Customer Reviews

Sineater

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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Being just a few generations away from the kind of rustic, religiously odd, mountain people that populate _Sineater_, I was overwhelmed by the honesty of this horrific novel. The characters in _Sineater_ are fiction, but so many like them exist throughout the isolated mountain areas of Virginia and Kentucky, anyone from the region will recognize them. The fanaticism that fuels the horror of this novel is very much alive in these parts. _Sineater_ shows what a delicate balance exists between tradition and change, and how dangerous it can be when that balance is lost.

Excellent. That's my one-word review. Massie demonstrates some of the finest writing talent I've seen in a long time. Her words create images that have stayed with me long after reading SINEATER.
SINEATER starts with the birth of Joel, the newest member of the Barker family whose patriarch is the sineater--the person who eats from the dead in order to absorb their sins. The Barkers are shunned in this small Virginia town and try to live out a quiet existence in their mountain home. No one in town wants to associate with, touch or even look upon a Barker. Then Missy Campbell, a hopeful relgious leader, calls for the townspeople to forego the sineater tradition and to find another way to help the souls of the dead enter heaven. Thus begins a serious of deaths with dire warnings about ignoring tradition and turning away from God. Joel, now in school despite the traditions, struggles to find his place in the world and to make contact with other humans, most of whom turn away from him.
This is one of the most touching horror novels I've ever read. I truly felt compassion and hope for Joel, and I cared about what happened to the characters. The writing style is excellent, and the characters are well-developed. I don't always agree with the choices that award committees make for "best" novels, but in this case Massie deserves all the recognition and applause for her first novel. I will definitely be reading her other books.

Sineater is truly one of the best horror novels I have ever read. Sineater stands apart from many other novels in the horror genre for two reasons: it is extremely well written and original and the story is based on reality instead of the supernatural. Sineater is based on the traditions of an ancient religious culture set in the back woods of Virginia. The Sineater is a man who is shunned by society because he eats the sin of people who have died in order to free their souls for heaven. Unlike other horror novels that are based on the supernatural (vampires, ghosts, etc.) the sineater is a human, a man with a wife and children. This story is truly fascinating. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an original horror novel.

The problem with genre fiction is that so much of it is cruft. Sineater, however, is a daimond in the rough. Massie's writing style is evocative and vivid without becoming florid. Reading this novel I had a definite feel for exactly what things looked like, how they felt, and how they smelled. The characterizations were strong and even her touches on the minor characters leave the reader feeling like they are actual people with full lives outside of their small parts in the unfolding story.

The plot is a bit slow and wanders off track in a few places, but this book is not about the plot. This is a novel of human interactions and reactions, a novel about people. The true story lies in the way in which the town is dealing with their own changing traditions. That said, I was very impressed with the fact that the action sequences are unusually well-done and, occasionally, exciting.

I read this novel straight through in one sitting and would recommend it to just about anyone, horror fan or no. I wish I'd waited and got a hardback edition.

This is an exceptionally well written horror novel and one of the best of its genre. This Bram Stoker Award winning novel is set in the backwoods of Virginia, and the author's talent as a writer gives the reader a real feeling for the place about which she is writing. It is a grim, gripping, and highly atmospheric horror novel about a backwoods town in which some of the residents practice an old time religious custom...one that requires the service of one known as the "Sineater".

By custom, the Sineater is one who redeems the souls of the dead by eating food laid out on the bodies of the dead before they are buried. In eating the food, the Sineater is symbolically redeeming their souls, as the food represents their sins. The living are forbidden to look upon the countenance of the Sineater.

That taboo, however, has been violated, as the Sineater now has a wife and family, even though they, too, must avert their gaze. The family is also to be shunned by the people of the town. Yet, the youngest member of the family, Joel, attends school in town. Though his company is generally avoided by nearly all, he manages to touch some hearts, and some folks actually interact with the child much to their ultimate dismay, as someone appears to be very angry with this break in tradition.

The goodness and sensitivity innate in Joel, as well as his touching appreciation of friendly overtures by others, and the discovery of his own humanity, is a wonderful counterpoint to the evil let loose upon this backwoods town and the ignorance which fuels customs that are destructive and inhumane. This is a horror novel well worth reading.

This book was absolutely hypnotic in its exposition, suspense and characterizations. I found I was actually holding my breath during many of the critical scenes. Fabulously written. Top rate. And emotionally wrenching to read! Wonderful!

