The premise of this novel is simple: a group of four teenagers, all with what seem insurmountable problems in their home life, fill out and sign forms which have been sent anonymously to one of them - from someone who claims to be able to solve their most pressing problems in return for something they do not value. Then those forms are snatched by the wind and blown out to sea, and soon afterwards events occur which seem to be in direct relation to the problem they each described. The trouble is, in some cases that solution is fairly horrible - especially in the case of Peter's slightly senile grandmother.

Move forward 25 years to the, in some cases, unsatisfactory adult life each of them has built and the problems start coming home to roost - because the things they didn't care about at the time, such as reputation or success in business, start to be destroyed. There is a creepy atmosphere to all this, although the only overt supernatural element is the return of Peter's grandmother who is bent on revenge. The most horrific part of the story is probably the portrayal of senile dementia/Alzheimers in the character of the mother who sets about systematically destroying her daughter's reputation as a doctor and even trying to get her put into jail for drug dealing (which she is not doing). The story does succeed in creating sympathy for at least three of the four, although I found some difficulty relating to Peter who is the most damaged of the grown characters. For that and the occasionally too over the top aspects I would rate this story as 4 star. ( )

In 1958, in a seaside English town, Peter, a young teenager, greatly oppressed by an elderly grandmother, receives in the mail blank forms assuring him that if he fills them out, he will have his dearest wish granted, and he will lose only something he doesn’t want. He fills one out and gets three of his friends to do the same. They do get what they want, but, for Peter, the price is too high, for his grandmother dies in front of him.

Twenty years later, the four run into trouble as they begin to lose something that didn’t matter to them when they were teenagers, but which matters much to them now. All four of them are tempted to evil and all of them yield to different degrees yet their yielding oddly enough leads to their escaping their problems with relatively clean hands. All but poor Peter, driven mad by the rotting corpses of his grandmother and a man he accidentally killed. He ends up a child kidnapper and nearly a child murderer. Come to think of it, though, he had a revelation of sorts at his moment of death so perhaps he found a greater salvation than his peers.

Like “Specters,” this was originally an old horror paperback that I’d had for years. I replaced it with an e-book because the pages of the original were too hard to read. I was a little bored and irritated by it. I enjoyed Peter’s horrors well enough (oh, forgive me for using an honest verb) but I found the problems of the other men banal, despite their terribleness. By contrast, I was very emotionally involved with the ordeal of the woman physician who was stuck with a senile mother who was wrecking her life in very believable ways. Yeah, I connected, all right, but I can’t say that I enjoyed her problem, for I quickly released that a ghost would be preferable to dealing with a monster that you loved.

All that said, Campbell’s great virtue as a horror writer is his ability to ground his horrors in everyday life. I thought he did it better before and since but I respected this effort without liking it much. ( )

Being that this is labeled horror, I expected it to be. However, it was drawn out in the story, not terribly scary, and poorly written. I really wasn't happy with this book. If it had been even a little horrific it would have been much better! ( )

i expected a lot from this book, which makes a go of being a traditional gothic horror; too much, it turns out. i could not get into it. there was none of the dread, suspense, or concept that i expect from a Campbell novel, so i finally gave up after about 50 pages. life is too short for lackluster books. give it a try, though; it's not horrible, and you may dig it. ( )