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Harrow House #4
The Abandoned
There is a dark and isolated mansion, boarded-up and avoided, on a hill just beyond the town of Watch Point in New York's Hudson Valley. It has been abandoned too long and fallen into disrepair. It is called Harrow and it does not like to be ignored. But a new caretaker has come to harrow. he is fixing up the rooms and preparing the house for visitors ...
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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355 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 10, 2011
Let's see, salacious, lascivious, crude, lewd, graphic, gratuitous, violent, deviant, it's a horror movie brought to paper (or in this case audio) without the MPAA to tone it into even an NC17 rating. This was horror in more ways than one. Though I kept expecting Sam and Dean Winchester to make an appearance and I wondered why no one was bringing salt or burning the house down. But Harrow House seems to have a mind or perhaps heart of its own and it isn't necessarily here. Which is where the novel didn't work for me. I was fine with the psychic elements. They were needed. But the house's origins or rather the evil's origins weren't explained and outerspace or another dimension just doesn't cut for me. The reader was creepy. Really creepy. I suppose that's a good thing but I hope never to hear him again. While I hated the book in every way, I give Clegg a lot of credit for bizarre creativity. Every evil in the book was just a little different.
January 2, 2026
For some reason I really struggled with this one. The rest of the series is good, but I had a real hard time getting thru book.
January 27, 2016
You know the feeling of anticipation you get when you pick up a book by a beloved writer, or watch a movie that's been hyped out the yang hole? Only to feel like you've swallowed a rock and the world will never look quite the same? I guess my over-dramatic personality is leaking in here, but you get the point. I'm a big fan of Douglas Clegg, the man can write captivating horror tales that can actually be creepy. Regrettably here I found rocky terrains instead, a ride that was anything but smooth, sending me to the nearest cabinet for an aspirin.
The plot? Unfortunately, the plot is bloated, congested, and confusing. After the beginning, the middle went downhill, with Clegg choosing to hop all over the place with characters and events. After a time this grew strange, then tiresome. I understand many writers now of days are trying to create confusing works that a reader can’t possibly put together until the end, I really do, but this isn’t the way to accomplish that. There was too much narrative distance from what was taking place, not enough emphasis on a certain person or event, just continuous changing. Sure, some of the ‘attacks’ were cool, creepy, etc, etc, but a reader has to have something to latch on to, to care about, in order to continue a story and keep the smile.
The pacing was semi strong but because of the plot’s direction and the method it was told, I just didn’t give a damn much of the time. In other words, just because you have things happening at a rapid pace doesn’t mean they have to be interesting. The atmosphere is dark and depressing, which is good for this type of work, but it also enhanced confusion the plot conveyed.
None of the characters were written badly, but I didn’t care about any of them. If I blinked, I’d forget who was who. They’re shown too briefly and come across ineffectual. The only exception is possibly the psychic woman and the writing teen, but even they didn’t rock my boat all that hard. Sam was a cool outcast type, but he shows up so briefly you forget he’s there.
On the plus side, Clegg’s writing style is as strong as ever. His words are confident, clear, and masterful. He usually ends a scene with some sort of dramatic note – I love when writers do this. The beginning of the book also intrigued me; the characters were well written then, the dialogue realistic, and I appreciated the nods toward horror films and directing masters. Great stuff for fans.
Before the first few chapters ended, he had a strong thing going. If he had stuck with the two main characters of Sam (he intrigued me more than the others, I was saddened he wasn’t used much) and Lizzie, this story may have worked. Instead he hopped around like crazy, even to more irrelevant characters, taking the reader down unneeded roads and weighing down the excitement. The middle was sogged down by too much ‘mystery, out-there enthusiasm’, and the end may have wrapped the book up well, but – well, by that point the reader’s mind is elsewhere.
If you’re new to Clegg’s work, I recommend starting with another novel. He really is a great writer, but I guess most have to have some stinkers in the barrel. This is obviously one of them. Despite high reviews of Naomi, I also consider that a weak work. So the ultra bottom-bottom line? Look elsewhere for good Clegg writing.
The plot? Unfortunately, the plot is bloated, congested, and confusing. After the beginning, the middle went downhill, with Clegg choosing to hop all over the place with characters and events. After a time this grew strange, then tiresome. I understand many writers now of days are trying to create confusing works that a reader can’t possibly put together until the end, I really do, but this isn’t the way to accomplish that. There was too much narrative distance from what was taking place, not enough emphasis on a certain person or event, just continuous changing. Sure, some of the ‘attacks’ were cool, creepy, etc, etc, but a reader has to have something to latch on to, to care about, in order to continue a story and keep the smile.
