Customer Reviews

A Nightmare On Elm Street #1: Suffer The Children

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

 

 

"Suffer the Children", the first in a new series of Elm Street novels, tells the story of 6 teens and their encounter with dream stalker Freddy Krueger after testing a new anti-insomnia drug. This book is so much better than what we've gotten on the big screen with the last couple of Nightmare films (excluding New Nightmare, simply for its originality and wonderful story), and blows Freddy vs. Jason out of the water. The characters are developed wonderfully (moreso than anyone in Nightmares 4-6 and FvJ), they're given interesting backgrounds, and though they're labled with stereotypes, they're real kids with one common problem, and their social backgrounds fade away fast when they realize they need to bond together. Freddy is much more crass and morbid in this novel than he ever was on-screen, using the word "bitch" at least 40 times. Elm Street takes on a whole new atmosphere, becoming more of a real place and less of the surreal world it's been made to be in the last sequels. The dream sequences are laid out fantastically, and there are plenty of "trick" awakenings (a character "wakes up" but is still dreaming) to keep you on the edge also. The gore is fantastically described and the deaths aren't comic like they are on the big screen. The story is well planned (though you can pretty much figure out the jist of what's going on in the big picture about half-way to 3/4ths of the way through the book, if you look for the signs), and it ends teriffically, opening the door to a whole new reign of terror on Elm Street...

I am a big fan of the Nightmare on Elm St. films, so I was very excited to see that there were some new books based on the series. However, "Suffer the Children" left me extremely disappointed. It read like a checklist of every Elm Street cliche in the book. Abusive parents, cardboard cutout teenagers, nightmares within nightmares...what a bore. David Bishop totally phoned this one in. All the "surprises" were easy to see a mile away, and Freddy's vocabulary consisted of lame catch phrases with every sentence ending with "bitch". The only reason I kept reading was because I was holding on to the slim hope that it would eventually get better.

Do yourself a favor and skip this and go straight to the next book by Christa Faust. Or read Bishop's one first to see what a horrible job he did.

im 12 years old read that book in ten days. best book ever! if ur not an elm street fan dont read it its not for you. Its a gory book to read and freddy has some awesome lines in the book. i do plan on reading this again

I thought this book was really good. I found a couple of spelling errors, besides that I thought the storyline was really good. The author did a really good job with the characters especially Freddy. I like how the author told that the story takes place a couple of years after Freddy vs Jason. I can't wait to read the next book in the series "Dreamspawn". I am hoping it well be as good as the first book.

I could not put it down! it caught the feel of the movie! a greatly written novel although one thing did get to me the fact that freddy had like no vocabulary out side of "Bitch" and "Whose your daddy" but all in all i loved it!

Suffer The Children is a nice start to a brand new Freddy storyline so to speak. The characters, with their abilities, resemble the teenagers in Nightmare 3 - Dream Warriors.

This is a very interesting book, along with Protege, keeps you wanting to read more to see what happens next. The characters are well-developed, Freddy is a sicko like usual. All around it's a great book.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read.Why?Simple the plot,the imagary,the gore,and the characters.This book was surprisingly good actually,I'm much more of a jason fan,but I thought I'd check a freddy book out just for kicks.Boy was I surprised the book just ceased to amaze me.Its so good you just cant seem to put it down.Having said that dont read this book at night you wont pass out until you've read about 100 pages or so.The dialogue is very real and the characters are extremely believable.I really really reccomend this book to horror slasher film fans.Oh and the sequel to this story is a big waste of time so ignore it.Ciao!!!!!

This new series of books is based on New Line Cinemas horor series';
A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday The Thirteenth/Jason X.
I have enjoyed the first two books in the series, Jason X: The Experiment
and Elm Street: Suffer the Children (by Dr. Who author David Bishop)
and I am surprised at the well developed plot and characters.
The Elm Street and Friday books seem to pick up where Freddy Vs. Jason left off (some of the same characters, such as Sheriff Williams,
are featured) but I could be wrong about this. The Jason X series picks
up right where that film left off. ( the first book in the Jason X series is a
movie adaptation) They have been enormously enjoyable so far.

This is the fourth Black Flame book I have read and like the others in the series, it was highly disapointing. All the Freddy books in this series seem outlandish and entirely ridiculous. The plot was so laughable, I found myself in near pain reading it. The novel was all over the place and made little sense, bouncing from topics such as evil fetuses to telekinesis to mind control, and possession

Freddy falls in love with a girl who likes to cut herself, and impregnates her by possessing her boyfriend. Had this been made into another sequel, like I had been reading in other reveiws, it would undoubtedly be lousy and bomb at the box office. I didnt think Freddy Krueger could be more annoying than in the 4,5,6th movies, but David Bishop proved me wrong.

I also noticed Bishop dedicated this book to Wes Craven, the creator of the series. Let me apologize to Mr. Craven for Bishop's horrific attempt to ruin the legacy of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with this terrible piece of fiction. Dont worry Wes... your additions to the series were excellent.

I will say this was much better than the next novel, "Dreamspawn", which I would strongly reccommend you skip. Anyway, I probably wont be reading anymore of the Black Flame books. They seem to employ talentless writers that dissappoint with a dull and childish plot, uninteresting characters, and sub-par writing ability.

ok this book was good but they tried way to hard. plus the sex scene with alex and perter i think it was was way too long