The Home (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Freeman Mills, a 12-year-old boy with the power to read minds and an endearing affinity for Clint Eastwood movies, arrives at the former mental institution known as Wendover Home in the Southern Appalachian mountains, he vows to tolerate the facility's psychological treatments and religious rhetoric, but refuses to make friends or reveal his ESP. He soon finds out, however, that no one keeps secrets within the aging walls of Wendover—despite the best efforts of its administrators, doctors and counselors, many of whom are involved in conducting risky shock-therapy experiments on the children. When the research goes awry, Wendover and its inhabitants get caught between the real world and the "deadscape"—a parallel universe in which long-buried ghosts from the mental institution haunt the living. Nicholson (The Red Church) offers plenty of faith-challenging questions as the tale moves briskly to its unexpected conclusion, yet not without losing some credibility. Freeman and other young characters are given dialogue and thoughts well beyond their years, while the deadscape is at times more confusing than scary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"A compelling story with enough nerve-numbing moments to keep any horror fan happy." -- The Horror Channel

"Offers plenty of faith-challenging questions as the tale moves briskly to its unexpected conclusion." -- Publisher's Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786017112
• ISBN-13: 978-0786017119
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #857,671 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fear this author!, August 22, 2005

By	Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Freeman Mills is diagnosed with rapid-cycle manic depression (bipolar) with suicidal tendencies, kleptomania, antisocial behavior, cyclothymia, and mid schizophrenia. As long as Freeman can remember, his dad had used him as a guinea pig for experiments. Dr. Kenneth Mills (a.k.a. "Dad") was once an esteemed clinical psychologist. Then Freeman's mom was killed and Dad was locked in an insane institution. However, the damages to Freeman were already done and ran deep. But that was years ago. That is all in the past. Now Freeman is twelve-years-old and has just been transferred to yet another group home.

Wendover Home is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. The Wendover Home, itself, has a long and dark history. During the Second World War it had been a state mental hospital where inhumane experiments were conducted on mentally unstable patients. Many people died within cells located in the Home's basement. Though the Home is now used as a group home for children, the basement cells remain. Some items have also been added within the basement. There are glowing generators, metal cylinders, Liquid Nitrogen, advanced superconductors, and so much more. All of it is hooked directly to Room Thirteen above.

Dr. Richard Kracowski treats the children in Wendover Home. Room Thirteen is where Dr. Kracowski gets to play God. The doctor calls the electroshock treatments "Synaptic Synergy Therapy". He kills his patients to help their brains align harmonically. When the children come back to life they find themselves altered. For a temporary time the kids have telepathy, clairvoyance, and/or precognition abilities. After each treatment, the abilities last longer.

Freeman finds an unlikely ally in another child named Vicky Barnwell. Other than Freeman, Vicky's powers are the greatest. As the two warily learn about each other, they begin noticing new oddities around Wendover. The experiments in Room Thirteen have awaken those in the basement from their eternal rests. Being covered up long ago and forgotten are returning.

***** Author Scott Nicholson has become my favorite writer of the Horror genre. No one else can quite resurrect horrors that will haunt your dreams for years to come. Scott Nicholson is simply unforgettable. Don't believe me? Pick up a copy of this novel. I dare you! You'll never think of your basement again without wondering if anything in its past may come back to play with you. Highly recommended! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange goings on at the Wendover home, October 7, 2005

By	Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Life has not been easy for young Freeman Mills. As a child, the twelve year old was tortured by his now absent father, ostensibly in the name of science. Although not charged with any crime by the authorities, the youth believes he is responsible for his mother's death. Finally, the boy's been shunted from one childcare facility to another, finding each successive home more miserable than its predecessor.

As the novel begins, Freeman has been transferred to Wendover Home, a facility run by obsessive born again Christian Francis Bondurant and deranged physician Dr. Krackowski. Krackowski treats the residents of the home as his personal stable of guinea pigs in the misguided experiments he conducts in the ominously numbered Room 13. These experiments, which result in the temporary clinical death of his subjects, have two side effects. One is that the test subjects develop psychic powers. The other, far more dangerous side effect is that the machinery used to conduct the experiments seems to be stirring up the spirits of the tortured and angry souls who have died within the confines of Wendover over the decades. A gifted psychic before being subjected to Krackowski's demented experiments, Freeman quickly realizes that things are coming to a head in Wendover; he seeks to escape before he joins the legion of the damned trapped inside the home.

Nicholson has come a long way since his first novel, The Red Church, shedding many of the annoying habits and quirks which marred that book. A focused, tightly written work, The Home successfully combines tropes of science fiction and horror to produce an effective work of suspense. Although the villains of the piece sometimes go a little over the top, and Nicholson takes his sweet time letting the tension build, none of this interferes too badly with the novel's overall forward momentum--in the end, The Home proves itself a quick, satisfying, scary read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent well-written thriller!, August 27, 2006

By	Lynne Logan "Lynne Logan" (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

THE HOME is one of the first books I've read in awhile that I could not put down, and one of the first since reading The Exorcist in the 70s that I physically got chills while reading a book! The characters are interesting and very vivid, and the evolution of Freeman Mills from the selfish know-it-all with a chip on his shoulder the size of basketball to a kind-hearted kid trying to save the world was a well-written and emotional transition. Nicholson does a great job in eliciting empathy from the reader toward Freeman, the 12-year-old psychic who was tortured by his father and his past and his friend, Vicky, the poor misfit who only wanted her parents to love her, and the analogies Nicholson uses to describe both are unique, thought-provoking and poignant. THE HOME is one of those books that really makes you think about not only the thin veil between life and death but the way life is seen through a child's eyes.

Nicholson, in my mind, is one of the best new writers to emerge in the last decade, and I look forward to finishing THE FARM, his newest book, and encourage all who love a good ghost story to buy THE HOME. It's well worth the investment!

Lynne Logan
Author of The Crime Chronicles of Decker Zane