Suffer The Children

Review: Suffer The Children by John Saul.

I can’t say I didn’t find the story (and that’s just what it was) disturbing at times but it also held my interest to the end. Several times I had to repeat to myself that it was only fiction. This book came out in the seventies and is listed as young adult. I don’t think I would want young teenager’s to read the gruesome details of events that goes on throughout the book. It is a horror and I was blinded by it’s magnitude that I kept on reading. “Curiosity killed the cat”, no pun intended if you read the book. It was a little slow and disturbing for the first fifty pages but then I couldn’t put it down. It just kept getting interesting what the town of Port Arbello was going show more through.

Spooky children, a cave that was presumed to be the gate to hell, a haunting family curse, children gone missing, an uncontrollable daughter with a radical personality illness, a younger daughter with psychological troubles brought on by her father, someone lurking in the woods, and this is all taking place on the Conger Road in Port Arbello. In this town it was always said that the past and present Conger family’s ruled the area.

Saul vaguely describes the gruesome scenes while still making them terrifying and haunting. I thing the disturbing parts was that it involved small children and the author included the subject of psychotic youth as a center for the plot.

In the story Jack and Rose are suffering marital problems where infidelity finally comes into play. The youngest daughter, Sarah is traumatized so bad that she has retreated within herself and stopped talking. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth appears to be the perfect daughter and sister to Sarah, patiently taking care of her sister more than her mother did and maintaining that status quo as much as possible throughout the book. Don’t get comfortable just yet; we still have the missing children to find….

The story took twist and turns through the dark horrors that John Saul created, maybe a little too extreme but like I said I couldn’t put it down. I was unhappy about the ending and felt Sarah was misplaced again….. show less

Disturbing particularly because the horror revolves around children, and in this case, is committed by a child.

The book is about the Conger family curse and how that curse hangs over the heads of the modern Conger family.

The brutality of the scenes will stick with me.

Suffer the Children is gripping and disturbing. It’ clever in the most macabre way. If you want to take your horror reading up a notch, you have to read Saul’s debut book. It’s essential horror book reading.

This book was pretty creepy. I wasn't quite ready to read about children violently killing other children, but I managed to get through it. The story is about the Conger family who have lived in Port Arbello, a small town somewhere along the Atlantic Ocean, for centuries under a curse. The curse is based on a vague legend that even the present-day Congers don't seem to know much about, except it involves several tragic disappearances, a woman who fell asleep and dreamed for two days, and a creepy portrait of a girl that never existed that they still keep in the attic - just because. Anyway, one thing leads to another and mayhem abounds. It's a rather morbid scary story with a sad ending.

Story about a prominent family (the Congers) who live in a New England coastal town (Port Arbello). Eleven-year-old Sarah Conger is mute from a trauma which happened to her a year ago. Her thirteen-year-old sister (Elizabeth) seems like the perfect daughter, or is she? Sarah and Elizabeth’s parents are having marital problems. There is also a family curse on the Congers. Now, children in the community are going missing. And what about the legend of the secret cave?

This story was creepy and disturbing, with some really unpleasant and gruesome moments. But I found this book very hard to put down, it was so captivating. The story was quite atmospheric, I felt like I was in the coastal town by the sea. But I was disappointed with the show more ending of this book. I felt bad for Sarah. And I didn’t like how crazy Elizabeth seemed to get away with everything and never got caught.

An okay read by John Saul. show less

I really enjoyed this book. It was eloquently written; a scary premise from a legal aspect. It seems to revolve around the idea that unless you serve a purpose, you can and will be replaced and disposed of within the legal system. Never once did the story lull or reach a point where it became boring, I enjoyed each moment of it and would definitely recommend it and have. It induces some very interesting courses of thought from the reader, some points of view that I've never really thought about, and for that, it earned points!

ARC received via NetGalley for an honest review.

Rating: 3 of 5

Something was off with this story so it never really hooked me. Then, add to my already unattached feelings the cat murder and the ending ... well, it falls into the "just so-so" category for me.

Perhaps it was the slow grind - not to be confused with the superior and personal favorite slow build - to dig into any sort of forward motion. Maybe it was the unlikable characters. Perhaps it was the clunky narrative. I can't pinpoint exactly why, which is the reason I rated it middle of the road. It wasn't bad, not even close, but it also wasn't compelling enough that I will want to read it again.

I'd recommend Suffer the Children to anyone who enjoys books with creepy kids and hints of the supernatural, but only readers patient show more enough to wade through about 100 pages of slow grind to be rewarded with an ambiguous ending.

Note to self: This was the third novel I read by John Saul and the third one to underwhelm me. show less

'Suffer the Children' is over thirty years old yet maintains it's spine-tingling quality. Although the narrative is clumsy at time, with redundant text and side plots which do not promote the main story, at it's heart is a steady, tension building story with a supernatural element. What makes 'Suffer the Children' so menacing is the horror does involve children. Suffer holds its own even thirty years on and if you're a fan of horror then this shouldn't be missed. It's a reminder of how menacing horror used to be, before the genre became engulfed in gore and action. It's a book you won't forget.