Customer Reviews

Superstition

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

SUPERSTITION is my introduction to David Ambrose. I just happened to stumble across him surfing through amazon.com one lazy evening. I can now say I am an Ambrose fan and will go on to his other novels.

SUPERSITION might take some a few pages to "get into". But once you get going, you just have to find out how it ends. The love story between Sam and Joanne adds a bit of spice without bogging down the ghost story. This isn't a gory slasher novel. It deals with the psychology of fear, alternate universes, the powerful effect of the human mind, and plain 'ole revenge! Read this book for the ending if for nothing else. At times it rambles, but everything pulls together (trust me). This was definitely a good read, and I highly recommend it if you like your horror to present a bit of intelligence along with the chills.

This book really scared me. I literally couldn't put it down. I read it straight through in one sitting, took a deep breath, and started over again from the beginning. Finally, the sun came up and I was able to go to sleep. It's very odd that the Amazon readers' reviews range from "ho-hum" to "extremely scary." I guess it depends on the reader's idea of just what's scary. For example, Stephen King has yet to give me the creeps, but how can you deny his almost universal popularity? If you like gory, monster/madmen-filled fiction, you may not like "Superstition."

I think Ambrose pulled off a very difficult feat: after reading this book for a while, you get the feeling that something real, or at least possible, is happening. In addition to creating a very believable ghost, Ambrose gets into some interesting speculations along the lines of Sci/Fi's "Alternate Universes" theory. Does the past create the present? Or could the present create the past? Can you "make up" a ghost that takes on a life of its own and becomes a "real" ghost? Real to such an extent that he's able to change reality for the participants in the experiment? Ambrose touches on these ideas and even a smattering of quantum physics, but these enhance the story line and do not interfere with the good old-fashioned ghost story fun.

FYI, the film rights to this book were sold to a company called Interscope for one million dollars. The foreign film rights were sold to a Netherlands/United Kingdom production company in October, 2001. I hope the movie version is able to capture the creepy but believable feel of the book and doesn't resort to cheap thrills. Oh, there are plenty of scenes of violence and mayhem, but it's the IDEAS that make this such a scary read.

If you love ghost stories, ouija boards, and table-tapping but also enjoy speculative sciences such as parapsychology, ESP, and mind over matter, this is the perfect book for you.

After reading several reviews of this book I could not wait to get it. I went out that very night and bought it. I was up until about 3 a.m. and then could not fall asleep right away because the book scared me so much. Then, the next day - I couldn't wait to get back to it. I was totally disappointed - what a let down. What happened to Adam Wyatt? The ghost was such a great part of the book and then poof! he was gone - no explanation and then the confusion of Ralph Cazaubon and Joanna. I guess I'll have to wait for the movie - maybe the movie will integrate more of the ghost and explain exactly what happend to Joanna.

Imagine inventing the ghost of someone who has never existed. Make him anyone you like, from any country and any time you like. Give him a name, a history, goals and dreams. Fun to think about, but it would never work. But it did work for university professor Sam Towne and a small group of volunteers. It worked too well. Dangerously well.

`Superstition' is a gripping, nail-biting horror story that will cause you to wonder not only about the paranormal, but about the people you encounter everyday. Were they "invented" by someone else's imagination? Why did they just suddenly appear? Ambrose asks some difficult questions and places himself in some very difficult situations for a writer, but he's definitely up to handling each challenge. Ambrose is a master craftsman. He builds a completely plausible story with instantly believable characters. The atmosphere and descriptions are so good, you'll think you're in this predicament yourself. Enjoy.

Parapsychologist Sam Towne runs a research facility that conducts investigations into paranormal anomalies--observable instances of psychokinesis, the movement of matter through psychic power. When he meets Joanna Cross, a staff writer for the magazine Around Town who has just published an article exposing a couple of mind-readers as con artists, an interesting group project suggests itself: Sam and Joanna decide to enlist volunteers to help them conjure up a ghost. The phantom they have in mind is not your run-of-the-mill, graveyard-haunting variety, but rather a thought-form that the group members will hallucinate into being, after extensive research into the time period from which their ghost hails, and after creating for him an elaborate back-story. The problem is, once you will something into being, it may not be eager to give up the ghost, as it were, when you'd like it to.

David Ambrose's thriller Superstition is intelligent and genuinely scary in parts, and its conclusion, despite being hinted at in a prologue, is impossible to figure out in advance. Part Jack Finney's Time and Again (a book the characters in Superstition in fact discuss), part ghost story, the book--if not offering the sort of suspense that will keep you glued to the pages all night--is well worth the read.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

I loved the book and didn't want it to end. The beginning was a bit hard to digest, even for me...a believer, but once that train took off, I coudn't put the book down. I reflected on the book afterwards and the characters remained with me. Very thought provoking, engaging, readable, and extremely entertaining. I could read these kinds of good books forever! What a treat!

Everyone is superstitious to some degree. They have to be. Look at the fact. Every cause has an effect. Cause and effect are opposites. so are black and white, right and wrong, good and evil - the list is endless! Opposites, like the two sides of a mirror. One cannot exist without the other. OR CAN IT?

Sam Towne was a Parapsychologist that believed ghosts came from the human mind, not from beyond. For an experiment he got eight volunteers, including reporter Joanna Cross and physics professor Roger Fullerton. They would use "psi" to make "tulpas". To put it simply, they would make up a person, give him a pretend life, discuss him until he became "real" to all of those in the group, and then have the "thought-form" respond to them! They would make a real ghost!

Soon, Adam Wyatt was made. He was a tragic Revolutionary War hero. Everyone was thrilled when he began rapping on tables and spelling out messages. But then members of the group began to die in awful ways! And there was no way to exorcize Adam. He was killing them one at a time!

*** Scary and unprovable! I felt a couple chills as I read this one. Perfect for fans of horror or those who just enjoy a good ghost story! Should not give you nightmares. But you will remember this story, and wonder, for the rest of your life! Excellent! ***

Let me start by saying that I definitely enjoyed reading this book. From the first paragraph, I was drawn into a well-painted modern Manhattan world, but I definitely could put it down. It was very amusing and thoughtful. It also brought up the possibilities of an alternate universe, kind of like a scary, 20th century "It's a Wonderful Life" (with regards to what would happen if certain events did and did not happen and how they would effect the lives of certain people) with a Oija board and different set of characters. Although this book did not "grab me" and make me hold on, the writing was precise and intelligent, and because I love this genre, would probably look for other titles by this author, since it was a quick read.

This is a must-read! I bought the book after having read 'Mother of God', by David Ambrose which I also found extremely good. I must say that this was truly a worthy follow-up to a previous masterpiece.

This is one of the most interesting and terrifying books I have read in years. Brimming with fresh ideas and original characters, "Superstition" deserves to be read by anybody who loves smart, classy horror fiction. Unlike Bentley Little or, even worse, J.G. Passarella, Ambrose deserves all of the praise he gets. The most intriguing thing about "Superstition" is the basic premise that Ambrose formulates and then runs with: are ghosts real, or are they mearly an untapped part of our own minds? This may sound dry and unoriginal, but what Ambrose does with this premise results in a truly scary novel. Pass on some of the hacks out there, and read "Superstition". You will not be disappointed.