Customer Reviews

The Infinite (Leisure Horror)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're a fan of horror fiction and haven't yet discovered Bram Stoker Award winner Douglas Clegg, you've got some enjoyable reading ahead of you. Clegg's latest, The Infinite, is probably his best novel to date, and is a good place to start.

A kind of riff on Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House, The Infinite tells the story of three psychically-gifted individuals invited by the leader of a psychic research foundation to spend a few days in a haunted mansion in the Hudson River Valley of New York state. The haunted mansion in question, Harrow, has figured in two of Clegg's earlier works, Mischief and Nightmare House. Although The Infinite picks up on story elements and characters common to those two books, it's not necessary to have read them first.

What makes The Infinite such a great read is the richness of its characterization. Clegg takes his time setting up the three principles before bringing them together. Cali Nytbird, a young woman who uses her psychic abilities to help the police catch killers, Chet Dillinger, a young man who experiences his ability more as a curse than a blessing, and Frost Crane, a strange man with unhealthy compulsions who has used his ability to achieve some degree of fame all come together at Harrow like tasty ingredients in an exotic dish.

Also in the mix are Jack Fleetwood, the leader of the psychic research foundation, his tempestuous sixteen-year-old daughter Miranda, and Ivy Martin, the mysterious woman funding the whole endeavor for her own personal reasons.

All of the characters are well developed and fun to read. Clegg does a great job putting you inside the hearts and minds of each character, making you feel his or her pangs and desires. One of the greatest pleasures of reading is getting to experience the world from a new vantage point--if you're a man, knowing what it's like to be a woman in love, or vise versa. The Infinite really succeeds in this and also happens to be quite a scary haunted house book. If you're looking for an intelligent, character-driven horror novel, Douglas Clegg is your man, and The Infinite is the book.

This book is incredible. 377 pages. Smooth Introduction of the characters and their stories which made them the people they live like today. Once they enter Harrow, everything changes. A true page turner, it will make you try to guess what will happen next and what the characters may or may not do.
Psychometry.....Opening doors and facing truths. Keep it coming Clegg

With 'The Infinite', Douglas Clegg has published his finest and most complex work. 'The Infinite' is the third book in a loosely related series that began with 'Nightmare House' (a serialized novel sent via email) and then continued with 'Mischief' (a paperback original). In 'Nightmare House', we were introduced to Harrow, a bizarre, twisting house that hid more than it revealed. In 'Mischief', Harrow has been converted into a boarding school, and one of the students unleashes a terrifying and hidden power trapped within the house. Now, with 'The Infinite', Ivy (a woman with some secrets of her own) decides to gather a number of strangers with paranormal powers under the ruse of investigating the house and the strange hauntings that have occurred within. Nothing is as it seems in Harrow, as the reader is soon caught up in Mr. Clegg's tight and breathless prose. A number of seemingly disparate plot lines are tightly woven together, leading to an ending that is truly frightening and memorable. Do yourself a favor this Halloween, and indulge yourself in one of the finest works of horror to hit the shelves this year. 'The Infinite' is a truly terrifying work sure to delight the fans of King, Straub, Barker, and Saul.

Douglas Clegg's novel "The Infinite" is a perfect example of a sports car that can go from 0 -90 in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately,when Mr. Clegg's novel decides to take off, he left readers like me stranded in the dust.

The first 200+ pages of this novel are simply outstanding. Mr. Clegg does a wonderful job fleshing out the three protagonists who happen to share an ability known as "Element X", in different forms, and are hired by Mr. Jack Fleetwood, the head of a NYC psychic organization to investigate the infamous Harrow House in Upstate New York at the request of the new owner, Ms. Ivy Martin.

Needless to say, the original owner of the manse, Mr. Justin Gravesend did a bunch of particularly spooky and nasty stuff in an attempt to transform his house into more than just a home. The three psychics, Cali Nytbyrd, Chet Dillinger and Frost Crane, eventually find they are in way over their heads.

The first 200+ pages of this novel is an excellent Jamesian exercise in establishing mood, plot and prepping the reader for the climax. Unfortunately, Mr. Clegg starts the fireworks without any warning and, quite frankly, without making any plot sense. I wonder if his editor told him to wrap it up for the final 40+ pages make no sense at all.

I would recommend "The Infinite" for mood, stylism and character development. Perhaps Mr. Clegg needs to concentrate more on plot and cohesion in his future works.

First 3/4 of book =5stars

last 1/4 of book =1 star

Overall =3 stars

This is my second Clegg novel, after _You Come When I Call You_ and I'm wondering if I should give him another chance. I keep reading and hearing that he's the logical successor to Stephen King and Peter Straub, but from my experience, he still has a long way to go. _The Infinite_ starts off well, with in-depth introductions to the three main characters. They are individuals and not cookie-cutter stereotypes. But when the three finally arrive at Harrow for a week of "ghost hunting," things slow way down and very little happens. Then, we're treated to a very rushed and illogical climax and conclusion.

