Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41418 in Books
• Published on: 1992-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 608 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hugo Award-winning novelist Simmons pens an outstandingly eerie horror story about a group of Midwestern boys stalked by an ancient evil.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A monstrous, timeless entity is devouring children. Adults either refuse to understand what is happening, or are themselves agents for the monster. A group of young boys, in uneasy partnership with an outcast girl, realize they must kill the creature before it devours them all. Simmons ( The Fall of Hyperion, LJ 3/15/90), winner of several prestigious awards for science fiction and horror (most recently a Hugo Award for Hyperion , Doubleday, 1989) ranks with the best the genre has to offer. In outline, this novel resembles Stephen King's It ( LJ 8/86). The children are well drawn and affecting in their bravery. This book should be in most horror fiction collections. BOMC alternate.
- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Too long
It's about 175 pages too long.There's pastoral accounts of the boys,their hometown,the neighbors,streets,;enough already.I found it a struggle to get through the first half of it.The second half is much better and almost makes up for the fact this puppy is 600 pages long.

Builds up slowly and reels you in
Wow, this is one good horror novel. It's been a while since I gave a 5 star to a book, but I think this book deserves it. I don't have many complaints, and the one complaint I do have actually is good in a way too.

This book is similar to the famous Stephen King novel IT in that it's about a group of young children ages 8-12 set in a small town in the 1960s. But don't be put off by that, it is only a superficial similarity, the story itself is far different and just as good in its own way.

A group of young friends have begun to sense an evil menace hovering around the old school (called Old Central) that eventually encompasses the entire town of Elm Haven. The disappearance of a classmate on the last day of school causes the group of boys to investigate his disappearance on their own.

Okay, the one thing that exasperated me about this book was the slow build-up of the story. The suspense killed me, I couldn't put down the book because I had to know what happened next. In the first half of the book, there are only glimpses of the evil in the town the boys encounter (things flying in the trees, a cold wind that smells of death, big holes in the dirt that smell bad, the big red roadkill truck that shadows them, etc). I felt like I was being teased with all these glimpses into what the evil is, but not enough to tell me the whole story, which made me keep reading. So while the slow pace may be frustrating, it was in a good way in that the tension and gradual build-up of suspense was very effective in keeping with the mood of the story. Hence, what I meant about the one complaint I had actually being good (so I suppose it really isn't a complaint? LOL).

I felt Simmons was very effective in creating a foreboding and dark mood with his very detailed descriptions of the scenery, he really set the scene so I could feel the apprehension, nervousness, and fear of the characters. At one point when I was reading at night, I got nervous and scared too and it's been a while since a horror novel could do that to me!

Some might be put off by the details he puts into his descriptions of the scenery, but I think it only helped me picture Elm Haven and the characters much more clearly in my mind so I thought it was a good thing.

Anyways, I thought this was a great horror novel and if you're looking for a good scary read I'd recommend you try it.

Was Better the First Time Around...
By that I mean I read it when it originally came out. I've been re-reading some of my faves from the past and this was one of the best. I guess with time things change. I just couldn't stick with it. Much too much descriptiveness as in: Joe Schmoe, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a Lucky Charms tee shirt with faded jeans and beat up old green tie dyed Keds, pedaled his blue bike with the rusted chain and Smurf stickers, at break neck speeds, over Elm Street and through the park over to the old drainage ditch, down Route 66, past Mrs. Miller's house, waved to Mr. Blue, skinned his knee on Maple Street, avoided the abandoned factory on Main Street etc., etc. I found myself wishing I had a photo of every character and a GPS system. Pages and pages go by with really nothing happening. Too confusing and quite annoying. I kept flipping back to see if I missed something and it really started to become a chore for me to read. I ended up abandoning the book after about 200 pages.