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Suffer the Children (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Port Arbello perched snugly on the bluffs above the ocean, its trees flourishing the last of their fall finery with a bravado that belied the..." (more)
Key Phrases: Ray Norton, Port Arbello, Jimmy Tyler (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
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  Library Binding, September 30, 1999 -- -- $9.85
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Suffer the Children + Cry for the Strangers + Comes the Blind Fury
Price For All Three: $23.97

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  • This item: Suffer the Children by John Saul

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

One hundred years ago in Port Arbello a pretty little girl began to scream. And struggle. And die. No one heard. No one saw. Just one man whose guilty heart burst in pain as he dashed himself to death in the sea. Now something peculiar is happening in Port Arbello. The children are disappearing, one by one. An evil history is repeating itself. And one strange, terrified child has ended her silence with a scream that began a hundred years ago.


From the Publisher

One hundred years ago in Port Arbello a pretty little girl began to scream. And struggle. And die. No one heard. No one saw. Just one man whose guilty heart burst in pain as he dashed himself to death in the sea. Now something peculiar is happening in Port Arbello. The children are disappearing, one by one. An evil history is repeating itself. And one strange, terrified child has ended her silence with a scream that began a hundred years ago.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Dell; 1st THUS edition (July 1, 1989)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 044018293X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0440182931
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #297,582 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #23 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Saul, John

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John Saul
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Port Arbello perched snugly on the bluffs above the ocean, its trees flourishing the last of their fall finery with a bravado that belied the nakedness soon to come. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ray Norton, Port Arbello, Jimmy Tyler, Kathy Burton, Jack Conger, Ocean Crest, Anne Forager, White Oaks, Barbara Stevens, Conger's Point Road, Rose Conger, Marilyn Burton, Martin Forager, Marty Forager, Sylvia Bannister, Jeff Stevens, Charles Belter, Marie Montgomery, Elizabeth Conger, Sarah Conger, George Diller, Carl Stevens, Larry Felding, Miz Rose, Norma Norton
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This book cites 6 books:
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Suffer the Children
64% buy the item featured on this page:
Suffer the Children 3.9 out of 5 stars (39)
$7.99
The Unloved
10% buy
The Unloved 4.4 out of 5 stars (19)
$7.99
Second Child
9% buy
Second Child 4.4 out of 5 stars (38)
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John Saul: Three Terrifying Bestselling Novels: Suffer the Children; Punish the Sinners; Cry for the Strangers
9% buy
John Saul: Three Terrifying Bestselling Novels: Suffer the Children; Punish the Sinners; Cry for the Strangers 5.0 out of 5 stars (6)
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Customer Reviews

39 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling, truly disturbing horror classic, September 21, 2002
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
While John Saul is not held in the highest of regard by many horror fans, he is the man who first introduced me to the genre. Some of his later novels did indeed become pretty repetitive, but his first novel, Suffer the Children, is a dead-on, unflinching classic. This was the first truly scary book I ever read; I was probably around twelve at the time, and I remember staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish it and then finding it almost impossible to get to sleep. Reading it again now, it still possesses much of the power it possessed years ago. It is a tale of a family curse, murder, schizophrenia, general unhappiness, and gruesome, frightening events. Long ago, the scion of the Conger family killed his daughter, supposedly bringing a curse down upon the succeeding generations of his family. Now, Jack Conger fears the curse is real. In a drunken rage, he physically assaults his youngest little girl Sarah. While he struggles to remember what exactly happened that day and grows increasingly estranged from his long-suffering wife, his daughter exists in a quasi-comatose state, living in her own silent fantasy world. The Congers look at their first daughter as a true blessing through all of their pain--Elizabeth is mature beyond her years and takes care of her little sister with great love and kindness. When several local children begin to disappear, though, the Congers' delicately balanced world finally turns completely upside down.

