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All Fall Down
by
Something horrific is happening to the children of Eastbury, Massachusetts. Now, an entire town waits on the edge of panic for the next nightmare. There must be a reason for the terror. They all know it - but no one ever suspected.
Paperback, Bantam edition, 336 pages
Published
August 8th 1991
by Transworld Publishers
(first published 1982)
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Not bad! Not bad at all!
If you gave me this book and asked me what author wrote it, I would have said without a doubt that it was Robin Cook. While creepy and mysterious like the other John Saul I have read, it is so hard to ignore how much like Cook this book is. Medical thriller to the max and I loved every minute of it!
You might notice how long it took me to read this and doubt how much I enjoyed it. It is merely the format I chose to read it in that caused the delay. Whenever I have a book o ...more
If you gave me this book and asked me what author wrote it, I would have said without a doubt that it was Robin Cook. While creepy and mysterious like the other John Saul I have read, it is so hard to ignore how much like Cook this book is. Medical thriller to the max and I loved every minute of it!
You might notice how long it took me to read this and doubt how much I enjoyed it. It is merely the format I chose to read it in that caused the delay. Whenever I have a book o ...more
Holy shit, where do I begin...
The book opens with an infant's death. SIDS is a horrible fucking thing. We watch a very believable scenario in which the mother doesn't want to believe her baby girl is dead. This section is really well done. Broke my heart.
And then the fuckery begins.
The author moves on and tries to explain SIDS through fictitious devices. I thought this was tactless. People deal with this horrible reality far too often. It is the number one cause of death in infants. It's terri ...more
The book opens with an infant's death. SIDS is a horrible fucking thing. We watch a very believable scenario in which the mother doesn't want to believe her baby girl is dead. This section is really well done. Broke my heart.
And then the fuckery begins.
The author moves on and tries to explain SIDS through fictitious devices. I thought this was tactless. People deal with this horrible reality far too often. It is the number one cause of death in infants. It's terri ...more
All Fall Down is also published as The God Project
The door was slightly ajar.
There was no sound from within, and for a moment [she] felt an unreasonable sense of panic.
This is an uneasy read.
The first half of the novel is innocuous enough. A bit leisurely even. That is… until the trap is sprung and you realise that the false sense of security was exactly what the author was counting on.
I had some suspicions, and even although at least one turned out to be true, I didn’t quite see the ending comi ...more
The door was slightly ajar.
There was no sound from within, and for a moment [she] felt an unreasonable sense of panic.
This is an uneasy read.
The first half of the novel is innocuous enough. A bit leisurely even. That is… until the trap is sprung and you realise that the false sense of security was exactly what the author was counting on.
I had some suspicions, and even although at least one turned out to be true, I didn’t quite see the ending comi ...more
I am so happy that I rediscovered how awesome John Saul is. I am going to have to put him in my favorite author list along with Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Bentley Little and Laurell K. Hamilton. Just that little list alone should give you a little insight into what my favorite types of books are. If you've read my blog before though, you'll know that I read pretty much anything I can get my hands on.
In The God Project Saul focuses on a little New England town where children are dying in their s ...more
In The God Project Saul focuses on a little New England town where children are dying in their s ...more
I always enjoy reading a John Saul book every now and then because you can always count on several things: good writing, evil children, satisfying story. The God Project is no exception. The story centers around two families and their two boys: Randy and Jason. But these aren't ordinary children. After the death of Jason's infant sister, the parents work to discover a cause but the cause may be closer to home and worse then they could have imagined.
A quick easy read for horror fans. It is not o ...more
A quick easy read for horror fans. It is not o ...more
THIS BOOK WAS THE SH*T WHEN I WAS 13!
Seriously, back then this was the coolest book I had ever read.
I refuse to revisit the inside of the pages because I KNOW it will not hold up to the standard set in my memory from 28 years ago.
Seriously, back then this was the coolest book I had ever read.
I refuse to revisit the inside of the pages because I KNOW it will not hold up to the standard set in my memory from 28 years ago.
This is the first John Saul book I have read and I have another eight of his books on my shelves so I went into this hoping I enjoyed it and not have nine books by an author I don’t like.
Turns out that I am looking forward to reading more John Saul.
I have bought all nine John Saul books as he is a popular 80’s horror writer whose stories I want to read. Every time I have come across one of his books in my second hand/charity bookshop hunting I have bought it. All Fall Down is also known as The G ...more
Turns out that I am looking forward to reading more John Saul.
