What do You think about Black Creek Crossing (2005)?
Fifteen year old Angel Sullivan is ready for a fresh start when she and her family move to the charming town of Roundtree. After being teased for years by classmates, Angel is hoping to find some friends in her new school. Although she is once again picked on by most of the other kids, she does find one new friend, a fellow misfit named Seth. Angel and Seth soon start to realize there is something very strange about Angel's house. A black cat mysteriously appears and starts to follow Angel around; faces are seen in her bedroom window. A smell of smoke sometimes lingers in the closet. For years, rumors have gone around town that the house is cursed. When Angel and Seth find a book of what appears to be magical spells, they realize that history is coming back to life in the old house on Black Creek Crossing.October is the month I dedicate to horror and paranormal reads. John Saul was one of my favorite horror authors years ago, and I still remember vividly nightmare-inducing scenes from Suffer the Children. Well, apparently my tastes have changed over the years because I felt I was slogging through this book. Flat, predictable characters: you have your snobby teens in the cool clique, your misfits, the country club Moms and golf playing business Dads. The plot itself isn't too bad, but it's not remotely scary. Because of the writing style, I felt like this book was geared towards the young teen crowd, but the goriness would probably be too much for most of them to handle. So you have a book meant for adults written at the level of fifth or sixth graders. I did like the history surrounding the house and the Wynton family. I wish Saul had done more with that aspect of the book, than dealing so much with the teens and their issues. Another plus, this is a really quick read, and it doesn't require much in the way of thought processes. I guess one way to look at it as the chick lit of the horror genre--light, fluffy, good if you are looking for a quick read.
—Kellyreaderofbooks
1.5 STARS"For most of her young life, thirteen-year-old Angel Sullivan has been on the outside looking in, enduring the taunts of cruel schoolmates and the angry abuse of a bitter father. Then Angel’s family moves to the quaint town of Roundtree, Massachusetts—where a charming home is available, a promising job awaits Angel’s unemployed father, and most of all, the chance to make a new start beckons to the shy, hopeful teenager. But when she is shunned by her new classmates, Angel falls deeper into despair. Until she meets Seth Baker, a fellow outcast—and a fateful kinship is forged.It’s Seth who tells Angel the unspoken truth about the legacy of murder that hangs over her family’s home—and the whispered rumors that something supernatural still dwells there. Uncertain whether the stories are true, and desperate to escape the torment of their daily lives, Angel and Seth devote themselves to contacting whatever restless soul haunts the dark recesses of Black Creek Crossing. But once they have begun, there is no turning back.Guided by an anguished and vengeful spirit, they uncover the shocking events and centuries-old horrors that lay buried beneath the placid veneer of Roundtree. And along with the ghastly revelations comes a terrifying power—one that feeds upon the rage of the victimized, turning the basest impulses and most dangerous desires into devastating weapons. Now, the closer Angel and Seth are pushed toward the edge by their tormentors, the deeper they descend into the maelstrom of dark forces they’ve unleashed . . . and the more unspeakable the hour of reckoning will be." (From Amazon)I enjoyed Saul's Perfect Nightmare so decided to try another book but this one fell flat suspense-wise.
—Kris - My Novelesque Life
I was in the mood for a good ghost story -- it being so close to Halloween right now. Black Creek Crossing certainly fit the bill with a bonus of witchcraft thrown in. This was an entertaining and well-written book.The story centers around a teenaged girl with the unfortunate (in her mind) name of Angel. She is not one of the beautiful people in school. She is a loner, an outcast. She has been teased and bullied relentlessly since grade school. She moves with her alcoholic, abusive father and her religious, martyr-like mother to a new town. They move into the town's haunted house. Families that have lived there have experienced gruesome death and sinister compulsions. In fact, shortly after moving in Angel senses that her father is thinking about her inappropriately and fears that he will act on this compulsion when he removes the key from her bedroom door. Angel goes to a new school and optimistically thinks things will be different. She is crushed to find out that she is still the outsider and the butt of whispered jokes. She is befriended by Seth who has also been targeted by bullies for years. His family is of the country-club set and his father does not understand why his son would rather take photographs than play sports like other boys. His father goes so far as to beat Seth with a belt for not meeting expectations while Seth's mother turns away and pretends she doesn't know about it.Angel finds a cat in her house who mysteriously vanishes and reappears in unexpected ways. This ghostly cat leads the two friends into the woods and a discovery that turns the tables on everyone who has been cruel to them. I was so drawn into the lives of these kids that I found myself feeling their pain, feeling upset at the injustice of it all. I was pulling for them when they began to get back some of their own. And then it very quickly spiraled out of control. The end was a shocker. It was also a shock that so much story takes place in only two weeks time! It felt like months.I would recommend this book as a great Halloween read. I think it would make a good movie, too.
—Barbara Sumpter
