Maine Books

Russo easily manages the difficult task of creating a town and populating it with "real" people, but he does the narrative a tremendous disservice with a major rote story line. The introduction of an abused teenager who goes on to kill a classmate, a teacher and the principal betrays the novel. Not only does it reflect a lack of imagination, but it fails to move the characters along the natural line of progression Russo had outlined until that point. If deus ex machina is your thing, you may not find this twist disruptive. I would have preferred the characters to find redemption or falter just short of it through their own actions rather than find the 460+ pages that preceded this shift were read in vain.

Note: Russo needed a mechanism to get his protagonist Miles to Martha's Vineyard so that he could he could have his epiphany. I suppose a psychopathic teenager is an easy way to create that path, but that isn't the one I expect from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Two stars given only because of the quality of the writing and the depth of exploration of the relationships we have with ourselves, our family and friends, the towns in which we live and, critically, expectations -- those we have for ourselves and that others have for us.

On the surface this is a book about an average guy who is stuck in a rut in an average small town. But when you delve deeper, you see that the book is about how pivotal choices and events shape who we are and where we end up in life. The characters in this book are memorable, realistic, and well developed. They are masterfully woven together to create an engaging story. However, the story moves slowly because there are a lot of necessary details to the story. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick, entertaining read that requires no thought. Much like real life, some parts of the story were humorous while others were tragic and sad.

Life in a derelict New England milltown. Readable? Yes, but not mesmerizing. Hard to argue with the Pulitzer Prize, but, frankly, the characters were weak-kneed and not particularly likeable; kept hoping someone would show a little spunk but it didn't happen.

Reviewing this novel almost requires two rating systems-one for how much one enjoys this book, and one for the book itself. I give a 2/10 for the first, and a 7/10 for the second. From a casual reader's perspective, the 483-page textblock was a pain to read. I found myself losing focus multiple times during readings and by the time I finished I felt like I had just ran a marathon-one that I was forced to participate in. The main character Miles was one of the most aggravating characters I have ever met in fiction. Ironically, the character I sympathized most with was the one portrayed as the greatest villain in the story. I'm not sure whether that was the exact effect Mr. Russo was going for...

That being said, there were random bursts of humor here and there that made me literally laugh out loud. The dramatic/tragic ending did make me contemplate for about five minutes after I put down the book, but then I preceded to carry out the other mundane tasks of everyday life wjth little memory of what I had just read.

I was looking for a good fiction novel since I mostly read non-fiction. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a Pulitzer Prize winner. I was wrong. Not only that, it eventually became a chore to read. Too many stories within a story and too many characters to develop. There was one 'storylet' about Miles as a child on vacation with his mother which I could've kept reading but it was only a few pages. The writing is good, I enjoyed his style, but the story itself didn't grab me and I couldn't make a connection with any of the characters. As much as I hate to do it, I finally (after many nights of being able to read 2 or 3 pages because it was so sleep-inducing, just called it quits halfway through the book.

This isn't my favorite entry into the series; but then, all the rest of the books refer back to this one *a lot*, so it's essential to know what the characters have experienced between books 4 and 6. The only other one I'm not particularly fond of is book 6, with yet more trips into NYC and Maine and tangles with the mobsters. At least Father Callahan is given a mighty fine send-off! I guess King figured he owed Callahan a better ending than skulking out of Salem's Lot and disappearing.

Anyhow, this book riffs off of a Kurasawa movie (Seven Samuri), which was riffed off of one of Sergio Leone's Man with No Name westerns, and then by Hollywood in The Magnificent Seven. It's a nice nod to that particular Western story. It's obviously a good one, and it's good to see King's take on it.

I think didn't quite know what he was getting into with his characters or with the world he set them in. It's a difficult tightrope to walk, and I'd say overall, he did a remarkable job of roping all the disparate threads and tropes (from SF, F, H and Westerns) into one big long story.

I was suspecting that the series was going south at the end of the 4th book.
Wolves just shows that King got lost in the middle earth and is just trying to pull resources from ANYWHERE, his own work or any other work, and he is doing it not from "literary genius" but just from plain desperation, which is more evident in the next two final books.

I do agree with the other comment, he should have stopped after the fourth book and should've avoid giving us the "Wachowski feeling" of destroying what might have been a really good and original idea...

This book picks right up where the previous installment ("Wizard and Glass") left off, with Roland and his ka-tet still following the Path of the Beam towards the Dark Tower. However, the group is quickly given a proposition by the townspeople of Calla Bryn Sturgis (a town on the brink of entering the mysterious Thunderclap world where the Dark Tower itself lays), who have seen their babies taken by "Wolves" each generation and finally want to put a stop to it. Being a man of honor, Roland of Gilead accepts the offer and he and his crew are sidetracked for a bit longer in their quest for the Tower.

Now, despite the notion that the goings-on in Calla Bryn Sturgis could be considered "filler", it is very interesting, exciting "filler" that makes for an entertaining read. The main plotline consists of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and Jake scoping out the city in order to plan the best defense (much akin to Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain in Roland's tale from "Wizard and Glass"), and finally taking on the "Wolves" in the end (though not before uncovering a sinister plot they never expected).

