Creature: A Novel

By John Saul

A powerful high-tech company. A postcard-pretty  company town. Families. Children. Sunshine.  Happiness. A high school football team that never-ever  loses. And something else. Something horrible ...  Now, there is a new family in town. A shy,  nature-loving teenager. A new hometown. A new set of  bullies. Maybe the team's sports clinic can help him.  Rebuild him. They won't hurt him again. They won't  dare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 3, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307768032

John Saul

John Saul’s first novel Suffer the Children became an instant bestseller, as have many of the thirty-three novels of dark suspense he has published since. Amidst this busy writing schedule, he divides his time between Seattle, Washington and Hawaii.

Reviews for Creature

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Blake Tanner is suddenly promoted and transferred to Silverdale, he cannot be happier; TarrenTech only sends its future corporate elite to this small, idyllic town in Colorado. His family is initially happy there, but they gradually come to suspect and later fear something about the place. The total absence of junk food and colas in town would be enough to drive me out. TarrenTech basically owns and runs the whole town, including the mysterious sports clinic (given the foolish name Rocky Mountain High). Silverdale's high school football team is an all but unbeatable group of huge, strong athletes, earning a reputation for playing rough and dirty (despite the coach being named Phil Collins). A childhood illness had left Mark Tanner a short and skinny guy, greatly frustrating his athletic father. When Dr. Ames at the sports clinic says he can make Mark big and strong, Blake Tanner jumps at the chance. He pays no heed to the experimental nature of the "vitamin" treatment or the fact that one football player seriously injured another player in a game and later pummeled Tanner's own son in a jealous rage. When Mark soon begins to change, committing a few acts that were a bit disturbing, Blake blames the change on teenaged hormones. Significantly, it is the women (old and young) in this novel who sniff out the danger lurking in the perfect little town and attempt to safeguard their families from its insidious effects.

John Saul is not going to give you a happily ever after ending, and I applaud him for that. He remains faithful to the story from beginning to end. At times, his characters do act a little unnaturally, their dialogue somewhat forced or their behaviors a little too puppet-like, but all in all these moments are subtle and do little harm to the reading experience.

[joe73-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Saul book I ever read......many years ago. A simple but eerie plot. Hooked me on his work.

[lorifox · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Creature by John Saul is one of those books that starts out slow as the author builds the storyline, but halfway though it picks up and becomes hard to put down, until the very last page with an unexpected ending. Saul is good at ending with a twist, and he’s also not afraid to kill off a character or two, often abruptly. No sentimentality there. I would give this book 3 1/2 stars because the ending packs a punch and makes up for the slow beginning.

[jhemlock-1711 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Saul book I ever read......many years ago. A simple but eerie plot. Hooked me on his work.

[susanbevans · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is superbly spooky - a great supernatural thriller from John Saul.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The creature in this story is man made and the theme of mutants is surely not new, but Koontz does something a little differently with his characters, mainly he gets us to like (or love) certain individuals who he then feeds them to the monster makers.