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paulabrandon's review against another edition
1.0
I hate it when a book sells itself as a psychological thriller and conveniently forgets to mention a big supernatural element! John Henderson heads off to Black Ridge in the hope to learn more about his son's mysterious death, but his informant is acting strangely. And so is the rest of the town! While trying to find answers, John helps the daughter of a friend with some troubles she's having with some drug dealers. What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, as it turns out!
Stupid, boring book that tries to sell itself as something it's not!
Spoiler
Maybe it's just me, but I didn't understand what was going on by the end! It seems it's because the townsfolk owe debts to Brooke Robertson - Ellen's stepdaughter - who acts as a broker for a witch. But the witch is the owner of the town's motel - I think! So why don't people who want spells done just go straight to her? Makes no sense, I tell you!Stupid, boring book that tries to sell itself as something it's not!
toriap's review against another edition
Weird, not sure I was any the wiser (or any more interested) by the time I got to the end
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
2.0
A very peculiar book. Plotwise it's messy and disjointed. The main story line starts off briskly enough but is then completely buried in the endless logistics of the main character's rushing around in the small town where bad things happen. The rushing around is meant to convey a sense of urgency, I think, but it's more like watching a soap opera. Every other page one character is about to divulge something terribly important to another, just to be suddenly interrupted or inexplicably leave. There is a pointless subplot involving drugs and gangsters who act as if they have learned about gangsterdom from the same soap opera. There is a jarring sarcastic tone throughout the book, which makes it seem the author is trying hard to make a point about something but I have no idea what. The countless references to iPods and heavyset vegans lead me to suspect these are things we are meant to find ridiculous, but I can't think of anyone who would find either iPods or vegans unusual or controversial (well actually noboby owns an iPod anymore, but you know what I mean) making the snarky comments incomprehensible. I'm genuinely confused by this book.
literatetexan's review against another edition
4.0
A top notch thriller with a sympathetic protagonist. I enjoyed Bad Things very much. Michael Marshall reminds me a little bit of Stephen King, especially with this novel. (His short stories, not so much.)
catbooking's review against another edition
4.0
Had a really slow start, I struggled to keep focused. But by the time I reached the middle I could not put the book down. I had to force myself to go sleep even though I had only one hour left in the book, but I think I saw the sun coming up over horizon. The story also left me unnerved. I think many of us have trees growing outside their bedroom windows, and I had to keep checking that it was in fact just the tree out there.
On another note, I noticed I really like the fact that nothing plays in protagonist's hand. There are no happy incidents that make everything turn out just right. It is on the contrary, everything suck and everything is trying to kill him. Yet I think he manages to prevail in the end, I think he does but maybe he doesn't.
On another note, I noticed I really like the fact that nothing plays in protagonist's hand. There are no happy incidents that make everything turn out just right. It is on the contrary, everything suck and everything is trying to kill him. Yet I think he manages to prevail in the end, I think he does but maybe he doesn't.
bookishcharlotte's review against another edition
4.0
My review, as posted to my blog, chatterverse.wordpress.com:
I finished Bad Things yesterday morning, after several hours of intense reading interrupted only by occasional trips to replenish my omnipresent mug of coffee and ignore my responsibilities. It was, in a word, excellent. Well written, wonderfully engaging, and equipped with a driving plot and varied, believable characters, this is a book that deserves to be appreciated.
Bad Things is the story of a man named John Henderson. Three years earlier, his son, Scott, died under seriously mysterious circumstances. Now, three years later, he receives a few odd emails suggesting knowledge of those circumstances. Drawn back to the scene and away from the life he had scraped together, John is drawn also into a seething web of secrets and lies that threatens to destroy everything he has left.
Bad Things is structured like a crime novel: ‘bad thing’ happens, main character reacts, and a series of events occur during which the explanation for that ‘bad thing’ comes to light and is more or less resolved. However. The first pivotal event on which the story is hinged is not, at first glance, a clear-cut obvious murder, the main character is not an aged Detective with a fondness for cigars and complaining about bad coffee, and John Henderson spends more time clashing with the law than he does helping it.
Plot:
Bad Things might be a psychological thriller with an emphasis on the weird and not-so-wonderful, but its grounded in the very real grief a father feels for his deceased son, and, in particular, in what it is like to move on from that, to continue living. This book depicts grief, and the effect not only on the individual, but also on the people around that individual, on their lives as a whole, both well and sympathetically, giving voice to an experience that often defies description, all structured in a particularly unique form of the bog-standard crime drama.
Characters:
I liked John Henderson – enough to read an entire book from his perspective without once tiring of it – but Becki is easily my favourite. She’s strong, clever, and self-assured, but she’s not the emotionless one-dimensional character that such women often turn into within crime dramas. She’s layered and interesting, ultimately, impressively strong, and triumphing over adversity, but also, at times, overwhelmed by circumstances beyond her control and her ability to cope. She is, ultimately, a realistic, believable character of considerable complexity, and a joy to read about.
General Comments:
Bad Things is, honestly, a very accomplished book. Marshall’s writing style is not only engaging, but also entertaining and clever, successfully breathing life into a narrative of heartache, grief and the secrets that tear families apart. The plot, too, is self-assured, the crime drama with a thoroughly unique twist to it, and the characters are all well rounded and thoroughly defined, whether they provide the central perspective or not.
This book is definitely worth a read.
