- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (July 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312870566
- ISBN-13: 978-0312870560
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.7 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,741,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
SILENT CHILDREN contains some of the most disturbing scenes commited to paper in the last few years. Sure, Campbell is well regarded for his ability to convey chilling encounters with forces you can only describe as supernatural, but here he eschews his spookiness for something closer to home ... and, as a result, much more scary.
Many readers will find Campbell`s prose something of an acquired taste -- it`s often surreal, often overly mannered -- but once you`re into it it`s very effective. Hector Wooley, the villian of this book is perhaps Campbell`s finest creation since Jack Orchard (the Stan Laurel inspired serial killer of his fine novel THE COUNT OF ELEVEN), he is funny and gruesome and deadly serious. Moving with pace and precision, never the easiest trick, Campbell shows the disintigration of a family`s life when one of its members dissapears (well, is taken by Wooley) and the subsequent recriminations. If the struggling American horror writter (Campbell`s books are sadly no longer published in the UK) is a little bit of autobiography, we can forgive Ramsey that much.
SILENT CHILDREN, then, is a must read. The black humour will have you laughing out loud, but the scenes where Wooley attempts to entertain his stolen children will disturb you to the bone.
If you want to be seriously disturbed, read this book. If you don`t, then perhaps you`d be better off staying away.
Format:Paperback
Short review, but... Campbell is the fine, expensive bottle of wine in horror writing, to be sipped and savoured, and this is one of his very best. Simply put, the story burns slowly, agonisingly so, until the horror kicks in and it becomes one of the most terrifying and disturbing novels I have ever read. If you've got kids, well, after reading this you may never let them out of sight again... To sum up; a masterpiece.
Pyjama Man
Pyjama Man
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Excellent horror tale
21 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
No one loved children as much as Hector Woolie. He hated when he felt a parent neglected or abused a child. However, he loved them so much, he abducted the lambs from their nasty parents, but when they failed to behave he made them perfect by killing them. Almost caught, Hector faked his death by using pliers to yank his teeth to prove he drowned. In reality, Hector simply vanished into the night.
Years later, Ian's parents' divorce leaves him shattered and depressed. Hector is Ian's next door neighbor and soon he kidnaps the teenager and his stepsister. His mother is one wall away, but only her sobs penetrate Ian's frightened mind.
No author today can take a reader into a worse abyss than Ramsey Campbell does. Mr. Campbell makes the darkest nightmare feel genuine because his characters seem real as they struggle with day to day living even before they end up in a crisis. SILENT CHILDREN is fast-paced and loaded with so much tension that the audience is sent into a panic because they believe that Ian is going to die on the next page and each subsequent page afterward. Mr. Campbell graphically but authentically portrays the worst sins humanity can perform on one another in a true horror tale.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Horror as it SHOULD be written
29 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
What if your son "disappeared" but was really, secretly, only a room away, hearing every word you said? That's one of the situations in the book - and it makes for a totally suspenseful and unique tale.
Believable characters that I cared about, continuing suspense and twists that I didn't foresee are what kept me glued to the pages of this one. Even the killer has his reasons, however skewed, and he truly believes he is "saving" the children he murders. What I found particularly compelling in this book was the portrait of the teenager, Ian. By the time he and his stepsister disappear, they've become truly compelling characters and the reader cares about what happens to them.
Believable characters that I cared about, continuing suspense and twists that I didn't foresee are what kept me glued to the pages of this one. Even the killer has his reasons, however skewed, and he truly believes he is "saving" the children he murders. What I found particularly compelling in this book was the portrait of the teenager, Ian. By the time he and his stepsister disappear, they've become truly compelling characters and the reader cares about what happens to them.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Don't wait too long to read this one.
15 Feb 2005
Format:Hardcover
Ramsey Campbell is brilliant yet again. It a pleasure to read such a strongly written novel. Great plot, richly detailed characters and that overpowering sense of evil that only the very best can emanate from the page. Don't wait too long to read this one.
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