Reviews - The Auctioneer | The StoryGraph

321 reviews for:

The Auctioneer

Joan Samson

3.8 AVERAGE

ryowl's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I’m not sure if I went into this book with the wrong idea of what it was going to be, but it’s entirely possible.

With praise of it being “truly terrifying” I suppose it crafted different expectations for me than what I got. Make no mistake, the auctioneer himself was horrible, a truly disgusting human being, but the book itself I found tedious and often too slow.

There was a fair amount of repetition throughout, and the ending wasn’t a satisfying conclusion as I was hoping.

graemeh's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

_egg_wash's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

scarredman's review against another edition

3.0

dark slow-paced

pacardullo's review against another edition

3.5

This one was OK but just did not quite work for me. I did not mind the "slow burn" nature of it, nor the underplayed horror aspects. It was primarily that it felt repetitive. It did not feel like a slow ramping-up of the actions of the auctioneer. Everything just-sort-of-happened.
That said, your mileage may vary. There are those who feel that this is one of the best, scariest novels of the 1970s. I am just not one of them.