Customer Reviews

Superstitious

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I was very reluctant when I saw R.L.Stine was the author of "SUPERSTITIOUS" because he was reknowned as a mainly children's book writer. When I first read the book and got past the first chapter I was immediately captivated and couldn't put it down. I would rush home form school just to read it and it put me in some kind-of trance which I was in a alternate world and was living Sara's life. It sent chills down my spine and made me re-examine my life to the superstition rules... I really liked the book and reccommend it to all.

Superstitious was billed as R.L. Stine's triumphant leap from his teenage "Goosebumps" series into intense adult horror fiction. Far from being terrified by this book, I found myself laughing at the ridiculous actions and insipid dialogue of Mr. Stine's stereotypical cast of characters. The author's lack of research concerning real police procedures is also quite evident. The only true horror I experienced was that such poor quality writing was ever published in the first place.

From 1993 until about 1996, the Fear Street series were my books of choice since I was a preteen to teenager into horror. Around 1995, R.L. Stine first released Superstitious, his first book for adults and it was mentioned in a few of the Fear Street novels. Fast-forward to the summer of 2007, I found a copy of Superstitious at work and started to read it. Reading it made me remember the Fear Street series very quickly. The style was like an adult Fear Street book and it was quite interesting for most of the book. The latter half of the book is where it got extremely twisted. As my subject says, many times during the last few chapters, I was thinking, "What was that" or "What the hell?" It was memorable for sure and I am glad Stine has made an adult novel (and I heard there are at least two more now), but this was one of the most disturbing novels I have read and not because of the scare factor.

When I started reading this, I couldnt put the book down. The way Stine paints conversations between people and integrating their thoughts from both viewpoints is fantastic. It moved the story along. The dialogue was great. I knew this might have a strange ending, but not what it wound up being. I liked the character of Milton, but it seemed as if his only purpose in the book was to serve as a distraction from Liam, to make the reader think that he was possibly the murderer, and also to sexually harass those that worked under him as Dean of Students. Some of that backstory just didnt flow along very well.
The whole sister thing with Liam was just weird too. And I was not expecting Sara to marry this guy! I thought it would be a climax at the end where she finds out what is truly underneath him and knows it has to be over between them, and there is no marriage. She just came from a bad relationship right into this one with Liam, how am I, as a reader supposed to feel that she has grown in the story and learned from her mistakes? I dont know any more about Sara now than I did in the beginning. And what about the release of demons at the end. Isn't that just a bit selfish and self-serving on Liam's part, to make Sara have his baby so he could be free? Free to do what, exactly?
Page 376 - "We loved you, Sara, because you were going to free us. You were going to have my child. The child would inherit the demons and free me from my grasp. Your child would take the demons away." And Sara wakes up in a hospital and finds out she's the new carrier of evil. I still can't quite grasp the premise of this book.

As a fan of Stine's Goosebumps book series as a kid I decided to give Superstitious a chance and found I actually kind of liked it, there are problems of course, but Stine pens what I'd compare to a good slasher flick. I would advise that you reed this novel around Halloween time, it seems to fit into that time frame quite nicely. Overall I would say that Superstitious is a pretty good read and could be used especially to capitalize on the atmosphere of one of those cold and dark fall afternoons.

As a former fan of his YA books, I felt compelled to try this book when it first came out.

This book is a huge dissapointment.

SUPERSTITIOUS follows several people all in a small college town who are connected to each other through the college and through the brutal murders that have just started. There's Sara Morgan, a grad student who marries prestigious prof. Liam O'Connor, and Garrett Montgomery, the detective investigating the murders, for the main characters. Along with them is a handful of other characters, most of whom are unimportant--they are introduced briefly the sole purpose of being killed off later in the book.

