Search - Shadowland

This is a classic book by Straub, one of his best! The best parts of the book are the stories within the stories. I particularly love the times in the book when the "now" adults are reunited and the times spent at Carson. But the greatest parts are the fables told. Straub really flexes his creative muscle during these parts of the book.
I was very curious to how it really ends.

I find Peter Straub a very good writer but this book isn't for someone who is looking for an action-filled horror story. Straub takes his (necessary) time in creating believable characters and I found myself really caring about the 2 boys at the heart of the book. The plot has some great twists and turns. I found I couldn't put this book down!

By Peter Straub

First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play--forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer. Shadowland is a superb, under-recognized, early novel from a master of literary terror.

A horror novel about two friends apprenticed to a master magician living in the deep woods and learning far more than they ever wanted to know.

A dark house in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a master magician. Only one of them will make it through.