John R. Holt (2)

The St. Claires had always protected the town that was their namesake, particularly from the evil which had always been a part of it. With the life of his daughter hanging in the hands of his god a desperate Luciferian promises to renew his pledge with the lives of five young people who had sworn allegiance and walked away years before. And with them, he also promises the life of the last St. Claire, the one with the power to bring upon him the most terrible of anathemas, the one with the power to change into a creature which may be able to destroy him and all his followers.

Although this is pegged as a "dark urban fantasy" on the spine, I think that this story would fit right in with Mr. King's books. It has been a while since I've read a horror novel and this one reminded me that the reason for this is because I'm such a wimp! For a horror story (if you like that kind of thing), I think this one was a pretty good one. We have your out-of-control young girl who has inherited the family curse and a town run by a cult of powerful devil worshipers. Add in bloody murders, illicit (and potentially incestual) affairs and scary demons and it certainly sounds like something that goes bump in the night to me! As for the story itself, I liked it a little better than I thought I would despite the fact that I did wind up skimming both the more gruesome bits and a few chapters about 2/3rds of the way through when I got sick of hearing about how our friendly resident Satanists were working on getting their sacrifices of choice back to the town.

Even if the story is a little dated now, I still think that this is a horror novel that would appeal to those who have read and enjoyed the classic Kings and would like to read a new to them story with old ideas for a bit of terrifying nostalgia.… (meer)