Besides that main story, however, is the character development that takes place. Roland begins showing the first signs (arthritis) of his long trek for the Tower, Susannah's multiply-personalities return in a way you will not expect, Eddie's love for Susannah is only strengthened, and Jake fights an internal battle between having a normal childhood and being with Roland. So, while the characters are not actually continuing their quest for the Tower in this book, it still is entertaining to see the characters being further developed.

Also, the book takes a bizarre twist when Father Callahan (of "Salem's Lot" fame!) shows up, throwing the reader into a bit of confusion once again regarding how "our" world aligns with "Roland's world" and prompting a return trip to New York(s) via another magical door.

Overall, this is another thrilling installment in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It contains an inspired main plot, crucial character development, and throws at the reader a few more mysteries that will likely be solved in the remaining two editions of the series.

Stephen King is a genious. This series is fantastic. This series will blow your mind and keep your imagination running! If you like the idea of an alternate reality this series is really for you!

This is my favorite book of the Dark Tower series.

I've never been a huge fan of horror (Stephen King's or anyone's else) but the fantasy aspect of this particular series has really caught my attention. And in truth this is much more fantasy than your typical Stephen King horror.

In their ongoing quest to reach the Black Tower, Roland and his Ka-tet (Eddie, Jake, Susannah and Oy) come to a farm village called Calla Bryn Sturgis where some disturbing occurrences have been happening of late. Strange wolves started raiding the area about the same time children began to disappear, only to reappear, but drastically changed. Does it have something to do with the arrival of the 'wolves'? What is going on with the children? Is Andy the Robot all that he appears? And what is going on with Susannah? Reasonable questions that are all answered by books end.

I found that this 5th installment had a high level of suspense. I could not wait to get to the end of this book as I knew it would be climaxing with a terrific battle; a battle that I felt (IMHO) was one of the best actions of the entire series.

Other reviewers mentioned that there were some areas of this novel that dragged a bit, e.g. the return trip to New York. However, I felt that not only did this side 'trip' add information regarding the entire series, but also allowed me more time to anticipate and appreciate the final sections of this thrilling 5th installment.

Conclusion:
Stephen King at his best; high fantasy that is intriguing, page turning and extremely well done.

Ray Nicholson

I havn't read it yet, but I've seen my dvd of it (at least) 3 times already. Let alone, on tv a few times too. ;)

~a Stephen King Constant Reader

I've read many of Mr. King's books and I believe the reason they are so long is because he spends a great deal of time talking about trivial things such as the color of eyes, shape of eyes, length of hair, color of pants, etc. In this book Croatan is mentioned at least twice (and in the movie), but neither explains what a Croatan is! It's a werewolf! If you want true horror and excitement, try Clive Barker and I would suggest your first experience with Mr. Barker be "The Damnation Game". It's FANTASTIC!

Let me start off by saying that whatever else he is, you have to give Stephen King credit for doing innovative stuff. His serial novel "The Green Mile" is a good example of it, and releasing Storm of the Century as a teleplay is another one. I had never read a teleplay before, and it was definitely interesting to see the different format.

The novelty of the format alone was enough to hold my attention through what was, essentially, a pretty standard King story. King trots out all the hallmarks of his "schtick" here: supernatural tragedy comes to small insular town. Seen it in the Castle Rock stories, in It, in the Tommyknockers, in Salem's Lot, in Bag of Bones, in From a Buick 8...etc. I'll also point out that the insularity of his towns grows increasingly less believable in today's modern, wired world, but it's as if King's idea of what constitutes town life is stuck at say, 1950 or so--has he ever written a character who is a web-geek, for example? For that matter, has he ever *shown* a character using the Internet?

But anyway, all his standard cliches are here: Small, somewhat improbably insular Maine town? Check. Townsfolk hiding secrets? Check. Stranger with mysterious and evil powers showing up? Check. (Shades of Mr. Gaunt, Randall Flagg, etc.) Stranger knows and publicly reveals folks' secrets? Check. Odd nursery rhyme or saying repeated at intervals throughout the story? Check. Stephen King's stock characters trotted out? Check. The reenactment of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" at the end was about the only thing here that seemed somewhat fresh, and even then, Stephen King's fascination with that story has been demonstrated in many of his other books (check out the Dark Tower III, for example).

I don't mean to sound as negative as the preceding might come across; it's just that this struck me as a fairly standard (and mediocre) King outing that basically rehashed a lot of material that he had used before. Perhaps after having written for such a long time, he simply doesn't have that much original to say anymore. *shrug* Nothing much to see here, folks; move it along.

This is the first screenplay that I read of S.King., it is so well written that you can imagine it as if you were actually seen the movie. The story is so good that it keeps you interested at all times, without a clue about what is going to happen at the end.

First I need to say that I was not very excited to read Stephen King's "Storm of the Century" because I was afraid that the screenplay format would strip away all the character building I enjoy in Stephen King's writing. Secondly, I have never liked many of his works written for, or adapted for, the screen. I began this book with some serious concerns.

