The Damned [Hardcover]

Algernon Blackwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2008

Algernon Blackwood - famous writer of fantasy, ghost and horror stories. Here are a fine collection of twenty of his best short stories.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Lulu Enterprises, UK Ltd (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1409237311
• ISBN-13: 978-1409237310
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,259,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch Out What You Think, October 6, 2009

By 

Beth Kristen Nehme "Book Lover" (Miami,FL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Damned (Kindle Edition)

Blackwood explores the concept that the afterlife for each person is what they believe it will be. This book deals with the rising horror faced by the widow of a fanatically religious man who has twisted the christian religion to psychologically abuse and enslave his wife. Although the man has died, his belief structure lingers.

The book is not an attack on God, but it is an open attack on the ways in which religion and the concept of God is often twisted by individuals to achieve power. If you think of the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Nazis, Jim Jones, Charles Manson and the other modern cults, and the September 11th bombings you realize that this is a struggle happening all over the world every day.

As you read of this one women's struggle and think that it is just one of many homes in which the struggle is ongoing, one cannot help but feel the chills.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bottle rocket without a bang, June 9, 2011

By 

Oculus Draconis - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Damned (Kindle Edition)

While the writing and suspense of this book are superb, the story ultimately comes to a lackluster ending. Unless mystery/suspense novels without conclusions appeal to you, I would not recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 90% of a great story with a disapointing ending, April 25, 2011

By 

tegeus-Cromis - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Damned (Kindle Edition)

This is a good story and well worth reading. Blackwood's prose is enjoyable, the story itself is slow at times, but it builds to a growing sense of horror, only to fall at the end to an anti-climax. The funny thing is that the readers are warned again and again in the story to expect such an ending. You might think of this as softcore Lovecraft.

I mention such a spoiler in the review because I feel that forwarned a reader should enjoy the story much more for what it is than what it might have been.