Wildwood Road (Paperback)

by Christopher Golden (Author) "The night of the masquerade was a kind of mad, risque waltz, the voices louder and the laughter giddier than anyone would have expected..." (more)
Key Phrases: hollow women, twisted women, little lost girl, Susan Barnes, Old Route, Wildwood Road (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Anxieties over marriage, home and work amplify the eeriness of Golden's engrossing suburban horror novel. Michael and Jillian Dansky are heading home from a Halloween party when they give a young girl on the road a lift to a strange old mansion. She leaves them with the injunction to "come find me," and suddenly their lives are no longer the same. Michael, art director at an advertising firm, begins to incorporate the girl's features into his illustrations. When he tries to locate the house and its road, he can't. Then a coven of grotesque, wraithlike women attack him and Jillian, who's transformed into a brittle and bitchy harridan. Michael realizes his survival depends on retracing his steps on that fateful night and finding the elusive girl. Golden (The Boys Are Back in Town, etc.) knows how to craft suspense, but the bizarre incidents create expectations that the climax only partly satisfies, and the horror, once explained, has a preachy, politically correct edge. Still, this above-average stab at Stephen King–style horror draws the reader irresistibly into its mystery. (Apr. 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
After attending a Halloween masquerade, tipsy, tired Michael and Jillian Dansky head for home, Jillian sleeping in the back seat and Michael driving and struggling to concentrate. Along the way, Michael nearly hits a young girl. He stops to check on her and get her home. When he follows her into her house, he feels something is desperately wrong. He flees the house and awakens the next morning in his car, puzzled as to what exactly happened the night before. Inexplicably, he starts to see the little girl everywhere, repeating a request to him: "Come find me." Michael tries to find the little girl's house again, at first to no avail. Someone doesn't want him to find it: coming upstairs one night, he finds a circle of ghostly women surrounding his wife, stealing her essence, and leaving behind an angry, bitter woman. This forces Michael to find the girl and to fight for his wife's soul. Golden, author of The Boys Are Back in Town [BKL F 15 04], delivers another spooky thriller. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055338208X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553382082
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #871,126 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a pleasant surprise!, May 4, 2005

By	Ms. Liz (Ashland, KY) - See all my reviews

Saw this in a bin of new books at the library and decided to try it. I understand Golden has written several novels of horror and also some for young adults. I was skeptical and had to be sold but it was worth it.

I thought at first this was a simple ghost story but it was deeper than that. Michael and Jillian are a happy couple at a Halloween masquerade ball. On the way home occur events which will transform their lives. This is not the usual 'evil' but instead a more insidious horror, where the real terror springs from the cabal of ancient women who must feed on the innocence of the young, sucking it out of the living and leaving them horrible, vicious, psychopaths, devoid of all happiness and joy. Golden excells at his descriptions of the young couple, alternating stories from the present with those from their past - how they met, first date, fall in love, become engaged and get married. These really focus on their undying love and are very believable and beautifully drawn. When events conspire to destroy them, it is all the more sad and touching, as you want to help them get back what they have lost and escape the horror that has them captive. Each person's actions is appropriate. Each is extremely well-drawn. I cared about them both. Their world is normal and average until that terrible night. Golden creates a haunting atmosphere. The climax is fast-paced and gripping. He captures the awful sadness of the supernatural in a way few authors have managed. (Koontz' creature in 'Wathcers' comes to mind) An intelligent, compelling story in the classic horror tradition (emotional vampires, if you will). I truly enjoyed this and look forward to reading more by Golden. Outstanding read!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story, but with some shortcomings, May 18, 2005

By	Craig (Ohio) - See all my reviews

Golden has taken an old tradition - the haunting of a man by a ghost - and given it a bit of a spin in his latest oferring.

Michael Dansky seems to have a close-to-perfect life - great job, good friends, a beautiful and intelligent wife. However, it all falls apart once he becomes haunted, and it's up to him to put things back together. What made this stand out a little is that Michael's haunting also endangers his wife, upping the ante for him to correct things.

The story is hurt by a couple of problems. First, the characters of Michael and Jillian seem a little too perfect. He smiles whenever he looks at her, they apparently never have arguments, their sex life is perfect, their friends and coworkers all love and admire them - maybe these couples really exist, but they don't make for sympathetic characters. Secondly, there is a great deal of action in the novel, often at the expense of character development or the use of Golden's writing skills. It's like the author was told to package everything under a certain number of pages, and the writing suffers.

Golden has written a lot of teen novels, and this often feels like one. The story and plotting are excellent, but there's little use of literary devices or sections that depend more on literary skill than on action taking place. It's still a good book, but not on the level of his previous effort (The Boys are Back in Town).

A fast read, but don't go into it with high expectations.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Golden's done it again!, April 29, 2005

By	Kelly (...right behind you...) - See all my reviews

Taking you on a terrifying journey, the plot will sweep you off your feet. The story is original, intense, and erratic. The minute you think you have it all figured out, Golden throws a curve ball you never saw coming, but you're damn happy to see where it takes you. Also, even though the tale is very detailed, it's never weighed down with inconsequential page-filler descriptions. In other words, it is simply divine.

The characters are true-to-life personalities filled with doubts, love, and fear, and maintained in honesty. There are no road signs to help them out of their nightmares, they have to rely on their own instincts and intelligence. And that is what makes them stand-out, because you don't have to question what you would do, it's already being played out. Golden's style of writing is, dare I say it, mischievous. He has this ability to convey both repulsiveness and beauty, light and shadow; alternating between pleasure and pain. He is constantly shifting in narration; one minute he is the observer and the next conspirator. But above all that, he is the storyteller.

Burrowing under your skin, the pace is veiled, but constantly active. At first the suspense begins as a minor itch, hardly noticeable. As you go on, the itching becomes more erratic, more painful. By the time you've come to the climax of the story, you'll be half mad. But don't be fooled, working hand-in-hand with the pace, the atmosphere is the true danger. Oppressive and hostile, the ambience throughout the book will infect you like a virus. The characters' emotions seem to leak into the air, contaminating it with their fear, hate, and anguish. And I promise, it will get to you.