Customer Reviews

Faces of Fear

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have read every single John Saul book since the beginning. His early works were amazing chillers that sent shivers up your spine. They were usually told through the perspective of a teenage main character and were quite believable. I think that in the latter half of his work each book is a hit or miss. I remember loving PERFECT NIGHTMARE but thought his last few just didn't hit the mark. Characters seemed unbelievable, plots formulaic and very overblown. THE DEVIL'S LABYRINTH was just so over the top for me I can't believe I finished it.

Now to the good news. John Saul is back to form!! FACES OF FEAR is an amazing read and has all the positive John Saul touches that show his unique style. Beauty, inner and outer is explored here. The story is told through the eyes of many different characters and it more than works. The main character is a teenage girl - Alison Shaw but her mother and father - Rita and Michael are also fully realized characters. They get divorced but remain best friends both getting into new relationships. (I must say that John Saul's inclusion of some more modern touches like having gay characters, cell phones, MySpace etc. is a great comfortable move forward and shows this author is a part of today's times and not resting on his laurels.)

I am not going to go into great depth on the plot here as many have for I find the very well written story chilling, with many entertaining gruesome scenes that add thrills galore. The very suspenseful plot is what carries this novel. I wasn't able to put it down as the story drew my in. I was chilled, scared, thrilled and creeped out. Most importantly I was entertained.

For me, I was aware of part of the whodunnit but not all of it. Even figuring some things out does not make this book boring or predictable. Part of the ending was a little expected but it didn't take away from the superb journey to get there. Interesting, well developed characters and a great story excellently told.

Give yourself a treat and dim the lights and devour this excellent book. I am very glad John Saul is still writing.

Wow! this will be my second two star rating this week. I seem to be on a very unlucky book streak.

I have read each and every one of John Saul's books. Actually, I remember, very clearly, reading them as a teenager and how scared they use to make me.

So, John, I ask you! where is the fear? where is the horror? where is the good writing?????




Faces of Fear starts off very slowly - Saul introduces us to a bunch of characters and it takes forever to figure out how they will all eventually manage to merge into a cohesive storyline. We are introduced to our main characters, Risa the mom, Alisson the daughter, Conrad the doctor (you can already see where this is going) and Margot, Conrad's beautiful wife - who is Conrad's masterpiece, after all he is the best plastic surgeon around!




Saul likes to involve young adults into his storyline and this is no exception. I have no problem with this, but I have to say that usually his young adults are just more with 'it' than Alisson seems to be, which, to me, makes her a weak and somewhat boring character. Risa seems like she floats around her life - constantly searching for something and Conrad simply thinks he is god's gift to the world.



This novel is set in the world of the rich so we get lots of descriptions of beautiful mansions and private schools. I wish the characters had been as detailed as the descriptions of the mansion.




But, I could have gotten past all of that IF this storyline was in the least scary, suspenseful or engaging. By page 40, when no action was evident, I started counting how many pages I had left to read (always a bad sign for me). There is no suspenseful build up here, there is not dark, scary places (read Manhattan Hunt Club for a good example of how good a story Saul can write). In the end it ends up being a Frankenstein storyline - boring and totally predictable.

This book is slow, slow, slow and boring!

I am sorry to have to write this poor review - I know that each author pours their heart into their novels, but this book is just boring beyond belief.




I am grateful that I got this one at the library.

15-year-old Alison Shaw enjoys her middle-class life with her parents, a real estate agent and a TV production manager. However, her world is turned upside down when her parents' marriage dissolves after her father reveals he is gay. Alison's mother marries acclaimed plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn, whose wife committed suicide after a boating accident left her perfect (albeit surgery-enhanced) face permanently scarred. Alison moves with her mother to Dunn's mansion and has trouble adjusting to an affluent lifestyle with friends who think nothing of paying thousands of dollars for clothes and indulging in plastic surgery to fix perceived flaws. Meanwhile, a demented murderer named the Frankenstein Killer is harvesting parts of women's faces, as well as their adrenal and thymus glands, leaving behind mutilated corpses. As the killer picks up the pace, Alison and her mother are peripherally aware of the frantic search by the police, although unaware that Alison may be the motive behind the killings.

Faces of Fear, Saul's 35th novel, has mystery, suspense, characters wholesome and likable and those adroitly portrayed as evil and maniacal. Although slow to start, the book does pick up speed, yet savvy readers will figure out the mystery well before it is revealed.

John Saul has a penchant for showing abuse of children. This isn't much different. Without blabbing away vital plot points, I have to admit that I enjoyed "The Faces of Fear" more than others. I've read some other reviews; yeah, you might've guessed it, but I was genuinely surprised to discover who the REAL killer was... I enjoyed the character of Alison, no dummy, confused about her true friendships. I can't recall Mr. Saul introducing positive gay characters in the past, and those characters are well portrayed. After reading almost everything available by Mr. Saul, I enjoyed this book more than most. He went in a new direction from his norm, and I found it a good, fast read. I'm glad he stayed away from the idea of hurting little children. Call me a wuss. I enjoyed it.

