Don't all kids think there's a haunted house in their neighbourhood? Can you remember yours? What if, as a child, you knew something bad really had happened in that house? What if you actually saw it? Then you tried to forget it for the next thirty years. And then, one day, you had to go back inside that house? Andrew Pyper's THE GUARDIANS is a ghost story for grown-ups. Prepare to enter the Thurman House on Caledonia Street. You have been warned...
The Guardians
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Review
`A splendidly eerie haunted house story, and a superb evocation of small town life. The Guardians gripped me from its opening line and never let go.' (John Connolly )
`Andrew Pyper's The Guardians is everything you could ask for in a thriller. It's psychologically unnerving, moves like a bullet, and is fraught with so much tension you might crack a tooth reading it. Outstanding in every way.' (Dennis Lehane )
`It is a perfect haunted-house story, a crisp, eerie October night of a book that had me in its clutches from page 1. It still has.' (Joanne Harris )
`The Guardians is a chilling, screw-tightening ghost story for grownups-it vibrates with menace while delving into the deep, dark matters of loyalty, lust and our own natural, nasty inclinations. A thriller with brains, heart, and no small amount of goosebumps.' (Gillian Flynn )
`Like any good haunting, The Guardians is at first just a whisper in your ear. Then page by page, Andrew Pyper ratchets up the tension, the suspense, the fear until you find yourself white-knuckled and breathless. Pyper is the rare writer who has it all; he's a poet, a magician, and a seer into the frail human heart. Moving, utterly gripping, and gorgeously written. Don't miss it.' (Lisa Unger )
`The Guardians is so much more than a thriller. Truly great writing, haunting, intelligent, human, terrifying. Pyper is a genius.' (Deon Meyer )
A wonderfully atmospheric chiller from Pyper who excels at combining crime and horror...A nail-biting read, deliciously tense and well written. The relationships of the small town, and particularly those between the quartet of friends, are skilfully drawn and Trevor is an appealing, flawed and vulnerable protagonist. (TANGLED WEB )
Ambitious...With a well-executed dual narrative, both past and present, strong characterisations and some truly arresting images, The Guardians is a compelling and genuinely creepy read. (THE GUARDIAN )
It draws you in...The Guardians' themes include the influence of past crimes and the treacherous uncertainty of memory. (THE SPECTATOR )
a thrilling horror story that keeps you turning page after page in an urgent need to find out what happens next. You won't be disappointed either, thanks to a satisfying pay-off and action-filled conclusion that contains just the right amount of shocks. (SFX )
Pyper is the most striking Canadian crime writer to emerge in recent years and this is a characteristically intelligent move into Stephen King territory (John Williams MAIL ON SUNDAY )
This is a dark, brooding, compelling story about the loss if innocence and the ubiquity of evil, with a finale as bittersweet as your 50th birthday party. (Peter Millar THE TIMES ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
`Andrew Pyper's The Guardians is everything you could ask for in a thriller. It's psychologically unnerving, moves like a bullet, and is fraught with so much tension you might crack a tooth reading it. Outstanding in every way.' (Dennis Lehane )
`It is a perfect haunted-house story, a crisp, eerie October night of a book that had me in its clutches from page 1. It still has.' (Joanne Harris )
`The Guardians is a chilling, screw-tightening ghost story for grownups-it vibrates with menace while delving into the deep, dark matters of loyalty, lust and our own natural, nasty inclinations. A thriller with brains, heart, and no small amount of goosebumps.' (Gillian Flynn )
`Like any good haunting, The Guardians is at first just a whisper in your ear. Then page by page, Andrew Pyper ratchets up the tension, the suspense, the fear until you find yourself white-knuckled and breathless. Pyper is the rare writer who has it all; he's a poet, a magician, and a seer into the frail human heart. Moving, utterly gripping, and gorgeously written. Don't miss it.' (Lisa Unger )
`The Guardians is so much more than a thriller. Truly great writing, haunting, intelligent, human, terrifying. Pyper is a genius.' (Deon Meyer )
A wonderfully atmospheric chiller from Pyper who excels at combining crime and horror...A nail-biting read, deliciously tense and well written. The relationships of the small town, and particularly those between the quartet of friends, are skilfully drawn and Trevor is an appealing, flawed and vulnerable protagonist. (TANGLED WEB )
Ambitious...With a well-executed dual narrative, both past and present, strong characterisations and some truly arresting images, The Guardians is a compelling and genuinely creepy read. (THE GUARDIAN )
It draws you in...The Guardians' themes include the influence of past crimes and the treacherous uncertainty of memory. (THE SPECTATOR )
a thrilling horror story that keeps you turning page after page in an urgent need to find out what happens next. You won't be disappointed either, thanks to a satisfying pay-off and action-filled conclusion that contains just the right amount of shocks. (SFX )
Pyper is the most striking Canadian crime writer to emerge in recent years and this is a characteristically intelligent move into Stephen King territory (John Williams MAIL ON SUNDAY )
This is a dark, brooding, compelling story about the loss if innocence and the ubiquity of evil, with a finale as bittersweet as your 50th birthday party. (Peter Millar THE TIMES ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Since I was a child I have enjoyed a good ghost story. I grew up reading the Fontana Book Of Ghost Stories among others, so I was looking forward to reading The Guardians. Luckely I was not dissapointed. Andrew Pyper has written a good supernatural chiller with plenty of scares and good characterisation. Rather like Stephen King's excellent novel It, The Guardians is set party in the past during the characters childhood and later in present day where the children now grownup return to the house to once again face the horror that lurkes there. This is a good scary novel and best read while sitting by the fire with a nice drink. Enjoy.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By J.R.Hartley
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I'll begin by saying I enjoyed this book and that, when you really think about it, is all that matters. It's well constructed, the characters are recognisable as people we know and have bck stories of their own and while it's not exacly scary, it rattles along nicely and a couple of times it made me turn the heating up. It's an old fashioned haunted house tale where a group of grown ups reflect on faded glories and insecurities and come to terms with the past... just like a Stephen King book. Yes, like others I recognised familiar (and favourite) themes from Mr King's work, but this book is not a straight rip-off and it has its own identity. Andrew Pyper deserves credit for writing a creditable thriller with thrills and chills that does not degenerate to tedious slasher rampages or rely on maverick cops/forensic specialists to wok it all out for us but it's really a chiller and I'd say you'd have to be a very nervous individual to be actually scared. All in all, a good yarn best savoured on chilly nights when you have the house to yourself. I'm not sure it ould work quite so well reading this on a sunny beach.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"The Guardians" is a ghoulish haunted house tale set in Canada, involving a group of former high school ice hockey players (the eponymous Guardians) now in their forties and hampered by their own Achilles Heels, summoned back to the town of their collective childhoods after the death of a close friend.
