, written in such a way that makes it anything but engaging, while still trying to ape King's folksy charm. It's a convoluted mess.
I added these books on to my Abyss reading project, for obvious reasons, and I expect them to be the same kind of mixed bag those books were, but I expected more from this book, since Clegg is still considered a wunderkind within the genre. I'm hoping Neverland, another book of his that came highly recommended to me, will be better than this.
The story is a blend of Stephen King novels. It's set in a small town, and the main villains appear to be vampires ('Salem's Lot), the main character is a writer, dealing with his own demons and at one point becomes a threat to his family (The Shining), and the main baddie is some demon from another world or dimension that thrives on children's beliefs, and everyone fighting it calls it It (It). It's a bunch of derivative ideas, written in such a way that makes it anything but engaging, while still trying to ape King's folksy charm. It's a convoluted mess.
I added these books on to my Abyss reading project, for obvious reasons, and I expect them to be the same kind of mixed bag those books were, but I expected more from this book, since Clegg is still considered a wunderkind within the genre. I'm hoping Neverland, another book of his that came highly recommended to me, will be better than this.
darthprez's review
2.0
Eh. Boring. Very similar to King’s Salem’s Lot and It with no interesting characters. I thoroughly enjoyed Clegg’s Neverland and decided to try one of this other books. Unfortunately this was dull.
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