No worries were needed. After I got through living with the residents of Little Tall Island for two nights during the biggest storm ever to hit the island, and the visitor who chose this time to rip the island's community apart, I was more than satisfied that I picked up "Storm of the Century".

The characters were stock King characters, but the anti-hero, Linoge, was actually even creepier because the screenplay format would not allow a deep dive into Linoge's motivation. All his physical actions, with no understanding (until the end) of his intentions, made Linoge unpredictable and a very strong evil character.

I also enjoyed seeing how Stephen King structured the suspense visually. From the quick cuts showing scenes of a town slowly being swallowed by the storm (and Linoge), to the great scene where Mike is chronicling the crime scene at Martha's with a Polaroid camera and each flash of the camera reveals new details of the crime. I thought his creative use of a visual medium was very good.

There were also enough pure Stephen King lines in the screenplay that you never forgot who the author was. The dialogue was not great, but some of the throw away direction is priceless. For instance, when one of the characters gets an axe to the face, Stephen King describes how he wants it sound (the action happens of camera) "it's like someone slapping mud with the flat of his hand". Or when he writes how the Town Hall should be depicted as the final safe haven in Little Tall Island and then adds "Of course the Titanic probably looked the same way before it hit the iceberg".

The theme of guilt within the tight family of islanders was also interesting, and I am glad the ending had a glimpse into the future (present) so we could see what happened to some of the main participants of the final tragedy.

All in all I enjoyed it a lot.

You know how, when you meet an exceptional person, you feel honored to have been able to know them? You feel that you were lucky to have known them, to have been able to glimpse their life, to have been a part of it. Well, that is how I feel about Blaze. I feel honored to have known him for such a short time. I feel I was entrusted with the secrets of his past and his innermost thoughts, feelings, and fears.

Richard Bachman is one of Stephen King's alter-ego's I guess you could say. The story of Clayton Blaisdell Jr. (aka Blaze) was almost never published. The foreword of the book is by Stephen King himself, and it tells of how the manuscript had been sitting in a box since the 70's. King would take it out on occasion, read it, and deem it worthless. Finally, he took it out, read it, and thought it was a pretty good story. I, for one, am glad he published this book.

The very first page of the book is a small excerpt from the story. It introduces you to Blaze. Actually, it is not as much about Blaze as it is about another kid, but it gives you a glimpse of the voyage you are about to embark on. After this small paragraph are the title page, copyright page, dedications, and foreword. Then, the real story begins...

The story is about Blaze, a simple-minded giant of a man with a heart bigger than thought capability. Blaze was not always this "dumb," this was a gift from his drunken, abusive father. Blaze was never the leader in a group. He was never the thinker. He ran cons with guys who were smarter than him. However, when his friend George gets himself killed in a betting game, Blaze is left to think on his own. He decides to continue with George's "one big con, and then out" scheme. He kidnaps the 6-month old baby of an extremely wealthy family. The idea is to get a large ransom for the child and then he can retire.

The book jumps from Blaze's childhood to the present situation. As you are reading about his plans to kidnap the baby, you are learning how he came to this point.

I could not help but feel compassion for this big bear of a man. I found myself angry at the way he was treated by the adults in his life as he was growing up. I wanted this man to succeed. I knew throughout the book that kidnapping a baby was wrong, and I knew he would have to be caught...it would have to end. But I could not help wanting him to do well, to be okay.

Blaze was an amazing person (character). Again, I feel lucky to have accompanied him on his journey, however miserable it may have been.

There is a story at the end of this book. It is a glimpse of the next Stephen King book that will be published in 2008. I am choosing not to read this story. I do not want anything to take away from Blaze right now. I want to continue feeling close to him for the moment.

Really reminds me of Mice and Men. I enjoyed it. Not the best book ever or the worst but was a good read.

Blaze was written in the early part of King's career but never published. He dusted it off and released it--and we should be glad. It's top notch; the characters are great and the story is touching, a bit like Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men actually.

So you know, Blaze doesn't read like the first five Bachman books--with a flat mean tone. The writing style is more like Skeleton Crew or Misery; the sentence structure flows smoothly and the story breathes a bit. The story is not horror, nor is it as soft as Hearts in Atlantis or the Green Mile. It sits in the middle somewhere. This is not a bad thing, just saying. It is also a fast-paced read, for those of you that like the story to zip along. I know I do.

If king lost you along the way somewhere, this one could bring you back to the fold.

James Roy Daley, author of The Dead Parade
The Dead Parade

Stephen King had kept this work in a drawer since the 1970s or so, and recently decided to dust it off and release it, as sort of a "film noir" style work. King himself refers to this work as a "trunk novel", one of those books he tossed in a trunk for years and years before bothering or deciding to publish it. Hint: if an author takes the time and effort to write a book, if they're not publishing it, there's usually a reason.

Blaze isn't a bad book. The characters are pretty well developed, and the plot isn't bad. If nearly anyone OTHER than Stephen King had written this, it would have been a solid effort.

