Rating: 
Summary: A novel that grips you and won't let go until...
Review: Definetly one of the best books I've ever read and maybe the most scary one. Straubs little "hooks" in his literature fool you just to the edge where he lays a great shock on you and drives you to read the hole novel without breaks. The world he creates feels real, too real, but the other side's a twisted and nerving like Twin Peaks.
Rating: 
Summary: Eerie....
Review: Having been an avid Stephen King fan since I was 13, I thought I should try reading Straub. I was very pleased that I did. From the first page, I was hooked. Miles Teagarden, because of his obsession and love for his cousin, Alison, is drawn into a world of suspicion and danger. And, we are along with him. Returning to Arden, Miles finds himself a suspect in recent murders of young girls. As he awaits the day when Alison returns, he faces much internal conflict and outside interference. It makes for a very exciting and terrifying read.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie....
Review: Having been an avid Stephen King fan since I was 13, I thought I should try reading Straub. I was very pleased that I did. From the first page, I was hooked. Miles Teagarden, because of his obsession and love for his cousin, Alison, is drawn into a world of suspicion and danger. And, we are along with him. Returning to Arden, Miles finds himself a suspect in recent murders of young girls. As he awaits the day when Alison returns, he faces much internal conflict and outside interference. It makes for a very exciting and terrifying read.
Rating:
Summary: Not a King, more like a cunning wizard...
Review: I thought mr Straub was something like a second King, since they have even co-operated, but after reading this book I changed my mind. King is a fantasy writer, fond of epic sagas in the black-and-white vein, whereas Straub weaves his story of more complex stuff. Somehow this is like a detective story, but there is the dark supernatural element as well. A powerful and very intensive story, which reaches beyond the usual standards of horror fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't agree with the other reviewers
Review: I was not convinced. Having tried Mr. X (it had such a "must have" look about it) and found it seriously wanting, again the main character is not persuasive enough. He actually sounds like a complete jerk. Maybe it would have been more convincing written in third person but as is.......... Not as bad as Mr. X which was a total dissapointment but definititely much ado about very little!
Rating:
Summary: Thanks a lot, jerk !
Review: I'd like to thank the reader from Los Angeles who completely spoiled this book for me and anyone else who hasn't read it. I was checking to see if this book was good or not, and right away there's some butthead giving away the book's major surprise. Here's a tip, "reader", try giving a spoiler warning before you do something like that again. To do this you can type SPOILERS in capital letters, just like that. It's the courteous thing to do. Also, you probably don't know this, but it's not very nice to tell your friends the ending of a movie that you saw before they did. Kinda spoils the experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Ghoulish & Ambient But Unsatisfying On The Whole
Review: In order to get some R&R and finish his thesis onD.H. Lawrence, Miles Teagarden, an English professor from New York,goes back to the tiny town in rural Wisconsin where he spent hisboyhood summers. The very night he arrives, teenaged girls begin to gomissing, only to be found raped, mutilated and murdered. The localsimmediately begin to harrass and bully Miles, suspecting him ofinvolvement.At this point, I was wondering "gee, why is thistown so mean?" And I couldn't figure out why Miles wasn'twondering the same thing. Instead, he spends his time shoplifting andpretending to write his book while obsessing over his cousin. During aromantic interlude when they were 14, he and his cousin Alison hadmade a promise to meet again in the small town after exactly twentyyears, when they were all grown up. Now, here it is, just a few daysaway from that date. A trip to visit his spooky witchy spinster auntreveals the reason behind the townfolks' suspicions. It seems thatMiles has forgotten that his cousin Alison died during that veryromantic interlude, having been raped, beaten and drowned. ThoughMiles was never charged for the death, he was never welcome in thetown again. Miles feels certain that Alison's murder is somehowconnected to the recent rash of murders. He wonders if it's the samekiller. But he also suspects his niece's creepy boyfriend, who has apenchant for sexual sadism, a cracked sense of intellectual vigor anda deep admiration for Hitler. Even though his neighbors arevandalizing his car and threatening his person he decides to stay intown until the anniversary of his date with Alison. He figures she'llreappear and be able to explain it all. Essentially, the things thattake place in the novel have little to do with the plot. This book iscomprised of one red herring after another. That in itself might havemade for a compelling mystery had any of the plentiful loose ends beentied up in the end. The only character I liked, the 14yr old Alison,isn't long for the world or the story. While the main character Mileswas so unsympathetic I kept hoping those neighbors would finally catchhim and poke him with their pitchforks. Were Straub not such anexpressive writer with such delicious and atmospheric prose, Iwould've given this book two stars. Though I didn't like the book as awhole, there were parts I really enjoyed. (I was surprised to seeStraub link D.H. Lawrence to misogyny and sexual violence--I alwaysthought I was alone in my horror of Lawrence's writings.)..
