Sam: A Horror Novel

I worked my way through this novel over the course of a couple of evenings and I came away with some mixed emotions. The novel itself reads like a mashup of The Omen and The Exorcist. Fright-wise, it falls somewhere between the two tales. I remember when The Omen first came out and at the time it was fairly scary. Compared to what hits the multiplexes nowadays however, I can't imagine anyone managing to stay awake until the credits roll. In fact, it's hard to believe the movie spawned so many sequels! The good news is, "Sam" is light years better than "The Omen." It has bigger and more suspensful fright sequences for one thing. For another, Iain Rob Wright has the panache to create characters that are built on shades of grey. No, not 50 SHADES! This is horror, not a thinly-veiled fan-fiction sex fantasy! What I mean is that the characters that populate this book are more like real people than one usually finds in the horror genre. They are texturally defined and somewhat nuanced. There are no stereotypical hottie college cheerleaders lining up to get killed moments after taking a drink or allowing some jock to get to second base. No one in this story is either completely good or completely evil; utterly smart or totally stupid. I'm not big on spoilers, so I won't get into specifics. Suffice it to say that it was pleasant to read about people that struggle with their own morality rather than having a perfect black-or-white perspective. These are people with very real limitations and in differing ways, each is forced to step up and be tested, often with mixed results.On the negative side, any time an author treads the dark and haunted trail blazed by William Peter Blatty, comparison to "The Exorcist" is all but unavoidable. The book is a masterpiece and, just as all children's fantasy will forever be compared to a wizard in a certain Emerald City, all books about demonic possession will be measured against the tale of young Regan and Father Merin. If you doubt me, read some reviews of the Harry Potter books and see how often L. Frank Baum's, "The Wizard of Oz" books are brought up. When comparing "Sam" to "The Exorcist," the bar is set very high indeed and "Sam" doesn't quite measure up. In fairness, it will likely be decades before another novel equals or surpasses that lofty mark. It's more reasonable to keep expectations within a different set of guidelines. Is this book scary? The answer there is a qualified yes, in my opinion. One common trapping in modern horror is to confuse fear with gore. I'm one of those people that isn't bothered by blood and guts, but even Spinal Tap's Nigel Tuffnel knows you don't spend the entire show with the amp up to "eleven." It's there when you need it because sometimes it's good to go "one louder." If a book or movie goes for the grossout shock every time, it quickly becomes redundant and boring. One of the things that made Blatty's book such a classic was that it did such a great job blending small little shivers up the spine in with the occasional pulse-pounding events. Mr. Wright isn't quite as adept yet in that department. It isn't that the book contains more gristle and guts than a Chicago slaughterhouse. In fact, compared to a lot of contemporary horror books, "Sam" is a bit on the tame side. It's more that once the story reaches the first big crescendo moment it feels like it's pedal to the medal from that point forward. It makes the story feel a bit lopsided - as if the first third exists for the purposes of character development and to set the atmosphere and the remainder is crammed with as many set action pieces as the author could cram into the pages. Also, there are several places where liberties are unnecessarily taken with the scriptures to include concepts from apochryphal or Gnostic texts. Truly great horror stories are surprisingly rare and because of that I tend to hold horror novelists to a high standard. I know I'm tougher than many readers in that sense, so your mileage may vary.Either way, "Sam" is good enough that it held my interest and then some. It also left me eager to dive into more of Iain Rob Wright's writing and that doesn't happen very often for me. I also visited the author's blog site and learned that Mr. Wright greatly enjoys hearing from his readers. Since becoming disabled recently, I've spent a lot of time reading as well as researching for my own writing efforts. I'm glad I took the time to read "Sam" because it not only made for a decent (although slightly flawed) read, it introduced me to a new author possessing all the tools necessary to be an extraordinary writer. I can't wait to find out what places his mind will take us to next. I also can't wait to meet some more of the well-developed and interesting people that will populate said places.

Sam is a really good book. The ending is so intense and amazing. I loved this book, this book is part of the Seasick trilogy books series.

Don't get attach to anyone here 😅 It's a good read if you like creepy kids. The ending feels complete or there could be a book 2 if he wanted. Is it scary idk 😐 but it's a great horror read about drunken adults and a creepy boy 😜

Welp. This story literally scared me to pieces. Job well done. I'm really looking forward to reading more from you.

A little redundant for such a short book. It kept me entertained but not glued to it. Didn't love the end.