That said, it wasn't someone other than Stephen King. It WAS Stephen King. And, while he was much younger when he completed this-- this was years before Carrie, The Shining, or any of the other works that would make him famous-- it still isn't up to the quality or the standards one would expect from a King novel. It's not paranormal, or even hypernormal, like Dolores Claiborne, Cujo, or Gerald's Game. There are no vampires, mummies, or the Holy Ghost. The characters don't say especially witty things, and while it takes place in Maine, don't expect to recognize many characters... there are scant references to The Rock, but this is a seperate work. What this is, in the end, is a midline work on a petty con. If you like King and want to read it, try to pretend he didn't write it. If you don't like King, and like the sort of crime books you pick up five minutes before your plane takes off, this might be the work for you. It's solid, but just not enough.

I do not usually like Stephen King, but I liked this novel. It is not drawn out and overly descriptive like some of his other novels I have attempted to read. This book is about a badly abused, slightly mentally damaged man just trying to make a life. Sadly, he does not go about it the right way and kidnaps a baby in hopes of gaining a million dollars, but he proves to be an incredibly lovable character, growing more so as you get a look into his childhood. I could have done without the dead guy, George, always speaking to him. I feel the story would have been better without that little annoying addition. The ending was predictable. The reader has it figured out about halfway thru. In conclusion, this novel is a quick, easy, entertaining read that has you sympathizing with the bad guy for a change, and would make a pretty good, tho predictable movie.

Ok--I picked it up because it looked entertaining, but The Pledge just wasn't that great. The plot, on top of being drawn out and convoluted, was implausible. What kind of exclusive fraternity bids a pledge without knowing one blessed thing about his past? And come on, generations of former brothers that still hang around the frat house? It reminds me of the thirty year old guy who trolls around teen dance clubs trying to pick up high school girls and impress people with his fancy car. And, I was very dissatisfied with the way the story ended. I was hoping Mark would at last reconcile with his fugitive father, who was sort of at the center of the entire conflict--but we never even met the man!
For me, the best parts of the story were the rhymes that Mark and the other black cloaked figures recited. Maybe the whole story could have been in rhyme--that would've been something!

i don't usually get into novels, but this one was fantastic. intriguing and keeps you guessing right along with the characters. i laughed, i cried, i loved it.

I received the book from a friend, and couldn't put it down! It was an awesome book and I plan to re-read it shortly because I loved it so much. No need to be a member of a Greek organization to enjoy the book in its entirety. The author makes it easy to follow along and I ensure it is a definite page-turner!

I picked up this book not knowing what to expect. It started off slow but once I got into it I couldn't put it down! Its fast moving, exciting, and it makes you think. It amazing that this is the author's first novel. I would recommend this book to anyone who like a mystery/thriller book.

I picked this book up at a bargain table & am glad I did. The other reviews describe the plot so I don't need to, but it kept me reading right until the end. It's a classic good vs. evil story, with the good being very good & the evil being really evil.

Cycle of the Werewolf, by Stephen King. It sounds promising, and starts off pretty good, but as the calender months start going by(the whole book is one giant calender) it starts to lag. By lag, I mean that the story begins to repeat itself, and once cool ideas turn boorrrrrinnnng. The artwork though(one for every month, the months are like chapters) is incredibly chilling and original, well worth the 15.95 cover price of the book alone. Berni Wrightson(the illustrator) should get the credit for this book, not Stephen King. A werewolf tale, this book is well worth reading for some scenes, but not most. Only for a die-hard fan of Stephen King. Basically, good for a quick, short scare but not much else. 3 stars, or Grade: C-.

I'm a reader and one day I did not, seemingly, have anything to read. I asked my son if he could suggest anything and he said Stephen King. He did not see me for about three months after that, and we live in the same apartment. I read almost everything Stephen King wrote. This book is a special book - I mean in general. Berni Wrightson's illustrations make it a book I would grab to save if there was a fire, and I have a lot of books. This story is not like the video. The book is nicely framed in twelve sections according to months, and so we are treated to a woodcut-like black and white picture first thing, and then to a color, very well executed, scary picture of a pivotal event, in every chapter. Good versus evil at its very best! - no spoiler. (And then Stephen King, in one of his books, turned me on to Stephen Dobyns, for which I am very grateful . . .)

Cycle of the Werewolf is a small book only about 130 pages but within those pages stephen king puts some great story telling you've herd about the Werewolf but now King puts pen to paper to tell about there as the title states there cycle and how they act. The book has amazing drawings by Bernie Wrightson.

During Each month the Full moon comes out and with each full moon so dose the werewolf, The werewolf comes killing something each time it comes out it starts out small but it progresses as it goes along eventuly killing humans.

Cycle of The Werewolf is a good short read for King Fans with (as i states very nice drawings by Bernie Wrightson) a good read that i would highly recomend 5/5 The Drawings by Bernie Wrightson also get 5/5.

The title of this book--"Cycle of the Werewolf"--is fairly self-explanatory. It's as simple as this; a small town, Tarker's Mills, has a big problem to worry about. One of its residents has become a werewolf. Once a month, during the--you guessed it--full moon, the werewolf attacks, each incident having a different outcome or repercussion.

