Creature by John SaulMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages : 329p
Year : 1989
Genre : Thriller
Series : Solo
My first John Saul book. So, first let's talk about why I've read it and where does it integrate. I have some horror writers that I try to read everything and since are mostly solo novels they are good pallete cleansers between other novels. My first two finds were Bentley Little and Brian Keene. Then was Tim Curran, Richard Laymon and now this guy. I have other writers, like RA Salvatore's Drizzt (fantasy) , or Kikuchi with Vampire Hunter D. After watching a couple of videos and reviews I thought to add a couple more this year. One was Michael & Kathleen Gear (I consider them a one) other was Louis L'Amour, The Conan Books (the ones published not by Howard), Star Wars novels and the last was Gor books. I read them at least one per month, sometimes more. They are "safe" readers/reads.
So, this book follows a family as they are going "up" in life as the husband being transferred to a elite place where the top dogs from that company go. It's a idyllic town that sprang up do to the company and everyone works in the company. The company works in every branch you can imagine . The father is Blake, the mother Sharon, the son Mark & the little sister is Kelly. The boy had some health issues and so it is on small side. Blake wants his son to be on the football team with no avail since the boy is so small. The football team (football as American football not the real football played with feet) is the major focus on that small town and their players are the best in the state. One is Jeff which dates Linda , one of the cheerleaders. Linda is an old friend of Mark and as soon as she encounters she is enamoured by him and we get some teen triangle, love stuff. All good, slice of life. So, when Mark suffers from being small (not going to spoil why) his father puts him in a program for the company and soon he starts to develop some muscles, but his demeanour changes, a lot.
First of all, this is not horror. This is at most a thriller novel, at least is a slice of life. Most of the book is basically dealing with Mark development from a very conscious , heartful and loveable to, well a creature. But since this change only happens around page 200, the first 200 is indeed slice of life. There are some thriller (very small horror) moments.
So what's bad, good, and why should you read or not?
- The character development of both Mark and Jeff are quite good. Sharon is home-wife but when she has to put aside that and fight for her family and son she will be a rabid dog. Blake and most of other workers are quite bland and look like American psycho vice-presidents (all the same ). The evil characters - and there are a couple of them - are truly evil. They will go to where they should go to make their point or goal across. There is no greyness. There is nothing in-between. You are either good or bad.
- The bad, well, the characters are well development but they sure make mistakes and are dumb at times. The changes on Mark were too fast, but since we already were on page 250 what would you expect. I hoped for more romance on Linda & Mark, didn't get one. One thing that upset me, and I am not woke at all, is the other female characters are just boring, submissive housewives. This book was written in 1989 so there's that.
- The Ending was very good and very saturday afternoon flick. I didn't , at least one death and was really what?? I was shocked BUT happy. I don't like writers like Dean Koontz that play safe and you know the main /side characters are not going to die. It's boring an predictable. Here it was not. The ending was interesting but expected.
Should you read?
Having not read anything by this author I Would say it's a nice start. There are way better books out there. Being under 320 pages is small so you won't lose anything. IF you want character development then yes. IF you want action and horror, then don't. 7.5/10
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