Tras perder a su madre en un trágico accidente, Cassie Winslow llega a la pequeña localidad de False Harbor para vivir con su padre, al que apenas conoce, y la nueva familia de éste. ¿Por cuánto tiempo logrará esconder sus terribles poderes? Invadida por extraños sueños y malignos deseos, la dulce Cassie sembrará el terror entre los que la rodean, cumpliendo así su inexorable destino. Y en el pueblo de False Harbor ya nada volverá a ser como antes...

Chills and Thrills!

Backstory:

Cassie Winslow lost her mother in a terrible car crash and has to come live with her father, Keith and his family in the town of False Harbor. Cassie is in a deep depression from losing her mother and tries to fit into the household of her step-mom, Rosemary and their young daughter, Jennifer. Cassie has a hard time fitting into the new school and right away she is shunned from some of the teenagers there. Cassie does make friends with a next door neighbor named Eric and they hit it off well, but things become strange for Cassie when she sees a woman in town that seems familiar to her named Miranda Sikes.

Miranda is known for being the local crazy witch in town and she lives at the end of town out in a cabin that lies within swampland and marshes which borders a beach. Cassie just feels drawn to that area and ends up eventually meeting with Miranda out in the cabin. But things are not what they seem and when things start happening in the town with people that have been giving Cassie and Eric troubles is when crazy crap hits the fan and fingers are pointing along with whispers of Cassie being crazy just like Miranda as the town thinks that Cassie is behind the attacks that start happening to the citizens.

That is about all I can give on a taste without giving away spoilers and if you would like to know more then you will need to read the book!

Thoughts:

I had read this book way back in the early 90's as I use to read this author a lot back then, but I have decided to start revisiting John Saul's books as it has been many years since I read a lot of his work. This story started out a little slow due to some world building of the town of False Harbor plus there was some character building as well, but about the 25% mark things started kicking in a little more with some creepy vibes rolling off the pages that surrounded Miranda Sikes and her remote cabin out in the swamplands.

Around the 40% mark things were happening more and I literally could not put this book down as so much was happening with all the characters that I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. I literally read the last 30% of the book in a couple of hours as the crap hit the fan and there were tons of twists and turns which drove this book into overdrive!

There are some creepy moments, but there is also some gore stuff within these pages as when the book went into overdrive I was reaching for my "gore suit" as I am thinking to myself "I don't remember Saul books being gory" but there it was right before me on the pages of this book - some gore parts dotted here and there throughout the book.

Very happy with rereading this book as though it has been over 30 years since I read it the book brought back memories of being amazed by the works of this author. I plan on rereading more of his books so I can step back into that time of old school horror as that is how I feel about reading Saul's books. Giving this book five Screaming Terror stars!
( )

I read this decades ago when I first discovered John Saul. At the time I read so many of his books that they seemed to run together. I remember liking it enough to read all his work. ( )

I'm not sure if it is because this is a slightly older book or what but this novel grabbed me more than other more recent ones by Saul. In fact, the second half grabbed me and seemed to be quickly tying together many things that I didn't even think would be connected but ended up being so. It was definitely a page-turner! Saul still keeps with his theme of children and revenge but there is a little bit more of a bite in the story. The story contains some grit that makes it that much more enjoyable. My only complaint is that I know I read the last page somewhere else. Not sure if it was another novel by Saul, by someone else or if I just read the book twice by mistake, but it was definitely familiar. ( )

Not my favorite John Saul, but not a bad book either. I thought the story of Cassie and Eric was interesting. I wasn't too happy with the ending, but most of John Saul's books have an unhappy ending. I felt sorry for Cassie and the way she was ostracized by the town, and wished she could have had a happier life. ( )