Customer Reviews

The Abandoned

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me be the first to say this is a great book. It's creepy and very well written. For those of you out there who have read the other Harrow books you will really enjoy this. The basic plot center's around the madness of Harrow leaking out and affecting nearly everyone in town.The cause is the sacrifice of a dead boy to the house. A handful of characters remain unaffected to a certain extent and it is up to them to end the madness affecting everyone before it can spread further.

This book is full of action and it rarely ever drags.From the get go the book picks up steam and keeps on rolling to the very end...and there is the problem. The ending like so many other books fail's to deliver.Everything that happens in the book leads you to believe that there will be alot of supernatural fireworks but that is far from what actually happens. Why Harrow affects people like it does and what is ultimately behind the evil is never truly explained only vaguely hinted at and it left me frustrated.

Nevertheless this was a great book and very enjoyable i suggest you pick up a copy you'll enjoy it.

Dreams have often been an obssession for horror authors. After all, in dreams we find nightmares. Clegg, in his new and probably last Harrow story, deals with dreams and nightmare, and with unbeliveable terrors. This is not the typical Clegg book. It is more violent, more action-oriented and less complicated plot-wise. And I have to admit that I had troubles with the book at first, but as I read along, I suddenly realised that the story had been able to steal me away and terrify me.

Welcome to Watch Point, the small town that has already appeared in previous Clegg novels. It is in Watch Point that we find Harrow, the haunted mansion that starred in The Infinite, Mischief and Nightmare House. Only this time, Harrow wants revenge. It wants to be alive and it will take every life it needs in order to do so.

Soon enough, Watch Point becomes a source of terror. Everyone, it seems, is either turning insane or caught in a very deep sleep. Only a few unlucky souls are spared to witness the terrors all around them. Young children kill adults, animals become wild and violent beasts, and neighbours that had once been friendly are now feeling a thirst for death and murder. Everyone seems to be in a daze as the house controls their every action, and the few survivors are left to witness the horrors created by the people they once knew. Can you imagine killing your brother or sister? This is the kind of plot twist this novel offers.

When you pick up a Clegg novel, you just know that it will be well written and that the suspense will build towards an amazing finale. And on those points, The Abandoned does not disappoint. But the book's biggest flaw is that in never really gives us characters to care for. The book is close to 400 pages long, and it's first half is used to describe the mayhem and violence taking place in Watch Point. By the time you know who the story's heroes are, it's a bit late to really care for them. Although you still want to know what happens next, this isn't a book about characters. It's all about suspense and terror. And there was this one character that had hero potential, but he is discarded much too quickly.

Like Stephen King's Needful Things, this is one book that dares to take a city and completely destroy it within the span of its narrative. Some moments are shocking and nearly unpredictable. But during those moments, I would have liked someone to root for. You have to hand it to Clegg though, cause he knows how to deliver the chills.

The last 150 pages is a real roller coaster ride that you won't want to get off of. Although this isn't one of Clegg's best, it's still a very decent entry in his body of work.

Doug Clegg's new novel of Harrow House is a welcome addition to his own dark mythology. He digs deep into the minds, language, and culture of marginalized youth, of the nightmare of small towns and the way they isolate those who stray from the norm.

Without giving away any spoilers, this is a tale steeped in Grue and darkness, unapologetic as it digs beneath the skin, and moves quckly from invasion to paranoia, to apocalyptic destruction reminiscent of Stephen King's "Needful Things." In the end it is not Harrow House that is haunted, but the characters who gaze into the mirror at the truths of who they really are.

While some of the characters are less fully realized than in his other novels, notably his amazing novel "The Hour after Dark," "The Abandoned" continues to break convention in the haunted house tale.

I'm eagerly looking forward to his next novel, a significant departure into a medieval fantasy world populated by Vampires
--"The Priest of Blood," to which Publishers Weekly has given amazing praise and a starred review.

(four stars)

This latest entry in Douglas Clegg's Harrow House series is the only novel of his, so far, that has disappointed me. When The Abandoned was first released, there was talk, especially by Clegg himself, of how he was entering extreme horror territory. A couple of my favorite authors are Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum, so I was psyched to learn that Clegg, a more sensitive writer, was going to be adding his touch to the genre.

I'm not sure what happened, but somehow The Abandoned became something that wasn't quite extreme horror, and wasn't quite Douglas Clegg. (One example of how the book is both but neither is how when Clegg is describing gruesome events, he still uses euphemisms, taking away from the experience.) Not a happy medium, it neither scares nor moves, and was in fact a struggle to finish. I simply didn't care what was happening to the characters.

The past and present of Harrow House has been visited in several previous Clegg books, including The Infinite, Mischief, The Necromancer, and Nightmare House. They are meant to be read in any order, and I will definitely pick up another one becaus the idea behind Harrow House is fascinating: first it was a residence, then it was a boarding school, and now it lies fallow, waiting for someone to release its power.