The pacing was semi strong but because of the plot’s direction and the method it was told, I just didn’t give a damn much of the time. In other words, just because you have things happening at a rapid pace doesn’t mean they have to be interesting. The atmosphere is dark and depressing, which is good for this type of work, but it also enhanced confusion the plot conveyed.
None of the characters were written badly, but I didn’t care about any of them. If I blinked, I’d forget who was who. They’re shown too briefly and come across ineffectual. The only exception is possibly the psychic woman and the writing teen, but even they didn’t rock my boat all that hard. Sam was a cool outcast type, but he shows up so briefly you forget he’s there.
On the plus side, Clegg’s writing style is as strong as ever. His words are confident, clear, and masterful. He usually ends a scene with some sort of dramatic note – I love when writers do this. The beginning of the book also intrigued me; the characters were well written then, the dialogue realistic, and I appreciated the nods toward horror films and directing masters. Great stuff for fans.
Before the first few chapters ended, he had a strong thing going. If he had stuck with the two main characters of Sam (he intrigued me more than the others, I was saddened he wasn’t used much) and Lizzie, this story may have worked. Instead he hopped around like crazy, even to more irrelevant characters, taking the reader down unneeded roads and weighing down the excitement. The middle was sogged down by too much ‘mystery, out-there enthusiasm’, and the end may have wrapped the book up well, but – well, by that point the reader’s mind is elsewhere.
If you’re new to Clegg’s work, I recommend starting with another novel. He really is a great writer, but I guess most have to have some stinkers in the barrel. This is obviously one of them. Despite high reviews of Naomi, I also consider that a weak work. So the ultra bottom-bottom line? Look elsewhere for good Clegg writing.
October 1, 2008
The Hell of disharmony.” From your lips, Mr. Thomas, to God’s ears!! Welcome, everyone, to Cosmic Horror.
Set in the future, the story centers around the final day of the annual Punktown Fair and its attendees. While the plot is original and creative in its conception, the delivery is a Lovecraftian mess. There is absolutely no realm of possibility and the story becomes completely irrelevant seeing as logic and reason are currently vacationing in the Caribbean and don’t even have the common courtesy to send a postcard. I understand this book falls under the “cosmic horror” label and that’s its purpose is to heighten your perception, but there is no there is no realism in the backdrop to keep you grounded.
Thomas’ style of writing is tedious and distanced, but more importantly, pulpy. His descriptions are spectacular at first, but begin to grate after the third chapter. They go on for far too long, are difficult to follow, and go in depth too much. Riddled with grammatical errors, some of the sentences are written backwards with the adverb first; reminding me once again why I never liked Yoda. Although run-on sentences were seen the most, incomplete sentences were sprinkled in there as well. There's something wrong with the world when this much money and lavish attention is spent on a novel where they forget to do a line edit or three.
Lifeless and empty, the characters are static and one-dimensional. Even though they are portrayed through endless description, dialogue and action, their vitality never comes off the page. Their behaviors were too predictable, their emotions unconvincing, and their bonds to each other were flimsy and transparent. In other words, the entire cast was weak. Oh, and speaking of weak, so was the pace. Molasses moves faster than the events in this book, people. I put this book down more times than I can count, wishing that the story would just hurry up already. It never did.
Reviving what was almost kindling, the atmosphere does allow the reader to experience Thomas’ world. Palpable and lucid, the underlying feeling of what is going on is what carries you through the book. Here and only here, is where I felt the author’s talent and saw his vision. Had the book in its entirety been a little more concentrated on the characters' development, a little less focused on describing every nook and cranny, and flowed with the current instead of fighting the entire way, it could have been a remarkable story.
My rating? I give it a 1. St. Augustine once said that “To know oneself is to know God”; I am here to tell you kids, that to read this book is to know hell. Avoid it and save your soul!!
-As reviewed for Horror-Web.com
Set in the future, the story centers around the final day of the annual Punktown Fair and its attendees. While the plot is original and creative in its conception, the delivery is a Lovecraftian mess. There is absolutely no realm of possibility and the story becomes completely irrelevant seeing as logic and reason are currently vacationing in the Caribbean and don’t even have the common courtesy to send a postcard. I understand this book falls under the “cosmic horror” label and that’s its purpose is to heighten your perception, but there is no there is no realism in the backdrop to keep you grounded.
Thomas’ style of writing is tedious and distanced, but more importantly, pulpy. His descriptions are spectacular at first, but begin to grate after the third chapter. They go on for far too long, are difficult to follow, and go in depth too much. Riddled with grammatical errors, some of the sentences are written backwards with the adverb first; reminding me once again why I never liked Yoda. Although run-on sentences were seen the most, incomplete sentences were sprinkled in there as well. There's something wrong with the world when this much money and lavish attention is spent on a novel where they forget to do a line edit or three.