I like about 1/2 of John Saul's work that I have read (about 10 books now). This book fits right in the middle, I neither really liked it or hated it (like I did Midnight Voices). It is probably his most predictable work I have read though.

From the main character's father's new love interest at the beginning, to the climax at the end, it was easy to guess what was going to happen. I kept wating for a huge plot twist but it never came.

The characters are pretty stereotypical too. The obnoxious overbearing reporter, the snobby rich kids, all the way down to the rude 911 operator.

I will have to admit though that I was into the book the final 50 pages and looked forward to reading it at the end. No real shocks or scares in this one, and it was a nice change of pace for Saul, his victims in this book were over the age of 15, something I haven't seen in many of his works.

As many know John Saul is a master at penning thrillers, chilling thrillers. His 35th offering, Faces of Fear, may well be the chillingest. What could be more frightening than marrying a man you think you know and then discovering that he is not at all the man you thought he was? The answer to that question is it is even more terrifying when said husband means to harm your child.

Prominent plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn has had a hand in (or scalpel, if you will) in creating some of the most beautiful people to be found in Bel Air. Among them was his late wife, Margot. After scarring her face in an accident she took her own life.

It only took a year for Dunn to find a second wife, the lovely Risa Shaw, mother to 15-year-old Allison. It's quite a leap from the Shaw's former home in Santa Monica to a plush mansion in Bel Air, but Allison is happy for her mom and tries her utmost to adjust to a school full of very rich kids and what is in essence a very different life. Once a down to earth kid not too interested in appearances, she suddenly finds herself among the prettiest of the pretty.

Risa is a firm believer in while beauty may be only skin deep it's also a key to the good life, so when Dunn proposes improving on what nature gave Allison she enthusiastically approves. Before long Allison comes across a picture of Margot, and is shocked to see the resemblance between the face in the photo and the work Dunn has planned for her.

Of course, knowing this author that's only the beginning of the horrors to come.

- Gail Cooke

I have read every one of John Saul's books, and this one by far disappointed me beyond belief. You could easily tell where the story was going and while it was a fast read, it was a book I cannot in good conscience recommend to anyone!

However, having read all of John Saul's books, I fully believe his next one will be back to his usual standards of suspense, and a fun read. Don't disappoint me John!!

Dull, predictable suspense (??) thriller from Saul. I barely got thru this one. Normally a solid read with some spooky stuff but this one has no spooks and is quite tame. The ending is predictable but the motives and in depthness of the main antagonist are missing. I think Saul mailed this one in to meet a deadline. Does no author with a long list of books under their name (read Patterson, Cornwell, etc) have someone overseeing this dribble. At this point in his career, Saul does not need to meet any publishing demands.

I can be pretty scathing in my reviews for this author (read my other reviews, to find out). I just believe he has given us, his readers, some pretty mediocre reads of late. He latest is an amazing commentary on societies obsession with perfection and beauty. It contains lukewarm thrills at best and he reveals the killer and his hand to quickly.

The book begins with a strange prologue (as usual) that seems to have nothing to do with the book until you get 200 pages in. Then we meet the cast of characters. Alison Shaw a fifteen-year-old, who is living a quiet life in Santa Monica, California. Her mother Risa, a realtor and her father Michael, a t.v. news manager have an almost perfect marriage. But that marriage is broken when it is revealed that Michael is gay and has been having a relationship with another man, Scott Lawrence. So, Alison's perfect exsistence is shattered.

Meanwhile, famed plastic-surgeon, Conrad Dunn and his wife Margot are on rocky ground. She was in a horrible boating accident that left her scarred. And here is what makes no sense whatsoever. Why doesn't Conrad fix his wife's face? It is never even hinted at why he doesn't. Major plot hole #1. Eventually, he does fix her face after she has thrown herself off a cliff. What?!

Anyway, we pick up a year later and Risa is marrying Conrad. I don't understand why or how it even lead to that. Major plot hole #2. Alison is upset about leaving Santa Monica and moving to Beverly Hills. Eventually, she starts to try and fit in. Going as far as getting a boob job. What?! Major plot hole #3-Risa seems to have no problem with her husband doing her daughter's surgery, come on!

In the background a serial killer is offing women and taking certain body parts. A reporter in Michael's employ starts to put the pieces together. The pieces are easy to figure out and the reader will no doubt have the mystery solved way before the big reveal. A reveal in my opinion is revealed too soon.

The ending was okay and once again Saul gives us a useless epilogue. It adds nothing to the story. This book was better than In the Dark of the Night (2006) but not as good as last year's effort The Devil's Labyrinth. It certainly isn't on par with books like Suffer the Children or even The Presence.

This is the first JS book I've read in years and I thought it was riveting...the main characters were believable and fleshed out and it moved along at a great pace. As other reviewers had said, it was easy to see where the story was going but there are a few great surprises along the way that makes it a must-read book.