Stephen King masterfully writes each of his characters, major or inconsequential, as fully fleshed out people with unique traits. Truly, no one can write about a small-town terror like King. Though a few chapters of this book (one for every month in the year that this story spans) don't seem to have an effect on this story--this short novel doesn't really 'find itself' until the sixth chapter (July)--when read as a whole, the random victims and the lives/stories cut short in the earlier chapters in this book are actually a reminder of the mindless, emotionless, random murder that the titular creature is best known for. However, as I favor character driven novels over plot-driven stories, the aspect of this book that I enjoyed the most were the three chapters told through the eyes of Marty Coslaw. To reveal any more about the way this story works and the aspects that I enjoyed would be to venture into spoiler territory, and I certainly don't plan on doing that.

The format of this book is very interesting. It's designed like a trade paperback (comics fans will know the term), though its size is that of a 'digest' novel. Berni Wrightson's art is gory and rough, and--though it isn't my 'kind' of art--it certainly suits the book. However, readers, be warned; there isn't as much content here as it may first appear. There are many illustrations and other material taking up the pages and, in my opinion, it adds to the overall effect. As this was meant to be a straightforward story, I'm glad that each chapter was short and to the point. But it's only fair that I warn everyone else, who may not agree with me.

8/10

This is a short, not particularly interesting novel told in twelve parts. It also has some illustrations by famous comic artist Bernie Wrightson.

When the killings in a small town in yes, Maine, keep mounting up, the townspeople come to the conclusion a werewolf is at work. Redneck drunk hunters aren't too useful though, and a young crippled boy has to work it all out.

I thought this book was absolutely wonderful. I felt like I knew the characters and was sad when I finnished reading it. Great for a weekend read and I felt completely satisfied. I would encourage anyone to read it!

I read this book a few years back after getting it from the library. I now want to buy it because even though much time has passed, the characters and the story still fascinate and haunt me. This is a story you won't forget, and it's a great one!

This is the story that Hannah Grey has waited a long time to tell. It's the story of what happened to her the summer she was seventeen, living in Maine. The summer she met Conary Crocker, the wild boy she fell in love with.

It's also the story of what began to happened with the Haskell family who lived in isolation on an island off the mainland of Dundee, Maine back in the late 1880s.

It's part love story, part ghost story.
And the two stories eventually collide...

I thought this was very well done. The characters were realistic, and well developed and I found it to be an easy and satisfying read. I will look for more books written by Beth Gutcheon.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW

This is my first Beth Gutcheon book but certainly will not be the last. I really enjoyed this book. It was cool how past and present were totally tied in with each other.

Hannah Gray tells of the summer she met the love of her life, Conary Crocker, resident bad boy. This is a summer during the Great Depression. Hannah and her half-brother and nasty, mean step-mother summer in Dundee, Maine. Not only does Hannah meet Conary, but they also meet some nasty, evil ghosts who are haunting the house where Hannah and family reside.

We also meet the Haskell family from 100 years earlier. They are a miserable, mean, unhappily wed couple who also have two children. Claris, the mother, marries Danial, which is odd due to the fact that Danial is a strange man, mean, cold, nasty, rude. Claris comes from a fun-loving, music-loving, happy, close-knit family and marrying Danial turns out to be the BIGGEST mistake of her young life.

All of these characters become involved with each other through ghosts and/or lost souls -- what have you. This book is a story of two couples and their relationships and how both of these relationships are intertwined even though they lived 100 years apart. The book tells of love, hate, hauntings, murder, great secondary characters, good story line, and history.

The wildly happy couple -- Hannah and Conary and the miserable, hateful couple -- Danial and Claris -- will stay in your mind for a long time. The book tells the stories of these two couples and their families in a way that will delight and scare you. This is good writing. I also enjoyed the history of the area, be it true or not!

This is a very well written book, one I thoroughly enjoyed, and one I will highly recommend to my friends/family.

Thank you!!! Pam

In "More Than You Know," Beth Gutcheon tells two stories, both set in a town in Maine, at once: first the story of Hannah Gray and the summer she spent with her irritating stepmother and the love of her life, Conary Crocker and second the story of the Haskells, a family that could not stand each other. As Hannah faces her own struggle with Edith (her stepmom), a spirit from the past begins to haunt her. At the same time, she begins to look into the Haskell murder mystery, which occurred many years before her time. The novel is about discovering our pasts and the importance of moving on--the danger of closing our minds to the world around us. Hannah becomes freer in her relationship with Conary while discovering what isolated and unhappy lives the Haskells lived because they were alone on an island and would not admit their anxiety and anger. This discovery is important to what happens later in Hannah's life: a reverence of the past, tradition and family, but not a slavish devotion to it. The ambitious, well-written and impressive novel is crafted beautifully and effectively. The problem is, in the end, the storylines are not all that exciting. Gutcheon's story needed more pizzaz, more flash and more style to draw the reader in more. She does all she can with the spare storyline, but to really accentuate the meaning of the novel, she needed to highlight it, rather than watercolor it across the page.

Although this book started with quite a jump and kept me interested, by the middle I was getting too much redundancy. I'm glad this author told her story and shared it as a tool for relationships and to learn from.

