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Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1)
Creepers - Frank Balenger, Bk 1
Author: David Morrell
On a cold October night, five people gather in a run-down motel on the Jersey shore and prepare to break into the Paragon hotel. The once-magnificent structure is now borded up and marked for demolition. — They are "creepers": urban explorers with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. Reporter Frank Ba...  more »
ISBN-13: 9782747500791
ISBN-10: 2747500799
Publication Date: 9/2005
Pages: 388
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 4

3.5 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: CDS Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on
Helpful Score: 13
A good read, with action that seldom lets up. I saw it as more of a thriller than a horror novel, there are some scary elements - but the psychology involved isn't realistic or frightening so much as designed to hit on a check list of cliches and cinematic pacing elements and settings. You've already seen or read just about everything there is to find in this book, except for the premise of urban exploration.
There is a jarring end to some beautiful build-up about 1/3rd of the way in - and the book never recovers from this shift, even when a positive shift happens a little further in.
In the end - I wish the author had more editorial help to repair his loose threads, incongruous plot elements, and realism.... but the book DOES deserve its good reputation as a page turner and thrill ride.
Think Psycho meets Romancing the Stone, at the hotel from The Shining (sans ghosts).
reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
It typically takes me a while to read a book because I'm usually reading 2 or 3 at a time. I started reading Creepers and just about couldn't put it down. It was finished in 2 days. This is an amazing feat for me! The story is very engaging and had me hooked from the beginning. Lots of atmosphere, action, suspense, and surprises along the way make for a great read!
gigi avatar reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 355 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
SCARY!!!! Couldn't put it down near the end. Wow!
JiminyCricket avatar reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 150 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I have never read a book that held me from the first page--this book was so intense that at times I found myself holding my breath, and had to remind myself to breathe---SERIOUSLY! This book is action and suspense from the get go and this author knows how to write as he held that pace to the very end. I have since ordered ALL of this authors books and they too are just as great. I'm so happy to have found David Morrell---you will be too.
earlsgirl avatar reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 188 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I've read other books by David Morrell which were excellent so I ordered this one. I kept thinking it would surely get better, but halfway through it didn't, so I stopped reading. I felt like I was reading a Hardy Boys mystery. Adults stumble through an abandoned hotel looking for adventure. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers. This one isn't!!
Read All 56 Book Reviews of "Creepers Frank Balenger Bk 1"

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perryfran avatar reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 1223 more book reviews
I read Morrell's sequel to this book, SCAVENGER, a couple of years ago and remember that for me it was only mildly entertaining. I was also kind of mixed about CREEPERS. I thought the concept of the novel was very interesting; about a group of people who search through old buildings as a kind of modern-day explorer or archaeologist. This activity is considered illegal because the people who do it trespass on private property and may get injured during their activities. In the novel, the group sets out to explore an old abandoned hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The hotel was built by an eccentric millionaire in the early twentieth century who was afflicted by hemophilia (the bleeding disease) which made him isolated because any injury could cause incontrollable bleeding and death. He built the hotel in the style of a Mayan pyramid with a penthouse at the top where he lived and spied on the hotel guests. This was all a very good setup for the novel and kept me turning the pages. But then the group encounters some other intruders who want to get all they can from the abandoned building and don't care who they injure or kill in doing so. But that's not all! There is also another presence in the building that seems to be following them and is also a serial killer. But who is he and why is he in the hotel?

As I've said, I thought the premise of this novel was very good and had a lot of potential. But then it sort of devolved into a bloody thriller/horror story that was way too coincidental and far-fetched. I would recommend the first part of the novel but I struggled with the last half and overall just a very mild recommendation. However, I have read some of Morrell's other novels and for the most part would highly recommend them. I especially enjoyed his Thomas De Quincey trilogy among others.
reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 16 more book reviews
Good read. Quite suspenseful makes you feel as if you are there with the creepers in the old building.
bjlowe avatar reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 103 more book reviews
"Creepers" was not what I expected, but it is a really great book. David Morrell, the creator of Rambo, is considered by many to be the father of the adventure/thriller genre and this book is one of his best.
Morrell's tragic childhood and life seem to tint his writing with a hard reality that grabs you by the throat and drags you into the story.
A group of urban explorers enter an abandoned and mysterious luxury hotel scheduled for demolition. They encounter a group of thugs and an insane serial killer and former tenent. Two of the group have an ulterior motive, the thugs are motivated by greed, and the serial killer has a prisoner.
As the hotel begins to disentigrate around them, a life and death battle rages between the three parties and few live to tell the tale.
The action is non stop, the characters are easy to identify with, the plot is twisted and the parameters of the battle are constantly changing. I liked "Creepers" so much I have already ordered the second book featuring the same lead character.
I readily reccomend "Creepers" to any fan of this type of book.
reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on + 4 more book reviews
Excellent story about a world I didn't even know existed out there. D. Morrell is a writer that can make you believe he's lived it and knows the ins and outs. Creepers are people who explore old, abandoned buildings, much as treasure hunters explore old ships. This however allows you into that world along with twisted people that can be in any world. For writing, I give 5 stars. I gave an overall 4 1/2 because some of it was a little too graphic for me. But if that's what you like, this book has it.
reviewed Creepers (Frank Balenger, Bk 1) on
A quick read--starts with great potential, weakens as it goes along, but still entertaining.


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