Customer Reviews

The Red Church

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Scott Nicholson's first widely published work, "The Red Church", is a good first novel. It's better than most "first" novels I've read in the horror genre. It's entertaining, but does have its faults.

The book centers around an old church that until recently had been used as a barn. A relative of the church's original preacher offers a large sum of money and re-opens the church. However, this church worships the Second Son of God. The church is haunted by a bell tower creature and ghosts of those who died on church grounds are seen. Eventually, the ultimate battle of good versus evil occurs in the great climax of the book.

The main problem, although not a major one, with the book is the author's over-description of past events, inhabitants of the area, etc. While a little description is necessary, at times the author seemed to delve too deep in the history and it did little to enhance the story. However, overall the book is entertaining, complete with a few eerie moments (the communion scene being one of them) -- a good novel, especially for an author's first foray into the world of fictional horror.

Mad Southern preacher Wendell McFall painted the town church red back during the Civil War, in anticipation of the birth of the Second Son of Christ, who he believed would bring death to the world as a gift. To get the Second Son's ball rolling, old Wendell sacrificed a parishioner's child at the altar, and got himself lynched by the townsfolk as a result. The red church has been haunted ever since, both by McFall's ghost and some demonic shadow in the bell tower.

Now, Archer McFall, Wendell's descendant, has come home to roost. He, too, is a preacher, with a television following and a lot of money behind him, back from California to restore the church to its former infamous glory. Archer has numerous acolytes still living in town, and even a former mistress or two - women willing to give up their own sons, as Wendell did almost a hundred and fifty years ago. And the local constabulary is concerned, because Archer's return to town has brought with it a series of mutilation murders - caused, apparently, by something neither animal nor human.

This book sounds better than it is, but it still isn't bad. It's a first novel, and suffers from typical first novel flaws. Character actions and transitions are sometimes abrupt and not always clearly understood. The plot needs more development than it is given. The nature of the red church's supernatural menace is inconsistent and confusing. Too much time is spent debating the nature of Christian beliefs, at the expense of plot and story development, and there is unnecessary padding.

However, overall it's a pretty good read, if lightweight. It reads a great deal less like Lovecraft (which it has inappropriately been compared to) than a cross between Peter Straub's Ghost Story and the movie The Howling, though it is not as good as either of those pieces. It manages a few chills, even if its surprises are sprung too early.

For a first novel, pretty good. A pleasant way to pass the time, if you're looking for a simple, straightforward little horror story with a rural setting. But I expect the author's next book will probably be better.

I picked up this book at DragonCon when it came out so that I would have a little something to keep me occupied in my hotel room. I just wanted a light read by an author whom I had never heard of. This seemed like a perfect little book for the occasion.

I was not disapointed. It took me 2 or 3 days to read and it held my interest. Religion is a spooky subject in my opinion anyway. I will have to admit that I found the ending a little anti-climatic, but the trip there is charming (in a horror type way).

It isn't a literary masterpiece by any means, you can tell it is a first timer's effort. I think that Scott Nicholson has a lot of potential though, and The Red Church was good enough that I am interested in reading more novels by this author.

People really want to believe in a good ghost story.
I jumped into this book, because it seemed like it had it all, a good story and a good monster to fuel it. It hits the ground running, and keeps the pacing perfect. The characters are believable, and over all it is very well written. It keeps you turning the pages, and a lot of horror stories can't accomplish that for me.
I only have two problems with the book. I don't really believe it paints the picture of Appalachian life that other reviewers claim it does. This is not the writer's fault, but more one of my own expectations.
The other bee in my bonnet about the Red Church is that the monster isn't as scary as I would have liked him to be. He is not written as charismatic, or as menacing as the character really needed to be.
I recommend that horror fans read this book, but don't believe the hype.