While Meredith Hall in "Without a Map" tells a sad, interesting story, I found myself struggling to get through the book. Undoubtedly, she was treated abysmally by her parents and friends when she became pregnant at 16 years old. This family and community "shunning," along with giving up her baby for adoption, stays with her through the course of her life. Very sad, poignant stuff. But, she reminds us, practically every paragraph, over and over, that she is in pain, sad, alone, detached, etc.

There are very interesting, meaty parts of the story. She buys a fishing boat with a boyfriend and fishes through a storm, she walks through Europe to the Middle East with no money, she cares for her mother through a terrible terminal disease. But these moments are dragged down by the over emphasis of her feelings. Meredith also chooses to ignore chronology again and again, and also leaves huge holes in her story - just when we are rivited by her story, she jumps to a whole new part of her life. For instance, one chapter ends with her in the Middle East, broke, practically naked...then, she decides to go home. The next chapter starts and she has two children. How did she get home? How did she meet and fall in love with the father? What changes in this empty person's life to open up to another human and decide to create a new life? It is a mystery.

While there is some good stuff here, and Hall is a talented writer, I found this to be a tedious attempt. I needed more meat, less gravy.

Having read some of the reviews, I get the sense that those born of later generations or those who led sheltered lives have difficulty conceptualizing what it was like for a young girl who found herself in Meredith Hall's circumstances. One review even stated that abortion was not an option. Actually, it was -- a dangerous, often fatal, backstreet option performed mostly by unethical practioners under unsanitary conditions.

Hall's parents were like many of those times but fortunately not all. Some, rather than shun their child and cast her out, tried to help her, but all so secretly, making arrangements for her to go away for "a long visit," or "to care for a sick relative," in a far away town.

Faced with shame and censure by the community, many would react as Hall's did with devastating affects on the girl. Some of the reviewers could not understand why Hall could not just, as we say now, suck it up and move on. I tended to feel that way myself at times while reading the book, but I do understand that not everyone is able to do that. She had lost the love of her parents, and lost the child as well. Those are two heavy losses right there. She also lost the only way of life she had known.

Some reviewers felt that Hall lacked feeling in her telling of her story, not expressing warm emotion in other relationships in her life. I believe rather that the trauma of loss caused feeling to be bottled deeply within, beyond her reach for many years. Perhaps that was what the killing of the chickens was about. I found that to be a highly difficult chapter to read, but perhaps it was an important one. Killing of living creatures with names, seemed to represent the killing of her spirit, all her girlhood hopes and dreams that she had experienced. Laying out their bodies was like laying out all the losses. It was after that that Hall seemed able to finally move on.

People react differently to different experiences. Another book that readers of Without a Map might enjoy is Stolen Fields: A Story of Eminent Domain and the Death of the American Dream a memoir that traces the effects of a catastrophic event through several generations of a family.

This is the harrowing tale of a child who was betrayed by her mother and father, and a child who became a mother and then betrayed her own child. The story begins with the sudden loss of everything that Meredith Hall held dear--her parents' love, her home, her place in the community, her school friends--when she was deserted for the sin of becoming pregnant at 16. The memoir is a sustained reflection on how this betrayal played itself out through the rest of her life.

Throughout the book, Hall tries to understand the terrible betrayal of her parents' love, a love bordered by conditions, the most important one being "Thou shalt not bring shame upon us." With startling honesty, she consistently refuses to gloss over, deny, or ignore the consequences of her actions or those of her parents, most notably in her account of the abuses her abandoned son, Paul, suffered at the hands of his adoptive father. Hall never hides from the scars she inflicted on her beloved son, and insists on forcing herself to note the terrible differences between the upbringings her 3 sons experienced--the first child a life of deprivation and fear, the others, lives of love and comfort. There is no possibility of reconciling these facts, nor does she attempt to.

Hall holds all the violent and conflicting emotions together, never allowing the one to cancel out the other--love and rage, trust and betrayal, need and abandonment, loss and guilt. Her writing carries no contradictions, just the paradoxes of a life lived and declared in lines of lyrical beauty, with passages of exquisite beauty, so finely detailed that it hurts to read. It is a testament to Hall's many years of deep reflection and personal honesty that she could sustain this juxtaposing and balancing of opposites without allowing her work to collapse under the weight of the awful emotional overload she has lived through.

Although this memoir makes for compelling reading, it is not always an easy read. To read it is to become immersed in the terrible suffering of an untethered soul seeking love lost. Hall partially finds what she has spent a lifetime looking for when she is reunited with her 21-year-old son, and when she opens her home and gradually her heart to an old man who is afraid to continue living alone after the death of his wife. But in the end this is a book about life and living. Hall succeeds in gleaning wisdom from a grief begun in a betrayal and carried in a wounded heart through her life. She discovers a joy that "lies like a shimmering pond within our grief, the landscape of our lives."

In the end, Hall asks herself if she would choose a different life, if she would forget all the pain. And the answer she gives is surely the only answer possible. "No. Memory remains. The uneasy remembering transforms pain into sorrow, and sorrow into love. There can be no oblivion."

by Edith O'Nuallain
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I really enjoyed reading this book but have wondered if the author has exaggerated a bit for effect. I lived in a small New Hampshire town close to Hampton at the time the book begins. A girl or two in the town became pregnant and there was definite disapproval, but at the same time kindness. No one was shunned by her friends or anyone else, much less her parents. I find it hard to believe that her parents were so stonily unloving at this critical time of need for support and understanding, not to mention help. Maybe, but I doubt it. Her travels sound suspiciously overdone also. Still, it's an absorbing story and a gripping read.

