John Saul

Thirteen-year-old Angie Sullivan adores her family's new home at Black Creek Crossing, until she discovers that the house had been the scene of a double murder and the focus of a series of increasingly bizarre events.

Black Creek Crossing

         A few years ago, I worked with an interesting variety of people.  One of those people was legitimately the most ignorant racist humans I have ever interacted with, and I did everything in my power to avoid her.  I truly was embarrassed that there was a human being alive that was like her.  I’ve read stories on social media about negative interactions with truly racist people, and while I believed they existed, I hadn’t yet experienced one…until this woman.  She boasted about getting kicked out of school and being banned from most of the bars in the area because she started physical altercations with anything that moved.  Then one day, she showed up at work with a car full of old books…that she brought to work because she knew I was an avid reader and thought I would appreciate a treasure trove of ancient (though they’re not THAT old) hardbacks.  I was flabbergasted.  It hit me that even truly terrible people can do nice things.  This book was one of the books I got from her.  It’s entirely possible that the person who gave me the book influenced how I reacted to it, because every time I opened this one, I thought about her. 

            I started reading John Saul pretty early in my reading journey.  Having fallen in love with horror at the ripe young age of 11, I sought out other horror authors, and John Saul was super popular back when I was a youth.  I appreciate a good story, I always have, and John Saul was a good storyteller.  I somehow managed to skip this one back then, so I was excited to have it on my TBR shelf (even though it took me two years to get to it, my TBR is a mess).  It’s a pretty short and easy read, which was nice after a couple of pretty hefty books I had recently finished.  It's a pretty straightforward haunted house story, and it’s a bit of a combination of 

.  It includes dismissive and abusive fathers and husbands, teenage boys who are downright nasty bullies, and a strange cat (think of the pig from the Amityville story, but fluffier). 

            In the end, it included all the elements required of a story, but it is truly very formulaic.  As a reader of Danielle Steel, I obviously don’t stay away from formulaic, but I think it disappointed me because I didn’t recall the John Saul of my youth being a fill-in-the-blank kind of author.  I was HUGELY disappointed in the ending, I felt like the main character was done dirty with the way Saul ended things.  It’s also entirely possible that I looked for flaws because of how I acquired the book.  Regardless, I was just disappointed with this one. 

Kristen Claiborn

         A few years ago, I worked with an interesting variety of people.  One of those people was legitimately the most ignorant racist humans I have ever interacted with, and I did everything in my power to avoid her.  I truly was embarrassed that there was a human being alive that was like her.  I’ve read stories on social media about negative interactions with truly racist people, and while I believed they existed, I hadn’t yet experienced one…until this woman.  She boasted about getting kicked out of school and being banned from most of the bars in the area because she started physical altercations with anything that moved.  Then one day, she showed up at work with a car full of old books…that she brought to work because she knew I was an avid reader and thought I would appreciate a treasure trove of ancient (though they’re not THAT old) hardbacks.  I was flabbergasted.  It hit me that even truly terrible people can do nice things.  This book was one of the books I got from her.  It’s entirely possible that the person who gave me the book influenced how I reacted to it, because every time I opened this one, I thought about her. 

            I started reading John Saul pretty early in my reading journey.  Having fallen in love with horror at the ripe young age of 11, I sought out other horror authors, and John Saul was super popular back when I was a youth.  I appreciate a good story, I always have, and John Saul was a good storyteller.  I somehow managed to skip this one back then, so I was excited to have it on my TBR shelf (even though it took me two years to get to it, my TBR is a mess).  It’s a pretty short and easy read, which was nice after a couple of pretty hefty books I had recently finished.  It's a pretty straightforward haunted house story, and it’s a bit of a combination of Amityville and Carrie.  It includes dismissive and abusive fathers and husbands, teenage boys who are downright nasty bullies, and a strange cat (think of the pig from the Amityville story, but fluffier). 

            In the end, it included all the elements required of a story, but it is truly very formulaic.  As a reader of Danielle Steel, I obviously don’t stay away from formulaic, but I think it disappointed me because I didn’t recall the John Saul of my youth being a fill-in-the-blank kind of author.  I was HUGELY disappointed in the ending, I felt like the main character was done dirty with the way Saul ended things.  It’s also entirely possible that I looked for flaws because of how I acquired the book.  Regardless, I was just disappointed with this one. 

Black Creek Crossing

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