Very spooky ( )

For those who are fans of horror fiction, I'll preface my review by saying that I am not a fan of the genre, but this was offered as a Kindle freebie in early October, just in time to be a perfect Halloween read. Fans may rank higher than I have.

I will say that I think much of the writing is excellent, especially for a debut novel and especially in the first half. It also has an eerie timeliness in the story of a small town that has lost a major employer, one that was far from perfect in caring for the health and safety of its employees or for the local environment, but still provided a living for generations of the town's citizens. Now the citizens of the town, Bedford, Maine, feel haunted. The difference in the novel's Bedford and real-life towns that become ghost towns when they lose their employer, is that Bedford's citizens blame all of their woes on the haunting of one person, Susan Marley.

Susan is just a slip of a girl, almost childlike in build at age 23, but she silently walks the streets of Bedford at night and invades its residents' nightmares. They can't separate their nightmares from reality, because when Susan shows them bad things in their nightmares, bad things happen. It appears that Susan's life many have always been a nightmare, with a home so terrible that she ran away at 18 and hasn't uttered a word since. Her mother crosses the street to avoid her, but her younger sister Liz, a senior in high school, knows the family secrets and loves Susan and wants to help her even while she fears her meanness.

I would rate the novel higher if it had lived up to its opening promise. It grabbed me right away and held my interest through the first half, which I read quickly. Then it bogged down in details, repetitions and "hitched breath," and I thought it would never end. Also, the constant retelling of several characters' back story made the novel feel disjointed. If everything else had been perfect, I think I would have still been irritated every time a character "hitched" her breath. That's a phrase I've never heard before, maybe it's a Maine thing, but it was overused to the point of distraction for me. ( )

This was a good old fashioned creepy story that I really enjoyed. The charactor descriptions gave the story a little meat as the plot itself was rather weak and thin. All in all I think this was a good light read if you like a bit of scary and creepy. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2009-0... ( )

The Keeper is horror in the vein of Straub, where a community succumbs to a threat from a malevolent entity. The supernatural is well hidden, hinted at more that directly portrayed in an effort to maintain some suspense. Although the approach is fresh, the lack of any likeable characters creates a lacklustre story. There is a score of characters and only the two central protagonists offer any positive attributes, however with so many characters the key players receive little time, except to propel the story. The Keeper is short enough to be a simple time-killer but it's lack of emotional hold means you'll have soon forgotten it. ( )

Now before I bought this book - I did my research and I heard a lot of great things about Ms. Langan's books! So I - the lover of all horror - decided to give it a go. So here is my review:

We meet poor Liz who is just trying to get by in life - but of course, with the entire town looking down on her because of her sister, Susan. She always knew that Susan was different, perhaps she was an alien. But Liz tries to make the best of it, with her future looking bright with her new boyfriend, Bobby.

As the story progresses, the plot unfolds of the terror that everyone in Bedford knows is coming. Do they admit that they see Susan in their dreams or that they can hear voices? Of course not. Then they would be just as crazy as Susan was. But they all know that something is going to happen, but they don't know when.

In Bedford, the rains come and it rains, rains, rains. But there is something different about this rain. It pretty much floods the valley and then by the end it is too late. Those who were lucky enough to get out did - and the others ... well, let's just say they should have tried harder.

Sarah Langan's writing is pretty close to Stephen King and Bentley Little - who give you the heebie jeebies when you read the stories. Her characters are strong and flawed, which I liked. I felt really sorry for Liz as the tale spread. I could see all of the death and smell the rank air. Wonderful descriptions of the buildings, people and landscape! I can't wait to read her next novel - The Missing.

If you love true horror - then I suggest not taking my word for it - go out and buy it and read it!! This book has it all from voices to ghosts to large insects! This one is definately a keeper (no pun intended). ( )

I came across a recommendation for The Keeper here on LibraryThing in one of the groups. It sounded interesting, so I picked it up. The first few chapters were slow going, and I almost put it down. Boy, am I glad I didn't. Things pick up and get pretty creepy about 1/3 of the way through and keep going until literally the last sentence.

The Keeper is the story of the death of a town. Not just any town, but an old factory town with a history of abuse and downright evil. And the end isn't easy, by any stretch. The story centers around an inverse sin-eater theme, where the evil that is done in the town builds and builds until it can't be contained anymore. Once it's out, it's not going back into the bottle.

The book suffers from a few first-time author flaws. The writing is a bit uneven, and the characters take a bit to get going. The plot needs juicing in a couple of spots. But in general, I recommend it as worth the time spent. ( )

Sarah Langan's writing is good but this story couldn't keep me reading. I gave up at page 244. Two weeks of reading a book that would normally take two days. Thumbs down! ( )

Takes a lot of nerve to set a horror novel in Maine, where that other horror writer lives (what's his name again?), but Langan pulls it off. This is a psychological horror story that transcends the genre in much the same way that Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House does. Impressive debut effort.

Bedford's always been one of those towns that people struggle to get out of, but never quite do. It is a town haunted. Haunted by its past, in the form of a paper mill that has leached toxic elements into the surrounding town, haunted by its present in the person of Susan, the strange woman that wanders the streets. The one that people cross the street to get away from, even her own mother. But once the mill (full of barrels of sulfuric acid, no less) closes, and the yearly rains begin, the town seems even more haunted, more full of death, and much of it seems centered around Susan's sister Liz.

Good and pretty creepy, especially when the whole town starts dreaming about Susan. ( )

1/28/07 NYT review