I was so glad to see a new horror novel on the shelf (and happy to see Pinnacle doing more than reprinting horror novels from their past) that I didn't hesitate to snatch this book up. And I'm really glad I did. THE RED CHURCH is an impressive debut by a new author and quite a ride... In Whispering Pines, NC, the old Red Church has stood as a dark testament to a family's twisted beliefs and a vigilante killing many years ago in the small mountain community. Nobody can forget the day a congregation rose up and hung their preacher, Wendell McFall, for his twisted beliefs. Now his offspring has come to town and opened the old church back up. He is taking up where his ancestor left off and according to him, "Sacrifice is the currency of God."... This is a pretty wild ride. Nicholson employs monsters, cannibalism, the undead, ghosts, and a disturbing zealotry that creates quite a witch's brew of a horror novel. And his passion really burns up the pages. Highly recommended for horror fans.

Horror has a promising new author in Scott Nicholson. While this debut novel is not perfect, it is a compelling read that moves purposefully from start to finish, exuding a consistent level of creepiness. The plot itself never bogs down, which is a definite plus. The characters are not quite as fleshed out as I might like, but I feel like I got a pretty good glimpse at most of them and what they were about. Good and evil is somewhat blurred in many cases, but I definitely found myself pulling for the youngsters Ronnie and Timmy Day and for Sheriff Littlefield. The reader probably comes to know the sheriff more than any other character because for him the events of this story do not begin in the present but, instead, years earlier during his childhood. One Halloween night, he watched his younger brother die, hanged from the belfry of the mysterious red church, pushed by the hands (actually talons) of the horrible Bell Monster; perhaps even worse, he saw the image of the cackling Hung Preacher hanging from the limb of the dogwood in front of the church, the very tree on which that infernal preacher was hanged by his own church members four generations earlier. The guilt, fear, and horror of that night have haunted the sheriff for many years, and Nicholson conveys this inner turmoil pretty well to the reader.

The Hung Preacher died long ago, but his descendant Archer McFall has come back home to reopen the Red Church and preach his own twisted sort of religion. He is the second son of God, he proclaims, here to undo the damage done by the first son, the liar Jesus who promised everyone salvation if they would just believe; Archer, the second son, insists that sacrifice and suffering is required in order to receive salvation. His congregation is made up of the descendants of the men and women who murdered his great-great grandfather, and he insists that they must make great sacrifices to atone for the actions of their own ancestors. For some reason which is never quite clear, Archer specifically needs Ronnie Day, and Ronnie's mother, a former disciple of Archer, will do anything to please her supposed savior. Standing in the way of this ordained fate for the boy are Ronnie's father and the sheriff.

I have no complaints about the ending. There are a few little potholes in the road along the way, but that is almost to be expected in an author's first published novel. A couple of things at the end didn't make perfect sense to me, but Nicholson did a commendable job of leaving no important issues unaddressed. There are no grand surprises at the end, but a twist or two make sure that the conclusion is not totally predictable. The blasphemy perpetrated by Archer may offend those with strong Christian beliefs, but this book is in no way anti-religious. It merely employs Archer's [wrong] testament to serve as the lever on which the whole novel is balanced. Obviously, Nicholson has some talent, and he knows how to tell a good story; I will be looking forward to his second novel. There is definitely a good bit of potential here for the future.

I have seen Scott Nicholson's novels on the shelves for several years now, but never really considered reading them. However, due to some glowing reviews that I have read recently and the fact that his work is mostly set in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina (my hometown is in the NC foothills an hour or two away), I finally took notice and decided to read some of his work.

Firstly, after finishing The Red Church, I can say that I will read more of his work. Honestly, it exceeded my expectations. It did so possibly because my expectations weren't too high to begin with, being a new-to-me author. But, more likely it was because it was a well-written novel that kept my attention and made me look forward to returning to the story.

I did think that the story felt kind of rushed and could have stood another 100 pages to help with some of the plot - in particular, further developing the main antagonist, describing more of Archer's history in California (which could actually be developed as a prequel story), and expanding on the nature of Archer's influence over the 'old families' and why they were so seemingly easily drawn in to his fold.

