Customer Reviews

The Children's Hour

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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"The Children's Hour" is the best of Douglas Clegg's ten or so published works. While his other works ("NeverLand", "Dark of the Eye", etc.) are quality novels, "The Children's Hour" stands hand and shoulders above them. Unfortunately, it seems to have had the lowest print run of all his titles as the publisher, Dell, was slowly phasing out its horror line when this one was published.

The story revolves around the return of a former resident to the town of colony. When he left fifteen or so years prior, he had fought and conquered an ancient evil. However, he feels the need to return at his mother's request due to her failing health. He returns with his family in tow.

Soon after he returns to Colony, the evil returns. Friendships are restored just in time to combat the evil. Children are affected and soon turn on the adults of the community. The main character knows that once again he must confront and defeat the evil which resides below a barn in the community if he, his family and friends are to survive. A thrilling race against time ensues and when completed, the reader is left wanting more. If you can locate a copy, grab this one and enjoy it.

I searched high and low for a copy of this book. I was afraid after all the build-up that the actual story would be a let down. I am so pleased that I was wrong. This is a fantastic story on a variety of levels.
Author Joe Gardner travels with his family to his childhood hometown of Colony. He has avoided the town and his horrific memories of it for years and now finds himself facing the friends and family members who stir up unpleasant memories. As soon as he hits the town line, he begins to hear the nightmare things of the past once again calling him. Meanwhile, Colony is being terrorized by something....something evil that steals its children. Joe reunites with figures from his childhood to try to stop the terror only to find his own wife and children in harm's way.
This is a novel about faith, loss, forgiveness, love, and fears both real and imagined. Tad Peterson is a wonderfully likeable child character; he exemplifies Clegg's knack for writing realistic characters. The novel focuses on those things that take on monumental proportions to us as children, only to shrink in importance when we are adults. And it also shows that children are the ones most likely to accept the things adults shrug off with rationalizations.
I can't say enough good things about THE CHILDREN'S HOUR. There were parts that caused me to put the novel down for a while before continuing because they were so frightening. There were parts that almost made me cry. I'm glad I found the novel, and I don't regret the search for it in any way. This one is worth a bit of effort just to read this incredibly creepy, very touching story!

Before I get into the review and the plot, I just waned to say how much I enjoyed this book!! At times, I had to put the book down b/c Clegg goes into great detail and plays on the readers fears.

This can book can be enjoyed on so many levels b/c it has so many themes. Faith, love, facing the mistakes of our past, and forgiveness. Or if you like like to have the willies scared out of you. *LOL* Something for everyone.

Joe is a writer that is coming home to see his mother, and to face his past and the town who doesn't really want him back. There was an accident that should have killed him when he was a teen, that didn't. It's took the life of the woman he loved. Joe has much more to worry about...someone is killing the Childern of the town. The same thing that was killing kids when he left. Old evil never dies...it just waits...

Clegg creates characters that are so lifelike, that the reader insinally cares about all of them. We get sucked in b/c Clegg lets the reader know the residents of the town, their lives and their dirty little secrets. Clegg also does a wonderful job of linking the past and the present. You'd think that we would be confused by that, but you won't.

One of my favorite lines is "I may not belive in mosters, but I think they believe in me." When I read that, it really stuck with me through the book.

This isn't an easy book to find. But it's worth the search, and you'll be rewarded with a good scare from this woderful book....

Happy Hunting!

Douglas Clegg is the John Irving-Pat Conroy of Horror fiction. I kid you not. I dare anyone to read this novel, The Children's Hour, and to not see a marvelous mix of characters and a beautifully drawn setting. King? Koontz? Not bloody likely. Douglas Clegg has taken the genre of terror and turned it into a literate world. Both terrifying and beautiful, The Children's Hour is something that should be experienced.

James Falmouth

I just discovered this writer and this book, The Children's Hour! It's one of the finest horror reads I've ever picked up--it's like discovering Stephen King the first time or Robert McCammon or Dean Koontz. I found out this other book, Bad Karma was written by a pen name of Douglas Clegg and now I can't wait to read his others! I heard he has one coming out this fall called The Halloween Man. I can't wait. More Clegg!

This darkly disturbing yet entertaining novel is a must read for anyone who doesn't mind a story bending the "rules" of the genre's "formula." Douglas Clegg has woven a tale of facing evil both within and without. Between battling old demons of the supernatural and psychological kind, Joe Gardner brings his family home to Colony, West Virginia, and discovers his mother isn't as bad as he remembered, but the town is a lot worse.

Douglas Clegg sets a breakneck pace from page one that will leave the reader's mind spinning. His writing is crisp and descriptive--sometimes telling you more than you wish he had. But he never lets up until the satisfying finish. Excellent, realistic characters, wonderful dialogue, a good read for horror lovers -- but it's not your everyday horror book.

I tracked down a copy of _The Children's Hour_ after reading raves about it and, while I enjoyed the book, it did leave me wanting more. It reads like a melding of Stephen King's _'Salem's Lot_ with _It_ (in fact, there are long stretches where the characters, talking about the monster, continually refer to it as a capital "It" in their conversation). I've read and enjoyed Clegg's work before (most notably, _The Hour Before Dark_) and it's always left me a bit less than fulfilled. I was really hoping for more with this book and would have liked to see more fully-realized characters, along with a more original, less-cliched take on the supernatural goings-on in the town of Colony. This really, in retrospect, reads a lot like Stephen King-lite.

The second Clegg book I had ever read, I went into it completely and came out of it shocked. Imaginative writing was always a strong-point I admired in Doug's work. Not to say I couldn't enjoy it here, but the book didn't seem grasping to me. Very chilling, but I couldn't feel it as I much as I did Neverland.

This was a great book for most of its length. Comparable to 'salems Lot, one of my favorites. But the ending....

It was a bit hard to believe that a monster that had been built up to be extremely powerful, and who had wreaked considerable havoc, could be dealt with in the manner described near the end of the book. And who was able to survive the reign of terror? A select few. But surprisingly, not as select as might have been expected.

Anyway, an excellent suspensful build-up, but a questionable conclusion.

"Children's Hour" is one of my all-time favorite vampire novels, because the small town setting is so creepy and so well done. Harry Shannon's new novel "Night of the Beast" covers similar territory quite beautifully too, with all the hideous stuff that happens to little Timmy Baxter, but every author to publish after this one owes a small debt to Mr. Clegg. The vampires (and where they originate from) are terrific. Buy it.