Lifeless and empty, the characters are static and one-dimensional. Even though they are portrayed through endless description, dialogue and action, their vitality never comes off the page. Their behaviors were too predictable, their emotions unconvincing, and their bonds to each other were flimsy and transparent. In other words, the entire cast was weak. Oh, and speaking of weak, so was the pace. Molasses moves faster than the events in this book, people. I put this book down more times than I can count, wishing that the story would just hurry up already. It never did.
Reviving what was almost kindling, the atmosphere does allow the reader to experience Thomas’ world. Palpable and lucid, the underlying feeling of what is going on is what carries you through the book. Here and only here, is where I felt the author’s talent and saw his vision. Had the book in its entirety been a little more concentrated on the characters' development, a little less focused on describing every nook and cranny, and flowed with the current instead of fighting the entire way, it could have been a remarkable story.
My rating? I give it a 1. St. Augustine once said that “To know oneself is to know God”; I am here to tell you kids, that to read this book is to know hell. Avoid it and save your soul!!
-As reviewed for Horror-Web.com
October 12, 2011
This is one of his Harrow novels, a series surrounding the supernatural occurrences at the abandoned Harrow mansion, a dark and sinister house. Teenagers go there to drink, party, and make out, but one summer night in June, a group of misfits gets more than they bargained for -- the mutilated body of a child's corpse stolen from the morgue is found in the family graveyard adjacent to Harrow Mansion. Some speculate it's an offering to open the gates to a world of nightmares in the Harrow mansion. In fact, if you live in the quiet town, you don't want to fall asleep. And make sure you don't wake up those sleeping soundly around you or you just might become part of the house's plot to maim, slaughter, and terrorize the good citizens of Watch Point, New York. I finished this book in less than a day and would read it again in a heartbeart.
May 29, 2011
To be honest, I am bummed out by this book. The three before were great, but this one fell way short. I got tired of the sexual overtones, but found the guy "humping" the snake somwhat amusing. My least favorite Clegg book.
May 30, 2018
I hated this book. The others were scarry, but this was full of blood and gore and I didn't care for it at all. The others had a pretty good story line but this one I had to quit reading it, it made me sick.
July 30, 2020
Nightmares and Mayhem
Douglas Clegg is a kickass horror writer, and The Abandoned is an epic. The fourth book in the Harrow Series has a larger cast of characters and a lot of action, so I gave an extra star for the sheer effort it must have taken to bring it all to a conclusion. I have a few quibbles with a part here and there, which is why I initially was going to give four stars. However, if you have a tasty cupcake that's chock-full of every delicious ingredient you like, why would you toss it away because each bite doesn't have the same amount of frosting? I finished that whole cupcake and it was delicious!
To expound on the few flaws I would love to see tweaked, I'd also give away the plot and I won't do that. I will say that if you liked Stephen King's Needful Things, The Shadow Fabric by Mark Cassell, or the Hell On Earth series by Iain Rob Wright, you will love this book. Though it doesn't resemble those books in concept, characters, setting, or plot.
For the sensitive, I will warn that there is a lot of violence, some of a sexual nature. I usually don't go for that kind of horror, but I felt it was justified in order to achieve the escalation of depravity expected of this monstrous house that has grown in power as it sucked the energies from so many victims in the previous books.
This is a stand-alone book, but I recommend that you read the previous novels in the series before you read this.
Douglas Clegg is a kickass horror writer, and The Abandoned is an epic. The fourth book in the Harrow Series has a larger cast of characters and a lot of action, so I gave an extra star for the sheer effort it must have taken to bring it all to a conclusion. I have a few quibbles with a part here and there, which is why I initially was going to give four stars. However, if you have a tasty cupcake that's chock-full of every delicious ingredient you like, why would you toss it away because each bite doesn't have the same amount of frosting? I finished that whole cupcake and it was delicious!
To expound on the few flaws I would love to see tweaked, I'd also give away the plot and I won't do that. I will say that if you liked Stephen King's Needful Things, The Shadow Fabric by Mark Cassell, or the Hell On Earth series by Iain Rob Wright, you will love this book. Though it doesn't resemble those books in concept, characters, setting, or plot.
For the sensitive, I will warn that there is a lot of violence, some of a sexual nature. I usually don't go for that kind of horror, but I felt it was justified in order to achieve the escalation of depravity expected of this monstrous house that has grown in power as it sucked the energies from so many victims in the previous books.
This is a stand-alone book, but I recommend that you read the previous novels in the series before you read this.
July 11, 2017
Lots of gore, which I appreciated!
