Customer Reviews

Eye for an Eye: The Doll (Blackstone Chronicles)

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

 

 

I was expecting much more from this first tale in the Blackstone Chronicles. The plot was entirely too predictable, and the characters (save for a few) were shallow and boring. I honestly did not find this tale terrifying in any way. However, this story does set the stage for the next installments, and definitely made me want to read the next one. As dull as it may be, it is essential for the entire scope of the Chronicles.

Cursed objects have been the subject of fiction and legend for centuries. We've had cursed rings, swords, armor, dresses, castles, cemeteries, coins, songs, etc., and at the turn of the century we had a story by Cleveland Moffett about a cursed card ('The Mysterious Card'), and Robert Chambers gave us a classic story about a cursed play that killed all those that read it. We've even had tv series, like Friday The 13th - The Series: The First Season and Warehouse 13: Season One that dealt with cursed objects. So it was inevitable that somebody would write a novel about such things. And it was perfect that John Saul not only wrote a novel dealing with cursed object, but did so in a serialized novel format, giving each artifact even more of a sense of menace.

In the town of Blackstone, Oliver Metcalf, the editor and publisher of the "Blackstone Chronicle" is just giving up on trying to write both an editorial for his newspaper, and a speech that he has to give in front of a crowd that will be congregating to see the destruction of the hated and feared Blackstone Asylum. By the end of this series of novella, he will eventually end up investigating the Asylum, and with this book, he will also start having the first of his visions. His visions will get progressively worse in each chapter of this serialized novel, and which will eventually be increasing integral to the ending of this novel.

Only the façade of the hated Asylum will be kept, the rest will be destroyed and reconstructed, and a series of shops and restaurants will erected within the Asylum's framework. Bill McGuire is a man who builds things, and he has been awarded the contract to renovate the Asylum, and he has bet his future on getting the job. Then he finds out from Jules Hartwick, the owner and president of The First National Bank Of Blackstone, that the loan for the renovation project is in jeopardy due to a series of bad loans, and that Hartwick is being audited. Then suddenly, in the middle of the night somebody leaves the McGuire's a package with a beautiful antique doll within it.

Strange things then start happening. The doll seems to be communicating to both women of McGuire's family. Both his pregnant wife Elizabeth, and his little daughter Megan, begin a power struggle over as to who will get the doll. Then there is an accident, the deaths start, and the family is destroyed. This first chapter in the Blackstone Chronicles is only eight-two pages long, and with a little editing could have a self-contained novella. But being what it is however, we are left hanging as we find out that there is a mysterious figure that is delivering a series of evil/cursed objects to people. And that he is already picking out an object to send to his next victim, even as he decimates the McGuire family.

Each of the six books have a short interlude at their beginning that is a vignette detailing with an atrocity that has happened within the walls of the Asylum, and that will be connected with the cursed object that he is sending out.

While I liked "An Eye An Eye: The Doll" it really is nothing new, we've seen this evil doll idea many times before this novel was ever published. Still, that this is the first volume in a six volume series, things can only get better. I will read the rest in the hopes that the originality of the stories will be better in future volumes.

For this site I have all six of these volumes in this series:


The Blackstone Chronicles #1: Eye for an Eye: The Doll (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #2: Twist of Fate: The Locket (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #3: Ashes to Ashes: The Dragon's Flame (Blackstone Chronicles, Part 3).
The Blackstone Chronicles #4: In the Shadow of Evil: The Handkerchief (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #5: Day of Reckoning: The Stereoscope (Blackstone Chronicles, Part 5).
The Blackstone Chronicles #6: Asylum (Blackstone Chronicles) (No 6).

The first in the six-volume Blackstone Chronicles, An Eye for an Eye: The Doll introduces the major characters, establishes the Gothic setting in a small town in New Hampshire, creates foreboding about the scheduled conversion of the Blackstone Asylum into a shopping mall, and then introduces the "single dark figure that moves through the ruptured stone wall" into the silent Asylum. There it locates the small cubicle containing the artifacts belonging to long-ago residents. When these artifacts are suddenly introduced mysteriously into the lives of the present occupants of Blackstone, death and destruction result.

