The Uncanny

Rating:
Summary: An edge of your seat horror story.
Review: It's been quite some time since I have had a good scary read---but I definitely got what I had been missing in this book. Had to finish it in one sitting. I'm hoping the author reads these reviews. I want a sequel! Hey-Hollywood---how about a movie!

Rating:
Summary: Is it more scary or more fun?
Review: Klavan is a master storyteller -- and this one is especially fun - while being delightfully original. He's managed to throw in every weirdo element known to the uncanny -- from witches to evil monks to the philospher's stone - and pulled it off with great panache. There's an antic wit at work here, and some creepy hours of great entertainment. Not much that is truly original appears in the horror genre, so if you're tired of the same old, same old, try the Uncanny.

Rating:
Summary: Poe for the stage and screen
Review: My first Klavan - catacombs, tryptics, riddles, and an evil ticking thrown in! I almost felt as if I was reading a play. Highly visual, just like Poe. I picked it up on a whim, and definitely enjoyed it. When you get to the end, there's a great sense of "a-ha!"

Rating:
Summary: Is this the same guy who wrote "True Crime"?
Review: This book clearly shows that to write a good horror story is a lot more difficult than it seems to be. The author has admittedly piled up cliché after cliché of horror lore, with no other result than a messy heap of clichés. The characters are a real problem: it is very difficult to like them or care about them. They lack depth and everything about them sounds phony. This is one of these books in which the characters are described as something and proved to be something else by facts: Storm is supposed to be a big-shot Hollywood producer, but his films (from what we see of them and as the author himself admits) are sub-Roger Corman. Iago is insistently described as "seductive," but any Batman villain is in fact far subtler and more interesting. The "tick-tick" thing is far more irritating than scary. I found it very difficult to finish this book, because by page 50 I no longer cared. I bought it because I read True Crime and found it excellent entertaiment, but this one has been a major disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Is this the same guy who wrote "True Crime"?
Review: This book clearly shows that to write a good horror story is a lot more difficult than it seems to be. The author has admittedly piled up cliché after cliché of horror lore, with no other result than a messy heap of clichés. The characters are a real problem: it is very difficult to like them or care about them. They lack depth and everything about them sounds phony. This is one of these books in which the characters are described as something and proved to be something else by facts: Storm is supposed to be a big-shot Hollywood producer, but his films (from what we see of them and as the author himself admits) are sub-Roger Corman. Iago is insistently described as "seductive," but any Batman villain is in fact far subtler and more interesting. The "tick-tick" thing is far more irritating than scary. I found it very difficult to finish this book, because by page 50 I no longer cared. I bought it because I read True Crime and found it excellent entertaiment, but this one has been a major disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This book did not have much of a plot to it. It was also a downer for a reason I shouldn't divulge but it has to do with the circumstances of the hero which made a happy ending out of the question (there goes suspense). Klavan cannot compete with Dan Simmons, Dean Koontz, or Peter Straub. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but not as interesting as hoped...
Review: This book succeeded in being weird while at the same time remaining completely pointless throughout. To make matters worse, it had pretensions of contributing to the serious and well established genre of the ghost story. Of course, how good could any novel be in which the main character is a part time Hollywood producer part-time adventurer named "Richard Storm"? Or sentences such as: "He clasped Sophia against him, felt the warmth of her body there, drank the warmth of her body in with his." This book has "pulp" written all over it. None of this would be so bad if this book were more fun and not so gross and violent.

Rating:
Summary: This book stank.
Review: This book succeeded in being weird while at the same time remaining completely pointless throughout. To make matters worse, it had pretensions of contributing to the serious and well established genre of the ghost story. Of course, how good could any novel be in which the main character is a part time Hollywood producer part-time adventurer named "Richard Storm"? Or sentences such as: "He clasped Sophia against him, felt the warmth of her body there, drank the warmth of her body in with his." This book has "pulp" written all over it. None of this would be so bad if this book were more fun and not so gross and violent.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but not as interesting as hoped...
Review: Upon reading Andrew Klavan's True Crime, I figured that anything following would be of equal caliber. Unfortunately, the author missed the mark with this novel. The characters are interesting but just barely, the plot lacks a certain thrill and the ending left me with some unanswered questions, which may have been Mr. Klavan's intentions. I would not classify this novel as a horror/ghost story, maybe not even a thriller or mystery, as most reviewers have. Instead I think this book needs to be placed under the "Possible TV Movie of the Week" section.