After sitting wading through dozens of cheap horror and thriller novels that read exactly alike (you know, the ancient evil or unstoppable maddness) it was real nice to read Sineater. Sineater is a coming of age novel reminiscent of Robert McCammon's Boy's Life where a young boy must come to terms with the world around him while that world seems to be falling to pieces. The hero of Sineater is a young boy from Virginia who, because his father is the Sineater, is alienated from the community that he goes to school in. No one will talk to him, no one will be his friend, and even adults are afraid of his touch. Interwoven through this tale are strange disappearances, odd religious practices, and alot of small town strangeness.

Sineater works because it is more than a horror novel, more than a mystery, and more than a small town/coming of age story. While the story does take it's time being told, I found the characters so real that the slow pace made the book more enjoyable. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good literature. And I would like to commend Leisure books for their continued support of the horror genre.

I should begin by saying that SinEater is very well wriiten novel. Written primarily in present tense -- a narrative mode that sometimes can be very annoying -- Massie's style is smooth and atmospheric. I wish more first novels were written with same confidence of style.

My major gripe with the book is that its slow. Real slow. While some of this can be excused, as Massie is building up both character and atmosphere, not much happens for a great deal of the book. Some people die, there is the od tortue and we get a good look into Joel's life and the way he tries to move from the repressed lifestyle of being the SinEater's son. Still, though there are some great scenes and moments of real horror -- especially when a school teacher is caught in a closet filled with squirming rats -- the book only ambles, rather then gallops.

Still, this is a good novel, better then most of the Horror lying around. it deserves to be read becasue it is beautifully written, and makes some fascinating comments about weird, clut like religious practises and a young boys need to break the shackles of tradition and fear. For those reasons I recommend the book.

Elizabeth Massie's debut novel is like nothing I've ever read, and yet it is familiar enough to not be too challenging to the average genre reader. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for first novel, Sineater utilizes the popular Southern gothic style to expound on a little-known legend in a highly imaginative manner.

Joel Barker's father is the title character. When residents of the small town of Ellison die, their friends and family place small meals on the chests of the deceased. Joel's father, Avery Barker, then comes out of the woods -- where he has been relegated to live during the day -- and eats the food, symbolically devouring the sins of the deceased and allowing their souls to ascend to heaven.

Legend has it that peering into the eyes of the sineater -- even via a photograph -- will cause the looker to view all of the sin that has been eaten, and subsequently either go crazy or simply die from the shock. Therefore, due to their connection with one who is perceived unclean, all of the Barkers are ostracized from the rest of the town, especially by Ellison's resident spiritual mother: Missy Campbell.

But all this is merely background to understand the core story of Sineater: Joel's coming of age. Joel is an outcast trying to fight his way in, while everyone else, including the other members of his family, are doing their best to keep him out. And someone is invested enough in the Barkers' outcast status to begin a regiment of "punishments."

Luckily for Joel, there are a few townspeople who are brave and caring enough to ignore the rules, but when the punishments become personal, Joel's support system crumbles and causes him to take action. Along the way, he gains insight into some previously unanswered questions and learns a lot about his family and himself in the process. (Hey, I told you Sineater was a coming-of-age novel, what do you want from me?)

At least a hundred pages too long for the story to support, Massie keeps the reader involved through the use of present tense. Most often utilized for its sense of immediacy, writing in the present tense is difficult to execute successfully. However, Massie pulls off its use in this novel beautifully and invisibly. I was halfway through the book before I even realized it, which just goes to show how well-suited it is to this author and story. That, in addition to the fact that the climax is a pulse-pounder that could even make me forget that I was riding the commuter train on my way to work, makes sure that all is forgiven and that Sineater comes highly recommended.

This novel is a disturbing tale about a perverse form of Christianity practiced in the mountains of Virginia. The sineater (an old Irish fantasy if memory services) is a man who voluntarily soaks up the evil men do, takes it unto himself at death. When the sineater's son goes to school some weird events take place and the loons think Judgement Day is nigh. Massie is from in Virginia so the atmosphere is tense and the descriptions of locale and population tight and precise as the son, a boy named Joel, tries to find out what is actually going on all around him. Ms. Massie won the 1993 Stoker Award for First Novel for Sineater.