Helpful Score: 6
A big disappointment. This Author started the book out with a bang and then got bogged down in details about the Jersey Pines and character developement of people called Pineys. It made for a boring read which I did not finish. I am sure the ending was exciting because when he felt like it, Mr. Dunbar can write scary good but in my opinion he did not feel like it enough!
Helpful Score: 4
This book was so boring I could barely finish it. I forced myself to, in hopes of a decent ending, but it's so slow and there's nothing even remotely scary about it. Waste of time.
From the back cover: After her husband died, Athena Monroe often wondered why she stayed in the dilapidated old farmhouse, buried deep in the harsh, blighted New Jersey pine barrens. Perhaps it was because her mysteriously afflicted young son seemed to feel such strong ties to the area's primeval swamps and stunted foests-- such an affinity for the pines. She didn't guess that his psychic connection was with something evil-- until ranting fits and night terrors gripped him in a vise of horror. Athena was afraid her inability to really love the boy was now causing his strange behavior, but the old-timers in the region recognized something more sinister. To them it was an omen of things to come-- a sign that the monstrous Jersey Devil was about to reappear.
If you like your scare-fare fast and heart-pounding, take a detour into THE PINES, where the legendary monster, the Jersey Devil, hunts for prey in the dark and mysterious Pine Barrens of New Jersey. For some reason, campers are drawn to blighted netherworld of the Pineys--as the region is called by the locals--and their camping trips don't always end pleasantly. Grisly deaths occur regularly in the weird woodlands, deaths that the backwater Piney dwellers ascribe to the beast, the Jersey Devil. Young Matthew, a strange little boy, and his mother Althena live out in those woods, and when Althena's good-for-nothing boyfriend--who also happens to be a police sheriff--is murdered, Althena joins with her boyfriend's partner to help solve the case. The killer might be wild dogs, it might be a serial killer. Or it might be something else.
One of my favorite horror books of all time. I keep a copy & re-read it at least once a year. If you've ever been to the Jersey Pine Barrens, you'll see that the author describes them perfectly (with exception to the inbred hillbilly-like pineys) & makes you feel you are actually there. For horror lovers, author does not waste time in grabbing your attention - murders, torture, mutilations & the Jersey Devil. Also be warned there are a few sexually explicit scenes. If you like Edward Lee or Richard Layman, you'll really like this one.
From the back cover: "Deep within the desolate Pine Barrens, a series of macabre murders draws ever nearer to an isolated farmhouse where a woman struggles to raise her strange, disturbed son. The boy seems to have a psychic connection to something in the dark forest, someting unseen...and evil. The old-timers in the region know the truth of the legendary creature that stalks the Pine Barrens. And they know the savgery it's capable of."
