Customer Reviews

Rough Beast

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Rough Beast was an exciting book to read with plenty of horror and suspense wrapped into this great book. This book will have you believing there is such a town in Mass. If you like John Saul's Creature or any Stephen King, this book is for you. Goshgarian really comes through in this fantastic book. I also recommend his "The Stone Circle." Both books are a must read for New Enlgand horror lovers!

I made the mistake of reading the first chapter of Gary Goshgarian's Rough Beast at work. This is NOT a book one puts down lightly. The Hazzards, the family caught up in an environmental tragedy, are sympathetic and believeable. Matty, the son who goes through horrific changes as the result of the pollution, is drawn with compassion, but also a clear-eyed look at the torture of his condition. And Jerry Mars, the consummate assassin, is a wonderfully shivery bad guy. I highly recommend this book.

One major element in Goshgarian's writing that surfaces time and again is his amazing capacity to create real charcters that real people can identify with. Instead of letting action determine characters, in Rough Beast and others by Goshgarian, he creates tense situations one can't wait to see the characters react to. Another thing: few male authors write convincingly from the female point of view, but Rough Beast's main female character exemplifies the female perspective when confronted with the calamity circumstance brings upon her family. His scientific explanations also further the book's frightening edge by avoiding a plummet into psuedo-science. Goshgarian's eventual scientific explanations suggest real possibilities for a very real dilemma. Rough beast IS a cautionary tale. And this book keeps you guessing -- none of the predictablity typical of suspense thrillers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I did Goshgarian's latest, and recommend it to anyone interested in a page turner. I read it in two days!

A very disturbing, fast-paced thriller. The evil character Jerry Mars was quite twisted, and so fearless that he would introduce himself, not even making up an alias but using his real name, to his victims before killing them... The Boston background was pretty convincing. Either Gary Goshgarian lives here in Boston, or at least he did his homework. I wondered if this book was in any way inspired by the true story behind "A Civil Action", because they both take place in precisely the same region, with the same theme, etc. Being half of Italian descent myself, I was slightly taken aback at the portrayal of the Italian-American "goombahs" who gathered every weekend to sick their dogs on each other in an arena. Maybe that is an authentic subculture of the Italian-American experience, but I've lived around Boston for most of my life and I've never run into it.

But that is a pretty minor point. Primarily this book deals intelligently with some of the issues raised by biological warfare, and really makes you feel the pain and confusion of some of the characters. It is remarkable well-written, considering the genre. Gary Goshgarian must have some kind of serious background in professional writing, it doesn't seem as though this level of skill is likely to be a one-shot deal. Great stuff.

An incredibly entertaining read.. this book was attached to my hand for a couple of days because i couldn't put it down. gary goshgarian is an extremely talented writer and should be put up there with the best.. i recommend this book to everyone and those that read it.. thank me.. if you like this book.. read "elixir" by gary braver (new pen name for gary goshgarian). his work is brilliant.. simply stated.

Gary Goshgarian should be right up there with Stephen King!
I could NOT put this book down. It was exciting/disturbing, yet intelligent. Lots of twists.