"There are moments in life like that, I think - moments you understand on some level are pivotal. Where everything will change, and you'll regret it forever if you don't do something you know you should."
This book was a curious mix of various mystery/horror elements, with a curious twist at the end. It's also replete with standard horror fare, including a strange, dilapidated hometown, which the protagonist, Paul Adams, has left decades ago; deranged townspeople, most seemingly with secrets; clueless local police, who are helpless to do anything about the murders, and long-buried secrets.
Paul reluctantly comes back to town to farewell his dying mother, but with some reservations: Paul left as a teenager, and never looked back, not least because one of his friends was slaughtered by two of his other childhood friends, one of them clearly a sociopath obsessed with dreams. The memory of this event has haunted Paul his entire life, to the degree that he has seemingly abandoned his former friends, classmates, and even his own family along with his sinister hometown, where a dark cloud seems to perpetually hover over the people who live there, their number growing fewer and fewer with each passing year.
After a string of bizarre occurrences, one of Paul's childhood friends was apprehended for a murder he couldn't remember committing; the other, Charlie Crabtree, the ringleader of a type of dream cult, which Paul wisely leaves, seemingly disappeared without a trace, into the woods, the Shadows ... or did he? Ritualistic murders and strange signs, specifically bloody hand prints, have been appearing again, and may be connected to a series of unexplained murders, which could be the work of a copycat, or Charlie himself... or something even more sinister.
Overall, this was an engaging read, although it did lag in places. There were some genuine moments of suspense, and the twist at the end was refreshing, but they were fairly few and far between. The whole time I was reading it, at least until the end, I kept thinking that it was inspired at least in part by the Nightmare on Elm Street saga, another series which focuses on an obsession with lucid dreams, and summoning a demon from the world of sleep to take revenge in the land of the living, the story Charlie concocts to try to cover his dark deeds.
The book is also haphazardly organized, with flashbacks, told from varying perspectives, from the young and aged Paul, to a third-party narrator, to the perspective of an out-of-town police officer who seems rather out of place in this account. It's a bit hard to follow in some places because it jumps back and forth so much, a literary device I'm not terribly fond of. It was a capable quick read, worth the time if you're a fan of this genre.
This is another good, scary read from North. Surprising twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Wow! Red hands and red herrings.
Another POV
I really liked The Whisper Man but this one is lacking in lots of ways
It is very very slow and by the halfway mark I had to ask questions: what is this actually about? where is this going?
So, it's about a long ago murder but yet it is so slow and drawn out, it's not a thriller, it's not creepy, it's not a ghost story, it's just a mystery from years ago of a murder that happened that no one realized it happened until the present day when Paul went back to see his mother who is dying
So although I see a couple of 4/5 ratings I just can't give it more than 1, it's just too slow and messy and for a long time just makes no sense, I finally had to skip and skim just over the half point to finally find out what it's actually about and I don't think it is very good at all and I think it could've been written better