I have bought all nine John Saul books as he is a popular 80’s horror writer whose stories I want to read. Every time I have come across one of his books in my second hand/charity bookshop hunting I have bought it. All Fall Down is also known as The G ...more
I read this book as a teenager and I have to say, this is by far still one of the scariest things I have ever read. I sum it up as the Stepford Wives meet the womb. If you want a good thriller, this one you should pick up!
The God Project was my introduction to John Saul's work. By the end of this book, I was pretty disappointed. It read fast and kept me mildly interested, mostly because of the dated 1980's high tech computer/DNA descriptions. There is a 1 star review from 2015 that parallels (in detail) a lot of what I didn't enjoy about this book so I'm not going to take the time to write it here. I did have higher expectations from Saul but ultimately, this book was FINE; not the best, not the worst.
If anyone h ...more
If anyone h ...more
Passable - I expected more of this, but in the end it was predictably enough.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I have a little bit of a problem deciding what the main genre is. It is certainly science fiction, but it is also a thriller and a suspense and a mystery. Children keep disappearing in a small town and there is an epidemic of crip death too. The mother of a crib death victim is completely unconvinced that her baby died of normal crib death and starts trying to find out what is really going on. That makes the story a mystery to be solved. Once she starts maki
...more
"That was where his father lived, so everything was all right.
Except that it didn't quite FEEL all right. Deep inside, Randy had a strange sense of something being very wrong"
The God Project by John Saul
Sigh. Yes, it is he. John Saul again. A writer I grew up with (his books) and a writer who succeeded every time in scaring the living daylights out of me.
This is much much different then most of his works.
And startlingly good. I do not think I moved the whole time while reading this.
I am moving ...more
Except that it didn't quite FEEL all right. Deep inside, Randy had a strange sense of something being very wrong"
The God Project by John Saul
Sigh. Yes, it is he. John Saul again. A writer I grew up with (his books) and a writer who succeeded every time in scaring the living daylights out of me.
This is much much different then most of his works.
And startlingly good. I do not think I moved the whole time while reading this.
I am moving ...more
This book is extremely interesting and not a terrible summer read. The idea of something being wrong with out children or happening to them as being the most frightening thing that a parent can think of or experience is not new, but the way Saul gets in the psyches of the adults involved is fantastic. The story moves quickly and easily enough, and is well-written enough for belief suspension, which is not always the case for sci-fi/horror. Worth your time I think, and thought provoking too.
It d ...more
It d ...more
Once again I am reminded of John Saul's reliability. I've read a half-dozen of his books and the worst of them was still pretty good.
A big point of his stories are the characters are just flawed humans acting as flawed humans should. There's no great underlying preachiness, he picks a target, one within the realm of reasonable fear, and builds some chills and thrills. This one tackles heartlessness of science and military industry to convey a particularly chilling tale with a super-good-times f ...more
A big point of his stories are the characters are just flawed humans acting as flawed humans should. There's no great underlying preachiness, he picks a target, one within the realm of reasonable fear, and builds some chills and thrills. This one tackles heartlessness of science and military industry to convey a particularly chilling tale with a super-good-times f ...more
Jun 26, 2010
Christi
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-prior-to-2010
I read this one over 20 years ago, but the ending still sticks with me. The writing is so-so, but I feel the ending was so awesome that it deserves 4-stars.
I had given this book 3 stars until I came to the end. "The God Project" is about genetic engineering, which has been practiced for a long time now, and how it's being abused for government purposes. Doesn't sound too far-fetched as this point, does it? The company devoted to the scientific research for this specific experiment was funded by a pharmaceutical company, and the department of defense. I liked the mysterious survey that no one knew anything about, and the fact that the women who didn
...more
May 06, 2015
(shan) Littlebookcove
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
the-pit-of-author-totally-failed
I had so much high expectations about this book. Sadly i couldn't quite get in to this book. It was my first ever John Saul book that i can recall reading. i don't think i've read any of his work's before and it left me very disappointed.
This book is over 30 years old and it simply hasn't aged well. It is a horror novel about genetic engineering, as several people in a small town suspect their children may the products of an experiment in human evolution.
The ending also. Well i was very disa ...more
This book is over 30 years old and it simply hasn't aged well. It is a horror novel about genetic engineering, as several people in a small town suspect their children may the products of an experiment in human evolution.
The ending also. Well i was very disa ...more
So, I just finished this book yesterday, and it has been almost 40 years since i had originally read this...and let me tell you it gets 5 stars!!! Yes, this is the first of Saul's books that did not have any supernatural elements to it, and it was the first of many to come books under his new publisher, Bantam Books. This book is so realistically scary that it STILL blows me away with the pure human EVIL that exists in this story. The last 3 pages will chill you to the bone. So without saying an
...more
I enjoyed this, but not that much -- and I can't quite put my finger on why. The mystery definitely kept me with it through the book, trying to figure out what was going on. And I was very sympathetic to the families who had lost their children, and felt they were were well-drawn as characters. But a part of me simply had trouble embracing the story as a whole.
