Book Review: Silent Children

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Silent Children     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Ramsey Campbell
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Horror   Adult Content
Forge, Jul 2000, $24.95, 352 pp.

No one loved children as much as Hector Woolie. He hated when he felt a parent neglected or abused a child. However, he loved them so much, he abducted the lambs from their nasty parents, but when they failed to behave he made them perfect by killing them. Almost caught, Hector faked his death by using pliers to yank his teeth to prove he drowned. In reality, Hector simply vanished into the night.

Years later, Ian’s parents’ divorce leaves him shattered and depressed. Hector is Ian’s next door neighbor and soon he kidnaps the teenager and his stepsister. His mother is one wall away, but only her sobs penetrate Ian’s frightened mind.

No author today can take a reader into a worse abyss than Ramsey Campbell does. Mr. Campbell makes the darkest nightmare feel genuine because his characters seem real as they struggle with day to day living even before they end up in a crisis. SILENT CHILDREN is fast-paced and loaded with so much tension that the audience is sent into a panic because they believe that Ian is going to die on the next page and each subsequent page afterward. Mr. Campbell graphically but authentically portrays the worst sins humanity can perform on one another in a true horror tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner