Black Creek Crossing [Anglais] [Relié]

With more than 30 books under his belt, veteran suspense novelist Saul is back with a horror novel featuring witchcraft, teen revenge and a haunted house. Angel Sullivan, a plain-looking 14-year-old who never fits in, gets a chance for a fresh start when her family moves into the plush community of Roundtree. Myra, her obsessively religious mother, and Marty, her lazy, alcoholic father, buy a house on Black Creek Crossing, even though the place is rumored to be haunted. Soon after they settle in, a black cat mysteriously appears out of thin air, smoke from a nonexistent fire fills the house and a girl's face appears in the darkness, reflected in a mirror. Meanwhile, Angel, wi?h the help of another school outcast, Seth Baker, begins to investigate the history of the house. They discover an ancient book of spells that may have belonged to the house's original owners, members of a Salem-like community of witches, and the teens proceed to cast spells on the bullies who torment them. But the sinister forces inhabiting the house are just biding their time until they turn their malice on Angel and Seth. Saul crafts a few passable scenes—the potions Angel and Seth concoct work in clever ways—but the chills are few and far between in this lackluster, paint-by-the-numbers horror tale.
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Thirteen-year-old Angel Sullivan learns her family has just moved into a house where two witches once lived before they were hanged in 1693. But their spirits don't rest easy in their graves. They show themselves to Angel and her new friend, Seth, and begin to shape the children's lives for both good and evil. This is a book for kids in middle or high school. Experienced readers may find the material a bit flat. The magical parts aren't particularly magical. Lee Meriwether's performance, on the other hand, is enchanting. She evokes terror and other emotions well. Her pacing, delivery, and character portraits are consistent and confident. She gives the book better treatment than it deserves. R.G.M. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The seventeenth-century house at Black Creek Crossing in Roundtree (Massachusetts?) is a hard sell. Since the original owner's wife and daughter were burned for witchcraft, it has seldom been occupied long, and those who occupy it usually die in it, mysteriously and violently. Myra Sullivan doesn't know all that when her realtor sister shows her the house, and when husband Marty and daughter Angel take a shine to it, she's sold because, after all, she and frequently out-of-work Marty can actually afford it. Angel is drawn to a west-facing bedroom, and no sooner does she settle in than she finds a black cat in the closet. How did it get in? And how, when it goes, does it leave utterly unobserved? Well, think about it, witchophiles. It's the doppelganger of the girl witch's spirit, and in short order it leads Angel and her new friend, Seth Baker, to a secluded cabin and a book of spells that, the two 13-year-olds discover, they can use to defeat their foes. They have more than their fair share of those, starting with abusive fathers and unhelpful mothers and including classmates who harass them, verbally and physically. Angel and Seth are two more of the immensely sympathetic and appealing teen protagonists that Saul excels at creating, but they are tampering with evil stuff, and unlike, say, similar characters in John Farris' or Dean Koontz's books, they don't escape punishment in this remarkably gratifying horror yarn. Ray Olson
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The dark history and dire secrets of a peaceful small town are summoned from the shadows of the past. Unholy forces are stirred from long slumber to monstrous new life. And two young misfits discover the chilling art of turning persecution into retribution. With these eerie ingredients, bestselling master John Saul once again works his unique brand of sinister magic to conjure an unforgettable tale of unspeakable terror.

For most of her young life, thirteen-year-old Angel Sullivan has been on the outside looking in, enduring the taunts of cruel schoolmates and the angry abuse of a bitter father. Then Angel?s family moves to the quaint town of Roundtree, Massachusetts?where a charming home is available, a promising job awaits Angel?s unemployed father, and most of all, the chance to make a new start beckons to the shy, hopeful teenager. But when she is shunned by her new classmates, Angel falls deeper into despair. Until she meets Seth Baker, a fellow outcast?and a fateful kinship is forged.

It?s Seth who tells Angel the unspoken truth about the legacy of murder that hangs over her family?s home?and the whispered rumors that something supernatural still dwells there. Uncertain whether the stories are true, and desperate to escape the torment of their daily lives, Angel and Seth devote themselves to contacting whatever restless soul haunts the dark recesses of Black Creek Crossing. But once they have begun, there is no turning back.

Guided by an anguished and vengeful spirit, they uncover the shocking events and centuries-old horrors that lay buried beneath the placid veneer of Roundtree. And along with the ghastly revelations comes a terrifying power?one that feeds upon the rage of the victimized, turning the basest impulses and most dangerous desires into devastating weapons. Now, the closer Angel and Seth are pushed toward the edge by their tormentors, the deeper they descend into the maelstrom of dark forces they?ve unleashed . . . and the more unspeakable the hour of reckoning will be.