Product Description

A horror story set in New England. Built on top of the hill in the 1890s, the long-vacant Blackstone Asylum casts its shadow over the small town, but now workmen have moved in to demolish it. As they do so, they unleash a terrible evil, an unholy fear long locked within its walls.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #356579 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

Horror with reality thown in
This is the first time I have read anything from John Saul. The Blackstone Chronicles are a series of books that were released within a short time of each other, but I can easily believe that the first readers of the "Chronicles" felt it was an eternity between each release. I admit that in general, stories set in America I find hard to relate to (currency, lift and elevator, etc) but the American references were few and far between, therefore didn't spoil my reading pleasure. Blackstone is a fictitious town set in New Hampshire(?). Without trying to give away the plot, mysterious objects appear to residents of Blackstone with dire consequences. Not just that of the physical occurances but the gossip that ensues. The last time I read serialised novels were "The Rats", "Lair", and "Domain" (James Herbert). They kept me glued to the pages just like "Blackstone Chronicles". It is truly a masterpiece, next time I choose a book, I'll probably choose to look towards John Saul again (If there are no more James Herbert books left to read ;)

"Savoring the suffering. Delighting in the disease..."
At the outset of this six-volume series, author John Saul introduces the major characters, establishes the Gothic setting in small town New Hampshire, creates foreboding about the scheduled conversion of the Blackstone Asylum into a shopping mall, and then introduces the "single dark figure that moves through the ruptured stone wall" into the silent Asylum. There the figure locates a small cubicle containing the artifacts of long-ago inmates. As these artifacts appear, mysteriously, in the lives of the present occupants of Blackstone, death and destruction result.Plot summaries and reviews for the six separate volumes appear separately on Amazon.

Saul tells the reader from the outset that the destruction of the Asylum will change everyone's life, then goes about proving it. Because his characters are not fully developed, they do not inspire the reader's sympathy when they change from ordinary citizens to demons or when their lives move from normalcy to chaos, especially at the beginning. The stories move along quickly and inevitably, the Gothic shock evolving from the amount of cruelty and the amount of horror, rather than from our knowledge of the individuals and our surprise at their behavior.

Throughout the series, the agonizing tortures (in the name of "cures") at the Asylum fifty years ago are interspersed with modern day life, and occasionally Saul gives us the name of a former employee or resident of the Asylum which enables the reader to tie a contemporary victim to the history of the Asylum. The victims are usually one or two generations removed from the events in the Asylum, however, and not directly responsible for what happened there, so one wonders why the "dark figure" is emphasizing the "sins of the father" by punishing the children or grandchildren.

Filled with blood-drenched rooms, sudden explosions, unexplained attacks on seemingly innocent people, and wholesale destruction, the series does not show clear motivation for all this horror, the shock of which dulls over time. The "dark figure" has little direct involvement in the havoc, once he has given an object from the Asylum to his next victim, and he fails to evolve as a terrifying force. Though the ending answers some of the questions, it does not connect all the victims or answer all the questions. (And many readers will figure out the identity of the "dark figure" by the end of Volume 4.) Ultimately, I was disappointed that the violence and horror exist here for their own sake. There is no accountability for the death and destruction, leaving the reader with the feeling that justice has not been served. Mary Whipple

Exellent , you have to keep on reading till the end.
I really enjoyed this book. Its the best book i have read this year. . The characters, setting, events all seemed so real it is like you are right there in the story with it all happening around you. You feel as if you have known the characters all your life.I could not put the book down till i had finished.