Haven't read a story quite like this before. Because of the surprise ending. Don't want to give it away, so I'll just say that I really enjoyed it. 😊

I made the mistake of starting to read this before I went to bed at night. Scary stories don't usually bother me, but I must admit I slept with the lights on that night.This is the story of a ten-year-old boy who may or may not be possessed by a demon. His mother hires a former priest (a woman) and a paranormal debunker to try and help her son. They live in a huge old mansion that in itself is creepy. The description of the boy is very creepy. I could just imagine the booming "demon voice" coming from this little kid. The kid also has the talent to draw scenes from the past and the future to freak out people.There are other characters--some security people and a butler--and one of them seems to know more than the others so we know something is up. For a while, though, we don't know if it's of human or demonic making. We learn about the dead father's business and his business partner (it's the Black Remedy Corporation again, which has appeared in some of Iain Rob Wright's other books) and it appears there could be inheritance issues that might make the father's partner want the little boy dead.So in the middle of the book you're wondering if this is the work of evil men or just plain evil. The story goes back and forth a couple of times which just adds to the tension. It isn't until very near to the end of the book that we find out the truth--and it is not what was expected.The former priest finds her faith again and performs two exorcisms that are not pleasant to read. The paranormal debunker guy just wants to get out of that house, but all the doors are sealed shut. Both of these people have a terrifying history of dealing with the dead and/or demons and that's the main reason they are there. As the days go by, the priest becomes more determined to find the answers, while the paranormal guy...yeah, he wants out.The only reason I am not giving this book five stars is because I don't think the ending is realistic. The butler, Frank, does some things that are just not in line with his character. I don't know if the devil made him do it, but I didn't buy it.Overall, this is a good, creepy book that you should read in the daylight hours, preferably when someone else is home with you.

Firstly I’d like to say that the writer clearly loves his craft and his readers, within the first few pages he gives you the link to acquire 5 of his books for free! I only paid 99p for Sam for the E-book format so not only was Sam a steal at 99p anyway being given access to the other 5 books as well blew me away.The following won’t contain outright spoilers but may hint at certain things so proceed with caution.I don’t normally go for supernatural horror as genre to read so this was my first time experiencing this sort of book and also this author. The first chapter really did set the scene of the book and introduced Tim really well and gave us our first twist early on, this was definitely foreshadowing the many twists that follow. The suspense and climactic scenes throughout the book really make you want to keep reading to know more.I really liked the pop culture nods to the likes of The X-Files and South Park, the mentions of X-Files highlighted for me how the story would have fit fairly well into the world of Mulder and Scully. The addition of a lesbian character where her sexuality didn’t factor into the plot was an unexpected breath of fresh air.The ending was unexpected and made the last few chapters too gripping to put down. I will definitely be buying ASBO, the next book in the Damienverse series.The only negative I can think of is I would’ve loved to know more about the hag, what kind of spirit she was and if there were any other connections between her and any of the other characters. If there had been any connections to other characters in any way she could’ve played a present role as well as past role, possibly in a revenge context.

I like to feel excited reading a book, and usually cant wait put it down until I’ve finished. This just wasn’t the same for me. I love most books that IRW has written, and up until now I didn’t think I’d change my mind, but this one really didn’t do it for me. Sure, there were a few creepy moments, but there was something lacking. I couldn’t gel with any of the characters and didn’t care if Sammie killed them all, especially Tim, who needed to grow some balls!! This was definitely worth a read, but I just felt that something was missing. IRW is one of my favourite authors, so I will continue reading his awesome work, but this was just a bit of a letdown for me. I give this a 3.5 rating!

A full on horror story, a mixture of the Exorcist, the Omen and Night of the Living Dead. Unfortunately, this cliche ridden tale was more slapstick than fear instilling. True, it was gruesome and blood soaked with many unexpected twists and turns but I just couldn't take it seriously. The characters were all quite mad. That said, I rather enjoyed it.

In the beginning I was thinking on your typical exorcism but without saying anything else this was so much more. It also got the hair on my arms sticking up a few times. I rarely find a book that scares me but often I found the hair on my arms sticking up a few times. The last part of the book let's just say I'm so grateful I didn't read this late into the night and read it during the day insteadI think I will never be going to bed with one of mr Wright's books they are amazingly dark. Now time for me to read a romance.

Decent book, but not really my favourite horror genre, but overall well executed with relatable characters.I mainly read this book as I'd read another in the "damienverse" series and wanted to read them all, however if it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't of bothered.Like I said this is down to my personal choice of horror genre and devil and churchy exorcist stuff isn't really my thing, however a decent read and probably likable if it's your thing.