Their return opens up old wounds, rekindles old passions, and revisits old shared childhood experiences that they'd hoped they'd left in the dim and distant past, only for the death of their friend and their subsequent arrival in town to awaken it again.
For me there are clear similarities to Stephen King's It both in style and content. Both novels are about childhood friends having to reunite as adults, return to their childhood hometown and confront unfinished supernatural business lying almost forgotten in their past, one or more of the adults having died along the way. Both have narrative streams set in the present day with regular interludes set in the past to inform the reader of what happened then. Pyper even uses a Canadian version of familiar King-type references to the minutae of "Ezee-Kleen" and "Krazy Kevin" style brand names.
Nevertheless Pyper is a very good writer and whether consciously emulating King or not, he's managed to find a similarly engaging style of writing which draws the reader in and keeps her or him turning the pages. More twists to the plot develop as the story unfolds and the author conjures up some pretty powerful scenes; I found the protagonists' later dealings with their team coach particularly vividly constructed.
Though the film Grindstone Road [2007] bears a few similarities to this story (and for me, I found the character Ben's attic vigil reminiscent of scenes from The Sentinel [1977] )it would probably make for a decent film in its own right.
Their return opens up old wounds, rekindles old passions, and revisits old shared childhood experiences that they'd hoped they'd left in the dim and distant past, only for the death of their friend and their subsequent arrival in town to awaken it again.
For me there are clear similarities to Stephen King's It both in style and content. Both novels are about childhood friends having to reunite as adults, return to their childhood hometown and confront unfinished supernatural business lying almost forgotten in their past, one or more of the adults having died along the way. Both have narrative streams set in the present day with regular interludes set in the past to inform the reader of what happened then. Pyper even uses a Canadian version of familiar King-type references to the minutae of "Ezee-Kleen" and "Krazy Kevin" style brand names.
Nevertheless Pyper is a very good writer and whether consciously emulating King or not, he's managed to find a similarly engaging style of writing which draws the reader in and keeps her or him turning the pages. More twists to the plot develop as the story unfolds and the author conjures up some pretty powerful scenes; I found the protagonists' later dealings with their team coach particularly vividly constructed.
Though the film Grindstone Road [2007] bears a few similarities to this story (and for me, I found the character Ben's attic vigil reminiscent of scenes from The Sentinel [1977] )it would probably make for a decent film in its own right.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing
I read this after looking at reviews however found it dull and couldn't finish it due to the complete tediousness of the writing. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Cosmo
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining read
This is a book that is quick to get through once you get going. The structure is nice and simple. A modern day setting of adults meeting up again, whilst remembering via a diary... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Mr. I. A. Macpherson
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Guardians by Andrew Pyper
Although I found this quite a slow start,it was in the end a very good story.It picked up pace quite significantly once all the friends had been reunited. Read more
Published 13 months ago by ruth1044
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for me!
I have read this book and found it quite boring - all the way through you are waiting for something to happen but it never does. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Hectordog
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read
I'm always up for a good ghost story; this is a story that is better in its second half than in the first. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Keen Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Could not put it down as soon as I started reading it
I am a huge fan of horrors and I find it really difficult to find a decent one that keeps me hooked from the first word, but let me tell you, this one does!! Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kirsty
4.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric Canadian Chiller
I don't read a lot of Canadian authors. Not because I have anything against them of course, it's just that I rarely seem to come across them on my bookish travels. Read more
Published 22 months ago by DC
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling menace....
The Guardians by Andrew Pyper
I have loved Andrew Pyper darkly, seductive novels, all of them are very different on the surface but underneath they all have similar... Read more
I have loved Andrew Pyper darkly, seductive novels, all of them are very different on the surface but underneath they all have similar... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Ruby
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eerie, Creepy, but fab!
Got this book, and couldn't put it down.
As a massive Stephen King-type book fan, this book ticked all the boxes. Read more
As a massive Stephen King-type book fan, this book ticked all the boxes. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2011 by Fiona Massey
4.0 out of 5 stars
A welcome addition to the horror bookshelf
With an impressive CV of thrillers to his credit including The Killing Circle (2009), New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year and Lost Girls (2000), which won the Arthur Ellis... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2011 by Colin Leslie
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