In John Saul's 1988 effort The Unloved, a man unwittingly pulls his family into his personal terrors by returning to his Southern family's estate to make peace with his dying mother and estranged sister. Vindictive and cruel in life his mother soon dies but her cruelty is far from over. This was a solid horror novel featuring juicy family secrets, palpable atmosphere, and some excellent murder set pieces. In many ways The Unloved is similar to Saul's Hellfire (1986) except he took the best elements of that prior novel and ratcheted the tension and violence even further. Saying that, the villain of the novel is very obvious. To Saul's credit though, he uses that to his advantage and jolts the reader with a surprisingly savage murder closely following the second character death. He lets you know quickly that his villain choice will not limit the violence or the kill count.
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| 1988 Bantam Books Paperback |
Several influences are on display in this novel ranging from the film Psycho to the standard conventions of the decaying mansion as symbol of rotting heritage but Saul is a workman and his strength is using dependable archetypes as framework for thrilling terror. He is not a particularly original author but with The Unloved a surety of talent is on display from the heartbreaking depiction of the villain's giving over to madness to the briskly executed death scenes. Now if you are sensitive to depictions of abuse and child murder be warned there's a lot but there's no sexual violence. I would say if you're a fan of V.C. Andrews or the Southern horror of Michael McDowell this would probably be up your alley. So if you're in need of a readable horror novel for the summer season seek out The Unloved.
Well that's the review. With everything going on in the world I'm going to try my best to review more so there's ample reading ideas on the blog. Does this novel sound like something for your TBR? As always the comments are open. 'Til next time!
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