After a small break, I am back! I actually didn't mean to take this long of a break from doing reviews. I did get a post done on my other blog for Never Hike Alone, so check it out when you can. I wanted to start this month with a book review because I was nearly done with Shrine by James Herbert. It is time for an at-home review and since I was close to finishing this book, I wanted to use this review for that. I was going to finish the book over the weekend, but I never got around to it, so I finished it up Monday at work. As I was looking for the book I reviewed last time, I came across Shrine and realized that even though I bought the book, I had yet to read it. Since James Herbert is a favorite author of mine, it seemed like a great time to read it at last.
Young Alice Pagett was struck deaf and mute thanks to a childhood sickness. Doctors could not figure out why this happened, as they could not find anything wrong with Alice. Molly takes her daughter to their local church where Alice becomes entranced by a large tree in a field near the church. One night while Fenn, a reporter out looking for a story to write for his newspaper, nearly hits Alice as she runs across the road to get to the church. Fenn follows Alice into the field where she kneels before the tree. Fenn eventually takes Alice to Father Hagan, who lives near the church, and tells Hagan that Alice spoke to him. No one really believes this though, not even his editor at the newspaper, but at the next service at the church, Alice goes to the tree again. Followed by other children, Alice does speak. She eventually tells everyone that she saw a woman in white who claimed to be Mary, the mother of Jesus. No one is sure what to believe...until more miracles happen. Not everyone believes these miracles are a good thing though and ask Fenn to do some digging into the past. He isn't going to like what he finds.
I haven't read a book by James Herbert since 2009. While looking up information about Shrine, I learned the James Herbert passed away in 2013 at the age of 69. His first novel, The Rats, was published in 1974. James went on to write 25 novels in all as well as a graphic novel and 6 short stories. I don't own all of his books, but I have most of them. I will have to see if I can track down the novels I don't have and give them a read some day.
Shrine was first published back in 1983. As I mentioned, this was my first time reading this story and I didn't realize it was an early work by Herbert until I went to write this review. I often talk about movies having a slow pace, but I'm not sure I have ever talked about a book being that way before. As I was reading Shrine, that was the thought that kept going through my head though. It felt like Herbert was in no big hurry to tell his story. In a way, this makes sense really. Herbert introduces us to his main character in Fenn fairly early in the book. The story actually introduces us to Father Hagan and Alice right away. With each set of miracles, Alice's story of what she has done spreads and more characters are introduced each time. Sometimes I get annoyed when important characters are introduced to the story late, but it didn't bother me here just because that is how the story progressed. These characters often pop in and out of the story as Fenn goes around them. Fenn is an interesting guy. I liked that Herbert made Fenn someone who is open-minded. He is someone who hasn't made up his mind if he believes in God or not, even though he leans towards not believing. Maybe that is an unfair way to look at Fenn, as I think he just doesn't seem to care for organized religion. He is willing to listen to them and even work for them in a way, so he does at least keep an open mind about it all. We never learn all that much about Alice though. She is often just presented in a way that brings up more questions than answers. I would like to have Alice in the story more, but I get what Herbert was going with. There is a mystery as to what is going on in the present and how it is all connected to the past.
I remember reading a lot about the visions that were said to have accorded in Fátima, Portugal. I've never been sure what to think of these, but there are many who do believe. Shrine mentions the visions in Lourdes, France. I never read about them, but they are visions that were supposed to have happened. Herbert has his characters reference these visions because the town that Herbert sets his story in is small and mostly unknown, much like Lourdes was at the time. Certain people in Herbert's town in this story are looking to model their town after Lourdes, which gets a lot of visitors each year, even though the church doesn't want to jump the gun on calling what Alice does as true miracles. This is what made Shrine interesting to me. The story follows many others, with visions from Mary, the sick being cured and so on. With this being a horror novel though, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. It was just a matter of what would happen. It doesn't take long to believe that Alice is somehow involved in the evil that will show itself, but how?
From what I can tell, most people enjoyed Shrine, but even a lot of those thought that the story was a bit too long. It is over 400 pages, which makes it the longest book I have read in a good while, though the book I started now is even longer. I understand the complaint about the length. There are a lot of sections where it is just a couple or group of people sitting around talking about different things that are related to the story. I guess it just depends on how much you are into the subject of the story in order to know if it will start to drag or not. It was near the midpoint of the book that I was starting to feel that it was dragging too much when Herbert throws some life back into it by having a big event happen right in the little town which Alice plays a big part of.
I was a little surprised at how open the ending of the story is. Herbert leaves some questions unanswered but does wrap up the story for the most part. I was surprised that Herbert has some characters who believe one thing happened for the last big event, and other characters think nothing happened. I also liked that Fenn is changed by what he has gone through but not completely. I read where some feel the ending was a bit of a letdown, but I thought it fit well with the story. I do agree that the story feels a bit long at times, but I still found Shrine to be a great read. I didn't feel that Herbert was trying to convince anyone about religion or miracles, he was just using them to tell a story. I like that Shrine is different. I haven't read a horror novel that covers the subject of miracles, so it was a nice change of pace. If you haven't given this novel a shot yet, perhaps you should if the subject matter interests you as well. James Herbert put out some very good stories. I'm not sure if this is a good starting book if you haven't read anything by him yet, but it is still worth a read.