Rating:
Summary: MILES TO GO
Review: Miles Teagarden, the narrator and focal character, in Straub's early "If You Could See Me Now" is one mixed up guy. At times, you have to wonder if he's got all his cookies; but in some ways, that's what makes this book an eerie, if not classic, thriller. Straub is a wonderful writer, and even though at times, he gets too wordy, he sets a very suspenseful mood, and keeps an impending sense of doom permeating the novel.
When Miles returns to the scene of a horrifying "accident" after twenty years, we wonder when and if his beloved Allison will keep the vow she made those many years ago. If you've read a lot of this type of book, you pretty much know what the big revelation will be halfway through the book. Once you find that out, the story loses a little of its punch and the rest of the time, Miles is involved in finding out whodunit, although it's pretty obvious who did! At any rate, the novel moves along rather nicely, but the ending seems somewhat rushed, and the murderer's identity is something that is obscure and not fully fleshed out. Overall, though, if you are a Straub fan, this book fits nicely in your library, although "Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" are his best works.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: MILES TO GO
Review: Miles Teagarden, the narrator and focal character, in Straub's early "If You Could See Me Now" is one mixed up guy. At times, you have to wonder if he's got all his cookies; but in some ways, that's what makes this book an eerie, if not classic, thriller. Straub is a wonderful writer, and even though at times, he gets too wordy, he sets a very suspenseful mood, and keeps an impending sense of doom permeating the novel.
When Miles returns to the scene of a horrifying "accident" after twenty years, we wonder when and if his beloved Allison will keep the vow she made those many years ago. If you've read a lot of this type of book, you pretty much know what the big revelation will be halfway through the book. Once you find that out, the story loses a little of its punch and the rest of the time, Miles is involved in finding out whodunit, although it's pretty obvious who did! At any rate, the novel moves along rather nicely, but the ending seems somewhat rushed, and the murderer's identity is something that is obscure and not fully fleshed out. Overall, though, if you are a Straub fan, this book fits nicely in your library, although "Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" are his best works.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: MILES TO GO
Review: Miles Teagarden, the narrator and focal character, in Straub's early "If You Could See Me Now" is one mixed up guy. At times, you have to wonder if he's got all his cookies; but in some ways, that's what makes this book an eerie, if not classic, thriller. Straub is a wonderful writer, and even though at times, he gets too wordy, he sets a very suspenseful mood, and keeps an impending sense of doom permeating the novel.
When Miles returns to the scene of a horrifying "accident" after twenty years, we wonder when and if his beloved Allison will keep the vow she made those many years ago. If you've read a lot of this type of book, you pretty much know what the big revelation will be halfway through the book. Once you find that out, the story loses a little of its punch and the rest of the time, Miles is involved in finding out whodunit, although it's pretty obvious who did! At any rate, the novel moves along rather nicely, but the ending seems somewhat rushed, and the murderer's identity is something that is obscure and not fully fleshed out. Overall, though, if you are a Straub fan, this book fits nicely in your library, although "Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" are his best works.
RECOMMENDED.
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