(No spoilers.) In this volume an antique doll, once treasured by a child-inmate, arrives in the mail at the home of Elizabeth McGuire, wife of the builder/developer of the proposed mall. Elizabeth is pregnant and is unsure whether the doll is meant for the new baby or for her young daughter, who falls instantly in love with it. As the doll works its spell over the lives of the McGuire family, their perfectly ordered world is plunged into chaos.

Saul's horror writing is significantly different from that of Stephen King, to whom he is often compared. King's approach is usually to create a seemingly benign set of characters in a quiet New England town and then to introduce a destructive force, very gradually creating more and more mystery until the book reaches its climax. Saul, by contrast, tells the reader from the outset that the destruction of the Asylum will change everyone's life, then goes about proving it. The result is to reduce the suspense and force the author to keep reminding the readers that "something didn't feel right," or that "a blinding flash of pain" accompanies a particular action.

With characters who have not been developed before they change from ordinary citizen to demon (at least in this first novel), the reader does not identify with them or see the fine line separating normal life from total chaos. Relying on awkward foreshadowing and many clichés, Saul introduces the setting and all the major characters of Blackstone, some of which will be developed more fully in later novels in the series. n Mary Whipple

the sins of the past are catching up to a small town. for years
innocent people were sent to the blackstone asylum and treated
horribly. now many years later, the evil has come back to haunt
the residents of the town. a gift has been sent to the daughter
of the contractor who is supposed to be tearing down the building. it is a beautiful doll. but it is evil incarnate and
makes chucky look angelic. a very good book that all john saul
fans must read.

John Saul starts out on a neat little journey here. The characters aren't totally realized but as this is essentially a short story I won't expect them to be. Unlike The Green Mile, with which this series will be unavoidably compared, there is not a plot that carries over to future volumes, but a setting with multiple plots. In any case I like both the story and the serial format and am looking forward to the next installment. If you forgive this work for not being The Green Mile, you'll find yourself enjoying it, I'm sure

John is off to a good start with volume 1 of this 6 part series. Though the character depth is somewhat lacking in the first part, I do believe I will read the rest to find out what happens to everyone as well as for the pure enjoyment of finding out what other deviousness is in store. I'll have to admit though, it's been quite predictable so far if you've read other Saul, King, or Koontz works

Right now I'm about fifteen pages into this book and I have to force myself to pick it up everytime I come back to it. Foolishly I have bought his next three in anticipation. If his next three are anything like the first it's going to be a long haul from beginning to end. Next book, please! Sorry, John

I have not read John Saul before, but I was intrigued by the Green Mile like novel. First of all, don't think you are going to get a great story like Green Mile. That was my big mistake. The problem I have with this book is that I felt like I was supposed to read Sauls other blackstone books to understand this story. Blackstone, NH is NOT Castle Rock, ME. Saul should explain the characters more so I can identify with them

I read the reviews of this book before I read it, and unfortunately, most of the reviews said it was "not scary", "predictable", and "unoriginal". Well, listen up, ya bunch of pea brains! I found this to be pretty scary indeed, very original, and not once did I have any idea of what was going to happen. Dolls creep me out, and little children who love them--obsessively--creep me out even more. This book, for me, at least, was very creepy. I am currently reading Part 2 of The Blackstone Chronicles, Twist of Fate: The Locket. So far, it is somewhat quiet, but then again, this fragile layer of ice could start breaking at any time...

Very predictable. I too had to force myself through the first few pages. It was obvious someone was going to die and the doll would be the cause of it. The way the story is just left hanging is bad too. You wonder what happened to the little girl in the story who kept the doll. Would she "kill" again? Maybe there'll be mention of her later on in the rest of the Blackstone Chronicles. --NA