4 out of 5 I'm just crazy when I see things others don't
Young Alice Pagett was struck deaf and mute thanks to a childhood sickness. Doctors could not figure out why this happened, as they could not find anything wrong with Alice. Molly takes her daughter to their local church where Alice becomes entranced by a large tree in a field near the church. One night while Fenn, a reporter out looking for a story to write for his newspaper, nearly hits Alice as she runs across the road to get to the church. Fenn follows Alice into the field where she kneels before the tree. Fenn eventually takes Alice to Father Hagan, who lives near the church, and tells Hagan that Alice spoke to him. No one really believes this though, not even his editor at the newspaper, but at the next service at the church, Alice goes to the tree again. Followed by other children, Alice does speak. She eventually tells everyone that she saw a woman in white who claimed to be Mary, the mother of Jesus. No one is sure what to believe...until more miracles happen. Not everyone believes these miracles are a good thing though and ask Fenn to do some digging into the past. He isn't going to like what he finds.
I haven't read a book by James Herbert since 2009. While looking up information about Shrine, I learned the James Herbert passed away in 2013 at the age of 69. His first novel, The Rats, was published in 1974. James went on to write 25 novels in all as well as a graphic novel and 6 short stories. I don't own all of his books, but I have most of them. I will have to see if I can track down the novels I don't have and give them a read some day.
Shrine was first published back in 1983. As I mentioned, this was my first time reading this story and I didn't realize it was an early work by Herbert until I went to write this review. I often talk about movies having a slow pace, but I'm not sure I have ever talked about a book being that way before. As I was reading Shrine, that was the thought that kept going through my head though. It felt like Herbert was in no big hurry to tell his story. In a way, this makes sense really. Herbert introduces us to his main character in Fenn fairly early in the book. The story actually introduces us to Father Hagan and Alice right away. With each set of miracles, Alice's story of what she has done spreads and more characters are introduced each time. Sometimes I get annoyed when important characters are introduced to the story late, but it didn't bother me here just because that is how the story progressed. These characters often pop in and out of the story as Fenn goes around them. Fenn is an interesting guy. I liked that Herbert made Fenn someone who is open-minded. He is someone who hasn't made up his mind if he believes in God or not, even though he leans towards not believing. Maybe that is an unfair way to look at Fenn, as I think he just doesn't seem to care for organized religion. He is willing to listen to them and even work for them in a way, so he does at least keep an open mind about it all. We never learn all that much about Alice though. She is often just presented in a way that brings up more questions than answers. I would like to have Alice in the story more, but I get what Herbert was going with. There is a mystery as to what is going on in the present and how it is all connected to the past.
I remember reading a lot about the visions that were said to have accorded in Fátima, Portugal. I've never been sure what to think of these, but there are many who do believe. Shrine mentions the visions in Lourdes, France. I never read about them, but they are visions that were supposed to have happened. Herbert has his characters reference these visions because the town that Herbert sets his story in is small and mostly unknown, much like Lourdes was at the time. Certain people in Herbert's town in this story are looking to model their town after Lourdes, which gets a lot of visitors each year, even though the church doesn't want to jump the gun on calling what Alice does as true miracles. This is what made Shrine interesting to me. The story follows many others, with visions from Mary, the sick being cured and so on. With this being a horror novel though, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. It was just a matter of what would happen. It doesn't take long to believe that Alice is somehow involved in the evil that will show itself, but how?
From what I can tell, most people enjoyed Shrine, but even a lot of those thought that the story was a bit too long. It is over 400 pages, which makes it the longest book I have read in a good while, though the book I started now is even longer. I understand the complaint about the length. There are a lot of sections where it is just a couple or group of people sitting around talking about different things that are related to the story. I guess it just depends on how much you are into the subject of the story in order to know if it will start to drag or not. It was near the midpoint of the book that I was starting to feel that it was dragging too much when Herbert throws some life back into it by having a big event happen right in the little town which Alice plays a big part of.
I was a little surprised at how open the ending of the story is. Herbert leaves some questions unanswered but does wrap up the story for the most part. I was surprised that Herbert has some characters who believe one thing happened for the last big event, and other characters think nothing happened. I also liked that Fenn is changed by what he has gone through but not completely. I read where some feel the ending was a bit of a letdown, but I thought it fit well with the story. I do agree that the story feels a bit long at times, but I still found Shrine to be a great read. I didn't feel that Herbert was trying to convince anyone about religion or miracles, he was just using them to tell a story. I like that Shrine is different. I haven't read a horror novel that covers the subject of miracles, so it was a nice change of pace. If you haven't given this novel a shot yet, perhaps you should if the subject matter interests you as well. James Herbert put out some very good stories. I'm not sure if this is a good starting book if you haven't read anything by him yet, but it is still worth a read.
4 out of 5 I'm just crazy when I see things others don't
