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Loading... In the Dark of the Night: A Novelby John Saul
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. 1   LoriHedgpeth | Sep 14, 2009 |  I found the idea behind this book to be very interesting. Unfortunately you don't get to know that idea until at least 100 pages into the book. It's very slow going. After you finally do get into the story though, it does have a way of capturing you. It can quickly become a page-turner throughout most of the middle. The plot is very creepy, and some of the things that happen to these 3 kids are quite horrifying. You do keep getting pestered in the middle of it with an annoying subplot between the 3 main characters and another group of kids. You know how it is, pretty typical of any book based around teenagers. I found it to be more annoying than anything else. Then you get to the end, and you run into another problem. There are just so many holes left unfilled. I had so many questions at the end that I felt very dissatisfied. I felt like there should have been more, there should have been another 50 pages to go, but nope. It just ends. The fact that I was eager for more book speaks well the middle of the story, but with the slow start and the abrupt ending, overall it was just a bit of a disappointment. At some times an enjoyable disappointment, but disappointing nonetheless. I think this could have been a tremendous book, but unfortunately it appears Saul was too hasty in completing it. (  ) Ape | Jan 16, 2009 | John Saul's novels are mostly centred around children, and are frequently middle of the road horrors, with some good scenes of tension and a decent mystery to see readers through until the end. 'In the Dark' is no different in that aspect, a winning formula is not to be sniffed at. The scenario here centres around a supernatural force which seeks to influence the children that move in to a set of holiday homes. The plot is well thought out, with some well presented characters, and the requisite amount of spookiness. The book is however let down by a certain lack of closure. There are far too many questions left unanswered - or plot holes left unfilled (depending on your view). Overall though, another easy to read Saul horror, which will keep you interested until the inevitable conclusion. ( ) SonicQuack | Jan 12, 2009 | I like JS because of his great characterization, his continuity of story, but most of all because he doesn't follow the "Hollywood" plot. In his books, there is not always a happy ending, and sometimes you, the reader, may not KNOW exactly what has been going on. This is such an example, where a typical American family, complete with the Little Miss Sunshine 5-year-old girl and nervous Nellie mother, a shade shy of paranoic, rent a big old monster of a house at a lakeside resort with their best friends. The wives of the trio are good friends, the husbands, also, and the teenage boys are the center of the action. They go where few men have gone before and some two score murders result. As in most of JS's novels, something (at least one thing) is left unresolved. Here it is the question of who bricked up the back room again? or better yet, Did all the activity in the back room after they unbricked it actually happen? How much is real evil; how much is a man's insanity? And will the price of gold go up or down in a deep depression? (  )1 andyray | Nov 30, 2008 | Great author. I have always enjoyed his writing since I first read Shadows. This book was a true page turner. It had everything. Shocking was the ending and how well the characters played their roles. ( ) l3wilso | Nov 11, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 034548701X, Hardcover)Summer vacation becomes a season in hell for an ordinary family who unwittingly stir something invisible, insidious, and insatiable from its secret slumber–unleashing a wave of horror only the darkest evil could create, that only a master of spine-tingling terror like John Saul could orchestrate. For deep in the shadows in the dark of the night lurks something as big as life . . . and as real as death.It has waited seven years for someone to come back to the rambling lakeside house called Pinecrest, which has stood empty since its last owner went missing. For upscale Chicago couple Dan and Merrill Brewster, the old midwestern manse is an ideal retreat, and for their kids, Eric and Marci, it’s the perfect place to spend a lazy summer exploring. Which is how Eric and his teenage friends discover the curious cache of discarded objects stowed in a hidden room of Pinecrest’s carriage house. The bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tables with missing legs, headless axe handle, and other unremarkable items add up to a pile of junk. Yet someone took the trouble to inventory each worthless relic in a cryptic ledger. It has all the makings of a great mystery–whispering, coaxing, demanding to be solved. But the more the boys devote themselves to restoring the forgotten possessions and piecing together the puzzle behind them, the more their fascination deepens into obsession. Soon their days are consumed with tending the strange, secret collection–while their nights become plagued by ever more ghastly dreams, nightmares that soon seep into reality. And when a horrifying discovery surfaces, so does the chilling truth–about the terrifying events that rocked the town seven years before, the mysterious disappearance of Pinecrest’s last resident, and a twisted legacy with a malevolent life of its own . . . and a bottomless hunger for new victims. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
Saul in the past has proven that he can scribe some seriously creepy books, but this one just fails to deliver. The problems? The only noteworthy adults in the book are either psychotically disturbed, bland and underdeveloped or worrying to the point of neurosis. There is absolutely nothing to identify with.
The teens and children of the book are much more developed, and maybe the book would have been better directed at the young adult market (with revisions to the gorier parts of the book). They are more so the heroes/heroines of the book than the adults, who are clearly supportive characters.
Another failure with the book is the lack of explanation for exactly what Dr. Darby was doing, with his research, and what happened to him. The lack of explanation left a gaping hole in the story. Another negative point for me was the predictability of the story. Absolutely nothing happened that I didn't expect or see coming, which was a disappointment.
As far as the good goes, the book was a quick and easy read (it took me about 3 days from start to finish) and the chapters were relatively short.
The overall storyline idea was an interesting (and chilling) concept (which ranks the 3 stars), but Saul didn't develop the idea to its fullest extent. As such, the book just wasn't up to his usual standards and I would wait to get this one at the library if you're a fan. (