That being said, I thought the book was entertaining, bringing some fresh ideas to a fairly standard plot (religious fanaticism). It had some pretty creepy moments that probably would have been even more effective had I been reading under more ideal conditions (I read it during my lunch hours at my desk under the electric-white glow of my office's fluorescent lighting). Additionally, the climax was very well-done, bringing the story to a fresh and interesting ending.

Mr. Nicholson has given us Horror fans a nice and nasty little treat with his book The Red Church. Small town terror, religious fervor, and one heckuva monster combine to get those sicko juices flowing. This guy seems to like his Lovecraft and he pays a nice homage here to that New England maestro of the macabre. Sacrifice and winged beasts are always good to keep those pages turning. If you haven't read this guy do so now and if something from above blots out the sun, duck. Just a suggestion. Also check out The Harvest, which is seemingly another nod to Lovecraft, this time to The Colour Out of Space.

Scott Nicholson's THE RED CHURCH was a nice first novel, although at times the God-bashing was a bit much for me. I enjoyed the setting and the realism he brought to the characters.

Scott Nicholson, The Red Church (Pinnacle, 2003)

The Red Church is not your average horror novel; we'll get that out of the way at the beginning. Yeah, there's the monster ("with wings and claws and livers for eyes," maybe the best half-sentence description of a monster since Stephen King unleashed Pet Sematary on the world twenty years previous). There's the dysfunctional family who can't pull together to save their lives (literally). There's the bumbling backwoods cop and his sexy partner. Well, sexy if you like buff women in uniform (and don't we all?). All the standard stuff.

But then there's the Church of the title, and that's when things start gettin' weird.

Archer McFall is a descendant of Wendell McFall, who built the Red Church two hundred years previous and was hanged by his parishoners, who suspected he had truck wit' de debbil. His ghost, according to local legend (I should mention that "local" is rural North Carolina), still haunts the place. Archer went out to California two decades previous with a bevy of local beauties to form a new church, the Temple of the Two Suns (or Sons; the spellings are interchangeable throughout the novel, though whether that's intentional or the product of Pinnacle's notoriously lax editing is unknown). Only one of the seven girls who left with him, Linda, ever returned. She married a Baptist, settled down, had kids. But now Archer's back, and Linda, like the rest of the descendants of the people who hanged Wendell all those years ago, is drawn to the Red Church. Members of Archer's fledgling parish start dying. Sheriff (whose younger brother died in the Red Church's belfry not long before Archer took off for Cali) has to investigate, right?

That's where it starts getting into Frank Peretti territory. The Temple of the Two Suns and the local, more traditional Baptist sect are polar opposites to one another, Jesus pitted against God's Other Son, as Archer believes himself to be. As you can probably surmise, this book could have been really, really bad. Nicholson never gives in to the temptation of the altar-call, though, and whether the book is truly intended as Christian allegory or not, the peace-and-light message is kept within the action, integrated into the characters rather than Peretti-style ("let's stop the action and ask the folks if they've been saved, shall we?"). He also never quite takes the edge off the book's Christian leanings, either; the scene where the child remembers the pastor's repeated savings of his soul tread very close to sounding like the kid's covering up child molestation, without ever tipping its hand. The whole thing has a wonderfully creepy quality to it whenever the religion question pops up.

Where things fall apart is, unfortunately, at the end. The book's climax has something of a deus-ex-machina feel to it, and is generally confusing all the way around. This probably stems from its being told from the POV of one of the characters; no doubt actually being in the scene would be confusing as all get-out, but did Nicholson have to confuse us with it, as well? To his credit, when cleaning up after everything, he does explain one or two things, and he doesn't pull too many punches. But the confusion of the climax and its rather too easy method of resolution do leave enough of an aftertaste that we had to knock a point off. Still, Nicholson's debut novel does hint at better things to come. *** ½