Faces Of Fear

Hard to believe that Faces of Fear is John Saul's thirty-fifth novel. He published his first novel in 1977 and about five years later I started reading his books and have been a loyal fan since loving each thrill along the way.

The latest one, Faces of Fear, did not disappoint me whatsoever. It was different from your ordinary thriller as it was more psychological but it was full of suspense and creepiness which is exactly what I've come to expect and look forward to when I crack open the spine of my brand new John Saul book.

This story is mainly focused on Alison Shaw, a teenager who is struggling with coming into being a young woman. She's not beautiful or at least she doesn't think so but most of the time she doesn't care or does she? show more Her mother, while being a great mom, wants only the best for her daughter and believes that beauty is often the key to success. Eventually Alison's mom marries a famous plastic surgeon and from that point on things take on an extremely creepy tone.

Now Alison is living in a rich neighborhood and finding out that with a stepfather who is a great plastic surgeon, almost anything is possible and even expected. So, begins her transformation into a more beautiful Alison. However, her stepfather Conrad is still obsessed with his late wife and is now obsessed with having Alison look like her. As the story evolves and Alison learns more she becomes increasingly terrified. To top things off, there is a madman on the loose butchering people...

This is a must read for Saul fans and for anybody out for a creepy psychological thriller. On the inside cover, it says that 'Saul proves that there's a fine line between perfection and madness'. What some people will do to achieve that state of perfection is definitely enough to creep me out. Another great novel by one of my favorite authors!

http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/2008/09/faces-of-fear-by-john-saul.ht... show less

I have been a big fan of Saul's work since I was a kid and after decades of reading his work, I have to give Faces of Fear a less than stellar rating. The first half of the book feels like someone else wrote it, but towards the end it picked up considerably. The story was mild and extremely predictable, but still good enough to have you wondering who the bad guy(s) were. It seems he was in an awful big hurry with this one and much of it reads like it was just thrown together. The "OH MY" moments were far and few between but they were there. A surprise or two was thrown in. However I do feel that he achieved his point with this story. Plastic Surgery, self esteem and the overall shallowness that goes along with privileged people. Good show more for a quick read. Try not to base opinions of his work on this novel. He can and does much better. And not to judge a book by it's cover, but come on...a bestselling author should have the clout to do better. Very generic. show less

Wow! this will be my second two star rating this week. I seem to be on a very unlucky book streak.

I have read each and every one of John Saul's books. Actually, I remember, very clearly, reading them as a teenager and how scared they use to make me.

So, John, I ask you! where is the fear? where is the horror? where is the good writing?????

Faces of Fear starts off very slowly - Saul introduces us to a bunch of characters and it takes forever to figure out how they will all eventually manage to merge into a cohesive storyline. We are introduced to our main characters, Risa the mom, Alisson the daughter, Conrad the doctor (you can already see where this is going) and Margot, Conrad's beautiful wife - who is Conrad's masterpiece, after all show more he is the best plastic surgeon around!

Saul likes to involve young adults into his storyline and this is no exception. I have no problem with this, but I have to say that usually his young adults are just more with 'it' than Alisson seems to be, which, to me, makes her a weak and somewhat boring character. Risa seems like she floats around her life - constantly searching for something and Conrad simply thinks he is god's gift to the world.

This novel is set in the world of the rich so we get lots of descriptions of beautiful mansions and private schools. I wish the characters had been as detailed as the descriptions of the mansion.

But, I could have gotten past all of that IF this storyline was in the least scary, suspenseful or engaging. By page 40, when no action was evident, I started counting how many pages I had left to read (always a bad sign for me). There is no suspenseful build up here, there is not dark, scary places (read Manhattan Hunt Club for a good example of how good a story Saul can write). In the end it ends up being a Frankenstein storyline - boring and totally predictable.

This book is slow, slow, slow and boring!

I am sorry to have to write this poor review - I know that each author pours their heart into their novels, but this book is just boring beyond belief.

I am grateful that I got this one at the library. show less

How is it a book about plastic surgery is all about men? Fail, John Saul, fail.

15-year-old Alison Shaw enjoys her middle-class life with her parents, a real estate agent and a TV production manager. However, her world is turned upside down when her parents’ marriage dissolves after her father reveals he is gay. Alison’s mother marries acclaimed plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn, whose wife committed suicide after a boating accident left her perfect (albeit surgery-enhanced) face permanently scarred. Alison moves with her mother to Dunn’s mansion and has trouble adjusting to an affluent lifestyle with friends who think nothing of paying thousands of dollars for clothes and indulging in plastic surgery to fix perceived flaws. Meanwhile, a demented murderer named the Frankenstein Killer is harvesting parts of show more women’s faces, as well as their adrenal and thymus glands, leaving behind mutilated corpses. As the killer picks up the pace, Alison and her mother are peripherally aware of the frantic search by the police, although unaware that Alison may be the motive behind the killings.

Faces of Fear, Saul’s 35th novel, has mystery, suspense, characters wholesome and likable and those adroitly portrayed as evil and maniacal. Although slow to start, the book does pick up speed, yet savvy readers will figure out the mystery well before it is revealed. show less

Well written and keeps your attention. Not as scary as his other works.

AUTHOR: Saul, John
TITLE: Faces of Fear
DATE READ: 10/09/14
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Horror-Suspense/2007/Random House/394 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: S/A
TIME/PLACE: Present/Southern California
CHARACTERS: Alison Shaw 15-yrs old; Risa Shaw: mother & realtor; Michael Shaw; Alison's father and newspaper journalist; Dr. Conrad Dunn; plastic surgeon & Alison's step-father
FIRST LINES: Alison Shaw felt good. Really good. She made the final turn around the smooth cinder track w/ long, easy strides.
COMMENTS: It's been awhile since I've read a John Saul book but I have read most of them over the years. Most of them involve the supernatural and are classified as horror and some are more suspenseful than horror but have elements of show more horror. Faces of Fear has undertones of horror -- certainly this book can instill fear & terror by what is going on. Alison is an average girl living in Santa Monica -- a nice area of S. CA, but in comparison to Beverly Hills it is low key. She has her friends here and enjoys her school but when her parents separate -- her father leaves her mother for another man, her world is changed. Her parents eventually realize they are better suited as friends and divorce. Her mother is a career woman and becomes involved w/ Dr. Dunn -- a very famous plastic surgeon to the area's celebrities. When they marry, Alison starts at a new school The Academy and moves into a mansion in Beverly Hills. She is not so sure about all of this but is soon adapting and accepting of this different lifestyle … even going as far as to want breast augmentation for her 16th birthday. Her friends from before are horrified but the current ones have all had multiple surgical enhancements. At this time there is a serial killer in the area who is honing in on one feature of each woman he kills. One murder involves the removal of the ears, another a nose and so on. There are several things very unnatural and disturbing about these killings -- in addition to the surgical removal of one body part there is also the removal of certain glands. There is no doubt that Dr. Dunn is somehow involved but the suspense and surprise lies in who his accomplice is and then even more so in the true identity of this person and also in what the intentions were to for these body parts. A good read and a reminder why I have enjoyed reading Saul over the years. show less