I forgot about this book and wanted to re read it. it was a great read, depth, love, passion, tears and smiles. what a great revisit.

I Loved the book, but when I got to the end part of the book was missing.
I had to get another book from my bookclub to finish the book. It would have cost to much to return.
Jonie

Ann Rivers Siddons does a good job of recreating a dysfunctional family and how toxicity reverberates throughout generations; unfortunately, one gets the impression that Siddons is unconscious of the dysfunction and expects us to admire her main character. I was left wondering how autobiographical the work was. While the story is engaging and the prose poetic, Siddons introduces a textbook codependent relationship and wants us to buy this as a model of transcedent love. Sorry for the spoiler but in the end we discover that Maude murdered a baby, allowed her son to take the blame for her husband's misdeed, and allowed the spirit of her daughter to be destroyed but, hey, she did it all for codependency er, I mean love. I confess that I always used Siddons as light reading; her novels are hardly Pulitzer material and her women are far from our society's most enlightened beings (with the exception of "Smokey" in "Downtown") but her books provided good escapism. I was so repulsed by this book that I have sworn off Siddons. One word sufficiently summarizes-EWWWWW....

This is one of Anne Rivers Siddons best. Great book with a wonderful twist. Her characters are so real life. My only "complaint" about her (and it's not much of a complaint) is that you need a dictionary next to you when you read any of her books. It's a bit superfluous (see what I mean?). I had a hard time putting this book down. I heartedly recommend this.

This book was interesting to read, it covered several generations of families and time periods. It was quite long, but it was never boring. One thing that got a little repetitive was that only bad things seemed to happen during the summers, while the families were summering in Maine. Also, it did seem like MANY depressing and tragic things happened to the family. The characters were very real due to the descriptions, situations and dialogue, but especially because the reader knows them their entire lives. The setting in Maine was also extremely descriptive, and by the end of the story I had the entire colony mapped out in my mind. The ending included some twists and surprises that I honestly did not see coming. Overall it was an enjoyable read and I will definately read more by this author in the future.

An interesting blend of ingredients: a dash of history, a pinch of the occult, and a healthy cuff of murder. This novel is an ambitious literary soufle. Most authors would flatten it into fare thinner than an IHOP pancake.

Connolly however manages to raise our expectation.

Suspend your disbelief. Savor this mystery with the lights turned low and silence your surroundings.

I love Connolly's books. First, they are always filled with great mysteries and suspense. Second, there is always a small dose of the paranormal mixed into it. And finally, his writing is so poetic and so beautiful that it makes the reading experience all that more entertaining. Bad Men does not disappoint. Although it is a rare book that doesn't feature detective Charlie Parker, it is still an intricate novel filled with great characters and incredible twists and turns.

The small island of Sanctuary, Maine, has a dark past. Its history is full of murders, traitors and deceptions. The island has been dormant for some time now, the inhabitants having been left alone to live their every day life without fear or pain. But when a group of Bad Men arrive on the island, things change quite dramatically.

Joe Dupree, the island's Sheriff, is somewhat of a legend for Sanctuary. Called the giant because of his towering height, he is in love with
Marianne, a young mother who has just moved to the island. Little does he know that Marianne holds some secrets she isn't ready to share, secrets that will undoubtedly threaten the very existence of the island. Secrets that will awaken the dark side of the island.

Although the first half of the novel is a bit too slow moving, the author taking his time to tell the tale of the island and of the Bad Men in question, its second half is well worth the wait. As the story progresses, you never know where it will take you. No one in this story is safe. No one in this story is fully good or fully bad. These are flawed humans with secrets, secrets that might very spell their doom.

This is one of my favourite Connellys. I couldn't put it down. When the novel ends, I actually wanted more out of the story. It's still amazing to me that Connolly, and Irishman living in Europe, can capture the essence of small-town coastal Maine.

I can't wait for Connolly to write another stand alone novel. I love his Charlie Parker mysteries, but Bad Men prove that he has much more to offer.

This is a top notch book if you like thrillers. The bad guys were pure evil and richly developed characters. This was my first Connolly book and it lead me to read the entire Charlie Parker series which were also very enjoyable.

Bad Men by John Connolly is a dark, disturbing book about the worst kind of evil: the sort men are capable of doing to other men. Some authors write about evil in order to demonstrate the ultimate power of good; others, like Stephen King, use evil as a tool in telling a story about the supernatural. Mr. Connolly, by contrast, appears to enjoy writing about evil simply for the sake of writing about evil.