In part, that may be because for each of the component elements (to be more specific would be a spoiler), I've read other works (e.g., b ...more
In part, that may be because for each of the component elements (to be more specific would be a spoiler), I've read other works (e.g., b ...more
I own a few of Saul's books and do enjoy the stories. I picked this one up as a break from my normal authors but similar genre. The idea behind the story and everything was pretty good, the ending I was glad was not the typical "happy ending" so made me a bit proud that the author did not give in and do what was all expected. However I think it could have been better told. I got in to the story easily enough and finished the book quickly, but about half way through it seemed to peter out and bec
...more
This story was only a little over 300 pages but was pretty boring. I'm guessing that maybe in the early '80s, the genetic engineering and computer critiques were new and fresh and enough to make up for the rest of the story. I thought the writing style was a little amateurish considering how revered Saul is. I'm guessing that maybe his later books are better.
...more
Interesting concept - secret genetic engineering of super warriors. Quick read but not much depth.
A good story but far longer than it needed to be and some annoying typos
Call me naive but I like happy endings and that just wasn't.....
...more
Hmm. How do I summarize my thoughts about this book which I have been done with for quite a while but didn't add it to my finished reading because of my crazy schedule.
I believe I can sum this up in two words.
It's ghastly.
To say I did not like this book is an understatement. I had written a full review on my website back in February here:
Easton Livingston Review: The God Project by John Saul.
In case you don't have the time to get into a lengthy review, I will simply suggest you avoid this book ...more
I believe I can sum this up in two words.
It's ghastly.
To say I did not like this book is an understatement. I had written a full review on my website back in February here:
Easton Livingston Review: The God Project by John Saul.
In case you don't have the time to get into a lengthy review, I will simply suggest you avoid this book ...more
Maybe I'm being harsh but the creepy artwork and blurb on the cover of this book seem kind of misleading to me. A thriller it may be but a horror it is not. And the author's decision to focus on a pair of hysterical mothers unravelling the mystery of their children's true nature rather than the body horror/awakening of the boys involved drains way too much of the eeriness out of this story. It's a shame too since the plot showed a lot of potential. Disappointing.
...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Interesting read.
Great story line that kept me eager to keep reading. I did get confused with so many characters but the ending will definitely keep me thinking.
Great story line that kept me eager to keep reading. I did get confused with so many characters but the ending will definitely keep me thinking.
Something fishy is going on in the once quiet town of Eastbury, Massachusetts, where two women are brought together after losing a child. Sally Montgomery loses her infant daughter Julie to SIDS, but she is convinced it was something else. Lucy Corliss loses her son Randy, who is reported as a runaway, but she is convinced he was kidnapped. Both parents discover that their children were secretly being surveyed by CHILD (Children's Health Institute for Latent Diseases) without consent, but why? W
...more
Vote: 2,75
Class: L-B1 (FP)
I read some reviews that said this was a "fast pacing, breathtaking, awesome book...": it's not true, at least not for me.
I think it was just average, little developed and not very original book (well, maybe in the 80s it was original, I don't know).
I gave it 3 star because is not a bad book, it just isn't very appealing.
The plot (3,00) is not all that original but is almost good; a bit slow in the first half of the book, better in the ending. It remains very predictab ...more
Class: L-B1 (FP)
I read some reviews that said this was a "fast pacing, breathtaking, awesome book...": it's not true, at least not for me.
I think it was just average, little developed and not very original book (well, maybe in the 80s it was original, I don't know).
I gave it 3 star because is not a bad book, it just isn't very appealing.
The plot (3,00) is not all that original but is almost good; a bit slow in the first half of the book, better in the ending. It remains very predictab ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i don't think this is a real book | 6 | 65 | May 28, 2016 01:04PM | |
| The Manhattan Hun...: The God Project (Group Read - March/April 2012) | 8 | 18 | May 05, 2012 10:01AM |
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John Saul grew up in Whittier California where he graduated from Whittier High School in 1959. He attended several colleges—Antioch, in Ohio, Cerritos, in Norwalk, California, Montana State University and San Francisco State College, variously majoring in anthropology, liberal arts, and theater, but never obtaining a degree.
After leaving college, he decided the best thing for a college dropout to ...more
After leaving college, he decided the best thing for a college dropout to ...more
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