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grimdarkandgleeful's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
razzoot's review against another edition
Everyone says that this is such an amazing novel and a quintessential horror novel that every horror enthusiast should read.
Everyone is wrong. This book blows.
Everyone is wrong. This book blows.
aalessi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
book_worm_13's review against another edition
2.0
Reader’s Digest needs to get hold of this book and condense it. I get tying up loose ends, but this book was ridiculous.
jennitheghost's review against another edition
3.0
I would rate this more like 3.5 if I could. I don't know why I was disappointed, I think I found the climax/ending to be a bit bleh. I really liked the beginning setting, and I guess I didn't like the path the "ghosts" took. It was strangely supernatural (I know, I'm reading a ghost story) but not in a ghost way. I wanted someone to be haunted and not hunted. But maybe that's just my fault for not knowing the plot of the book. I did like the characters but found a bit of it to be unreasonable and kind of silly. I didn't get any of the terror I wanted to expected from this book, which was too bad! I want to be chilled!
emvaughters's review against another edition
2.0
I had trouble deciding between 2 and 3 stars for this book. It had moments that were really interesting, but then it had moments that were super slow and boring. Roughly the first 200 pages were so slow I wasn't sure if the story was going to go anywhere. After that, it picked up and I found myself more invested in the story. But that ending. Oof. That just really frustrated me. Also, this book was NOT SCARY. Not even a little bit. It wasn't even that suspenseful, but I did find myself wanting to know what would happen. But more in a vague way than in a "need to know" way. I wouldn't recommend this to a friend - why waste your time slogging through the beginning just to get interested in a story that lets you down at the end?
jared_the_jerry's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
barebookbear's review against another edition
4.0
(This is a bit of a ramble so bear with me.)
I really enjoyed this twisting tale of ghostly revenge.
Except, "ghost" might be a misnomer based on what the things doing the haunting actually were. Or maybe were.
Unlike many reviewers here, I actually appreciated the first two-thirds of the book more because it seemed we were dealing with just a ghost, or ghosts. The writing was less linear, as Straub jumps about in time. While some found this confounding, it is the nature of confounding writing that serves well a tale of horror. The facts are twisting, the emotions are twisting, the time is twisting, and as I sat there with angst trying to figure out where I was in the story, trying to remember events and their relationship to other characters and events, it dawned on me that this isn't sloppy writing, but carefully-crafted to twist the reader. Much like The Turn of the Screw where the reader is never really sure what is exactly going on, what is reality and what is fantasy or is it all in their heads, the reader is left here pondering the same. I found the struggle of reading this led to a building angst which served a slow-burn chilling feeling of dread.
(Some spoilers might follow!)
The isolated small town, the growing snowstorm, the precise descriptions of the physical world that were unnerving (the description of the doctor's suicide on the bridge and the cold of the iron beams on his feet, I swear I had freezer burn just reading it!) were rattling. There was a real old-fashioned style to all of this that I really dug. Straub apparently had read a lot of classic American horror and the influence shows.
You can also see the influence from, and on, Stephen King. Published four years prior, 'Salem's Lot has a similar tone in its location, a small New England town twisting and dying under the influence of a growing evil. Likewise I saw a lot of this in King's later Neefdul Things where a town full of secrets are part of what the evil force uses against it.
While I enjoyed to the end, here's why the last third fell off a bit for me. I know that eventually a book has to reveal something about the nature of the evil, but the more I learned, the less frightening it was. While he does an effective job of capturing the evil and making (her) it real, when talk of a werewolf or vampire creeps in, it diminishes the dread for me. And while it wasn't a werewolf or vampire per se, it was a ghost of sorts, it was a creature of some sort from before the time-line of the chronological beginning of their Eva Galli story, and will endure afterwards, even though they destroyed it...for now. I guess?
When it was just a ghost, with that disturbing opening section, it was much more frightening and effective. I wonder what this would have been like if it was just a ghost story, with no Bate brothers,
This is the only Straub I've read; do they show up in later novels?
When I have time I'll have to check out some of his other work. I found this quite fascinating. Now to watch the 1981 movie, which I can't believe is much good at all. Although it's very interesting that one of the stars of the movie, Melvyn Douglass, is actually mentioned in the book!
I really enjoyed this twisting tale of ghostly revenge.
Except, "ghost" might be a misnomer based on what the things doing the haunting actually were. Or maybe were.
Unlike many reviewers here, I actually appreciated the first two-thirds of the book more because it seemed we were dealing with just a ghost, or ghosts. The writing was less linear, as Straub jumps about in time. While some found this confounding, it is the nature of confounding writing that serves well a tale of horror. The facts are twisting, the emotions are twisting, the time is twisting, and as I sat there with angst trying to figure out where I was in the story, trying to remember events and their relationship to other characters and events, it dawned on me that this isn't sloppy writing, but carefully-crafted to twist the reader. Much like The Turn of the Screw where the reader is never really sure what is exactly going on, what is reality and what is fantasy or is it all in their heads, the reader is left here pondering the same. I found the struggle of reading this led to a building angst which served a slow-burn chilling feeling of dread.
(Some spoilers might follow!)
The isolated small town, the growing snowstorm, the precise descriptions of the physical world that were unnerving (the description of the doctor's suicide on the bridge and the cold of the iron beams on his feet, I swear I had freezer burn just reading it!) were rattling. There was a real old-fashioned style to all of this that I really dug. Straub apparently had read a lot of classic American horror and the influence shows.
You can also see the influence from, and on, Stephen King. Published four years prior, 'Salem's Lot has a similar tone in its location, a small New England town twisting and dying under the influence of a growing evil. Likewise I saw a lot of this in King's later Neefdul Things where a town full of secrets are part of what the evil force uses against it.
While I enjoyed to the end, here's why the last third fell off a bit for me. I know that eventually a book has to reveal something about the nature of the evil, but the more I learned, the less frightening it was. While he does an effective job of capturing the evil and making (her) it real, when talk of a werewolf or vampire creeps in, it diminishes the dread for me. And while it wasn't a werewolf or vampire per se, it was a ghost of sorts, it was a creature of some sort from before the time-line of the chronological beginning of their Eva Galli story, and will endure afterwards, even though they destroyed it...for now. I guess?
When it was just a ghost, with that disturbing opening section, it was much more frightening and effective. I wonder what this would have been like if it was just a ghost story, with no Bate brothers,
This is the only Straub I've read; do they show up in later novels?
When I have time I'll have to check out some of his other work. I found this quite fascinating. Now to watch the 1981 movie, which I can't believe is much good at all. Although it's very interesting that one of the stars of the movie, Melvyn Douglass, is actually mentioned in the book!
rebleejen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Took me a while to get into, but it's an excellent story.