There are four main characters in this book: three of them are people; one of them is an island. All of them are tortured, complex souls. Moloch is the tortured bad man, a convicted spouse abuser who escapes prison and goes on a murder spree. Bent on enacting revenge on his betraying wife, he is unable to understand why he is plagued by visions from the ancient past. Marianne is Moloch's tortured wife. She turned her husband over to the law years ago and lives in fear of his eventual release from prison. She lives under a new identity with her son on Dutch Island, Maine, as far away from Moloch as she can get. Joe DuPree is Dutch Island's tortured policeman. He is a giant of a man and has lived with resultant ridicule his entire life. He comes from a long line of Dutch Island DuPrees, and he is is love with Marianne, though he is unaware of her secret past. The fourth character is Dutch Island itself. The little island lies so far out in the Atlantic that it is virtually cut off from the mainland except for a twice-a-day ferry that doesn't run in foul weather--which in the winter turns out to be more days than not. The island used to be called Sanctuary, back in the dark past of which Moloch dreams without knowing why. And it has a past of its own, and it is tortured too, in its own way.

Strange spirits move deep within the woods of Dutch Island. Things happen here that no one can quite explain. Old paths through the forest become overgrown and nearly impossible to find overnight. The ancient watchtower on the coast sometimes seems to be inhabited, though not by anyone who can ever be seen. Something terrible happened here centuries ago, and the island has not forgotten. And now, with Moloch and his band of evil men making their way across the country toward Dutch Island and Marianne, the ancient spirits of the island are beginning to wake up.

It is not clear from reading the book what Connolly intended his readers to get out of it. There is no discernable moral, none of the characters undergoes an epiphany, and by the end of the book, the reader feels so oppressed by Moloch's criminal insanity that without any positive message to offset the horrible crimes described in such great detail, one wonders exactly what the author was trying to get across. Nevertheless, Connolly writes about the criminal mind brilliantly, though whether or not that is a commendable attribute may be open to debate. We get an all-too-clear picture of what's happening in Moloch's mind as he bounces back and forth between his dreams of ancient evil and his participation in present crimes.

Connolly portrays his villains (Moloch is not the only evil man in the story; he is the leader of a whole group of murderous thugs) in an almost sympathetic way. At no point in the book does the reader begin to root for the evildoers, or even identify with them, but the author does give them individual personalities and motivations for their actions. As the book's title might suggest, the bulk of the narrative and most of the action follows Moloch's gang as they make their way toward Dutch Island. The author covers the other characters thoroughly and doesn't leave any loose ends, but his heart never quite seems to be in the writing when he's not examining the criminals and their crimes. The romance between the hulking Joe DuPree and Marianne, for example, is sweet but almost entirely without substance. Their developing relationship is never quite convincing, and their single sexual encounter is, while happily not described in great detail, also devoid of feeling and seems utterly shallow. Compare this with the emotion and depth with which Connolly describes one character's murder of an innocent man because he was talking too loud on a cell phone, and it's not difficult to see why the law-abiding characters tend to come off as dry and almost boring.

The central idea behind the story--a place that seeks revenge for horrors perpetrated there--is not an original one, but it works for Connolly every bit as well as it has worked for others in the past. Connolly employs a haunted island instead of a haunted house or a graveyard, and the touch of originality gives the story just enough of a chill factor to keep readers guessing. The ghosts manage to be creepy without being ridiculous, and the islanders' encounters with them are part scary and part curious, leading to a real anticipation of what will happen when the spirits of the dead get their hands on the present-day murderers when they finally get to the island.

The story climaxes when Moloch and his band of merry murderers get to Dutch Island and seek out Marianne so that Moloch can pay her back for her treachery. As expected, the island comes alive with a horrible response to the evil that has reached its shores. Unfortunately, the book's finale is rather unsatisfying, and the end comes abruptly. Nothing is left unsettled, but the reader puts the book down feeling a little bit bewildered by how suddenly the story has come to an end.

Bad Men is enjoyable in some respects, but it's enjoyable in the same way that some people enjoy watching a scary movie: it's so terrible that it somehow rings true. The writing is good enough to keep readers going through the horrific descriptions of awful crimes, though it's not quite good enough to justify not having any central message or theme other than the evil that truly insane men can sometimes commit. Christians will find little to latch onto in the story. While it is certainly true that evil of the kind John Connolly writes about exists in the world, it's best to discuss it while keeping in mind that God has already conquered all evil. Evil men still do horrible things, but God has already secured the ultimate victory. In Bad Men, triumph over evil comes from the vengeful spirits of the ancient dead. In real life, triumph over evil comes from the blood of Jesus Christ. John Connolly is very good at what he does, but this novel would have been far better if he had focused less on the things bad men are capable of and more on the goodness that the rest of us cling to every day.

...didn't dissapoint me.I "discovered" Connolly,searching some used books at the library.I've now read all of the Charlie Parker books. Being he's Irish,Connolly shows his knowledge/history(study) of Maine and the local towns,I find real interesting. Bad Men,part mystery/supenmatural....are some bad people.He goes back to the old myths,to today real smooth. I really enjoyed Connolly describing how Marianne,ran away from her scary/abusive/controlling husband(Moloch).Sherrif Joe Dupree,a giant of a man,living in a "normal" world,was easy to feel for him.Molochs "companions",(which you wouldn't want to look at wrong) were some real mean individuals. This was a good quick read from a gifted thriller writer....I can't wait for the next Parker book!!!