Nightshade: A Novel (English Edition)

Well what to say about this book......sigh.

I am going to have to put it down and that is super rare for me not to finish a book by author, John Saul. I have read a lot of his books and usually give his work high ratings as I love his stories, but this book was just super slow with lots of repetition with things happening to the characters. The same things would happen and it just went out like that for most of the book as I did read up to about halfway. I also did not find the story to be that spooky - I was not scared out of my wits like I normally am with ghost stories written by this author.

The other reason I am laying it down as there is quite a bit of emotions with one of the characters that has Alzheimer's as that rings too close show more to home for me as I was my mother's caretaker up till she passed away as she had Alzheimer's and everything that happens in this story with that character just brings back too much of what I went through with my mom. It was heartbreaking to see my mom go through that and to read a story about it just brings all that heartache back, so I just cannot read this book as it is very emotional for me.

I gave it one star but normally I do not rate books I do not finish - I just made an exception this time. show less

John Saul, The best selling author of a multitude of horror, suspense novels rocks the boat with NightShade. All the common elements of a typical Saul novel are in this book. But he ups the ANTE and takes crazy to a new level. This novel is considerably written in a more linear manner than most of his books. The writing moves and he truly keeps the reader in suspense. However...the more of his books I read the more I believe that someone else just may be penning a hefty portion of it. It is common knowledge that his partner is included on his writing process. Just like the Sybil-esqe subject matter of Nightshade I have to wonder where John Saul begins and his writing partner ends. After reading all of his books it seems like his show more characters, particularly in this one, have crossed the line of who wrote what. But do not let that diminish the fact that this is good book and if that formula works, as it does here, then more power to him. Even when the book ends and we have closure on the real crazy person we get bluntly told that the cloud hanging over the mental well being of the villain reaches out to more than just one person. show less

Meet New Hampshire couple Bill and Joan Hapgood and their teenage son, Matt. They have a huge home, many friends, and the glow of Matt's glory as a high school football star. Life couldn't be sweeter, right? Wrong!

Trouble begins when Joan's mother, Emily, accidentally burns down her own house and moves in with the Hapgoods. Matt is terrified of his foul-tempered grandmother, who refers to him as "Joan's bastard." Emily's odd behavior reaches a fever pitch when she insists that the bedroom of her long-dead (and much-favored) elder daughter, Cynthia, be recreated, prom dress, dolls, and all. The household's normal warmth vanishes, "the sense of welcome and comfort was gone." Matt complains of strange, perverted dreams in which the show more staggeringly beautiful Cynthia visits him, leaving behind the pungent scent of her Nightshade perfume. Joan also feels the presence of her dead sister, and has painful flashbacks to a childhood best left forgotten. A murder and three disappearances befall the small town, Matt spirals into depression, and Joan loses her mind. Throw in child abuse, torture, and a wickedly irritable ghost, and we have one whopper of a nightmare. show less

Not for the faint of heart! The underlying subject of this entire story is child abuse. There is also the exposure of the vivid portrayal of bullying that can occur after one family has experienced a horrifying tragedy and the child(ren) still need to attend school and how judgments of well-meaning parents create the backdrop of the bullying. John Saul exposes evil with graphic images, gripping details, in a fast-paced, page-turning novel. Particularly in the climate of America at this time (2016), the novel cries out, "Let the innocent be innocent when one doesn't know all the facts!" I tried to solve the mystery as there are clues all along the way but I never suspected the ending.

The Hapgoods appear for all the world to be a loving, happy, content family. That all shatters quite quickly when grandma Emily, suffering from Alzheimer's and seemingly intent on making everyone around her feel lower than a snake's belly, moves into the Hapgood's estate. Constantly comparing Joan Hapgood to her beautiful, smart but dead older sister, Cynthia, Emily strikes out to totally deflate her younger daughter. Teenage grandson, Matt, starts having violent, erotic dreams that plague him. Then the body count starts to rise.

John Saul weaves a fascinating prose with dark family incidents. Trepidation, dread, doom all gathering. It's a enjoyable read of horror and suspense.

The story centers on a family (literally) haunted by a dead family member. This was my first novel by Saul, and given that what stopped me reading was the clunky style, above all, I imagine it will be my last. I hated Saul's way with point of view. A true, good omniscient point of view needs a strong voice and masterful style, or it comes across as just sloppy head-hopping, which is what we have here, as well as frequent rhetorical questions and other cheesy flourishes and melodramatic prose. There are far too many really well-written and gripping horror novels out there to waste your time on this one.

When the very first chapter of a John Saul book features cruelty to a child, you know that he's playing to an old and successful formula. Nightshade is full of menace, with twists and turns, some more obvious that others. It's a story of paranoia, revenge, lust and betrayal, with a supernatural curve of course. Gripping from start to finish, and Nightshade is no short story, Saul has penned another decent horror tale. Recommended for any horror fan, especially if you're bored of the torrent of vampire and zombie books which currently fill the bookshelves.