Midnight Voices
by John Saul
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Book Summary Information
Author: John SaulEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-03-04
ISBN: 0449006530
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Midnight Voices
Book Review: A tale of love,ghosts,lies and poverty!
Summary: 3 Stars
This review is dedicated to all those women out there who are single parents and have a hard time taking care of themselves and their kids.I want them to know that they can make it just as anyone else,it just takes faith and determination and a heart full of love...Nigel.
As I write this review I am a bit disappointed with some of the other reviews I have read on this page.Simply because they don't give you a clue as to the story hidden within the book.
This is a great book,the only downfall is that it could have been longer,because as the ending approached another story was revealed which I think could have been touched on or explained in greater detail.But nevertheless this book keeps you guessing and the chapters are short and well developed.It is difficult to skip out anything in this book,because everything is connected either directly or indirectly.
There is so much suspense in this book,it leaves you dumb.It has only appromixately two murders in this book.(so,if you are looking for one of those bloody serial killer novels,then don't bother reading it)If you want a novel that would make every part of your body shiver out of fright,not because of what you are reading, but what you are going to read on the next page,then read this book,its perfect for you...
Here is the plot,as written briefly by me,recapitulated:
(I can write this plot from many angles,I would try to do at least two)
.A lawyer,Brad Evans,is murdered while jogging.
.He leaves his wife,Caroline,and two kids,Laurie and Ryan,to fend for themselves.
.Pretty soon after his death,his wife and kids start to have financial problems,leaving their house and going to live somewhere poor.
(The above part of the story concentrates on the problems a single mother has to face,the sacrifices she has to make to ensure that her kids are happy.This happens in the first 100 pages or so)
.While in the part watching her son play baseball,she was introduced to a man named Anthony Fleming.A rich successful man.(or was he)
This part of the story goes like a romance novel,guaranteeing a great ending...
.But soon after Caroline and her children moves in with Anthony Fleming,bad things start to happen!
Like,for example,Laurie has strange dreams in which people were sucking out fluids from her body.And Ryan starts hearing strange noises coming from a room yet unseen.
.Sometime after,Ryan wonders into his stepfather's study.Ryan then sees some pictures of his father and other neighbours which shocks him.(there is something amazing about these photographs which I would not disclose in this review,for fear that I would give away too much)
.Ryan is caught looking at these photographs by his stepfather,Anthony Fleming.He is then asked by Anthony never to go in that room again.
.Ryan tells his mother about all of this and about how the neighbours have been acting strangely.But his words weren't heard.His mother dismissed it as grief.Because Ryan still missed his real father.
.Pretty soon Caroline herself goes into the "forbidden study" and she seens for her self what the photographs contained!
.She slowly but surely starts to believe her son's story.
.Then one Night she awoke to fine her husband gone.She left the room and wondered into her daughter's room only to find her gone.She instinctively went to the study,finds a closet and enters.(what she sees here is where the story starts to get freaky).
.She sees her daughter on a bed with tubes attached to her.Her husband was there along with all the neighbours,who looked younger that usual.(there is a reason why they are looking young).And before I forget,at the start of the story these people were all old!
.Anyway,Caroline,after seeing this sight,started to scream,only to be stopped by her husband.But before her husband quelled her,she managed to scrape him,leaving rotting flesh exposed along with the scent of death!
.Now,Caroline awakes in a hospital room to find herself strapped to a bed.And her children is under the care of her husband(Anthony Fleming)...
The story gets really good from this point...
like I promised,I am going to write the above plot from Anthony Fleming's point of view.
.Anthony Fleming,along with the neighbours in this apartment building are dead,ghosts,zombies...(it is not specifically said what they were,only clues are given,it leave us wondering what they really were.One thing is certain though,and that is that Anthony and his neighbours were dead people)
.The only way they allowed themselves to materialize was to suck juices(again,the story doesn't say what kind of juices)from the human body of young people.
.These juices allowed these so called "ghosts" to remain young and maintain a youthful human,solid,physical body.
.And ever so ofter they would capture children and take their body juices.
So the story's main plot takes effect:The two children are faced with this horrible stepfather and his neighbours,who want nothing but the children's "youngness"...
Now,let me tell you where this story falls short:like I said,it could have been longer.Also,alot of things are obvious.And other things are vaguely written.I can't believe that the writer leaves us hanging.A suspense novel is not meant to put puzzles and leave them unsolved...
But,like I said,this novel is nevertheless good,and it is worth the read...Though I would recommend books like"The homing","Guardian"..which are much better....enjoy...Nige.
Summary of Midnight Voices
The sudden, tragic death of her husband leaves Caroline Evans alone in New York City to raise her children with little money and even less hope. When she meets and marries handsome, successful Anthony Fleming, the charismatic man of her dreams, she believes her life is destined for happiness. She and her children move into her new husband?s spacious apartment in the legendary Rockwell on Central Park West. Despite her son?s instinctive misgivings about the building and its residents, Caroline dismisses the odd behavior of her neighbors as pleasant eccentricities. But after her daughter begins to experience horrifying nightmares and a startling secret emerges, Caroline realizes that the magnificence of her new home masks a secret of unimaginable horror. . . .In a Rosemary's Baby meets Hansel and Gretel thriller, John Saul's Midnight Voices is packed with bump-in-the-night chills that will frighten and delight readers with its nostalgic nod to urban legends and campfire tales. With short, edgy chapters and all-too-vivid imagery, Midnight Voices begs to be enjoyed in one sitting, in the dark, huddled on the corner of your couch. As usual in Saul's world, strange things are afoot in the city, and the Evans family is the target.
At the heart of this spooky tale are the children, Laurie and Ryan Evans, who are unwittingly exposed to danger when their recently widowed mother marries widower Anthony Fleming. The too-good-to-be-anything-but-evil Fleming lives in the Rockwell, a building rumored to be inhabited by witches and vampires, that has the children in the neighborhood terrified:
"Amber's eyes were still fixed on the building. They were just stories, she told herself once again. They weren't true. But even as she silently spoke the words to herself, a strange chill of apprehension ran through her and she turned away ... I'll die, she thought. If I go in there, I'll die."
Of course, the newly married Caroline does not share the anxiety of her children, despite Fleming's Bluebeard-like determination to keep everyone out of his study, not to mention the horrible whispers and strange sounds coming from empty rooms in the middle of the night. It is this tension, and Caroline's dawning realization of her new husband's shortcomings, that drives the novel to its startling conclusion.
Saul uses familiar horror images--an ancient building with even older residents, creepy neighbors that are not quite right, whispers in your room after midnight--to spin a new tale of evil that will remind readers why one should always leave the closet light on. --Daphne Durham
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