Unfortunately, this portrait of its mysterious takeover of the locals in a small town was simply underwhelming. Not only is there no explanation given for the strange actions of the residents (the house just makes people act that way?), but the characters seem to only exist in order to fulfill its odd expectations. I cannot remember very much about any of the characters that people the pages of The Abandoned (apart from one's name, Kazi Vrabec). Only their actions remain in my memory, and I'm not sure I'm attributing them correctly.

I do admire Clegg for taking on different styles, however; it is one of the reasons that he is so high on my list of authors. Even his Vampyricon series, beginning with The Priest of Blood, shows that he is unafraid to write what he wants, instead of writing for an audience. The Abandoned may be a misstep, but I feel sure that it will be a rare one.

Mr. Clegg warns that this addition to his series of Harrow House stories is not for everyone. BELIEVE HIM.

THE ABANDONED is a modern literary version of a Hieronymos Bosch painting, a surreal plunge into a dark world where the deepest impulses of our lizard-brain come to vivid life. It is a seemingly endless journey into the dark, dank corners of the human soul that should not be undertaken if the goal is entertainment.

Is it written well? Of course--Mr. Clegg is a superb writer even when he's wallowing in the id. I felt, though, that the wallowing went on a bit too long without any sign of relief, and that made it too hard to truly appreciate the superb surreality of the events and characters portrayed. The tale goes on too long without a spark of hope, the one thing most likely to keep us fighting to survive...and the reader willing to keep turning pages.

This book was so wierd I had to review it. Not because it's a "keeper" per se, but because it was just so... wierd.

It's about a town that has a big manor/mansion house that everyone's afraid of. A wild teen party gets out of hand one night, and the kids there find a little boy hanging in the cemetary, his insides, well, they're no longer inside. That kid's death unleashes the house to all the evil it's been caging. The evil rampages through the town killing people in the most gruesome ways. This was true horror. I found myself rereading parts to make certain I hadn't imagined what Clegg imagined. Turns out I hadn't. They were just as gory the second and third time I read them.

This is the fourth Harrow House novel and it was a great edition to the series. Clegg has done a nice job of showing how the House progresses from book to book, and how it's reach is getting longer every time it wakes up. While this can be read as a stand-alone book, I highly advise reading the first three books before starting this one as it makes the plot much more understandable.

WARNING - This book has a lot of sexual tones, foul language, and flat out hysterical gore in it so if you have a weak stomach or are not a fan of blood & guts, find another book.

I loved this book for the gore. It had been awhile since I read something full of "watch the blood fly" gore and I loved this. The fact that it was also part of the Harrow series was also a draw. The character's probably could have been drawn with a little more attention to them, as a lot of the book was spent describing the horror that was going on and how the house was woken up. Clegg has certainly gone in a different direction with this book than what he usually does and I think it turned out well.

All in all, a great read that I recommend if you enjoy the Harrow series or are just looking for a weird, creepy and gore filled horror book. And if you're looking for more of the series, check out the books in this order - Nightmare House, Mischief & The Infinite. Also be sure to read Isis & The Necromancer, as they both touch upon the house in their own individual stories.

It started out good, went to being okay, and then i was getting bored for about 150 pages or so. Finally i stopped reading it within the last 100 pages because of boredom and i didn't care about any of the characters. Clegg's other works are much better then this

Being a fan of Clegg, I dug into this book expecting a smooth sailing. Regrettably I found rocky terrains instead, a ride that was anything but smooth, sending me to the nearest cabinet for an aspirin. Unfortunately, the plot is bloated, congested, and confusing. After the beginning, the middle went downhill, with Clegg choosing to hop all over the place with characters and events. After a time this grew strange, then tiresome. None of the characters were written badly, but I didn’t care about any of them. If I blinked, I’d forget who was who. They’re shown too briefly and come across ineffectual. On the plus side, Clegg’s writing style is as strong as ever. His words are confident, clear, and masterful. If you’re new to Clegg’s work, I recommend starting with another novel. He really is a great writer, but I guess most have to have some stinkers in the barrel. This is obviously one of them. Despite high reviews of Naomi, I also consider that a weak work. So the ultra bottom-bottom line? Look elsewhere for good Clegg writing.

*clipped from previous review*

This book rambles and meanders back and forth in time, making it difficult to follow what's happened when or to whom. The particularly large cast of characters adds to the confusion, and often when the book finally picks up a character's trail again I've forgotten who on earth that person is and what they've done so far--never mind actually developing empathy for him or her.

The author takes a well-worn horror novel trope--the semi-sentient house--and adds a few trappings, stringing them together in fairly meaningless gory scenes. I know wonderful things have been said about this author and his books, but I just couldn't really get into The Abandoned; only toward the end did it seem to develop something resembling a plot, and even that petered out rather than climaxing. While there are horror novels that can ride solely on the strength of atmosphere, the atmosphere in this book was good but not that good; it felt more like a mechanical catalogue of atrocities than an actual stirring of anything resembling horror, fear, or even revulsion.

A few things do keep this book from being a waste of time; there are several interesting characters and something like a plot does develop toward the end of the book. However, I don't expect to pick up any other books in the series.

Standard warnings: This book is for adults only (sex, violence, blood, gore, etc.).