Customer Reviews

The Uncanny

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'd like to preface this by saying that this is the first of anything that I've read by Andrew Klavan; thus, I'm not burdened by Klavan's other novels. Hey, "True Crime" may be a masterpiece, and "Animal Hour" could be fantastic, I don't know. I did read this novel, "The Uncanny", however, and I was very pleased with it.

I profess a weakness (like Storm in the novel) for English ghost stories, so perhaps the novel spoke to me more so than my fellow reviewers here. Overall, I found the book to be well-written and very interesting. It wasn't scary, as some of the others have pointed out, but I don't think Klavan was trying to upstage King here. What he's written is an interesting and entertaining thriller, filled with some clever supernatural / occult additives, and the result is entirely pleasing.

Recommended.

Andrew Klavan is a talented writer who has given us two really exceptional books: "True Crime" and "The Animal Hour." In those books, Klavan created characters and situations that were complex, puzzling, interesting, and original. With "The Uncanny," Klavan attempts to revamp the traditional ghost story by setting it in modern times and giving us "hip" characters like Richard Storm and Sophia Eberling. Somehow, for me, it just didn't work. The setting at the "Bizarre" magazine was novel, but not all that interesting. The ghost story itself was lame and poorly conceived. Although the book has flashes of brilliance, they are far too few, and overall, you're left with a rather unsatisfying ghost story. Read Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" for better chills!

Michael Butts

I've read the other reviews here. If a book is called " The Uncanny" I guarantee it's of the horror genre. Why everyone expected a "True Crime-ish" novel is beyond me.

Richard Storm, a horror movie producer,leaves Hollywood on a quest to London to see if any of the old ghost stories bare any truth. Is there really life after death? When Richard falls in love with Sophia Endering,an art dealer, he finds more then he was looking for. It's a rollercoaster ride through nazi art theft, ghost stories and "The Devil himself". To much said will give away the surprising twists in the story.

This was a great horror novel!

I picked this book up on a whim while looking for a book by another author who, by the laws of alphabetical order was right next to The Uncanny. The title seemed interesting as did the cover.

NEver judge a book by its cover, isn't that what they say?

Whoever the mysterious 'they' are who uttered that phrase, they're completely correct.

I don't always write reviews, more often than not I do, but I felt compelled to say just how bad this book was.

It DID have potential. A mystery wrapped around famous old paintings and ghost stories, secret societies performing black masses, people killed in horrible ways, an american in England...totally the fish out of water. But as time goes on it just spirals more and more out of control.

I don't want to give away too much, but this almost seems like a tongue in cheek homage to bad and very cliched horror movies. Even the protagonist goes so far as to say that the situations he's finding himself in are so cliched, even movie studios wouldn't commit them to film.

I don't mind suspending disbeleif, but with some very annoying characters, a villain who summons a mental image of a bad guy in a black hat, twirling his moustache in an evil way while standing over a damsel in distress and some very campy dialogue..well, you get the picture...

actually, the best parts of the book are the old ghost stories that they find on the course of their investigation...those were actually pretty good little reads...

the rest of the book however? Disappointing...

Impossible to take seriously as a ghost/horror story, Klavan must be poking fun at the genre with this one. The characters are stereotypes, the love story sappy and the underlying premise way over the top. I was reminded of that episode of The X-Flies (the last of one their seasons) where it made great fun of itself.

It's written well enough to be readable and might have been enjoyable if it hadn't dragged on for so long.

This book clearly shows that to write a good horror story is a lot more difficult than it seems to be. The author has admittedly piled up cliché after cliché of horror lore, with no other result than a messy heap of clichés. The characters are a real problem: it is very difficult to like them or care about them. They lack depth and everything about them sounds phony. This is one of these books in which the characters are described as something and proved to be something else by facts: Storm is supposed to be a big-shot Hollywood producer, but his films (from what we see of them and as the author himself admits) are sub-Roger Corman. Iago is insistently described as "seductive," but any Batman villain is in fact far subtler and more interesting. The "tick-tick" thing is far more irritating than scary. I found it very difficult to finish this book, because by page 50 I no longer cared. I bought it because I read True Crime and found it excellent entertaiment, but this one has been a major disappointment.

Upon reading Andrew Klavan's True Crime, I figured that anything following would be of equal caliber. Unfortunately, the author missed the mark with this novel. The characters are interesting but just barely, the plot lacks a certain thrill and the ending left me with some unanswered questions, which may have been Mr. Klavan's intentions. I would not classify this novel as a horror/ghost story, maybe not even a thriller or mystery, as most reviewers have. Instead I think this book needs to be placed under the "Possible TV Movie of the Week" section.

I'll cut to the chase - I was looking for a cheap supernatural thriller. What I got was more intricately plotted yet yielded fewer thrills. I was disappointed.

I've never read anything by Klavan and The Uncanny doesn't exactly inspire confidence. The premise is uninspired - American movie producer who's got some health problems (to say the least) ends up hunting down the answers to an old ghost story in England. It also becomes - of course - a somewhat sappy boy-meets-girl story.

I think what truly bothered me most about the novel was the portrayal of the main character. He lived up to every stereotype of the typical American movie producer. Worse, he adopted these qualities only after the first quarter of the book had passed. As an American (and I acknowledge that many of these traits can be somewhat accurate, but are rarely seen in one single individual) I was put off by the portrayal. The whole John Wayne, movie producer, father-was-a-movie-star-cowboy, protect-the-women, suffer-in-silence hero thing was just a little too over-the-top. And while this character is overdeveloped, the others are quite poorly developed.

I don't think Klavan did himself or his readers any favors by making this more of a "literary thriller". It was just slower and more weighed down.

It's been a long time since I delved into a novel where all my senses are satisfied. I felt like I was there in England, witnessing all the drama, the horror and the endless discoveries.

I never realized I had a fetish for a good ol' fashion creepy on the moors, ruined abbey, moon illuminating story, but after reading THE UNCANNY I can't wait for the next installment! Andy, are you listening? Can we get a sequel. I know you can pull it off!

This is my first Klavan book. I went out and bought two previous releases I enjoyed this book so much.

This was the first thing by Klavan I've read, and I liked it a lot. It's a skilfully plotted and written supernatural thriller. I was especially impressed by the description of being buried alive. I did think one of the main characters was perhaps too consciously a Character, but the book held my interest, even when I had to keep interrupting my reading to take care of other things.

I was sorry it ended!