This is the second book I've read by this author. Both have been very anticlimatic and hard to follow.
This is the second book I've read by this author. Both have been very anticlimatic and hard to follow.
December 2, 2019
Sections of the book remind me of a poor knock off of King. Did not enjoy the writing style and there were some factual inconsistencies that made the story weak.
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August 18, 2020good gravy, is this a library book or is this just porn? can't and won't finish. i am not prudish but come on!! not even a single star in my opinion.
July 11, 2025
Compared to previous books in the series there was too much horror/gore. Did not enjoy this as much.
July 27, 2015
This is a good book, for a haunted house story. The evil of this one (another Harrow book) seeps out into a nearby town, driving just about everyone crazy and violent. Imagine NEEDFUL THINGS without Leland Gaunt and his store, and then crank the lunacy up about a thousand clicks. That's what this book is like. It's got great imagery, astounding gore and even a few scenes that will make you very uncomfortable. I only had one problem with the book: it's overpopulated, and there are new characters still being introduced at the halfway mark. Sometimes they're shoved in so fast that I find it hard to connect with them, and therefore I don't really care too much about their gristly demise. That said, the characters are very well drawn. I kind of wish that most of them just got their own stories where they could stretch out, rather than being brutally shoved into this one.
November 3, 2014
Ugg. I had a hell of a time finishing this, half conceptualized novel. I have read Clegg in the past and where he is a paperback writer, and you cant expect a whole lot of of paperback writers (because of the time constraints on their contracts, not because of their talent), this one was particularly bad. Going straight to the shock instead of trying to be scary, using Pattersonesque short paragraph chapters to try and increase the tension which only distracts the reader, and introducing flat characters and giving them good page time, but obviously only to have them be killed. There were no perceptual main characters, in fact one of the characters who lives doesn't even get introduced until halfway through the book. Just avoid it.
April 1, 2010
This was a very bizare book that I really didn't understand. Harrow is a mansion just outside of the town of Watch Point. 'Something' in the house doesn't want to be ignored, so it poisons the townfolk causing them to fall asleep and dream horrible things that go on in the house. Upon waking, the townfolk begin carrying out the horrible (and disgustingly sexual) things they were dreaming of, but as they're killing and mutilating others, they're dreaming of other things inside the dream that is making them kill. Yeah, can't even explain it to where it makes sense. Didn't care for this one.
January 15, 2012
Audiobook. This reader was not to my liking. An older (sounding) gentleman doing child and female voices gets on your nerves after a few hours. Lots of gore-sex. Is that a word? Inappropriate character delivers long lecture of exposition near the end. To me that usually means the author didn't leave enough breadcrumbs to even mislead. But. I liked the haunted house gets into your dreams bit and will not compare to other similar books. The gore is, uh, creative and the reader registers his disdain at having to say it out loud. I think I would have enjoyed this much more in print.
December 15, 2009
As much as Douglas Clegg can write serious quiet horror (The Hour Before Dark), The Abandoned shows that he can also write a fun-filled gorefest. I really loved this novel and found it very refreshing. It's another story about Harrow, the haunted house that is the subject of a few Douglas Clegg novels such as The Infinite, Mischief and Nightmare House. This is gory fun. I just loved it.
This review was first published on amazon.ca.
This review was first published on amazon.ca.
October 15, 2010
An absolutely fantastic haunted house story that pitches the mood and plot just right. It is written in a voice whose omnipresence adds everything to the tale without being righteous, and allows the reader to see the horrors, to feel them, little by little, instead of full boar from the start. Brilliant pace and literary to boot, it's a great standalone book even if it is part of a series.
September 4, 2010
This book, well what can I say...it was the most disturbing book I have ever read, it was also very confusing.
It was good tho, it got me hooked, never stopped reading it.
Im not going to say what happens in this book because that would give out spoilers.
It was good tho, it got me hooked, never stopped reading it.
Im not going to say what happens in this book because that would give out spoilers.
January 20, 2009
Evil force from house takes over a town.
October 3, 2009
This was really awful. It could have been good, sounded good from the back of the book, but just went the wrong direction. Disgusting.
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July 6, 2009not read/avl
July 20, 2009
Horror (the grossout kind!). After watching Silent HIll and reading this, I slept with the lights on.
July 30, 2012
Over the top! If I didn't know before, I sure know now, why Douglas Clegg is one of Stephen Kings Favorite authors!
September 23, 2012
Too violent for an audiobook. I looked like a screaming turtle in my car, with my neck hidden and my mouth open.
March 20, 2024
I gave up on this one. Too much gore, too much sex, yet the content not spooky enough. Very disappointing.
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December 1, 2010I think I am over Harrow... I had a hard time making it through this book.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews