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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A chilling, truly disturbing horror classic,
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Suffer the Children (Paperback)
While John Saul is not held in the highest of regard by many horror fans, he is the man who first introduced me to the genre. Some of his later novels did indeed become pretty repetitive, but his first novel, Suffer the Children, is a dead-on, unflinching classic. This was the first truly scary book I ever read; I was probably around twelve at the time, and I remember staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish it and then finding it almost impossible to get to sleep. Reading it again now, it still possesses much of the power it possessed years ago. It is a tale of a family curse, murder, schizophrenia, general unhappiness, and gruesome, frightening events. Long ago, the scion of the Conger family killed his daughter, supposedly bringing a curse down upon the succeeding generations of his family. Now, Jack Conger fears the curse is real. In a drunken rage, he physically assaults his youngest little girl Sarah. While he struggles to remember what exactly happened that day and grows increasingly estranged from his long-suffering wife, his daughter exists in a quasi-comatose state, living in her own silent fantasy world. The Congers look at their first daughter as a true blessing through all of their pain--Elizabeth is mature beyond her years and takes care of her little sister with great love and kindness. When several local children begin to disappear, though, the Congers' delicately balanced world finally turns completely upside down. This is a pretty scary novel, largely because the horror centers around the two young sisters Elizabeth and Sarah. The description of the gloomy woods around the home and the truly dangerous embankment nearby help produce a great dark atmosphere, but Saul's description of a series of horrible events is especially unsettling. The story gets pretty gruesome at one point, and I think some horror writers would not be bold enough to go as far as Saul did. Saul committed himself fully to this novel and dared to describe everything in great detail; combine that with his incredibly effective characterization of the two sisters and you get a true horror classic in every sense of the word. Saul hooks you securely in his clutches and drags you down with him into the pits of depravity. The ending did not provide me with a complete feeling of closure, but I certainly have no quarrel with it; in fact, the evil Saul so vividly describes almost defies comprehension and thus necessitates the type of ending Saul chose to give us. I would highly recommend this novel to any horror fan--Saul creates a psychological atmosphere of real terror that essentially oozes out of the pores of each page.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SUFFERING ABOUNDS,
By
This review is from: Suffer the Children (Paperback)
Jack and Rose Conger feel they have found the ideal town to raise their two daughters, Sarah, 11 and Elizabeth, 13. At the opening of the story, Sarah has been mute for over a year and enrolled in a special program. Elizabeth appears to be an unremarkable preteen until...her parents find a portrait of a girl in their attic who bears a strong resemblance to Elizabeth!
From the time that picture is displayed, Elizabeth undergoes a change of personality. She lures a few local children into a cave where they are left to starve. She rarely entered the cave and when she did, she flogged the children and gave them a dead cat to play with. Matters reach a head when her sister is found dragging the arm of a child who had died. Sarah is subsequently institutionalized. She remained in an institution for 15 years. When she and Elizabeth are reunited 15 years later, the mere mention of "Beth" sends Sarah back into mute fear. Who WAS Beth? And who was the child in the portrait? What became of the children who were lured into the cave? And what of Elizabeth, their instrument of doom?
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not One Of His Best,
This review is from: Suffer the Children (Paperback)
I read the review before I bought this book and I thought I would enjoy it but I didn't. Saul tackles the controversial subject of child molestation in this one then branches off into a macabre story about a possessed/reincarnated? young girl that does horrible things to to other children. I was very confused by this book but I gave it the benefit of the doubt right up until the very disappointing end. My final word on this is, the book has plot holes so wide you could hide mack trucks in them. I couldn't identify with the characters either and I think that's an important element of any story. Saul I think you ran out of steam one quarter of the way into the book and rushed it off to meet your deadline. Don't do it again!
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