I finished Bad Things yesterday morning, after several hours of intense reading interrupted only by occasional trips to replenish my omnipresent mug of coffee and ignore my responsibilities. It was, in a word, excellent. Well written, wonderfully engaging, and equipped with a driving plot and varied, believable characters, this is a book that deserves to be appreciated.
Bad Things is the story of a man named John Henderson. Three years earlier, his son, Scott, died under seriously mysterious circumstances. Now, three years later, he receives a few odd emails suggesting knowledge of those circumstances. Drawn back to the scene and away from the life he had scraped together, John is drawn also into a seething web of secrets and lies that threatens to destroy everything he has left.
Bad Things is structured like a crime novel: ‘bad thing’ happens, main character reacts, and a series of events occur during which the explanation for that ‘bad thing’ comes to light and is more or less resolved. However. The first pivotal event on which the story is hinged is not, at first glance, a clear-cut obvious murder, the main character is not an aged Detective with a fondness for cigars and complaining about bad coffee, and John Henderson spends more time clashing with the law than he does helping it.
Plot:
Bad Things might be a psychological thriller with an emphasis on the weird and not-so-wonderful, but its grounded in the very real grief a father feels for his deceased son, and, in particular, in what it is like to move on from that, to continue living. This book depicts grief, and the effect not only on the individual, but also on the people around that individual, on their lives as a whole, both well and sympathetically, giving voice to an experience that often defies description, all structured in a particularly unique form of the bog-standard crime drama.
Characters:
I liked John Henderson – enough to read an entire book from his perspective without once tiring of it – but Becki is easily my favourite. She’s strong, clever, and self-assured, but she’s not the emotionless one-dimensional character that such women often turn into within crime dramas. She’s layered and interesting, ultimately, impressively strong, and triumphing over adversity, but also, at times, overwhelmed by circumstances beyond her control and her ability to cope. She is, ultimately, a realistic, believable character of considerable complexity, and a joy to read about.
General Comments:
Bad Things is, honestly, a very accomplished book. Marshall’s writing style is not only engaging, but also entertaining and clever, successfully breathing life into a narrative of heartache, grief and the secrets that tear families apart. The plot, too, is self-assured, the crime drama with a thoroughly unique twist to it, and the characters are all well rounded and thoroughly defined, whether they provide the central perspective or not.
This book is definitely worth a read.
robinsbooks's review against another edition
2.0
I had higher hopes for this book and thought for about the first 1/4 I would really like it. However, I read about half and ended up skimming the rest. It is a suspenseful tale of a father whose life falls apart after his young son's sudden death that isn't explained (cororner said there was no reason, the boy just suddenly died). At the start of the story (a couple of years after the death of his son) the father is divorced and living on the Oregon coast, working in a small restaurant that is eerily similar to Hawk Creek Cafe in Neskowin. After receiving a cryptic message from a woman who says she knows what happened to his son, he travels back to a small town on the east side of the Washington mountains and gets involved with the goings-on of various characters, which involves a similar death. For some reason this book just didn't keep my interest and after skimming the rest and reading the ending, it still didn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is billed as a Stephen King read-a-like but I didn't find it nearly as compelling. However, my disclaimer that I may not have been in the mood and maybe another time it would have held my interest.
5elementknitr's review against another edition
2.0
This is my least favorite of his so far.
The writing is REALLY good! The characters are really well-developed. Well... most of them.
This book was all over the place. Is John trying to get over the death of his son? Is he trying to save his friends from drug dealers? Is he trying to figure out what happened to his son? Is there something supernatural going on? Is the town as a whole just bad? Are the townfolk in on it? And was the whole Becki storyline just a vehicle to make two gangbangers reasonably believably show up to help out with the final battle?
And Carol. She was so peripheral that when she popped up, I kept having to remind myself who she even was. Same with Kristin.
It took until the last 70 pages (out of 370) for the author to finally pull all the strings together and tie up the story so that the reader could figure out what was going on.
The writing is REALLY good! The characters are really well-developed. Well... most of them.
This book was all over the place. Is John trying to get over the death of his son? Is he trying to save his friends from drug dealers? Is he trying to figure out what happened to his son? Is there something supernatural going on? Is the town as a whole just bad? Are the townfolk in on it? And was the whole Becki storyline just a vehicle to make two gangbangers reasonably believably show up to help out with the final battle?
And Carol. She was so peripheral that when she popped up, I kept having to remind myself who she even was. Same with Kristin.
It took until the last 70 pages (out of 370) for the author to finally pull all the strings together and tie up the story so that the reader could figure out what was going on.
beckylej's review against another edition
4.0
Something sinister is waiting for John Henderson in the town of Black Ridge, Washington. Once, Henderson and his family called this quaint town home. But when John’s four-year-old son died, everything changed. It’s been three years and John, now a waiter in a beach restaurant in Oregon, is still trying to put his life back together. A mysterious phone call from a woman who claims to know what happened that fateful day finally prompts his return and a chance for him to gain closure. Maybe. The woman, Ellen Robertson, is recently widowed and still grieving her loss. At first, John can’t see any connection between the two events, but he knows that something is very wrong with Ellen’s story. As he begins to look into her situation, John comes to realize that there is indeed something strange going on in this tiny town. He should have left it alone. He should have never returned in the first place. But now it’s too late and John’s only hope is unraveling the mystery of Black Ridge. Michael Marshall is an amazing author who has yet to garner the attention he truly deserves. His combination of supernatural elements and superior plotting puts him right up there with the best in the thriller genre and also makes his stories appealing to a wide variety of readers. Bad Things is smart, gripping, and terrifying.