Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - The Unwanted

The Unwanted
The Unwanted
Author: John Saul
Cassie Winslow is sixteen.  She has just lost her mother in a terrible accident.  Now, lonely and frightened, she has come to live with the father she barely knows and his new family in tiny False Harbor on Cape Cod.  For Cassie, the strange, unsettling dreams that come to her suddenly in the dead of night are merel...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780553266573
ISBN-10: 0553266578
Publication Date: 7/1/1987
Pages: 384
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 120

3.8 stars, based on 120 ratings
Publisher: Bantam
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Unwanted on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
a better than average suspense tale
reviewed The Unwanted on + 68 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Truely a good writer. Not what you would expect from a writer that usually doesn't do this type of story.
Read All 14 Book Reviews of "The Unwanted"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

BrucesMan avatar reviewed The Unwanted on + 6 more book reviews
As I am re-reading all of his books in publication order, one after the other, I must say, this is NOT the way to read his books as though there are so many tropes that he uses quite often BUT that does not mean stay away from his books! This book is a strong 4 if not a 5 star read for me, so saying this let's get into my thoughts and review of one of what I call; Saul's horror classics, 'One Not to be Missed!'

16 year old Cassie Winslow has grown up with her alcoholic, and messed up mother in West Hollywood, after her mother takes her away from her father as an almost 2 year old child. Cassie moves to False Harbor Massachusetts after her mother is killed in an accident....(see, one of the usual scenes in all of his books, but they work!) and not really knowing her father, she is not excited about meeting her 8 year old half sister Jennifer or her Step mother; Rosemary. When she gets to False Harbor she meets Eric Cavanaugh the next door neighbor boy who seems the same age. As things start to unfold in this book you are so drawn into the strange people and possessed animals in this fishing town that you can not put this book down. That is one of the reasons that I have always loved Sauls way or writing, he does not waste hundreds of pages building a characters background then take you on a down spiraling story that just ends up being stupid, Saul takes that dare and scares the hell out of you with always making you care for or HATE the protagonists, which are usually always a child or teenager.

There is a very important character, Miranda Sikes in this book that you cannot help but feel sorry for, she makes you think of the 'scary bag lady' that is so often in horror fiction, that you are devastated when you find out what her role in this story is it just made me sad. And of course do not go into this expecting a happy ending. So, i am getting ready to make a video review on this 'vintage horror favorite' of mine for my YouTube Channel; AreYouIntoHorror so i will be posting a link soon here. This is a definite recommended read for me to anyone who likes their horror and suspense fast moving, tense, and disturbingly bloody and graphic.
Check out 'The Unwanted' by John Saul. (less)
Hellraiser avatar reviewed The Unwanted on + 110 more book reviews
Enjoyable. I was taken by surprise at the ending. I truly didn't see it coming.
reviewed The Unwanted on + 18 more book reviews
This is a nice book for some light reading, assuming you like books that are in this genre. The story was entertaining and made for a quick read.
reviewed The Unwanted on + 12 more book reviews
Not too bad. If you are a witchcraft fan, you might like this one, and the plot was enough to keep me listening.
reviewed The Unwanted on + 68 more book reviews
This book was good read - if you like a horror story about witches.
Char avatar reviewed The Unwanted on + 135 more book reviews
For generations, the word Witch has clung to the Sikes women like an ancient curse. Now Miranda keeps a lonely vigil, a hawk and cat her only companions. Teen Cassie Winslow comes to live with her father and his family and Miranda's waitng comes to an end. Cassie has seen visions of a kind woman, someone totally unlike her abusive mother. That woman is Miranda, who passes on the strange secret she has been guarding to Cassie, in a legacy of supernatural power.


Genres: