Strange Seed [Mass Market Paperback]

T. M. Wright (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Playboy Press; 2nd THUS edition (1000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872211355
• ISBN-13: 978-0872211353
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeez, doesn't anyone GET it?, February 17, 2002

By 

Mary Anne Donovan "Professor and editor" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Seed (Paperback)

First of all, the last reviewer didn't even get the name of one of the main characters right, and he certainly didn't GET what the novel was about. Perhaps he should try to read it again, "tiresome" as it is or not.

The book is, actually, on a number of "Best of the Genre" lists, including one by Stephen King (in Danse Macabre) and one by Douglas Winter, and several others. Sure it's atmospheric, but the atmosphere draws you into the characters, and their inevitable doom. At least that's what it did for me.

The reviewer, whether or not it was Mr. Wright (to whom I am not related, by the way) got it right when he or she said that the book was not for the "MTV" generation, as the previous reviewer so clearly demonstrates.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great and Creepy, October 30, 2005

By 

Cthulhu Jones "sound dust" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Seed (Paperback)

I don't know what all these people are arguing about. I read this book years ago, when I was living in a cabin in a canyon in the Rockies, surrounded by wilderness. The book was chilling and eerie, though you never quite got what exactly was going on. Very mysterious. This is the kind of horror I like, and not too many authors write it any more. I also read People Of The Dark, which was a similar sequel and equally unsettling, and then some of the author's more recent stories which were set in the city. I prefer the rural stories to the urban ones. I highly recommend this book for those who like creepy rural horror that is not as in your face as what currently seems to be in vogue.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as clever as it thinks it is, February 13, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Seed (Paperback)

The crime novel is often viewed as a clash between two schools of writer--the cosy yarn spinners such as the so called Golden age writers,and the hardboiled,gritty realism school.The horror novel,it could be claimed,is also split,in this case between gore merchants and the adherents of what is often called "quiet horror".This latter school proceeds by a slow build up of often barely seen or glimpsed menace,reliant on suggestion and hints rather than the frontal assault on the senses and gross out techniques utilised by some genre practitioners

Mr Wright is an adherent of the quiet horror school,and this,his debut novel,is set in a remote woodland area in upstate New York,where city dwellers Grace and Paul Griffin have relocated.There new home is a somewhat derelict cottage which lacks even the basic amenities,and has been subject to major incidents of vandalism while standing empty.
They are befriended by a local man,Lumas,a carpenter who not only remembers the previous cottage dwellers ,a deeply religious family who killed themselves while in residence ,but also knew Paul's father who died on the land his son and daughter in law now inhabit
The couples'life on their new property is a literally gloomy one as they are without electricity or telephone and only Paul's romantic notions of living from the land keep them going
Soon they are aware of a family of feral children living in the woods surrounding their property,ones moreover with vampiric tendencies

The novel proceeds to unfold the tale of how the couple seek to come to terms with their situation
I ran out of patience with the tale pretty early and found myself wanting more action rather than the overly elliptical striving after atmosphere with which the novel is burdened.Later novels by the author managed to get the balance a bit more deftly but this bears all the marks of a prentice work and is a tad tiresome