Customer Reviews

Unspeakable

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

 

 

I'm a major horror reader (40+ years). This is a grim, dark book, and unlike some of Masterton's (better) work, not supernatural horror.
But I noticed something that makes me question whether anyone actually reads a book pre-publication. And since none of the Amazon reviewers mention it, I have to wonder how closely anyone reads.
The protagonist of this book is deaf. On page 156 she says she is "totally deaf."
I was looking for this type of clarification because on page 72, as she enters her apartment, "...she heard laughter from inside...and the television playing." At first when I read this, I thought she had miraculously regained her hearing, and that that would be a major twist in the story. No. Evidently no one closely reads a book pre-publication. Prolific writers like Masterton must create an outline, and then automatically fill it in.

Does anyone want to take the position that carelessness like this doesn't matter? I think it does. It's distracting to those (apparently few) of us who do more than skim. I think it's a valid measure of quality. Automatic spell-checkers have greatly reduced the incidence of misspellings that used to catch my eye. This type of error is at least as bad.

I've read a lot of Graham Masterton in the past and was excited about "Unspeakable". This book had a great premise and a villain that surprised me (and I've read LOTS of mystery/suspense novels). Then came the ending. I'm actually throwing this book away, my conscience won't let me inflict the terrible ending on anyone else. Don't waste your money.

Did I read the same book as most everyone else? I love Graham Masterton. He has written some very entertaining, original stories that run the gamut from tongue in cheek to genuinely creepy. I don't know what to make of Unspeakable. Through the first half of the book I kept looking back at the cover to make sure he really wrote it, because it just didn't have the feel and flavor of his others. Three quarters of the way through I was feeling like "Ok he wrote it, perhaps under contract with time running out and a big bill he needs to pay". Around this time Holly's daughter thankfully got kidnapped (since it was mentioned on the back over, I got 75% of the way through the book knowing what was supposed to happen (and since nothing much else of note was going on, I was figuring this must pretty much be a "big thing"). The plot was comprised of several elements that seemed to get "tossed out there" but never fully fleshed out. The characters seemed implausible to me. Either that , or assuming they were presented from Holly's perspective, she's a REALLY BAD judge of character...especially for a welfare worker. The ending was a surprise. Unfortunately it felt like "let me give you something shocking and "over the top" to make you forget how horribly mundane and mediocre the rest of the book was. If you want vintage Masterton, read "Prey", "The House that Jack Built", "spirit", or the Night Warrior series.

I actually liked this book, but for Graham i thought it was a little weak. its a good book to buy and read it just was more on a suspense then a horror novel which is what i was expecting but if you want suspence this is deffinetly the way to go.

I was lent this book by someone who was mostly impressed by the author's ability to write like a local (almost) about Portland. We have similar taste in books, but he gave me very little in the way of story to go on and now I know why. The protrayal of Holly's work is quite in-depth and shows the horror and depravity present in the lives of some (too many)children. This was the only part of the book I found to be worthy of the term "horror". The evils that some people inflict on each other and especially on their children truly are horrific and unspeakable.

However, when it came to the half-formed "curse" story-line, the weak characters who do huge personality shifts for no apparent reason, and the inane ending, I was bemused at best. I kept thinking, "There has to be more to this story." I rarely dislike a book and never quit reading one in the middle althoguh I almost put this one down. It never quite caught my attention and I read to the end only in an effort to find the story.

Seemingly important threads of the story were dropped cold, and parts rendered unimportant by the flow of the story came back to have devastating effects. The shock value argument I have seen in some of the high rating reviews doesn't even serve to help.

I might try another Masterson book as he is supposed to be very good, but not for a while.

I am an avid Graham Masterton fan and I have read few authors that can invoke horror the way he does. Unspeakable is a hard book to describe without giving away important information that would ruin the reading experience. The book is not the usual supernatural, booga-booga horror that Masterton usually pens. This story rings somewhat true to life, which in a way, makes it even more horrific.

Holly is a single mother who is deaf. She works for the child welfare system investigating alleged abuse. The cases she is investigating are horrific enough, but she has a curse placed on her by an american indian who she has arrested for beating his wife and son almost to death. Her life starts to fall apart almost immediately after the curse is muttered, and some pretty bizarre things start to happen. The ending is so completely twisted, you will find yourself sitting dazed, with your mouth hanging open. That is how it left me.

Aside from the error others have written about, where Holly hears her daughter and Mickey laughing, when Holly is supposed to be deaf, this is a great book. It may not be perfect, but it packs a wallop in a short number of pages. Masterton still reigns as one of horrors greatest authors. This is a book worth reading.

Being deaf and able to lip read that fast is amazing. I enjoyed this book, not only because it was made in my home town of Portland, Oregon, but that it was full of great surprises and a shocking ending. Without any of that, it would be a lame book. Some people have issues with the ending of the book, but instead of predictable endings which can be boring, it is good to spice it up with a little of the impossible.

Graham Masterton is the Master of horror. If you did not like this book, try his other books: Devil in Grey, The Rook series (ROOK, Terror, Snowman, Swimmer and the others) to name a few. He mixes horror with humor and it really makes for a great book. I have tried many other horror writers but they do not have the meat and juice that his books do. Try his other books and i guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

This is the second Masterton book i've read as i thought i would take a break from Koontz and try something different. This book is good in my opinion , even though the ending was somewhat shocking. At first i had to read the last page of this book twice , to be sure i read it correctly. As others have noted the ending is disappointing , but after i had time to think about it , the ending is quiet realistic.

I think the author wanted to portray the message of ; everything doesn't always turn out as we expect. People are used to reading a sunshiney ending. I think this book is real and sadly some of things in this book do actually happen, whether we want to face the fact or not.
I've read many of the reviews for this book and it seems to me if you don't like a sad read I wouldn't suggest a horror subcategory. After all books are for our amusement and there are plenty to choose from.

After reading Trauma and loving it, I decided to read Unspeakable. Both books have strong lead female characters. In Trauma, Bonnie Winter works as a "cleaner" mopping up after homicide crime scenes and in Unspeakable, Holly Summers is deaf and works for the police as a lip-reader and also for Child Welfare in Portland, Oregon. The child abuse cases are appalling. As with both books, there is an undercurrent of dread waiting to consume the main characters.

I agree with some of the readers that I was not expecting the shocker ending that threw me for a loop as I stayed up late into the early morning finishing the book and in the last sentence was literally SUCKER PUNCHED AND LEFT STUNNED!

Graham Masterton is a masterful storyteller, creating unique and interesting characters.

I would have liked to have been able to write a good review for this, and give it more than two stars, as until now every Masterton book I've read has been 3-5 stars for me. It was as suspenseful as I've come to expect from Masterton's work, and on top of that it skillfully worked into the story the heart-wrenching subject of child abuse in its many ugly guises. Having just finished the book minutes ago, however, I find that the story is not foremost in my mind. Instead, two things stand out. One is that it's a story about a deaf protagonist, and twice he described what she heard, once the laughter of her daughter and a friend in a room she had not yet entered, and again later in the story when she's lying awake in bed - "She heard a ship hooting mournfully on the river, and then another, as if they were whales mating." Maybe that's nit-picking, but when he'd gone to such lengths to communicate her soundless experience of life throughout the story, those two instances totally took me out of the story to exclaim to myself "oh come on, she's DEAF!" I blame his editor as much as Masterton for these gaffs.

*SPOILER ALERT*
The other thing that sticks in my mind is that the final shocker page was entirely gratuitous and just ruined it for me.

I pretty much regret having given this book my reading time, and that has never before been the case with any of his novels for me.