This is a pretty scary novel, largely because the horror centers around the two young sisters Elizabeth and Sarah. The description of the gloomy woods around the home and the truly dangerous embankment nearby help produce a great dark atmosphere, but Saul's description of a series of horrible events is especially unsettling. The story gets pretty gruesome at one point, and I think some horror writers would not be bold enough to go as far as Saul did. Saul committed himself fully to this novel and dared to describe everything in great detail; combine that with his incredibly effective characterization of the two sisters and you get a true horror classic in every sense of the word. Saul hooks you securely in his clutches and drags you down with him into the pits of depravity. The ending did not provide me with a complete feeling of closure, but I certainly have no quarrel with it; in fact, the evil Saul so vividly describes almost defies comprehension and thus necessitates the type of ending Saul chose to give us. I would highly recommend this novel to any horror fan--Saul creates a psychological atmosphere of real terror that essentially oozes out of the pores of each page.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not One Of His Best, January 24, 2000
By "freedom37" (Bird Rock, Basseterre Saint Kitts and Nevis) - See all my reviews
I read the review before I bought this book and I thought I would enjoy it but I didn't.

Saul tackles the controversial subject of child molestation in this one then branches off into a macabre story about a possessed/reincarnated? young girl that does horrible things to to other children.

I was very confused by this book but I gave it the benefit of the doubt right up until the very disappointing end. My final word on this is, the book has plot holes so wide you could hide mack trucks in them.

I couldn't identify with the characters either and I think that's an important element of any story.

Saul I think you ran out of steam one quarter of the way into the book and rushed it off to meet your deadline. Don't do it again!

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars SUFFERING ABOUNDS, October 29, 2001
By BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Jack and Rose Conger feel they have found the ideal town to raise their two daughters, Sarah, 11 and Elizabeth, 13. At the opening of the story, Sarah has been mute for over a year and enrolled in a special program. Elizabeth appears to be an unremarkable preteen until...her parents find a portrait of a girl in their attic who bears a strong resemblance to Elizabeth!

From the time that picture is displayed, Elizabeth undergoes a change of personality. She lures a few local children into a cave where they are left to starve. She rarely entered the cave and when she did, she flogged the children and gave them a dead cat to play with.

Matters reach a head when her sister is found dragging the arm of a child who had died. Sarah is subsequently institutionalized. She remained in an institution for 15 years. When she and Elizabeth are reunited 15 years later, the mere mention of "Beth" sends Sarah back into mute fear.

Who WAS Beth? And who was the child in the portrait? What became of the children who were lured into the cave? And what of Elizabeth, their instrument of doom?
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing....
This is my second foray into the works of John Saul, and I'm kinda glad to have stuck with it. This is his first novel and it's easy to see why people became fans. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Theda Ghent

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing, dark and deadly ...
John Saul is a master of horror story telling. His stories cause shivers up and down your spine, butterflies in the stomach, and the uncontrollable urge to keep reading. Read more
Published 15 months ago by K. Sozaeva

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Thriller
This was my first book read by Johh Saul referred to me by my boss who read it nearly thirty years ago and she said it stuck in her mind bc she has a younger brother and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by L. Novicki

4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy First Book From Saul.

The main thing I think a lot of people forget when reading John Saul or Dean Koontz is, that any writer in this genre-whether they realize it or not-is going up against,... Read more
Published 22 months ago by SpacegrassMan

1.0 out of 5 stars Horror, Terribly Depressing
This book was awful! The writing was very well done, but the plot was terrible. I really hated this book and it's the last one I read by John Saul. This one really did me in. Read more
Published on October 8, 2007 by Karen Zemek

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely on the distubing side...
In Suffer The Children, a couple seems to be living the ideal life with their two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah. Read more
Published on January 19, 2007 by CaerRose

5.0 out of 5 stars This was one sick book!
Awesome book! Creepy, dark and sick. This guy is one writer to watch for. If you enjoy his most recent novels, do yourself a favor and pick up some of his older ones such as this... Read more
Published on April 18, 2006 by Dennis. S

1.0 out of 5 stars Cruelty for cruelty's sake
Little phases me, yet "Suffer the Children" is so reprehensible that, even at 13 years old, I had already cultivated a set of standards that demanded I wing this trash across the... Read more
Published on October 1, 2005 by Steven Garland

4.0 out of 5 stars Great first novel!
Wow, I just finished this book and man was it great! One thing you might ask yourself is how one child could be accused of something that could have been someone else? Read more
Published on September 27, 2005 by Tobias

5.0 out of 5 stars First and Best
Saul hits a homerun with his first novel. While he has covered this ground many times in his latter novels, I think this was his very best. Read more
Published on September 15, 2005 by Ron

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