First, the plot. The main ideas around which the book was constructed were generally a good ones, but the plot wasn't expanded very well or explored to the fullest--it was lousy. Along with several unimportant characters, Stine killed the plot's potential. Stine seemed to be taking the easy road out on this one.
The charachters were not very well developed. Most people in this book seem to be in their twenties, and no character is very realistic. Stine tried too hard to get into the mind frame of this age group--it's somewhat obvious when reading the charachter's thoughts and dialogue; he doesn't do a very good job. The characters also do not reach their full potential--when given an option of doing two things, they'll pick the less interesting one--sort of an easy way out. The dialogue was not too bad, but not without its flaws. Stine also tried to incorporate adult themes into the novel (sex), and while these scenes could have also been much better, they were extremely bad. I don't mean this in the raunchy sense, either--Stine is neither Marquis de Sade nor Brett Easton Ellis. The sex scenes are very badly written, and essentially all the same. And occasionally an 'event' during one of these scenes will be in the wrong place entirely (this only happens once or twice). Stine should really stick to YA--really.

The grammar/style of writing is a whole other story. I can see how this sort of choppiness (lots of fragmented sentences) can be used in the right places for effect, but Stine does it all the time. Some writers can pull this off and do it amazingly (try Janet Fitch's WHITE OLEANDER for a perfect example or just a great read), but Stine fails miserably. For example: "'[Dialouge here],' Garret insisted. Too defensive. He scolded himself." The book doesn't flow, making it very frustrating for the reader. That was my major problem with this book--good writing can make a reader forget character or plot flaws, but bad writing makes those things more prominent and more irritating.
Also, I have a (very) short list of other problems not mentioned above, just in case you aren't convinced yet: 1)characters do unrealistic things in certain situations/come up with unrealistic answers to simple problems (whereas, like I mentioned above, they'll opt for the easy road in a more complex situation);2) a vocabulary worthy of Stine's YA books--much repitition of the same words, no really good use of description;3) characters will repeat actions several times throughout the book, and instead of developing the character, it stops the character from advancing, ie, learing through its mistakes and growing; 4) Stine doesn't stay with one verb tense--he'll go from gerund to present tense to preterit and over again. And when charachters are remembering or talking about a situation in retrospect, it is always in the present tense instead of past tense.

The short version of the above: save yourself the time and money: DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. If you really feel compelled to read it, get it from the library or a friend and brace yourself for dissapointment. If you're really looking for good horror, try a master, like King, who knows what they're doing.

All of Stine's other books are left behind after reading Superstitious. It holds your attention and awes you. A story about a girl escaping her ex, and finding the right one. A mix of romance and of horror. You won't want to put down the book! Read the book.

When this book came out, I received it as a Christmas gift. I tried to read it, and boy, did I stop trying after 70 pages. I would be lying if I said this is the worst book I've ever read, but only because I technically didn't "read" this. I read the beginning, skipped to the last 25 or 30 pages, and never messed with it again. I read one review where someone called this the best book they have ever read, and I thought, you poor soul. Unbelievably bad!!

Even though my children are not at the age to be reading the ever popular Fear Street series, and I am certainly a bit old to be reading them (or so I thought!) R.L. Stine's reputation as a teen/youth writer drew me instantly to pick up his adult novel, Superstitious. Immediately, after reading the first chapter, I was hooked. I dropped the book and ran to tell my husband about the grotesque images and wild stories. Any book that has eyeballs plopping out onto the pavement within the first few pages has got my attention! It has been many years since I have read such a graphicly profuse book! But I loved every minute of it. I am in my late 20's and still love loud obnoxious music and obnoxiously horrid horror movies, as well. Why not sit down with a gruesome book, as well! I am looking forward to any more adult books that R.L. Stine would like to unleash! I do mean unleash! The story line of this book is plausible, easy to follow and a very good read. There is never a boring moment. The characters all have their oddities, you never know who "done it". A beast has been unleashed, and it's closer than you think. They all are suspicious though...... Terror is very much alive in R.L. Stine's Superstitious. Take it for a ride

I was a fan of RL Stine when I was a kid. I was big into the Goosebumps series. I don't even remember how I learned about this book. But, when I heard about it, I was determined to get my paws on it. It was a fantastic book!

Granted, it's an ADULT novel in contrast to a mostly juvenile genre that Stine is known for. But, this is an amazing story and the ending was just like " Whoa! THAT was unexpected!"

I actually learned about superstitions I hadn't heard about before. I spent 3 months researching them after this book. Definetly a great read.