I had basically the same experience with _Call_--a story that was so slowly developed and characters created with great attention and loving detail, ultimately fell apart when it came time for something to happen. Clegg needs to develop his entire plot in the same level of detail. For _The Infinite_, this would probably mean another two or three hundred pages of material, but it would be worth it if he could turn in a book that maintains the same high level all the way through. This was a very disappointing book.

The story is of the haunted Harrow boarding school and its deadly past that attracts the PSI Foundation and a wealthy benefactor who has her own reasons for wanting Harrow's secrets found.
We meet three unique individuals in the names of Chet Dillinger, Cali Nytbird and Frost Crane all of whose past histories are wonderfully laid out so we get to know them long before they start their stay in Harrow. I disagree with the Publishers weekly review in that I don't think this part of the book dragged at all, I only wish their was more to the rest of it. I really think more could have been written on the character of Cali Nytbird and her involvement in a murder investigation.
This book was a great escape from the more horrific current events going on around us. If you like the works of King, Koontz and McGammon, you will definately enjoy ALL of Douglass Cleggs books.

This is the second Douglas Clegg book that I've read. I first tried the author with Mischief (the second book in the series that culminates with The Infinite) and felt somewhat disappointed, especially after having heard so many great things about him. But all the notions I had were changed after reading The Infinite, a powerful and very haunting book set in a 'haunted' mansion of sorts. The story is more about its characters than it is about the situations they are placed in. It's great to see a horror book that tries to rely more on its characters and their problems and then draw the horror out of these problems.

A group of six meet in an old mansion which has been revamped by Ivy, a millionaire woman who wants to unravel the house from its many secrets. Most of the guest, save for the millionaire and Jack, a paranormal investigator, possess powers of the paranormal. One boy is a telekenesis, a woman can draw from a person's mind by touching an object they own, and a man is able to make events happen with his mind. All the characters are haunted by their powers and by their past.

Of course, strange things happen as they enter the house, but these things aren't necessarily hauntings. They are different, more powerful. This house is alive, but not with ghost. It is hiding something much more powerful, much darker. And one by one, the characters will have to come fact to face with the horrors of the house as well as their very own demons.

The story is great and very emotionally intense, the characters are vivid and highly believable, and the finale is just amazing and terrifying. I was very sad when I got to the last page, as I just didn't want this story to end. This is a masterpiece of horror. I cannot think of one thing I disliked about the book, nor can I think of one thing I'd want to complain about, save for the fact that I wanted more!

I can't wait to read the next Douglas Clegg novel. I was impressed enough by The Infinite to go out and buy all of his other books. If they're half as good as this one was, I'm in for a great ride!

I hear a lot about this guy, and most of it is very good. Why, then, do his novels disappoint me so much? "The Infinite" was the second book I have read by Clegg, and I really wanted to like it. I love modern horror stories when they are subtle and chilling, like the first half-dozen books by Stephen King or Peter Straub's masterpiece, "Ghost Story." "The Infinite" starts out with a nice little ghost story of its own, and I thought I was onto something with this book (although I grew suspicious when the author makes a mistake while referring to a plot point from a 1960's Twilight Zone episode). Early chapters introduced the major characters and included some very fascinating background information for each. I was enjoying the book so far, but mildly wary of a letdown. And let down it soon did. Once all of these characters come together at the house known as Harrow, the story begins to sag. In fact, nothing much happens at all for the next few chapters. Okay, someone walks the house unseen at night when everyone else is asleep, but there's nothing frightening about her - she's only an eccentric old woman. And another character begins to reveal a "dark" side. Clearly the author was trying to build suspense here with an extended period of calm before the coming chaos, but this reader was calmed practically to sleep. Just before (or maybe just after) I stopped caring whether or not anything at all was going to happen, the story exploded in one of the most unsatisfying and illogical climaxes I've come across in a long time. Well, King has often been guilty of the same thing, but for some reason I can't define (familiarity maybe?) it's easier to forgive him. I wouldn't give the ending away if I could, but I'm not sure I know know what happened anyway. Maybe I was just too bored by then to get involved. Even considering this reading experience, I'd like to try Clegg's "The Hour Before Dark": I'm that desperate for a good suspense shocker. His newest is getting great reviews - "Clegg's best so far" and all that jazz. The problem is, most of the non-professional reviewers also recommend this clunker. The first half of "The Infinite" gets four to five stars, the second half gets between one and two.

My first, I believe, was The Halloween Man. A good book, but not my favorite. Mr. Clegg and I grew up in the military (I'm a Navy brat who grew up in CT....and was in DC when I wrote my review--married to a member of the Coast Guard). I LOVED this book--it was entertaining, endearing and a little bit creepy. For some reason it reminded me of Event Horizon--a movie most seemed to abhor but I loved.

Please keep up the good work, Mr. Clegg. I am currently reading The Machinery of Night and love it, as I have enjoyed everything since I was 12 and read Goat Dance:)

This book is incredible. 377 pages. Smooth Introduction of the characters and their stories which made them the people they live like today. Once they enter Harrow, everything changes. A true page turner, it will make you try to guess what will happen next and what the characters may or may not do.
Psychometry.....Opening doors and facing truths. Keep it coming Clegg