The Devil's Labyrinth: A Novel by John Saul
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Book Reviews of The Devil's Labyrinth: A Novel
Book Review: What people do in the name of God
Summary: 3 Stars
Growing up without a father is tough enough but when sixteen year old Ryan McIntyre decides to do the right thing by acting like a man and standing up for himself he gets punished for it. Refusing to let a bully cheat of his test gets him beaten up so badly that his bleeding body feels terror at the thought of going back. His loving mother Teri reluctantly listens to her boyfriend Tom's advice about transferring Ryan to St. Isaac's Preparatory Academy,a Catholic school located in a grand structure with its own catacombs and dark labyrinths and with Tom's help secures a spot for her son. Ryan is a little distraught at the thought that the main reason why there was an opening is the mysterious and questionable death of the student whose bed he will sleep in, but he cannot go back to his old life and the bullies. Structure and rules should be his guiding light, uniforms and nuns, confessions and prayer his daily grind, but what Ryan doesn't know is that nothing is as it seems. Something rotten is trapped in the labyrinths and it's salivating at the thought of getting out. When the most popular young priest, Father Sebastian takes him under his wing, his life turns to worse, his friends start changing or disappearing and scrams and noises can be heard late at night. Ryan knows that something isn't right, the late night confessions and getting locked up in a secret chapel with a scary and angry looking Christ on the cross seem to affect those who come near it and pretty soon Ryan gets engulfed in it all.
Priests at the school are keen on practicing the long-lost rite to invoke the primitive evil from a possessed person, picking students who are haunted by evil and trying to get it out of them. It's important to the priests there to cleanse those who are bad since the school is known for taking in troubled youths. As their exorcism continue it seems that things are turning for the worse and not better, the students aren't really cleansed but instead they seem to become possessed even if they were fine before. Something or someone is taking advantage of the priests and their gullible enthusiasm for riding the world of evil, as they start to meddle with things that are bad and worst of all, real. Add to the mix their worried parents, Ryan's suspiciousness of his mother's suddenly overfriendly boyfriend who simply couldn't wait to get him out of the house and an Islamic group trying to target the visiting pope who decides to come and see these exorcisms take place.
The book is a very fast read; it sucks you in and is very hard to put down. Half way through things start to turn ugly and the evil comes to the light a little more in a very well and descriptively written manner - my stomach was doing the flips at few parts as it dawned on me that one of the priests had the best intensions in his mind but failed greatly to see what he was dealing with. His perception of evil was way of the base here, if he really knew what was going on he would have changed careers.
Overall the book was exciting but some things were not explained; why certain people acted in specific manner and what drove them to it and why, what the silver cross from Ryan's father really was, and I wish there was more written about the catacombs and the labyrinth under the school, I felt like it contributed to the title more than to the story. As I was nearing the end, about 380 pages in I knew I had about 24 pages left and the whole book was still wide open, awaiting conclusion which took up about two pages. All this high pressure stuff happens, the trickery of the evil, changes in innocent children, false pretenses under which people acted, the deaths and the blood and gore and it took about 20 seconds of reading to get to the conclusion. I think it's a great way to kill a good book, people these days don't want to spend time reading a rich story to get a watered down ending. I liked how it ended but it was so lifeless that I was stunned, almost as if the author simply had enough of the book and wrapped a tiny bow at the end, finishing it all up. It felt as if all the action and cunning planning went out the window and everyone wanted to go home and forget about the pope and the exorcisms and the finale. I would have preferred a drawn out ending or a shorter story overall, so that's why the book rating had to suffer, otherwise it would have been a really good read from start to finish. Saul is a good author, I really love his books and will always read his stuff and I will recommend this book to people I know and like, but they will be warmed about the ultra quick ending to avoid overall disappointment.
- Kasia S.
Book Review: Equal with the Devil?
Summary: 3 Stars
Both Catholicism and Islam take a hit in this latest horror novel from John Saul. I'm an easy suspend-your-disbelief kind of reader, but what the reader must suspend here is not suspendable. Perhaps I just don't want to accept his premise.
On the other hand "The Devil's Labyrinth" is quite a page-turner even with a questionable premise. Ryan McIntyre dislikes his mother's new boyfriend, basically because his father, who was killed two years earlier in Iraq, is irreplaceable. She just wants someone to lean on.
After Ryan is sent to academically respectable St. Isaac's boarding school, he finds himself in the middle of strange goings-on in an even stranger labyrinth of tunnels which run under the school. An even stranger chapel is part of this system and scene of bizarre absolution rituals--exorcisms. But it's not really exorcism--evil is being controlled like a cobra in a basket!
Two major positives: Saul's quality of writing and his ability to create so many plot strands that he masterfully weaves together. Impressive!
Another reviewer criticized the novel for a fast conclusion. Saul spends an entire novel--375 pages--building to the climatic ending, then two pages for that ending. Excuse me?
Despite the negative criticism, "The Devil's Labyrinth" is a suspenseful thriller, a real page-turner! Perhaps the control of evil is plausible. Consider it a writer's talent that I can question his very premise yet find myself immersed in his story.
Perhaps three stars is harsh. 3 1/2 stars.
Book Review: Not Saul's Best
Summary: 3 Stars
I always pick up Saul's latest work. I have since I first read Suffer the Children many, many years ago. For the most part I have loved his work, with just a few clunkers here and there. I am sorry to say I think this is one of his clunkers. The story takes place at St. Isaac's a catholic school that specializes in troubled students. After taking a beating at public school, Ryan's windowed mom decides Ryan should go there. Well of course with a horror novel, St. Isaacs is not such a nice place. There is a lot of religious overtones to the book as you might expect. It may even seem slightly anti-catholic to some. That part didn't bother me, it was the characters that were unenjoyable. Many did things that made no sense, and I found it hard to sympathize with a lot of them. This book didn't draw me in the way Saul usually does. I labored through the book hoping for a big ending, but that too was a let down. All in all this was a disappointing read.Book Review: The Devil vs. The Pope - with surprisingly few scares
Summary: 3 Stars
If you've read all of John Saul's novels, as I have, you will notice certain themes that run throughout the majority of them. "The Devil's Labyrinth" has a few of these themes at their center - terrorized teens being tormented by evil adults.
In this case, it's students at a Catholic Boarding School being terrorized by a young priest with a dangerous hidden agenda. Saul goes further into religious/satanic territory than ever before. The only problem is that this book has hardly any tension or scares. Once the hidden agenda is revealed (involving a plot to kill the Pope in Boston) things go downhill fast.
I praise Mr. Saul for attempting different plot lines but would rather he scare the heck out of me rather than getting into the realm of religious historical fiction.
Book Review: Typical John Saul
Summary: 3 Stars
I haven't read much John Saul since the early days when he ranked right up there with Koontz, King and Straub. This book was just okay for me. I think that maybe the big boys either need to step down or listen to their fans who think they should be putting out the same, if not better, caliber work than when they were in their heyday. "The Devil's Labyrinth" is your run of the mill John Saul, evil people putting young people in peril. The creepiness factor is gone though. Entertaining enough to keep me interested but I expected more.